Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

windy shepard henderson · 05-03-2023 1:47am

sorry peggy with all the football talk but at the moment the hurling league is about as exciting as a thursday morning forumala 1 practice session at the moment 😂

i imagine most people that will be doing their ten euro accas in the bookies in the morning will be including a division 2 combo of meath, louth and cork , if that bet was to come off we would be all be but relegated to division 3

we need a win against a good cork side , but how they set up is going to be the wining and losing of the game , to start with we have one of the best full back lines in the division so individual battles will be no problem between sherlock , hurley, og jones , and brennan, manus , and lanagin the back 3 for us were exceptional in croker last week

but cork have a predictable habit of attacking through two angles , one down the left hannd side of number 7 mattie ~~taylor~~, 12 brian O'Driscoll , or 13 stephen sherlock , the other attacking option of sean powter ian mcguire chris og jones / hurley is usally a central attack , both hurley and jones will cut from outside in to create havoc , if we stop these two threats we beat cork but only if the forwards strike

we played the worst full back line in the division against Kildare and offered them all the respect in the world , cork still have problems in this department too so the performance of Cooney , McMahon and Cleary in particular is key we need at least 16 points minimum to get over the line here even at that i dont think it will be enough , if we repeat the Croke park outing last week we have a chance but anything before that is not going to be good enough

keeponhurling · 05-03-2023 12:40pm

^ that does a disservice toThursday morning F1 practice sessions ! the hurling league is really dire

Nobody cares about winning it.

Nobody it seems can be relegated.

Most people don’t really understand the format, or even try to

It sort of just feels like a series of unrelated challenge matches

windy shepard henderson · 05-03-2023 6:53pm

Clare 1-8 3-10 Cork

To sumerise this game the score line could have been far far worse but for stephen ryan in goals and the clare full back line especially manus doherty and cillian brennan who were under constant pressure from start to finish , the performance of our half forward line especially jamie malone and dermot coughlin was deplorable , especially coughlin , marked by one of the best attacking wing backs in the country in mattie talyor he never even bothered to track his man back half the time and when he was on the ball he only ever went in one direction backwards with it ,

jamie malone the same , once our best line breaker and ball carrier another who has shown little interest in attacking over the course of the league , we need far far more from him in particular , out main attacking option in emmet mcmahon spent most of the game as a 3rd midfielder or sweeper to combat the other forwards mistakes and turnovers

sean powter caused havoc down the middle , taylor and ruari deane down the left and hurley and chris og jones in the full forward line were the difrence makers , cork in the second half kicked 2-7 and two wides to clares 0-4 and 7 wides , throw in a missed penalty a series of stephan ryan saves and an injured stephen sherlock and this could have been much worse

granted the scares of croke park were written all over or flat performance but the better team won easily , its looking like division 3 football next season for us , i feel sorry for colm he has been let down by another poor performance today by a number of players and for all he has done for clare football he deserves better

Clare scorers

Keelan sexton 1-01

Eoin Cleary 0-4

Emmet McMahon 0-2

Darragh Bohannan 0-1

Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGvgs6LmfzY&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPYuh29VCoE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNC1maw0mA

windy shepard henderson · 05-03-2023 7:47pm

unless the unlikely happens in owenbeg next week clare need limerick to beat kildare and us to beat limerick in the last game , it looks like a lot to ask for now at this stage

https://twitter.com/GAALeagueTables/status/1632406875886047236/photo/1

Treble double · 05-03-2023 8:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120266299#Comment_120266299

Unfortunately I have been proved right about the above but I underestimated how bad Meath are.

Cork have got there act together and are a good level above us.

I feel sorry for Collins after all he has done but he will sign off with Clare back in Div. 3. Today was like a throwback to Clare football in the pre Collinns era and we looked every inch a div. 3 team.

I can't for the life of me understand how Stephen Ryan was dropped for the first 2 games and the debacle in Meath is one of the main reasons why we are going down. The selectors have alot to answer for and allegiance to their own club men is what I put it down to, when that is at the heart of selection, you are wasting your time.

Collins is pound for pound one of the best managers in the country and is operating with a shallow pool of players, my one criticism of him is being too loyal to his selectors and not shaking them up every couple of years but then again it might not be easy to get men to do the job.

