Clare GAA discussion thread

sasol

TheNap wrote: »

I see Niall Arthur has also left the Clare panel

A loss ?

I don't think he was even on the Clare panel !!

letowski

Cork won today in the Waterford Crystal semi final 2-21 to 0-18. The game was over at half time practically at 2-13 to 0-07. It hard to know whether to be a little worried as we were up against a second string Cork team. Our play was lackluster and decision making was poor. Plenty to improve on with the important Galway game in the league in 3 weeks. I think Davy has to show a lot more positivity in way he wants his team to play, we never score goals when we withdraw players out the field.

Fireball07

letowski wrote: »

Cork won today in the Waterford Crystal semi final 2-21 to 0-18. The game was over at half time practically at 2-13 to 0-07. It hard to know whether to be a little worried as we were up against a second string Cork team. Our play was lackluster and decision making was poor. Plenty to improve on with the important Galway game in the league in 3 weeks. I think Davy has to show a lot more positivity in way he wants his team to play, we never score goals when we withdraw players out the field.

From what I heard, Clare's problems are the same as they've been for a while. Not enough ballwinners and the inside forward line being too isolated.

When Clare click, they play some beautiful hurling, they have real talent. But they over-complicate things too much and you need to have someone other than Conlon that can win clean possession.



But with a weakened team out, I wouldn't be too worried tbh. You'll learn whose not up to it if nothing else. Stick Dillon, McInerney, O'Connor, Galvin, Kelly, Conlon, McGrath, Reidy, O'Donnell, even Peter Duggan into that team and it's a completely different prospect.

letowski

Fireball07 wrote: »

From what I heard, Clare's problems are the same as they've been for a while. Not enough ballwinners and the inside forward line being too isolated.

When Clare click, they play some beautiful hurling, they have real talent. But they over-complicate things too much and you need to have someone other than Conlon that can win clean possession.



But with a weakened team out, I wouldn't be too worried tbh. You'll learn whose not up to it if nothing else. Stick Dillon, McInerney, O'Connor, Galvin, Kelly, Conlon, McGrath, Reidy, O'Donnell, even Peter Duggan into that team and it's a completely different prospect.

That's quite true, hopefully on your last point! I always kinda back up Davy though, in the way he tries to play a systematic game plan, I think you need to, when you play a short brand of hurling. The issue sometimes is that not enough ball work is being done and you end up having a complete mess (spilled balls, loose passes, etc.)

But the short passing is obviously utilized because of the lack of ball winners. I dont think we have the personnel to fix the issue, we just have to be accurate in our play and how we use it. Puck-outs need to be worked on too.

I know it's so early in looking ahead to the Limerick game in Munster, but maybe Limerick are not the strongest aerially from 5-9, so that could help. The biggest concern for me would be the Ryan/Browne midfield partnership. If those guys get on top of the breaks they're outstanding at this), Limerick can still achieve what Cork and Wexford did last year in shutting our attack down. It's then you miss a player like Podge. If Clare do well in this area, we can cause the same type of damage we did in the AI SF 2013.

Fireball07

letowski wrote: »

That's quite true, hopefully on your last point! I always kinda back up Davy though, in the way he tries to play a systematic game plan, I think you need to, when you play a short brand of hurling. The issue sometimes is that not enough ball work is being done and you end up having a complete mess (spilled balls, loose passes, etc.)

But the short passing is obviously utilized because of the lack of ball winners. I dont think we have the personnel to fix the issue, we just have to be accurate in our play and how we use it. Puck-outs need to be worked on too.

I know it's so early in looking ahead to the Limerick game in Munster, but maybe Limerick are not the strongest aerially from 5-9, so that could help. The biggest concern for me would be the Ryan/Browne midfield partnership. If those guys get on top of the breaks they're outstanding at this), Limerick can still achieve what Cork and Wexford did last year in shutting our attack down. It's then you miss a player like Podge. If Clare do well in this area, we can cause the same type of damage we did in the AI SF 2013.

