The Official Clare v Tipperary SHC Thread

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there is but there should probably be a few more, Markham is only starting due to Conor Cooney hurling his ankle in a club match a couple of weeks ago…The likes of John Conlon(20), Caimin Morey(20) and Gary O’Connell(22) all should have gotten a bit more game time during the league and arren’t too far off the starting team

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[quote=“The Puke”]Brennan 26
Vaughan 27
James Mac 22
GOG 26
Markham 32
Bugler 23
Donnellan 23
BOC 25
Griffin 28
Carmody 28
Diarmuid 28
Ryan 21
Gilli 33
Barrett 23
Clancy 23[/QUOTE]

If you took Markham, Griff, Carmody, Diarmuid, and Gilly as the lads on the way out, who would you see slotting in there puke?

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For next year?

Brennan
Vaughan-Cooney-GOG
James Mac-Bugler-Donnellan
Nickey O’Connell-BOC
Conlon-Dave Barrett-Clancy
Ryan-Honan-Browne

Think Browne could make a great wristy corner forward, the likes of Morey, Gary O’Connell, Domhniall O’Donovan, Danny Russell(if he had teh interest) and Sean Collins are all decent prospects for next year as well…

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[quote=“The Puke”]For next year?

Brennan
Vaughan-Cooney-GOG
James Mac-Bugler-Donnellan
Nickey O’Connell-BOC
Conlon-Dave Barrett-Clancy
Ryan-Honan-Browne

Think Browne could make a great wristy corner forward, the likes of Morey, Gary O’Connell, Domhniall O’Donovan, Danny Russell(if he had teh interest) and Sean Collins are all decent prospects for next year as well…[/QUOTE]

There’s definitely talent there anyway. You’d need a few more of the current team to really prove themselves first though. It’s all about the men who’ll take command of the team. BOC did all you could ask of him last year but you’d need Bugler, Donnellan, and Clancy to step up to that level as well. Without 5 or 6 of those lads you’re going nowhere.

One of the quotes from Mike Mac that stuck with me last year was “The first thing I had to do I suppose was to organise the leadership,” he said. “You see, there were leaders in that team who hadn’t come to the fore. Some of them are there quite a while, some of them are only coming on-stream now. So, you’re talking about leadership, fellas taking the gamble, fellas who want to win. These players could have gone through their whole lives without winning a match the way things were”. He was dead right in fairness. Whether he knows how to produce them or not is another story. One way or another though I can’t imagine he’s sending a team out to lie down to Tipp on Sunday, regardless of what else we’ve seen this year.

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What class of a team would you pick yourself?

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Well if you’re looking just one year down the line I wouldn’t stray an awful long way from that. But to be honest puke what I’d really like to see is someone sit down and have a good long think about what they want Clare hurling to look like, the same way as Ger and the two boys did in sept 94. Like the way we had this situation where we pick six centre-fowards, lads like Fergal Lynch or Declan O’Rourke playing in the corners, when nobody ever planned on us being set out that way. That shouldn’t happen. Who the fuck has ever won anything like that? Serious focus and a mandate of two or three years to build an All-Ireland winning team is what’s needed.

In terms of the team, I don’t know if Vaughan is a long term option for corner back, I’d be very quick to put DoD in because he’s serious guts and heart and he’s a great leader (it appears) for a young lad. The Clonlara lads always drive forward with every ball as well which is something you have to have. BOC needs a good partner as well because the first thing you think of about BOC is the ground he covers or his strength but not his hurling. Nicky O’Connell for now if you can spare him from the half-backline. The best hurlers we have need to get the 5,6, and 7 shirts. Daly and Doyle were probably underrated by a lot of people but as pure hurlers they had the best skill levels on that team. And serious hurling brains to go with it. Centre-backs tend to emerge but wing-backs can be hand-picked.

I don’t think I know enough about forward play to suggest any layout or pattern of play but anyway, maybe because I always prefer backs myself, I think you can win a championship with an average set of forwards but you cant win one with an average set of backs. Or as a wiser man once said “Offence wins games, but defence wins championships”.