There has been some brilliant days in the last 7 years in Div 2 but today felt like the end of an era.

windy shepard henderson · 05-03-2023 8:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318061#Comment_120318061

as regards ryan ,its very easy see why he was dropped last year , but the last two games he has repaid collins before that he was a liability hopefully we dont see them days again

i agree with everything else you said , collins deserves better , you could see how disappointed he was after the game in the interviews , my only fear is we start losing players due to lack of commitment like the pre collins days , if collins dose go the next manager in needs the same level of support from the board

billy lee in limerick went looking for one or two extra things like a full time conditioning coach like we have in rob mulcahey and was told no by a county board backed financially by jp mcmanus , lee left as a result after years of hard work put in , we can never allow that to happen us again

if we stay true to the conditioning in division 3 it will stand to us as most teams at that level are way behind the top two tiers . our problem at this level in the last few weeks have been injuries , we need everyone available to us all the time , we had a very young and inexperienced bench today again , cathal o connor , darren O'Neill , are huge losses as is cillian rouine

KIB4Life · 05-03-2023 9:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318154#Comment_120318154

Cork destroyed us on breaking ball in the second half, which was a huge factor in them dominating and beat us so well in the second half.

I think we could have been as easily be towards the top of the table, had results gone our way but them are the breaks.

We are finishing games very poorly, which is something that maybe needs to be addressed not much impact coming off the bench. Downes and Griffin looked very good for UL but have not produced the same level of performance for Clare.

The likes of O’Connor, O’Neill and Podge are big losses especially given the effect it has on the impact coming off the bench. You would probably have Russell in wing back and Bohannon at Wing Forward if O’Connor and O’Neill were fit.

Boots234 · 05-03-2023 11:09pm

We need Kildare to lose to both Limerick and Meath and we need to beat Limerick for us to stay up. If Kildare beat Limerick we are down as they will have 4 points and have us in the head to head regardless if we beat Limerick (this is assuming we lose up in Derry first)

Treble double · 05-03-2023 11:31pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318427#Comment_120318427

Injuries are part and parcel of the game, every team will be down 3 or 4 players a game through injury, this kills us because we are picking from a small pool of players, our impact from the bench when we have a few injuries is non existent.

In saying that I still thought we were very poor today. The amount of ball taken off us in possession due to handling errors and mistakes was shocking, Manus Doherty and Pearse Lillis were big culprits. The only defender that could be happy with his work today was Cillian Brennan.

Our attack was really blunt, the two inside forwards offered no threat, and the four other lads kicked bad wides, offered no running threat and werent up to much when defending.

We are on two points because apart from a nothing to lose fling against Dublin, we have been average to poor in every other game.

windy shepard henderson · 06-03-2023 12:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318915#Comment_120318915

wouldnt be overly hard on manus , he was under pressure from the word go , the half forward line bar the tracking back from cleary was terrible the half back line was terrible in the second half second to everything , mcmahon and bohannon tried hard but under real pressure from better opposition

inside forward line was terrible , keelan kicked a nice point in the first half but the 7 or 8 in the second half killed us , 5 of them came when their were 3 points or less in the game , we have a lot ot learning to do ithink still against the better teams

windy shepard henderson · 06-03-2023 12:08am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318427#Comment_120318427

cork were actually very predictable in their game plan in the second half , but were very affective in how they attacked the game again we were too slow and ponderous,

yep if we had finished our games out we would have had a craic at promotion before today , we are not good enough though for division 1

windy shepard henderson · 06-03-2023 12:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120318830#Comment_120318830

huge ask now , it still is possible to stay up but 30% chance at this stage at best

Treble double · 06-03-2023 12:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319003#Comment_120319003

We should have all our learning done by now, we are 7 years in Div 2. In our first year in the Division 2 we played Derry, they were relegated that year and relegated again the following year. They spent a year in Div 4 and then gathered themselves and worked their way back up, all this time we were in Div 2 playing better opposition and "learning". Yet in their first year returned to Div 2 last year they wiped the floor with us in Ennis and repeated the dose in the championship. We just don't have and will never have enough of a pool of players as a football team in a hurling county to break in to the top division or have a significant championship breakthrough. Collins in his time has brought us to the limit of our ability and as sad as I am to say it he may as well be banging his head off a block wall at this stage.

windy shepard henderson · 06-03-2023 2:26am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319060#Comment_120319060

you cant compare us to derry , derry went form league finalists in division 1 to 4 because of pat fitz like management at county board level , while all that was going on the likes of slaughtneil were riping it up in both codes at club level , brian ogs from derry city won a club all ireland and the glen men of watty grahams from mahera won the all ireland intermediate championship on top of an all ireland senior club appearance where we all know what happened

Ethan Dorthey , Emmett Bradley , benny herron of the top of my head played iin that division 1 final , conor glass went professional in australia , befroe returning to the glenn and playing in two different grades in all ireland finals . and crissy mcckague of slaughtneail is probably one of the best hurlers in the country before his in credible football cv is introduced , he played in division 1 before the fall , as did the excellent brendan rodgers who won the game last night

if they had their house in order they would have had an all ireland won by now , and i am sure i left a few players out

Treble double · 06-03-2023 8:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319261#Comment_120319261

I'm not comparing us to Derry, I'm saying we can't learn anymore, we have been learning for 7 years and have reached our ceiling because we haven't got a big enough pool of players to push any further.