Sometimes the problem is though that the short passing is overdone... there's nothing wrong with short passing in itself, holding possession is brilliant. But at times, Clare teams have looked for a short pass when it's not on... when they have a chance to score. Last year, Clare looked best when they isolated McGrath with his marker and gave him the ball.


As for Limerick, yes we are not the strongest in the air in the half-back line, but it is something that I hope we can rectify before then. Jim-Bob and Browne are good on the ground, but so too are Galvin and Kelly. We are definitely a lot more formidable than in 2013, though... for a start, we'll have Dowling, Downes and probably Lynch from the start in attack. We're likely to have a more varied gameplan too in that we just won't rain ball down on top of Donnellan for 70 minutes. But I still worry about holding Clare's attack if they hit form.

letowski

Fireball07 wrote: »

Sometimes the problem is though that the short passing is overdone... there's nothing wrong with short passing in itself, holding possession is brilliant. But at times, Clare teams have looked for a short pass when it's not on... when they have a chance to score. Last year, Clare looked best when they isolated McGrath with his marker and gave him the ball.


As for Limerick, yes we are not the strongest in the air in the half-back line, but it is something that I hope we can rectify before then. Jim-Bob and Browne are good on the ground, but so too are Galvin and Kelly. We are definitely a lot more formidable than in 2013, though... for a start, we'll have Dowling, Downes and probably Lynch from the start in attack. We're likely to have a more varied gameplan too in that we just won't rain ball down on top of Donnellan for 70 minutes. But I still worry about holding Clare's attack if they hit form.

Yes it's something we certainly have been guilty of. But they're playing this way now for the fourth year so hopefully we will start seeing more maturity in our play. I think McGrath will probably be marked by Hickey (that would be worth the admission fee in itself!). I hoping Bobby Duggan and Aaron Cunningham can be big players for us this year.

Limerick's forward line this year might be the best it's had in years I think, there's a very good spread now of scorers. What's been crucial for me is finding the best positions for Hannon and Dowling (not corner forward and bench like 2013). If those two click in the summer, ye will hit a good score. Lynch is an exciting prospect no doubt, I hugely enjoy watching skillful players move everywhere around the pitch, looking to create. He bring another dimension.

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Cork won today in the Waterford Crystal semi final 2-21 to 0-18. The game was over at half time practically at 2-13 to 0-07. It hard to know whether to be a little worried as we were up against a second string Cork team. Our play was lackluster and decision making was poor. Plenty to improve on with the important Galway game in the league in 3 weeks. I think Davy has to show a lot more positivity in way he wants his team to play, we never score goals when we withdraw players out the field.

the half time scoreline dose'nt strike anyone with any great confidence and yes the game against limerick would have done us good , but you cant really look too much into the game yesterday when trying to work out what way the season will pan out,

we dont score goals but in fairness we never really do , the underage teams never really do either , at club level when you get to the business end of the club championship from lets say the 1/4 finals onward's goals usually are at a minimum ,

maybe thats the ethos of clare hurling i dont know , but what i would see as a problem with this regime is the amount we concede , most clare teams in the past never had the same options up front as this team , but we were usually always strong at the back

we scored 18 points yesterday and still lost by 9 which to me is the main problem , i would be happy to see us score any amount of points and rarely any goals as long as we kept the house safe , we probably have discipline issues also which i would like to see rectified over the course of the league

whatever about sweeper systems and short passing games we need to really tighten things up at the back , how many 7 and 8 point leads did we nearly throw away in 2013 , i heard last year bruiser was our forwards coach :rolleyes: .....maybe a defensive coach is probably whats needed

cnoc

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

i heard last year bruiser was our forwards coach :rolleyes: .....maybe a defensive coach is probably whats needed

Pray, who is the bruiser?

Limestone Cowboy

cnoc wrote: »

Pray, who is the bruiser?