67

Another lad I forgot to mention who has impressed me any time I have sen him is Eoin Hayes of Newmarket, only 19-20 and a lovely dynamic hurler

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How are the Clare Under-21s and Minors doing again this year?

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Both shaping up alright…The minors take on Waterford next week in Ennis for a place in the Munster final, we beat them in Waterford so hopefully we can beat them again, tis a while since we were in a minor final

The 21’s are going well, they have a strong enough panel this year and will have their eyes firmly set on winning munster after last year, they take on limerick in the semi’s…The starting team should be strong and fairly well balanced, my only concern for them would be that they might have too much emphasis placed on getting back at Tipp and take Limerick lightly

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[quote=“myboyblue”]

Clare XV v Tipperary in the Munster SHC semi-final at Semple Stadium, Sunday, 4.00pm:

P Brennan; P Vaughan, J McInerney, G O’Grady; P Donnellan, B Bugler, A Markham; B O’Connell, T Griffin; T Carmody, D McMahon, C Ryan; N Gilligan, D Barrett, J Clancy.[/QUOTE]

Mmmmmmmmmmhahahahahaha.

Snigger.

Fnarr Fnarr.

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Curran wary of Banner test

By Diarmuid OFlynn

Friday, June 19, 2009

BEING set up again, the patsies, the potential fall guys thats how Paul Curran feels as Tipperary prepare to meet Clare in the Munster SHC semi-final in Limerick on Sunday.

Three weeks ago it was Cork, in the first round. Tipp had just lost a humdinger of a National League final to Kilkenny, after extra-time. The Premier were everybodys favourites but in the end, Tipperary only barely held off a spirited Cork challenge.

“Everything was set up lovely for Cork,” says Curran.

“We were under pressure because of the league final against Kilkenny, Cork were coming in after the trouble, nothing to lose I was really wary, knew there was going to be a kick in them. The bulk of that team has been together for years, they didnt need a league campaign to get things together. They have quality players. With all that was said about them they were going to come out fighting you dont win two All-Irelands without having class. People got carried away after the league final but we were expecting that from Cork.”

Ironically, while he knew pretty much what to expect from Cork as a team, as a full-back Curran was in the unhappy position of not having a clue what to expect from his direct opponent that day. Aisake O hAilpn had spent the previous four seasons in Australia playing Aussie Rules alongside his older brother Setanta and was a newcomer to the Cork panel.

“There was so much unknown about him, and I think I got caught out myself. With the height of him, I was expecting a lot of high balls, I wasnt expecting him to play as he did, running left and right. I got caught a bit by surprise, I had readied myself for the aerial bombardment but it never came. Hes very strong, especially in the upper body. What I found difficult was his ability to push you back, which comes from Aussie Rules, hold you off, lever off you while youre knocked back I never came across that before.”

Funny thing is, long before he burst on the inter-county scene, Curran knew Setanta well, and had come up against him many times in training they were on the same side. “I played college with him with Waterford IT, we won a Fitzgibbon Cup in my last year, when I was captain. Setanta was very tall as well, but he was lanky. Aisake was bigger. He doesnt look it, especially not with the long legs, but the upper body was hard, very strong. Hell be a real threat in a month or so, when he has more hurling.”

Its Clare this Sunday, and at full-forward is David Barrett, another newcomer to Munster senior championship hurling. Again, Tipp are hotly fancied, but again, reckons Curran, everything is set up for a big performance from Clare.

“They had a poor league campaign, people are writing them off, but we always find it difficult against Clare. They beat us handy in the Waterford Crystal back in January, and I know that was a long time ago, but it happened. Theyre a lot better team than their league results suggest, they have big, quality forwards not many counties have their kind of physical presence. People are writing them off, but they havent disappeared. Its a derby every match in Munster is. Its full-blooded and whoever is most up for it will be the team to come out on top look at Limerick and Waterford last Sunday, where Limerick were being written off. They went into that game nice and quietly, no expectation, they were the ones with all the negatives, so the pressure was on Waterford.”