I would compare us to Limerick and Tipp hurling counties playing a bit of football. Limerick are at our level now, playing Div 2 and beat us in the championship last year. Tipp took their chance and won a Munster Championship a couple of years ago when Cork had shocked Kerry. Tipp beat us that year aswell even though we were operating at a higher level in the leauge. Our record in Munster under Collins has been poor.

windy shepard henderson · 07-03-2023 11:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319401#Comment_120319401

teams like us dont go to division 4 to regroup , as soon as the likes of us limerick wexford tipp hit division 4 the finances dry up , and the majority goes to the hurling team

this game from 2010 proves just that , good manager in michael mcdermot who guided kilmurry to an all ireland final about a month before this game , round 7 of the league, the winner got promoted to division 3 , we had brennan , tubridy , the late michael o'shea , enda coughlin , darren and shane hickey martin mcmahon david russell , and we lost by 9 points to waterford , thats a better team on paper then what lined out last week against cork , nearly as good as the team that beat roscommon last year in croke park

we were so under conditioned in this game its scary , no development squad to create a conveyor system of under age players ,no money for these things mean you are more then up against it and because of our low position in division 4 players like noel downes ,mark mccarthy and stephen maloney to name a few from that 2010 KIB team turned down the chance to play for their county

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5abnuQeZgY

fire_man · 08-03-2023 11:36pm

I'm not sure if some of those players you mentioned would have made big difference to county side.

windy shepard henderson · 09-03-2023 2:39pm

We don't have better then Brennan or turbidy at the moment,the likes of cookie, Maloney and downes were better that time then anything we have now bar maybe keelan or cleary ,

Enda coughlin was outstanding back then too especially in the run up to the all Ireland final Gordon Kelly also played that day

That video shows a massive drop in standard especially straight and condition from where we are at now,

fire_man · 09-03-2023 5:37pm

Ya it was hard to watch that video.Miles off.

KIB4Life · 09-03-2023 9:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120334966#Comment_120334966

Ah yeah it would probably hard blame some of the Kilmurry players at the time from not playing with the county, when you think back they were playing a very high level of club football, running in Croke Park in front of close to 40,000 to then going to probably playing for Clare at the time you would only get a couple of hundred playing for Clare. At that time around the Mid-Late 2000', early 2010's you get probably more attendance at most club games in the county then county games.

In fairness if some of the players that you mentioned were around when Collins came in with the structure that he has brought and professionalism to the county earlier around 2010, he would have definitely brought them at closer to getting promoted to Division 1, as there were some brilliant footballers. Like people rightly give Collins massive praise for what he done for Clare football, but in his first few years when he was in Division 4, 3 he had some top level players to work with.

The likes of Joe Hayes, Kevin Hartnett, Gordon Kelly, Martin McMahon, Enda Coughlan, Dean Ryan, Shane Hickey, Gary Brennan, Cathal O'Connor, Ciarán Russell, Podge and Seán Collins and David Tubridy were all outstanding players and I remember I think it might have been Collins first year in charge gave Kerry an awful scare in Cusack Park. Add in the likes of Shane McGrath and Pat Burke from Dublin playing with us, then the likes of talented young players at the time who were coming through, who have given great service since in the likes of Eoin Cleary, Jamie Malone, Keelan Sexton, Pearse Lillis, Cian O'Dea and Cillian Brennan, so it's not like Collins has been working with donkeys, during his spell with Clare.

Yeah I actually watched back highlights of KIB's semi final win over Portlaoise in the Gaelic Grounds in 2010, over the Christmas, biased aside I actually forgot how come that team was you had Michael O'Dwyer and Noel Downes were briliant in the inside forward line. Michael Hogan, the most underrated footballer in the county over the last 20 years or so along with Pato come kick monster frees and Steven Moloney who was the playmaker in that team, actually think he got 1-02 in the All Ireland Final. Then you had Peter O'Dwyer who in my opinion was as good a Midfielder as Gary Brennan, or anyone who has ever played for the county, imagine him in his prime playing under Collins, with Brennan or O'Connor beside as some sort of midfield three, they would have dominated most teams.

Cookie and Odhran O'Dwyer were subs that day for Kilmurry which is crazy to think of. But in fairness it is not just KIB players say if some players were around when Clare football was better managed they could have had more success or played at a higher level, Padraig Gallagher and Conor Whelan were outstanding players, Liscannor had some great players in Brian Considine, Niall Considine, Ronan Slattery and Alan Clohessy, then Kilkee had brilliant players at that time when KiB were competing well in Munster. They had the Russell's, Michael O'Shea, Darragh Kelly among others. The club game around late 2000's early 2010's was much stronger then it is now, you also had a very strong Cratloe team coming through around that time. So really in short when Clare were in Division 4, then had a lot of Division 1, 2 Level footballers it is just the structures were not in place and it was not very glamorous for these players to play in Division 4 or to give the committment to the county.

keeponhurling · 09-03-2023 11:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120319028#Comment_120319028

At best.