Fergal Lynch

cnoc

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Fergal Lynch

Thanks!

homeofhurling

even doe davy did lead them to 2013 all ireland win, in my opinion i think he is holding this clare team back since, and theres not a lot of players have no respect for davy for his carry on, on the sidelines during games and his abuse to players from clare and other teams they play.

windy shepard henderson

homeofhurling wrote: »

even doe davy did lead them to 2013 all ireland win, in my opinion i think he is holding this clare team back since, and theres not a lot of players have no respect for davy for his carry on, on the sidelines during games and his abuse to players from clare and other teams they play.

dont know if the abuse thing is as bad as everyone says , i think its in one ear out the other with most players , but what i do think is having an affect is the discipline of the team , fitz chasing referees up and down the sideline hurling abuse and then criticizing them afterwards in the media makes me think that players buy into that and are starting to feel sorry for themselves every time a whistle is blown against them which leads to frustration and then more frees again ,

for example the cork game in the munster championship last year , we kept cork in the game for most of the first half giving away silly fouls in scoreable positions , yes the ref was trigger happy with the whistle at times but that was the time for the sideline to call on lads to be a bit more clever , instead davey decided to run up and down the sideline hauling abuse at james mcgrath so much so he nearly got sent off at the start of the second half , as you say thats crazy leadership

windy shepard henderson

keeponhurling wrote: »

According to the bookies, we are third favourites to win Division 3.


Am I missing something here or have we really improved that much?!

square ball wrote: »

Teams coming from Division 4 tend to do well following year in Division 3 with bit of momentum from winning so many games the previous year. You'd have to fancy Armagh to win it though with the quality in their squad. Hard to know about the rest of the teams. I think our profile has increased with 3 hurlers committing solely to the footballers and a few more lads joining but I'd be extremely happy to stay in Division 3 this year.

i think there are 3 or 4 teams that would struggle to get out of division 4 had they got relegated, clare play wexford next sunday , a team in free fall narrowly avoided relegation in the last game of the league last season have a new manager so most probably in transition as too sligo who also have a new manager failed to win away from home in all competitions last year will i am sure be in transition this year

personally i think we are in a better place then the limerick and louth at the moment too , so i think we could get the adequate number of points to stay up from these games

however signs coming out of the camp would seem the squad believe they can get promoted , they have been unbeaten in all challange matches so far this year and with the likes of the collins's and cathal macinerny jumping ship confedance is very high

the one thing that has caught the eye is the amount of talent coming through is huge , jamie malone martin o'leary are u21 this year still and i have no doubt keelan sexton from kilmurry will make a huge impact this year , sexton who is still minor has huge potential and could be a starter come championship

in prepretion the footballers played 3 challange games this week beating austin stacks, U.L and drew with kerry in tralee

last sunday
clare 5-12 2-10 austin stacks

wednesday

clare 2-14 1-12 U.L

today
clare 2-11 1-14 kerry

not sure how strong the opposition was but it would seem things are shapeing up nicely for next sunday and the first round of the league

letowski

Clare team to take on Wexford on Sunday @ 2pm in Miltown:

Joe Hayes (Lissycasey); Dean Ryan (Eire Og), Kevin Hartnett (Meelick), Marty McMahon (Kilmurry Ibrickane); Jamie Malone (Corofin), Gordon Kelly (Miltown, St. Josephs), Ciaran Russell (Eire Og); Gary Brennan (Clondegad, capt., Cathal O'Connor (Coolmeen); Sean Collins (Cratloe), Shane Hickey (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Shane McGrath (Thomas Davis); David Tubridy (Doonbeg), Shane Brennan (Clondegad), Pat Burke (Kilmacud Crokes).

Not a bad team to be fair, but Podge and Cathal Mc are a loss due to injury. It will be interesting to see how Hickey goes at 11. Tough one against Wexford but not impossible, Miltown is a tough place to get a win. A win for us would be huge boost of confidence for this squad. It's important to keep building on the progress made last year.

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Clare team to take on Wexford on Sunday @ 2pm in Miltown:

Joe Hayes (Lissycasey); Dean Ryan (Eire Og), Kevin Hartnett (Meelick), Marty McMahon (Kilmurry Ibrickane); Jamie Malone (Corofin), Gordon Kelly (Miltown, St. Josephs), Ciaran Russell (Eire Og); Gary Brennan (Clondegad, capt., Cathal O'Connor (Coolmeen); Sean Collins (Cratloe), Shane Hickey (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Shane McGrath (Thomas Davis); David Tubridy (Doonbeg), Shane Brennan (Clondegad), Pat Burke (Kilmacud Crokes).