Apart from all that, Paul Curran has good reason to be especially wary of Clare he has history. “It was 2003, we had played well in another fantastic league final against Kilkenny (a classic, 5-14 to 5-13 win for the Cats), we were favourites to do well in Munster, then Clare came out and hammered us in the championship I wont forget that one in a hurry, it was my championship debut.”

And what of the Gaelic Grounds so close to Clare, will that favour the Bannermen? Not necessarily, reckons the Clonmel-based national schoolteacher: “Thats no problem, its a fine venue, fine pitch. When we play in Thurles the opposition nearly prefer to come there Limerick is no advantage either way. Its on the Clare border but its close to north Tipp as well, a great hurling area well have a lot of support from there.”

Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/sport/gaa/hurling/curran-wary-of-banner-test-94429.html#ixzz0IsDsWyAq&C

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Interview with Brian Lohan ahead of tomorrow’s clash:

A battle to win hearts and minds

MUNSTER SHC CLARE v TIPPERARY: Hurling is taking a back seat to rugby with young sportsmen in Clare. Brian Lohan tells IAN O’RIORDAN it is a challenge that must be answered

NOT SINCE the 1993 Munster final when Nicky English famously high-fived Pat Fox has the heart of Clare hurling sank so low. Relegation from Division One of the National League was so traumatic that manager Mike McNamara seemed in denial for several days afterwards, and he surely wasn’t the only one.

In the meantime Colin Lynch laid down his hurl and walked off into the sunset to join that exclusive retirement club of Brian and Frank Lohan, Senie McMahon, James O’Connor, Ollie Baker and indeed, Anthony Daly and Davy Fitzgerald. So Niall Gilligan is the only remaining thread to their last All-Ireland success in 1997 and suddenly it’s as if the Clare hurlers aren’t giants anymore, but mere men.

They’re given little chance against Tipperary tomorrow – not that they’ve no chance – although those closest to hurling in Clare have other issues on their mind, the holes that still exist in underage structures, the delay in upgrading and expanding facilities, and the increasingly real and damaging threat that rugby now presents to some of the foundations of Clare hurling.

While 10 years ago few youngsters in places like Ennis, Shannon and Newmarket-on-Fergus could be found without a hurl in their hand, these days many such youngsters have a rugby ball in their hand. The success of Munster rugby and also clubs such as Shannon has opened a whole other world of sporting opportunity, and the attractions of it are obvious; fame, fortune, even the chance to tour South Africa with the British and Irish Lions.

Clare aren’t alone in facing this competition from the oval ball, but unlike, say, Dublin, Cork and Limerick, they don’t have the population to cope. If Clare are to revisit the heights of 1995 and 1997 then they can’t afford to be losing their best young sporting talent to rugby, at least not in the numbers they’re currently experiencing. Hurling has to strike back, particularly in these urban areas.

Because the talent is still there, says Brian Lohan – and he knows what he’s talking about. Since retiring in 2006, Lohan had been keen to put something back into the county, and after playing on for a couple more years with his club Wolfe Tones in Shannon, got his chance late last year when the Clare minor management team of Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor invited him on board.

“It’s more to give them a hand out”, says Lohan, “to add a different voice, some different ideas, to the set-up. There are good quality guys there, serious guys, and ambitious. They want to improve, want you to identify their weaknesses, or how you can improve their left side or right side or whatever it is. But when you have good guys like that you have to look after them, get the best advice to them, and if you do look after players you will get the rewards.

“But you can’t expect to get the rewards before looking after the players. If players see themselves well looked after they will respond. But that’s an area Clare does fall down on. That includes everything from gear to facilities. One of our biggest problems this year was actually to get pitches. You’d think that should be the least of your worries.”

Still, Lohan’s role with the Clare minors got off to a impressive start last month when they ambushed a fancied Waterford team in the first round of the Munster championship – only for Waterford to come back through the losers round to re-draw Clare.

So they meet again next Wednesday. But what Lohan is more concerned about is the impact rugby is having on Clare’s urban hurling scene. While more rural clubs such as Tulla, Clonlara, Crusheen and Ballyhea are actually strengthening their base, areas where hurling should naturally be strong are finding it more difficult to sustain their tradition.