Surely it’s less than 30% if we need Limerick to beat Kildare, and us to beat Limerick.

We’ll see, maybe Derry will take their foot off the gas or something

square ball · 10-03-2023 12:42am

Footballers and talent were always in the county. Commitment and professionalism while playing for Clare hasn't been.

That's what Colm Collins brought. He got lads to buy in and take it seriously.

The way the game is gone now you need a year on the panel training to get physically strong and fit enough to play for your county.

I have countless examples of players coming and going from the football panel over the years and not taking it seriously so a lot of credit is deservedly given to Colm for getting lads to buy in and raising our standards. The attitude to Clare football is completely different since he took over.

windy shepard henderson · 11-03-2023 5:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338508#Comment_120338508

agree and we need to keep it that way , i have always believed we have enough footballers in the county to be competitive without getting in the hurlers way , as you say attitudes have changed towards clare football , the development work is a huge plus it was all but non existent before 2014

if we do get relegated the attitude of we are better off in division 3 or 4 cant suffice , everything must be put into getting back to division 2 as quickly as possible , players in this county have proven it in the past that they have no interest in playing division 4 football , and i doubt the Tailteann cup will get too many excited either , great scenes in westmeath last year when they won it it was the first taste of success the county had in nearly 20 years , i highly doubt you would see anything like that here

windy shepard henderson · 11-03-2023 5:46pm

https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1634298394326736906/photo/1

strong panel lined out for tomorrow , a game you would like to see us win , we dont face galway in the munster so no shadow boxing plus it puts us into the semi final if we win , the more competitive the games we get from here out the better especially with 23rd of April just around the corner

windy shepard henderson · 11-03-2023 5:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346124#Comment_120346124

sorry edit , we would have to beat cork the last day to guarantee a semi final spot

windy shepard henderson · 12-03-2023 10:44pm

Galway 1-24 Clare 0-22

dissapointed by alot of things i saw int he second half today but given the week thats in it and the man in charge , it looks like we are the horse thats held up in the race in the hope of a big run later on in the year

personally i would love if we lost this tag at this stage and go all out and win today get as many competitive games as possible before the munster final

expect another experimental team against cork in a dead rubber next week it turns out all our games in this fisaco of a league have been dead rubbers

i like galway , i like what sheflin is doing with this team , they are so solid at the back , guys like grealish , dathi burke , pauric manion , cooney and mcinerney have the makings of the best back line in the country , up front the others need to give nilland and whelan a dig out more , today conor cooney was the difference in that department ,

but at least galway are trying out their front men , we wont see meehan, or o'donnell until championship which is a huge gamble , rodgers wont feature next week either against cork and i imagine kelly will be rested too

on the game its self we looked like world beaters in the first 15 minutes , then galway started to throw themselves about , they dominated the last 40 minutes of the game , destroyed our half forward line and dominated most of the rucks and 50/50s

the bright sparks today would be david fitz at 11 and reidy in the free roll , adam hogan and despite the conor whelan goal , conor cleary had a really good game

clare scorers

Aidan McCarthy 0-7

David Fitzgerald 0-4,

David Reidy 0-3,

Ian Galvin 0-2,

Ryan Taylor 0-1,

Cathal Malone 0-1,

Peter Duggan 0-1,

Cian Galvin 0-1,

Robin Mounsey 0-1,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceFjktqUqC0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jECawR120RI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XJPSNHqHM0

PeggyShippen · 13-03-2023 11:01am

Conor Cleary was excellent throughout. Kept it simple and a few others could take a leaf out of his book. Adam Hogan over played the ball a few times but I see him starting come championship. The half backs were as porous as a sieve. All ball players and all holding onto the ball too long ..especially Ryan and Conlon. They let ball after ball in over the top of them and were beaten in the turn on a footrace. I think Lohan did 'throw' this one. Tony Kelly was walking around like he was told to take it handy. You couldn't judge much from this game except the teamwork and passing is still an after thought for many ,even our best players take on shots when there's men in better positions.

evolvingtipperary101 · 13-03-2023 12:21pm

It's a risky, old school game Lohan is playing. Flicking the switch for championship. But it's all or nothing for him now, he's four years in and his Clare team simply has to topple Limerick and win something now. A Munster Championship win will buy him another two years anyway to try and get the all-ireland. The worry for him is LImerick were vulnerable to upset last year and don't look vulnerable at all this year. Limerick are just getting stronger and stronger.

supernova5 · 13-03-2023 6:15pm

During Lohan's interview there he was asked on a certain players injury and he responded " he broke a bone in his wrist" What player is he referring to?

evolvingtipperary101 · 13-03-2023 6:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354480#Comment_120354480

Rory Hayes

Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

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