Clare GAA Discussion part 2 , No Purple Jumpers Allowed !!

Cork 1-24 Clare 0-24

Really good game for the middle of january , cork probably with a little more work to do going into the league then we do , they had much a stronger side out but were a bit sloppy at times and especially in the second half wastfull in front of goal scoring only 0-8 compared to 1-16 in the first

finally the penny has dropped for lohan that we need to approach these type of games with younger lads , fringe players and players from the development squads , we need to take the same approach to the wexford , waterford and cork games in the league with the same selection policy

a few key starters from last summer and a heavy indulgence of players on the fringes of the panel , and with that selection process set ourselves out to try and win the league , players like mounsey today , meehan last week , keith smyth on both games have been excellent , guys like paddy donnellon and jack kerwin need far more competitive game time as do the younger lads like keelan hartigan and john coneeley from clooney quin we have really good lads coming through , not all have the same level headed approach like hogan and rodgers that can seamlessly take to intercounty hurling like they did last year

in the game its self , int he first half shane kingston and conor lehane were top quality scoring some excellent scores , lehans goal early in the game turned out to be the difference in the end , aidan mccarthy was excellent on frees for us today i dont think he missed any maybe 1 from placed balls , its that type of ratio we need later on in the year he scored 13 in total 10 from placed balls but given the recurrence of his soft tissue injuries we need to be working either smyth or rodgers to be the replacement free taker come championship , personally i think smyth would be the better option but wouldn't be close to Rodgers in open play

it will be interesting to see whit type of team lohan goes for in 3 weeks time when the same teams meet again ,i imagine cork will be similar to today , if ben o connor is available i am sure he will start as will darragh fitzgibbon , but i think we should stick to the guns here and give the fringe of the 40 man panell the keys for the next 2 months in the league

clare scores

 Aidan McCarthy (0-13, 10 frees);

Robin Mounsey (0-4);

Cian Barron, (0-2)

Keith Smyth (0-2 );

Cathal Malone, (0-1)

Killian O’Connor, (0-1)

Colm O’Meara (0-1 ).

who is gone in instead , the only person i could think of would be bruisier , don't tell me they want fergie back

seems strange they wanted him gone , he's a sound bloke and seems to have done an excellent job with them up to now

you are 100% right ben cunninghan it is sorry , o connor played for munster only a couple of weeks ago

No easy games I imagine but I don't see us as relegation candidates, Limerick are missing 17 from what was an already disjointed team last year, it's going to be a struggle for Wicklow too especially with mark Jackson gone off to the NFL combine in America

The game Sunday is very winnable in my opinion, I don't think there will be a huge amount in it , the 4 games against Offaly, Limerick, Wicklow and Antrim are the games In which I think we will pick up points in Offaly away could be tough but it's hard to judge them at times they always have descent players in their side but can be very hit and miss

I think ourselves, Offaly and sligo will all fancy having an outside chance at promotion, the big question mark hangs over Down, they have enough of a pick and enough talent in their county to be a division 1 team and comfortable division 1

But they seem a disjointed county , there's a club divide up there too with kilkoo and a few other clubs, the debacle in the down county final shows it's still in existence

Westmeath will surely get promoted this year especially after putting in some excellent performances against Tyrone Armagh and Galway last year they will surely go up

Clare 0-9 Sligo 1-05

Sligo finished this game with 13 men but had a chance to level it 5 minutes into stoppage time , when sean carribine slipped when shooting from just outside the clare 45

sligo struggled to break clare down through out the game as clare brought 14 men back behind the ball and tried to set up counter attacks on the break , mark mcinerney missed a penalty half way through the second half along with a host of chances could have us out of sight with 5 or 10 minutes to go , the absence of the bulk of last years forwards and midfield was showing up all day and we struggled in front of goal

ha huge win none the less for the younger lads that have been drafted in , at the moment dermot coughlin , emmett mcmahon and aaron griffen are our main forwards we cant afford anything to happen them , we need to show a lot more composure in front off goal going forward

Clare Scorers

Emmett Mcmahon 0-5

Aaron Griffen 0-2

Mark Mcinerney 0-1

Dermot Coughlin 0-1

as you must know all about , ye have had far more changes , but in 2021 we played mayo in a playoff for division 1 the following week we lost to kerry in a munster semi final , only the goalkeeper today played in them games back in the day today , we seriously lacked any sort of attack ,

both counties have a different code to worry about but we still have a tradition to up hold

I don't think there would be much difference between us and Offaly, in fact they beat us up there the year we got promoted in 2016 and we had a much stronger team back then

That's why last week was crucial to get off the mark early , if we happen to lose a few games on the road we would still have that cushion before the Wicklow game at home