Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

an absolute gentleman , in the modern era of hurling in this county he is probably the best hurler not to win an all ireland , to auction probably the closest thing to a celtic cross sums up the man , id go so far to say that if he did win an all ireland that would be on auction as well ,

rumor knocking around tonight that joe McGann is back on the panel and Tristian O'Callaghan is starting in goals , both spa men would make a huge difference to the side tomorrow in tuam

Galway 2-08 Clare 1-05

As poor a performance in front of goal as i have seen from this clare team , kicked 10 wides some of which incredibly poor epically in the second half , we dominated possession for most of the game but distribution was poor at the best of times , and any time a clare man was turned over galway punished us with a score

galway never had any really long spells of the game with possession , they didnt need to with the efficiency of heaney and comer , they kicked some excellent scores on the break paul conroy and kerian Malloy with the best scores of the game , malloy was man of the match for galway and drove them on all day as did his club mates dylan mchugh and liam silke , but this was a lesson in efficiency and one we really need to learn from

Clare scorers

Cillian Rouine 1-0,

Eoin Cleary 0-2 (0-1f),

David Tubridy 0-1 (0-1m),

Keelan Sexton 0-1 (0-1f),

Jamie Malone 0-1.

starting with the goalkeeper situation , going back to joe hayes we have had serious issues with kick outs , there was a championship game against kerry a few years back in killarney where we actually played well but we gifted them 2-01 from stupid short kick outs in the first ten minutes , we probably out scored them for the rest of the game but lost by that margin of 0-7 points

a game in armagh in the qualifiers where we were in control and were reduced to our 3rd keeper that day and lost it in the last 5 minutes from stray kick outs

the problem is everyone is happy enough with us picking up 5 or 6 points every year in division 2 and avoiding relegation , if the same issues happened next week in salthill in a dead rubber match brian lohan would be getting it from all angles before he reaches the team bus

collins has done excellent ,believe it or not hes a big nfl man and sets up accordingly , he hires in a coach to implement his game plan , some very impressive names like mick bohan and cian o neill in the last few years , he brings in a forwards coach and backs coach and oversees everything like a head coach in the nfl , the person to blame on the kick outs is diarmuid o'keeffe  , its his recommendations collins goes on in picking a keeper , its him that works on the kick outs and its no surprise that every keeper that has played for us has made mistakes , thats where the change should come

our fitness levels are fine , our defensive structure is fine , today manus doherty had a superb game on shane walsh top class , as was cian o'dea but we were toothless in attack and that has to change ,

if you can get to the car quick enough at full time get across devon park across presentation road and on to Eyre square in a 5 minute time line your laughing , otherwise your screwed ,

tuam is an excellent location straight off the motorway and loads of side roads to leave the town , plus its hardly 20 miles from the likes of athenry , if it was to be properly developed it would be a great spot , very unlikely though

A large amount of the working population in this county are working up and down the country , things have changed massively since 2008 here

Clare people are like the nordies or the likes of Donegal/mayo people you could meet them at any corner of the country at any time,

I have been at several games in thurles where some of the lads with us are even heading back to Heathrow after a game

I left the 2018 all Ireland semi final against Galway and barely made my night shift for 12 o clock that night times have changed

The train station in Ennis used to resemble something you would see in New Delhi on the morning if a Clare game 20 years ago but not now

Fair play to the cork ( brilliant supporters) and Limerick people for keeping up the old tradition of staying and having the craic for hours after no matter the result but times have changed

Clare 0-9 -0-10 Meath

Dour affair , same problems in front of goal as the galway game , poor shooting and too ponderes in attack , while cleary had a deaccent enough game tubridy and malone look like they have little confidence , backs played well again but worryingly Cillian Brennan and Manus Doherty both left the field injured , another goalkeeping error late in the game cost us again , stephen ryan had already nearly got caught in possession twice from leaving his goal and thinking he was niall morgan , lets just say he wasnt 3rd time lucky ,if thats the best goalkeeper in clare i give up.....

few positives were the introduction of connor jordan who kicked a fine score , keelan sextons lone efforts up front top class , pearse lillis cillian rouine and cian o, dea worked hard again

thankfully we don enough in the first 3 games to avoid the drop ,next year its four home games again , if Offaly stay up and Derry fail to go up to division 1 our away games will be against them 2 and meath , crucially the home games will be against the two up from division 3 and down from division 1

clare scorers

Eoin Cleary 0-3

Keelan sexton 0-3

David tubridy 0-1

Conor Jordan 0-1

Emmitt Mcmahon 0-1

its a results business , we dont have the attacking options available at the moment so it is what it is