Tag Archives: Munster senior hurling championship

During a discussion on the proposed fixtures schedule for 2015, Clare GAA County Board chairman, Michael McDonagh, criticised football clubs for not favouring a start date for the senior championship before July. “I am very disappointed with the attitude of the football clubs. If we don’t start our championship before the end of July, we will have several young players from the county heading out of the country,” he told this week’s meeting. Outlining the proposed schedule, Colm Browne (Kilrush), on behalf of the committee charged with putting the plan in place, said they were “left with very limited options when the national fixtures proposals are taken into consideration. The same issues and the same difficulties are there each year, with a few different parameters”. Browne pointed out a new consideration this year. “There is an A and a B football qualifier this year. If the Clare footballers lose to Limerick in the first round of the championship, they will …

Clare senior champions, Cratloe travel to Waterford to face their counterparts, Ballygunner, in the opening round of the Munster Club Hurling Championship this Sunday “with a 50/50 chance”, according to manager Joe McGrath. His charges recorded another victory at the weekend, this time in the Clare Champion Cup semi-final against Feakle. “We had a couple of good days after the football county final, which we didn’t have after the hurling and the boys deserved a few days off. They certainly took that. I don’t know if we were looking forward to a match as tough as that against Feakle; they came out with all guns blazing and they really put a serious challenge to us in the physical stakes. “We were at our wits end with 10 to 15 minutes to go, to try and win the game. We got a couple of points to get five or six ahead and we were lucky enough to be five or six …

THERE is no shame in defeat. Nobody can question the sincerity of the Clare hurlers efforts in Thurles. That they didn’t hurl to their optimum level isn’t connected to an absence of desire to make it happen. That said Clare’s tactical approach and selection policy is open to scrutiny. For example Pat Kelly was an integral component of Clare’s All-Ireland winning year. Until last year Clare had struggled to find a goalkeeper who consistently held down the position and who had the full confidence and understanding of his defenders and midfielders. Kelly stepped up last year and literally put his body on the line when facing down Anthony Nash in the All-Ireland final. Why dispense with him when the goalkeeping issue seemed to have been resolved? Donal Tuohy is an excellent goalkeeper and has proven that at U/21 level. However it would be impossible for him to replicate the same understanding, in relation to puck out strategy for example, as …