“We’re not getting the return out of the urban centres,” says Lohan. “The likes of ire g, in Ennis, which has a population of over 30,000. Shannon as well. You’ll always get the return from the traditional strongholds of, say, Sixmilebridge, Clarecastle. But the urban centres aren’t contributing the way they should be, or the way we need them to be, in order for us to compete with the bigger hurling counties.

“The big competition is rugby, in particular, and also soccer. The GAA is finding it very hard to compete with those two brands. In my own club, Wolfe Tones, we’ve certainly lost some top-class hurlers, and footballers, to rugby. Some of them were drafted into the academies in Limerick, where huge numbers are coming in, but with a very small return out of it.

“From what I see, because the rewards are so big, they’re committing themselves full on to try and get it, but you could have 80 young fellas competing for one spot. And they’re taking them from north Tipp and Limerick and some from Cork and Kerry thrown in there as well. All of them looking for maybe one spot on the Munster senior team. And if they have made their mind up to commit to rugby the GAA will take a back seat, because it has to.”

The consequences are twofold; if a youngster opts for rugby that will nearly always be his sole commitment; but if it doesn’t work out in rugby it will be too late to return to hurling.

“The club academy or the Munster academy or whatever it is sounds great, and you think this guy is going to make it, but they’re in there for four or five years and they’re not making any inroads on to the team. The only person I see coming through recently is Keith Earls, although I don’t follow the game of rugby that much. But by all accounts he’s an exceptional talent. But how many hurlers and footballers have we lost in them chasing that dream? To be the next Earls?

“I think it’s something that county boards and even the Munster Council need to wake up to. And need to act on. There are a lot of paid officials now in the GAA, and they need to look at ways of making our games more attractive for young fellas coming up, and to stay with it.”

Like any sport, hurling will only become more attractive with the promise of success, something which Clare hasn’t exactly had to offer since 1997. So even if the chances of making it in rugby are much slimmer, it’s still the chance youngsters are more likely to take.

“But, look, we’re not too despondent about it either,” says Lohan. “We’re not that far away. Inside of Clare we always see ourselves as contenders on the national stage, and we still have a good mentality when it comes to taking on the bigger teams. And our number one sport is still hurling. That’s the game that should be appealing to young fellas.”

What is reassuring is to see the likes of Lohan putting his experience back into the county. Like Ollie Baker with the current senior team, or Fergie Touhy last year. Or David Forde, who earlier this year coached St Caimin’s to their first Dr Harty Cup final. Or James O’Connor, who is consistently involved with St Flannan’s. Like Senie McMahon who was involved with last year’s minors, or the underage work Colin Lynch is doing with Kilmaley. But there is still the feeling the Clare success of 1995 and 1997 happened more by accident than design, that Ger Loughnane happened to bring together a freakishly talented group of players that succeeded despite any real hurling structure, rather than because of it – that it certainly wasn’t part of any long-term plan.

“One of the failings at the moment is that we still don’t have a plan like that,” admits Lohan. “Or if we do I don’t know about it. We’re depended too much on the Trojan work of individuals at certain levels, be it under-16 level or minor level. We need to move away from this reliance on individuals doing all the work.

“You see then what the likes of Kilkenny have coming through every year. It’s a lot more haphazard for us. Like going nine years winning only one Munster minor championship game. That isn’t good enough. That’s a generation in hurling terms, and certainly you have to say that we can do better.”

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What a fucking man:clap:

74

4/1? Get away outta that to fuck! Tipp are walking head first into an ambush today. Clare by five.

75

Trevor fucking Welsh.

Cunt.

76

All over after 7 minutes. Quicker than even I expected…

77

Nah, that was about right for me.

Anyone else getting bad pictures from TV3? Nothing wrong with the TV or aerial reception, just very fuzzy from distance shots.

78

For me it seems like they have brightness turned up way too high.

79

Yea, thats it exactly. I have turned down my own brightness and its a little better.

Might be better off not being able to see this.

80

Game over. 3-14 is great scoring after 45 minutes.