Tag Archives: Waterford

Clare 1-10 Waterford 0-8 VERY slow to settle in the opening quarter, Clare eventually ground out a five point win in their opening McGrath Cup fixture in Meelick on Sunday afternoon. The match was played in perfect underfoot conditions on what was an overcast afternoon. If Clare beat Limerick on Wednesday evening in the Gaelic Grounds, in their second game in this group, they will qualify for their second successive final in this competition. Clare gave a debut to Ballyhaunis corner back Eoghan Collins, who is a nephew of manager Colm Collins while Kilmaley’s Mikey O’Neill also also started his first inter-county game. Others to play their first minutes of senior football included David Egan and Darragh Bolton while Liam Markham also featured for the first time in several seasons as did John Hayes. An Eoin Cleary goal, made by Jamie Malone and David Tubridy helped Clare into a 1-3 to 0-3 interval lead. That 19th minute goal was Clare’s …

THE Clare footballers will play their first competitive match of the new season when they meet Waterford in Meelick at 2pm on Sunday in the McGrath Cup. Next Wednesday, Clare will play Limerick at 7.30pm in the Gaelic Grounds in their final game in the three-team group. The group winners will play Kerry, Cork or Tipperary in the final on January 22. On Sunday, Clare will be without their Ballyea players, who are preparing for their All-Ireland Club Hurling Championship semi-final, against St Thomas’ from Galway, on Saturday, February 4. The county footballers will play Derry away the following day in their opening Division 2 league fixture. Clare manager Colm Collins said they will use the McGrath Cup to give a game to as many players as possible. He also noted that the two upcoming games are more useful than challenge matches. “There is no question, they are way better than challenge games. Anything that’s organised properly and officiated at …

Contesting the final of the National Hurling League, which required a replay, netted Clare GAA €202,552.51. Clare’s return from the National Football League, where they were crowned Division 3 champions, was worth €28,554.38 to the board. Details of the financial returns from both leagues were revealed by treasurer, Bernard Keane to Tuesday night’s board meeting in Caherlohan. Up to the end of August, the total spend on county teams, Mr Keane outlined, was €449,124.51, of which €258,625 was for hurling, with €190,500 for football. A further breakdown revealed that €222,262 was spent on the senior hurling team and €159,777 was spent on the senior football team. The treasurer stressed that these figures “are what has been paid out in cheques up to the end of August and may not be a true figure but it gives you a feel for where we are. It’s not a complete picture.” Whitegate delegate, David Solan said, “Clubs are being squeezed to the limit …

Waterford   3-23 Clare   1-11 While the writing was on the wall at half-time when Clare led by just two points, after playing with the aid of a strong wind, few would have predicted the margin of victory in Wednesday’s Munster U-21 Hurling Championship semi-final. Played before an attendance of 4,126 at a sunny Walsh Park, a blistering start to the second half saw Waterford score 2-6 in eight minutes without reply. Heading into this game, Waterford fans were concerned how their side would perform just three days after the senior team suffered a heavy defeat to Tipperary in the Munster final but they went away happy that the future of the Déise’s hurling looks solid. The senior panellists were superb, none more so than the full-forward trio of Patrick Curran and the Bennett brothers, Shane and Stephen. On the other hand, Clare’s senior panellists failed to impress, which must be a concern ahead of next week’s All-Ireland quarter-final clash with Galway. …

Waterford 1-21 Clare 0-17 Having travelled to Thurles with high hopes that they would repeat their recent league final win over Waterford and qualify for a Munster final date against Tipperary or Limerick on July 10, Clare fans in the official attendance of 19,715 returned in disappointment on Sunday evening after seeing their charges comprehensively beaten by Waterford. From an early stage it was evident that Clare were struggling in many areas and while they drew level with their opponents on a few occasions in the opening hald and could have taken the lead but for some poor shooting, there is no denying the merit of Waterford’s victory Both sides made changes from the teams which started the league final replay.Clare had John Conlon and Oisin O’Brien back from injury and they replaced Jack Browne and Aaron Cunningham while Waterford included Maurice Shanahan and Pauric Mahony in place of Jake Dillon and Colin Dunford. The Waterford changes played a key …

Clare’s chances of beating Waterford in tomorrow’s Munster senior hurling semi-final have received a huge boost with the news that both John Conlon and Oisin O’Brien have recovered from injury and are named in the starting line up. The return of the Clonlara clubmen are the only changes from the side which started the league final replay against the same opposition. They replace Jack Browne and Aaron Cunningham. There is further good news for Clare fans as David McInerney has been included in the match day panel which, it is understood, also includes Aaron Cunningham. McInerney hasn’t hurled since helping Clare overcome Limerick in the final group game in division 1B of the league while Cunningham suffered a hamstring injury when helping his club Wolfe Tones to victory over Newmarket in the opening round of the Clare senior hurling championship. The team is Patrick Kelly (Inagh-Kilnamona): Oisín O’Brien (Clonlara), Cian Dillon (Crusheen), Conor Cleary (Miltown St Josephs); Brendan Bugler (Whitegate), …

Sitting down to plan out Clare’s programme for the 2016 hurling season, manager Davy Fitzgerald underlined three goals – get out of Division 1 B, do well in the league, be ready for the championship clash with Waterford. It’s so far two-from-two, with the third objective looming large on Sunday. The two league meetings have added to the game, Fitzgerald feels. “Waterford went on about frees the last day. Look at the stats in relation to the frees they had the last day and the day before, you will see that Clare came out at the wrong end of both of them. It was even enough the last day but we were well down the day before. Our possession was higher than Waterford. “Waterford have a certain way of playing. It’s going to be very hard for this to be a high-scoring game, we got good scores the last day when there was very little space in the middle third …

Clare 1-23 Waterford 2-19 What a difference a week makes! Seven days after Clare and Waterford played a draw in what was a disappointing contest, they turned in a thrilling replay which went right down to the wire before joint Clare captain Tony Kelly showed his value to the team, when pointing twice in the final minute of play as Clare bridged a 38 year gap to their last success in this competition. It was a tremendous win for Clare, who had trailed their opponents for most of the 70 minutes. A goal behind after just 20 seconds, they found themselves six points in arrears with 22 minutes to play. Then Kelly finished off a tremendous move with a goal and they quickly cut the deficit to two points before Waterford stretched their advantage to four with 12 minutes to play. Clare brought it back to one with just five minutes left but points from Patrick Curran and Brian O’Halloran saw Waterford push three …