Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

Clare 0-15 0-12 Aintrim

A much more comfortable victory then the scoreline suggests, antrim a dogged side and one that played too close to the edge at times , were lucky to finish with 14 men on the field , and surprise surprise andy mcintee the antrim manager throwing he weight around on the sideline all day , even made his way over to the clare technical area to have a go at mark fitzgerld when colm mclarnon was sent off for a knee into gavin murrays mid section , he protested to the 4th official that he was jumping for the ball , a ball that had yet to be placed on stephen ryans kicking tee down the other end of the field .....

in the first half antrim were dreadful and the scoreline could have been bigger then the 0-9 0-3 lead built up at half time , clare without emmet mcmahon were ponderous in attack but did expand the lead to 11-03 before the visitors mounted a late comeback , to be fair it was a flattering comeback as 5 of aintrims 9 second half points were scored in the last 5 minutes and the 4 minutes of injury time , when ruairi mcCann kicked aintrims last score in the 75th minute it preceded the last kick of the game

a few worries for mark fitz to worry about ahead of the down game next week , emmett mcmahon was sidelined with an injury , daragh bohannon that was expected to make the bench wasn't in the match day panel , ronan lanigan and cormac murray picked up injuries , not to mention being out scored late on 0-9 points to 0-4 in the last 30 minutes of the game ,

hopefully both will be back along with mcmahon who will be badly needed in newry next week if we are to have any chance of going up

Clare scorers

Mark McInerney 0-4, 3f

Ciaran Downes 0-3, 3f

Aaron Griffin 0-3

Cormac. Murray 0-2,

Dermot Coughlan 0-1

Joe McGann 0-1

Gavin Murray 0-1

hold on now a second , your barred from this thread until 6 o'clock next sunday evening , the last time you were hanging around here ye beat us out the gate , not only that but ye didn't win another meaningful game for the rest of the year

every single game plan we had was curbed , even our goalkeepers one flaw of defending sideline balls from 45 yards away ye were on top off.....

i was only walking the dog in ogonnelloe hai ,he said !!

you will find nothing in murty brownes only horseracing talk and football , tis just a poor mans ballyclerihan, also i live up the road so stay out!!

a hay barn beside the shanbeen in doora is where the dubliners slept after a gig their back in the mid 60s so theres nothing there of any interest , that's the venues only claim to fame , we dont want to be boring you with them places , the dog loves slieve barnagh anyway by the sound of his bark.....

your starting to sound now like 'Barry' from eastenders in them paddy power ads , as peter crouch would say , we have been too busy trying to win a real competition lads 😂

it was probably a tough spring last year , but he was the best goalkeeper in the club championship , he has 20 yards in his range ahead of every goalkeeper in the county

but quillagin is by far the best allrounder and shot stopper , there's no fear of him dont worry 😎

yup..... is the only answer lohan is likely to give hopfully not , and cleary on the bench also

haha what a time to be alive jasper 😂 , yeah both games are really 50/50 with limerick out of the hurling now it would be no harm and drive on ant try and win it out , that extra game would be worth anything ahead of the first round of the munster

to have 5 players to come back in the likes of tony, shane o donnell , ryan taylor , david mc and cathal malone to a championship side ,and still have a huge chance of winning a league without them is remarkable

footballers have a great chance , i questioned downs mentality to see the job out at the start of the league , they have a fine squad of players but do look to be lacking confidence especially in close games , its something down manager conor laverty has mentioned sometimes causing controversy in the past , especially when comparing his club killkoo's attitude in the club championship to the county side ,

it was evident in the draw last week in mullingar as it was in the tailteann cup final last year against meath , on paper i think down actually have a better team then both but didnt play up to that potential in both games ,

to be fair we only lost one game , that to the best team in the division , we will have the likes of keelan sexton and eoin cleary back next year , we went into today with a team carrying injuries , to be fair its been a good league i hope we maintain our sam mcguire status , we wont learn anything playing division 3 and 4 teams all it seemed to do was drag us down to their level

it cost them yesterday too in the under 20s , they need to be encouraged to take teams on down the middle , we done it loads of times against the weaker teams in the division this year , thats why i want us to hold on to our sam McGuire status by wining the munster semi final them games will stand to us massively next year ,

this is the first game since covid i have had to watch on tv , it doesn't do anything for the nerves , i feel we have gone flat in the last ten minutes of the first half , conor leen having a great game the jersey is his come championship at the moment , 10 different scorers int he first half but that wind looks strong

he seemed like a lad that didn't want to come off ,at the time i taught it was a blood injury and was expecting him to go back on , i am not sure

hopefully bohannon will be back for the tipp game , he was a huge loss today , it was a big ask for a young lad like brian mc to hold the fort as main target in midfield today

i actually blame club coaching for the lack of kicking , some of the teams in the senior championship last year had a phobia in kicking the football

most probably , only thing i would say is the crowd wouldn't be massive so parking near the ground and traffic should be fine