Not a bad team to be fair, but Podge and Cathal Mc are a loss due to injury. It will be interesting to see how Hickey goes at 11. Tough one against Wexford but not impossible, Miltown is a tough place to get a win. A win for us would be huge boost of confidence for this squad. It's important to keep building on the progress made last year.

solid enough line up , team picked with two or three different formations in mind to depend on how the game is going , middle third looks strong without podge expect to see one or two interchanges with the backs and forwards maybe hickey/molone

other then pat bourke for martin o'leary the team seems to be fairly similar to what lost to tipp in the league final by a point , i dont think this wexford team
are any where as good as that tipperary team last year and a repeat performance in similar conditions from last april tomorrow should be good enough to get over the line and the year of to a good start

our record in recent years in miltown is mixed but i would have this team down as much better then what drew there last year to leitrim or the team that lost to waterford under micko a few years ago , wexford on the other hand have a new manager and will experiment , there most notable players will be ben brosnon and ciaran lyng in the full forward line , but they have lost a lot of regulars and are a long way away from where there were at the turn of the decade

LuckyGent88

Well that was a great victory for the footballers anyway. Great start to the new season anyway. Onwards and upwards

windy shepard henderson

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Well that was a great victory for the footballers anyway. Great start to the new season anyway. Onwards and upwards

good start to the league for the footballers , the wining margin was something like 14 points which is bigger then any win recorded in division 4 last year

it was also achieved without the likes of cathal macinerney , podge collins and kevin hartnet who picked up an injury last years corner forward martin o'leary came off the bench also which shows signs of the strength of the squad

it was probably a game wexford were never going to win but they did have two great goal chances in the first half which were brilliantly saved at point blank by joe hayes , and while david tubridy did score 10 points , it was probably only right to award dean ryan the man of the match award , as corner back he covered every blade on the pitch setting up several attacks ,

while the scoreline is impressive it has to be said that there are a number of areas in which we will have to improve on in both attack and in defense for the visit of armagh and the trips to limerick and tipperary later in the campaign , its louth next sunday up in drogheda who like wexford find themselves in transition mode and presents us with a great opportunity to tag on another two points if today's performance is repeated

Gael85

Has Rory Donnelly retired? Is Eoin and Conor Cleary on football panel?

windy shepard henderson

Gael85 wrote: »

Has Rory Donnelly retired? Is Eoin and Conor Cleary on football panel?

not 100% sure about rory , i think he did not sure, a few players did around christmas time , the likes of michael o shea , lawrence healy ect.., but i would think its unlikely if we see him back again giving the amount of young lads coming through, connor cleary is on the u21 panel in both codes but not the senior football , eoin is injured , he had an operation late last year which could have him out for most of the league

windy shepard henderson

clare will play waterford later tonight at 7 o'clock in sixmilebridge , our final prep for the clash in salthill next sunday week , waterford beat tipp last week in a challenge and despite there sometimes hit and miss approach i expect a very tough match would nearly take a loss of up to 5 points and have something to work on for next week then an over the odds win , some of the frendlies we played last month didnt do us very much good ,in particular the games against kilmallock and antrim

the game is however supposed to be played behind closed doors ....so bring a decent pair of binoculars

windy shepard henderson

clare team to play louth tomorrow in the nfl division 3 round 2

1 Joe Hayes
2 Marty McMahon
3 Dean Ryan
4 Stephen Collins
5 Jamie Malone
6 Gordon Kelly
7 Ciaran Russell
8 Gary Brennan
9 Cathal O’Connor
10 Sean Collins
11 Shane Hickey
12 Shane McGrath
13 David Tubridy
14 Shane Brennan
15 Pat Burke

