Tag Archives: u21

CLARE and Ballyea corner back Jack Browne, like his team-mates, was still on the Thurles sod well over an hour after the final whistle. It’s not unkind to Antrim to suggest that the Clare players were under more pressure signing autographs and posing for photographs, than they had been in the game itself. “I didn’t think there was this many people in Clare,” Jack Browne laughed, surrounded by young autograph hunters, who were trading secrets on what player was where across the fabled Tipperary sward. “It means everything. When you’re growing up as a young lad, all you want to do is win an All-Ireland medal. It’s great,” he said of Clare’s third All-Ireland U/21 win. Jack Browne couldn’t believe the size of the crowd roaring on Clare, given that the seniors will be back in Croke Park on September 28. “There was a massive Clare crowd. The roaring that was going on for Clare scores was great. When we …

Clare 1-16 Galway 0-7 A BLISTERING start to the second half, which saw them score 1-5 in 10 minutes, paved the way for a comfortable Clare victory over Galway in the All-Ireland U-21 hurling semi-final at Thurles last Saturday evening. Starting the second half just two points adrift, Galway held high hopes of dethroning the All-Ireland champions but Clare stepped up the pace and by the midpoint of the half, the holders were well on the way to a second successive final. The all-important goal came three minutes after the resumption and was scored by Cathal O’Connell, one of the stars in this latest victory for Clare. Indeed, such was Clare’s dominance in the second half that with 10 minutes remaining, they were able to call ashore senior star Podge Collins and then replaced two more members of the senior team, Colm Galvin and Tony Kelly, ahead of the upcoming senior final clash with Cork. An injury to Aaron Cunningham …

Clare’s joint manager Gerry O’Connor described the second-half performance by Clare as “phenomenal”. “The way it transpired was exactly as we had predicted. We reckoned the first half would be really low scoring, a real and out and out dog fight and that’s exactly how it turned out,” he said. According to the Éire Óg clubman, “Donal [Moloney] said to the lads at half-time, in the most positive way possible, that they needed to move up a gear. The second-half performance was just phenomenal, the running off the ball, the support play. Alan O’Neill at centre-back was awesome, to be fair to him. Peter Duggan started winning puck-outs but Tots’ [Cathal O’Connell] movement off Peter Duggan was phenomenal.” “We have been on the road with these guys for four years now. That was the 2010 minor team. We have such a passionate affinity with them that it’s unbelievable. We had a team meeting with the guys on Monday before this …