Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

i think louth are uch better then any team that got promoted to division 2 in a few years bar derry , they played with way more intensity then the likes of offaly or down who got relegated last year ,so to come back from that position is a good sign for the rest of the league for us

i am a bit more optimistic myself , i think we have beaten limerick, kildare and cork at least 3 times each over the last 6 years and all 3 are home games , there was only one point between ourselves and meath in the last 3 meetings of the two sides ,the target is still 6 points really and with 3 of them 4 games at home i think we will do enough again

Problem is unlike the football at least two big guns will be gone from the championship by may , where's the top 8 in the country in football are guaranteed a place in the sam McGuire, teams can go for it that bit more in football

The gaa need to be a bit more clever in there fixture planning for championship and move forward the Munster championship until the first week in may at least , and run it off over 6 weeks

As it stands the league and Munster championship are the same length in competition time wise pat Spillane calls the new structures "speed dating " I agree it needs to be tweaked at the moment the league is just a warm up competition it seems

Meath 4-8 Clare 0-16

Another gutsy but error ridden performance by the footballers by all accounts , conceded a soft enough goal with the teams 1-2 to 0-2 then conceded a 3rd goal immediately after putting 9 points between the sides with 20 ,minutes on the clock , in fairness they out scored the home team 0-9 points to 0-3 before jason scully found the back of the net for the 4th time , again in the last 1/4 clare out scored meath 0-6 to 0-2 to leave the scorline respectable looking ,

but in truth colm collins has a huge problem on his hands with us conceding goals , 5 against derry last year 4 today and again david sexton pulling off two point blank saves , only positive from today is we kept it respectable looking on the scoreboard , big game in the park in two weeks time now against kildare

clare scorers

Emmett McMahon 0-5 (0-3f),

Gavin Cooney 0-3 (0-2f),

Mark McInerney 0-2 (0-2f),

Jamie Malone 0-1,

Dermot Coughlan 0-1,

Aaron Griffin 0-1,

Pearse Lillis 0-1, P

podge Collins 0-1,

Darragh Bohannon 0-1.

i think the best goalkeeper in the county available to us is starting at the moment , killian had lost his place to former minor inter county goal keeper mark lillis at cooraclare a few years ago , fair play to him getting back at inter county level , i think the biggest problem in the past was goalkeeper coach declan o keefe , he was insistent on us having a roaming keeper which turned out to be a disaster , joe hayes is now goalkeeper coach this year , in the louth game our kick outs had improved drastically on last year

i would stick with sexton he's young in fairness but looks better then any of the players on that list

Funny thing is out of all them players, downes is struggling the most when it comes to inter county, the other 5 have taken to the next level like ducks to water

He mainly plays in a central position either midfield, center forward or full forward at club level, and now as an inside forward for UL , Collins has him on the wing alot and he seems to be struggling with that position, I won't give up on him yet but it would be great to see him turn that sigurson form into intercounty especially like McMahon has done

its hard to know what to expect , the game in the munster championship is going to be huge , its only 8 or 9 weeks away how much do you want to give away , its a big night for the likes of conroy , arron fitz ian galvin and even peter duggan , duggan looks out of form , and as far as pecking order goes the other 4 will just about make the bench , galvin wont start ahead of the likes of meehan or o donnell or mccarthy come championship

big test for kirwan , looks a really good player but needs more games at this level , if he plays well tonight he will start the rest of the league in my opinion

Tonight proves that Limerick have a bench for the championship and we don't.

Not yet anyway, huge improvement needed by some of the fringe players over the next few weeks, a full strength forward line come championship looks strong, but if we get injuries in the half back line we are screwed

Wouldn't worry too much about the performance bad and all it was I would prefer to get spanked like that then put out our full strength side win and learn nothing

to start with limerick are a machine , they won an all ireland without cian lynch last year , look how affected we were without kelly fully fit in the wexford /kilkenny games , or even the effect on the tipperary team without Callanan last year . lynch is probably better then both and they didnt miss him

they now have boylan coming of age and mike Houlihan's young lad looking like a real prospect these boys are going no where

but like the cork game last year i wouldnt worry but as you say , it still highlights how much we need the marquee players , one or two injuries come summer and bye bye , i dont think McCarthy could cover kellys absence on his own he would need strong help from rodgers and meehan in the scoring stakes

the biggest worry for me last night was the half back line , and 2 of them 3 are starters come championship aaron fitz was always a fringe player .

i dont think lohan was overly keen on Kirwans performance against westmeath from what i hear , it was a big ask for paddy Donnellan to come in with no game in weeks it was also a slightly surprising selection

james ownes was the ref , always trigger happy , john keenan got a raw deal after the munster final last year much better referee in my opinion but according to the referees accessors lets too much go , Ownes is the croke park rule book on two legs

being honest i would go with meehan and rodgers up front , maybe maybe mccarthy full but dropping out the field , kelly 11 o'donnell and duggan on the wings that is as good as any forward line , but its back the field the problems lie

i would agree with fitz moving back if needed , he needs to be tried there again , playing Diarmuid ryan in all these games is proving nothing hes the only guaranteed starter in that line in my opinion

lohan cant afford to get his match ups wrong again like last year , that game against tipp is huge for us ,if we lose that we are under huge pressure in my opinion