in other words the same team that started and beat a fairly unfit and under prepared wexford side in miltown malbay last sunday and dispite no podge and cathal mac along with kevin hartnet who has failed to recover from an ankle injury he picked up in the warm up last week this is a very winable game against a louth side very much in transition under new management , last weeks defeat aside they do generally play very well at home and will be tough to beat, but the loss to the likes of paddy keenan to retirement would be like us losing gary brennan or david tubridy with no direct replacement and a huge loss, sums up where they are at the moment but if our management are as serious as they say about promotion then then anything other then a win would be a set back giving the direction both teams are heding in at the moment

the hurlers played waterford in sixmilebridge tonight behind closed doors some say clare won others say a draw , of course thoughs that say waterford won have been silenced and disposed of by the clareabby secret police who guarded greaney park tonight , hopefully a match report will surface from somewhere over the week in the media to let us know what happened and give us some idea of the starting 15 for salthill next sunday

LuckyGent88

Seems like a decent match against louth at the moment. Down by a point after 25 mins.
1-5 to 7 points

letowski

LuckyGent88 wrote:

Seems like a decent match against louth at the moment. Down by a point after 25 mins. 1-5 to 7 points

Freezing up here :-) Clare are doing well after a mistake ridden first 15. Should be more up could have had two goals. Full bavk line are coping well now with Louths big 14. We should win this were good enough. Ryan, McMahon, Collins, McGrath the pivk so far. Brennan strugglinv to ingluence the game.

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Freezing up here :-) Clare are doing well after a mistake ridden first 15. Should be more up could have had two goals. Full bavk line are coping well now with Louths big 14. We should win this were good enough. Ryan, McMahon, Collins, McGrath the pivk so far. Brennan strugglinv to ingluence the game.

Next 10 is going to be a battle louth very tough at home, donegal only won by point last year would take a draw

LuckyGent88

Only 4 points in second half is a poor return

windy shepard henderson

Impressive final few minutes from the home side 6 point defeat in the end and for all the early missed chances it would appear to be a very fair result, for our lads this should act as a good learning curve, there were two divisions between the sides this time last year, personaly I under estimated louth and after today I expect them to be tough for anyone they meet from here on. Hopefully we will have a side closer to full strength come March 1st, and with 3 out of our next 5 games at home were not out of anything yet,

letowski

It was disappointing from a Clare perspective nonetheless. Louth were deserving victors, but Clare were on top for alot of that game and raced into a good lead at thr start of the second half. The big turning point was when Gary Brennan was blatently rugby tackled to the ground and disallowed a penalty, Burke had a strong case a little earlier too. A converted penalty would have put us up 6. Instead the ref played on and Louth scored. Clare actually didnt score for last 20mins and lost all composure. As you said wsh, its a learning curve for the lads.

windy shepard henderson

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Only 4 points in second half is a poor return

Yeah as said above we didn't score in the last 20 minutes plus. We didn't get one or two decisions in crucial stages of the game but this team has an age profile simular to the hurlers maybe younger, they got a kick up the backside today and they will learn from it, they did only kick one wide in the whole game which shows that whatever problems need sorting out are further out the field

windy shepard henderson

First game of the league this Sunday in salthill, reports suggest that clare will line out with a more predictable line up with David reidy probably the only one from last years under 21 team to make his first start, although he has made a number of appearances from the bench, if that is to be the case Sundays game is huge, two points here would set us up nicely for a 1/4 final spot and keep us hurling until April at the very least, a relegation play off leaves us with a lot of free time in the build up to the limerick game in may and no one wants to entertain the idea of division 1b hurling next year, I would expect 6 points to be the magic number in this regard and makes Sundays game huge, can't see us chopping and changing this year in comparison to last year's league campaign

lizzyod

i miss podge

The Slobs

lizzyod wrote: »

i miss podge

Recently retired Wexford Player found Podge to be his hardest opponent (Unmarkable) last year and felt that if it were not for his sending off Clare would have beaten Wexford the first day out.

A massive loss to Clare

The Slobs

The Slobs wrote: »

Recently retired Wexford Player found Podge to be his hardest opponent (Unmarkable) last year and felt that if it were not for his sending off Clare would have beaten Wexford the first day out.

A massive loss to Clare

For got to say the name

Kieth Rossiter

letowski

He did quite well on Podge last year, dont think he scored. Agree though, when Podge is on form his speed and movement make him very difficult to contain. Last year, I dont think Davy chose they right role for him. He played him too close to goal and I felt we we missed his industry out the field.

The Slobs

Rossiter point was that if Podge stayed on the dam would eventually burst

windy shepard henderson

Personaly I reckon podge will return next year, I feel daveys comments on the Sunday game when he was on analysis for they/4 finals made the cratloe lads mind up, thankfully so far our esteemed leader has stayed away from the media for the best part of the off season / post. Season...... Long may it continue...

CheltenhamJ

Has team been named for tmrw ??

letowski

CheltenhamJ wrote: »

Has team been named for tmrw ??

Typically late..

1. Pa Kelly
2. Domhnaill O'Donovan
3. Cian Dillon
4. Jack Browne
5. Conor Cleary
6. Conor Ryan
7. Pat O'Connor
8. Brendan Buglar
9. Colin Ryan
10. Pat Donnellan
11. A. N. Other
12. Colm Galvin
13. John Conlon
14. Shane O'Donnell
15. David Reidy

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Typically late..

1. Pa Kelly
2. Domhnaill O'Donovan
3. Cian Dillon
4. Jack Browne
5. Conor Cleary
6. Conor Ryan
7. Pat O'Connor
8. Brendan Buglar
9. Colin Ryan
10. Pat Donnellan
11. A. N. Other
12. Colm Galvin
13. John Conlon
14. Shane O'Donnell
15. David Reidy

Like the look of the eire og 2 man full forward line 11 will probably be bobby duggan? would like to see cunningham there as an interchange in half forward/full forward line, big games for Browne and Cleary. probably a bit slow in midfield but very physical something we lacked at times last year, I assume Galvin will play a more roaming role simular to the podge roll talked about above

windy shepard henderson

Not the ideal start to the league today, despite a terrible start we worked our way back into the game and were flattering leaders late in the first half, all helped by poor and sometimes very poor Galway finishing

Second half we took control and with 10/15 minutes in we were in control, keeping Galway at arms length with a 3/4 points lead,despite interducing conor McGrath Aaron cunningham and totts we let slip a comfortable wining situation, mainly once again down to giving away petty frees and indiscipline. We also showed to be very weak down the centre of defence however I would put it down to the amount of positional changes made, we only looked in control at the back with the sweeper system in place but again we let ourselves down discipline wise,

Good to see Donal o Donovan back in the starting line up seemed like he was never away putting in a great performance, bobby duggan had a great first half and at times kept us in the game. We looked a little better under the puck outs today, but Buglar needs to drop back from the start the next day midfield is not for him, would like to see conor Ryan tried out again it that position. Questions still to be asked about Cleary at times, patch o Connor and john Conlon were as ever rock solid, Galvin looked at home in the roving roll while jack Browne kept his head today to put in a decent performance under tons of pressure at times,full forwards did well with limited supply at times, a repeat of the last ten of the first and first 20 of the second half should be enough to put it up to cork next Saturday but we will need to control the game for longer if we are to win, good work out today for this time of year plenty to work on though

LuckyGent88

Only going on what I heard on the radio and the highlights just there on rte but that didn't seem like a good performance at all.

The defending for both galways goals was horrendous especially the second one. Glynn won a ball in a ruck which had 4 clare players in it. He had no right to win the ball at all. Some extremely naive defending.
First galway goal all come about by an awful cross field pass to Colin Ryan. Just can't afford to be making those mistakes at that level.
Our forwards seem to get little or no ball in the first half. Sometimes the 2 man full forward line just doesn't work for us. Obviously have a good few players to come back into the team, but we will have to improve an awful lot in order to not be in a relegation battle.

windy shepard henderson

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

Only going on what I heard on the radio and the highlights just there on rte but that didn't seem like a good performance at all.

The defending for both galways goals was horrendous especially the second one. Glynn won a ball in a ruck which had 4 clare players in it. He had no right to win the ball at all. Some extremely naive defending.
First galway goal all come about by an awful cross field pass to Colin Ryan. Just can't afford to be making those mistakes at that level.
Our forwards seem to get little or no ball in the first half. Sometimes the 2 man full forward line just doesn't work for us. Obviously have a good few players to come back into the team, but we will have to improve an awful lot in order to not be in a relegation battle.

Agree yes both goals were soft but you will get that this time of year, I would be worried by how slow we were coming out of the blocks for the next day but when we clicked in the middle part of the game we looked fine especially with Kelly out and McGrath still on the bench. Still think we are ahead of where cork and tipp are at the moment they're our next two games with Dublin after, I would be surprised if we will find ourselves heading down to Kilkenny in a must win situation to avoid a play/off

letowski

Thought it was a poor game overall, but Galway were the better team over the 70 as they were well on top in the possession stakes and we struggled physically against them on the breaking ball. It reminded me a bit about the game versus Dublin last year, today we were up against a big team in a poor pitch and conditions.
We were very poor though. I think what I find frustrating is the same issues are still evident for the last 4 years. Our defending in front of goal is crazy erratic, our backs seem to lack basic defensive instincts (at one stage DOD flicked a loose ball straight to Regan 5 meters out!). Discipline and ball winners too, although I actually though Bugs did quite good in the second half. Conor Ryan and Patch were poor today though.
It's only February, hopefully things will improve. I wouldn't be in favour of Donnellan at wing forward, bring Conlon out and Hammy or Tots in or something. When the game opened up a bit we got on top and I though Bobby Duggan and Shane O'Donnell looked good and Cleary can be happy with his outing too.

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Thought it was a poor game overall, but Galway were the better team over the 70 as they were well on top in the possession stakes and we struggled physically against them on the breaking ball. It reminded me a bit about the game versus Dublin last year, today we were up against a big team in a poor pitch and conditions.
We were very poor though. I think what I find frustrating is the same issues are still evident for the last 4 years. Our defending in front of goal is crazy erratic, our backs seem to lack basic defensive instincts (at one stage DOD flicked a loose ball straight to Regan 5 meters out!). Discipline and ball winners too, although I actually though Bugs did quite good in the second half. Conor Ryan and Patch were poor today though.
It's only February, hopefully things will improve. I wouldn't be in favour of Donnellan at wing forward, bring Conlon out and Hammy or Tots in or something. When the game opened up a bit we got on top and I though Bobby Duggan and Shane O'Donnell looked good and Cleary can be happy with his outing too.

to be honest I think you hit the nail on the head with alot of things but in fairness it was in no way as bad as the Dublin game last year, were beaten in every position that day and were never going to win

Today we were in a winning position with 60 seconds left on the clock despite playing so poorly, they best Dublin last week handy enough in the end, look what they did to tipp today

The other thing that has me in a more positive mood then most is we experimented heavily today, something we have not done since the 2013 league campaign, I would blame alot of last year's failures on the fact we rarely changed our starting lineups and because over predictable, we hit the crossbar today with several players out of position conor McGrath on the bench for the best part of 60 minutes, Tony Kelly out injured , nobody were operating at full pace I still think We are in a better position then most at the moment,

Boots234

The football gaa draws were made on Tuesday night and the standout game has to be KIB v Cratloe in the first round, How many times have they met at this stage? It seems like they play every year! O'Curry's v Kilkee could be a tasty game too. One very tough group in the intermediate championship as it contains Liscannor, Kilmihil, Corofin and Naomh Eoin. Naomh Eoin very unlucky to be drawn out in that group

LuckyGent88

Boots234 wrote: »

The football gaa draws were made on Tuesday night and the standout game has to be KIB v Cratloe in the first round, How many times have they met at this stage? It seems like they play every year! O'Curry's v Kilkee could be a tasty game too. One very tough group in the intermediate championship as it contains Liscannor, Kilmihil, Corofin and Naomh Eoin. Naomh Eoin very unlucky to be drawn out in that group

Some very tasty draws in all the respective championships.
Obviously the stand out is the cratloe v KIB game. Big test early for them. Also think the eire og v ennistymon game could be a good tie. Both teams have had plenty of recent underage success.

Some of the draws in the hurling are excellent too.

Cratloe v ballyea - should be an exciting match with some of the county players on show.

Clonlara v clarecastle - been in the closing stages last number of years.

Eire og v sixmilebridge - lot of history between the two sides and we don't exactly like each other

Also, Wolfe tones v barefield in intermediate hurling!!!! Seems ridiculous altogether

windy shepard henderson

Both throw up some serious games, the hurling championship will benefit with the new format ,bar the cratloe / sixmilebridge game maybe one or two more we're only few games worth watching, the group games were very flat, the knock out stuff will add a better edge to it

The football championship first round games look tighter On paper Kilmurry and cratloe stands out eire og are a team to watch in both codes this year. Though

The likelihood though is neither championship will take place until probably august or maybe September, until croke park decide to introduce designated club weeks for championship games to be played the future of the club championship is set to start late in the year

Only thing our county board can do is set the clare cup and cusack cup campaigns to run from April to July to keep clubs interested, as One journalist put it last year why should 450 players wait for 50 players to benefit, ahead of the under 21 all Ireland final last year

letowski

Clare will line up the same as they did in Salthill last Sunday. Kind of need to win this won to win make the knockouts. Should be a good game tomorrow, although both teams were poor last week, there should be an edge to the game at least. Bugs & Galvin v Walsh and Kearney should be a good battle in midfield, particularly Galvin and Kearney, they always have a good match up. Cork are never the team to exploit Clare's weaknesses, they are in composition probably most similar to ourselves of the rest of the counties. I think it will be the team that starts the best and gets their game plan going will be the team that wins. It has always been that way for the last 3 years with these sides.

In fairness PUR looked quite firm last Saturday so tomorrow should be a better opportunity for Reidy and SOD to get on more ball. I thought Reidy played too close to goal the last day, he his usually better of in a more withdrawn role. The forward line looks reliant on Conlon to get heavily involved in our play, I think better games are needed from Colin Ryan and Pat Donnellan if we are to win.

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Clare will line up the same as they did in Salthill last Sunday. Kind of need to win this won to win make the knockouts. Should be a good game tomorrow, although both teams were poor last week, there should be an edge to the game at least. Bugs & Galvin v Walsh and Kearney should be a good battle in midfield, particularly Galvin and Kearney, they always have a good match up. Cork are never the team to exploit Clare's weaknesses, they are in composition probably most similar to ourselves of the rest of the counties. I think it will be the team that starts the best and gets their game plan going will be the team that wins. It has always been that way for the last 3 years with these sides.

In fairness PUR looked quite firm last Saturday so tomorrow should be a better opportunity for Reidy and SOD to get on more ball. I thought Reidy played too close to goal the last day, he his usually better of in a more withdrawn role. The forward line looks reliant on Conlon to get heavily involved in our play, I think better games are needed from Colin Ryan and Pat Donnellan if we are to win.

Serious doubts about the two above mentioned Colin is a great free taker but very hot and cold out the field , Donnellan seems to fit the sweeper system and nothing else,

Taught the team would be alot stronger, can't see the logic of playing so many players out of position with the squad of players at our disposal

letowski

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

Serious doubts about the two above mentioned Colin is a great free taker but very hot and cold out the field , Donnellan seems to fit the sweeper system and nothing else,

Taught the team would be alot stronger, can't see the logic of playing so many players out of position with the squad of players at our disposal

Yeah Id agree, players like Tots and Cunningham should be getting a start for games like these. Davy has always seemed to stick fairly rigidly to a team during the league despite performances. It's frustrating sometimes as there is a good squad there available to him.

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Yeah Id agree, players like Tots and Cunningham should be getting a start for games like these. Davy has always seemed to stick fairly rigidly to a team during the league despite performances. It's frustrating sometimes as there is a good squad there available to him.

In fairness he did chop and change quite alot during the 2013 league campaign, we ended up in a relegation final that year, but atleast we had a squad ready for championship, plus baring in mind podge Collins and Shane O'Donnell only played bit part cameo roles up until the qualifiers, but set there markers down in games against Kilkenny and cork that year in the league, Last year was as you say very stale with the predictably of our line ups