McGrath Cup Preliminary Round – Clare 1-20 LIT 1-2

Micko raise spirits as Banner plot for the ‘long road’ ahead

By Gerry Quinn for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Clare 1-20 Limerick IT 1-2

Same old, same old for the Peter Pan of Gaelic football management. Mick O’Dwyer (76) began another chapter of his amazing career on the sidelines watching his new Clare charges ease past Limerick IT in the opening round of the McGrath Cup at Miltown Malbay yesterday. O’Dwyer is no stranger to facile victories in these parts. Indeed the 9-21 to 1-9 victory of his former Kingdom charges over the Banner in 1979 is still referred to as ‘The Miltown Massacre’ with a shudder in these parts. Now 34 years on, O’Dwyer’s allegiance is on the other side of the Shannon and his enthusiasm remains as fierce as that day in the distant past.

“You can only play what’s in front of you,” remarked O’Dwyer soon after the final whistle, “but our fellows played good attractive football today. They combined well but there’s a lot of work to be done yet. “It was a poor Limerick IT side all right but as I said a minute ago, you play what’s in front of you and that all we could do.” He continued: “We are reasonably fit but we are a long way from championship yet. But we’re improving. There’s a long road ahead of us. Way out in June we are playing Cork in Ennis in the Munster championship but that’s a long way away. So we have a lot of work to do before then. That’s when we want to have our team in real shape, he said.

“We have Limerick next Sunday and that will be a better test of our team. Limerick have been a very good side for the last seven or eight years so we’ll be looking forward to next Sunday’s game.” Clare led 1-11 to 1-0 at the interval with Gary Brennan netting for the winners as they cruised to victory before 651 supporters.

Scorers for Clare: S McGrath (0-7) G Brennan (1-0), A Clohessy (0-4) 1 ‘45, I McInerney (0-3) 1 f, 1’45, P McMahon (0-2), E Coughlan (0-2),J Dowling, N Kelly (0-1) each.

LIT: T McCarthy (1-0), B Coleman (f), C Wallace (0-1) each.

CLARE: J Hayes, S Collins, C Dixon, E Coughlan, M McMahon, G Kelly, D Callinan, G Brennan, C O’Connor, S McGrath, J Dowling, A Clohessy, P McMahon, I McInerney, N Kelly.

Subs: C Duggan for P McMahon (half time), T Downes for Dowling (half time), I Whyte for Callinan (56), J Keane for O’Connor (62), G Quinlan for McInerney (67).

LIT: J Brouder (Limerick), S Considine (Limerick), S Malone (Clare), G Canty (Donegal), P Barrett (Kerry), S Durran (Kerry), G Murphy (Wexford), T McCarthy (Limerick), M Brennan (Kerry), S Ryan (Tipperary), T Griffin (Limerick), S Hayes (Clare), S Behan (Limerick), B Coleman (Sligo), C Callinan (Clare).

Subs: N Breen (Kerry) for Behan (24), C Wallace (Kerry) for Callinan (50), E O’Sullivan (Kerry) for Considine (54), S Ó Comáin (Mayo) for McCarthy (62).

Referee: C Lane (Cork)

Team News

The Clare team for Sunday’s opening McGrath cup clash with LIT will now not be named until just before throw in. The squad trained on Friday night and a number of players have been struck with flu over the past week with management hoping players will recover in time for Sunday’s McGrath Cup game.

The LIT team for Sunday’s match will be selected from the following panel –

Conor Talty Parnells Dublin

Ger Collins Monaleen Limerick

Shane Ryan Doonbeg Clare

Sean Hayes Lisseycasey Clare

Seanie Malone Miltown malbay Clare

Will Kennedy Newcastle Tipperary

Sean Ryan Colden/Kilfeakle Tipperary

Michael Jones Quinlan Shannon Rovers Tipperary

Michael Brennan Churchill Kerry

Shane Durran Austin Stacks Kerry

Stephen Commons Claremorris Mayo

Brian Coleman Enniscrone/Killyglass Sligo

Sean O’Connor Castlegregory Kerry

Thomas Smith Fr.Caseys Limerick

Ricky Nolan Spink Laois

Gary Carty Aodh Ruadh Donegal

Luke Conneally Gelnamaddy Galway

Gavin Murphy Cloughbawn Wexford

Tommy Griffin Gearld Griffins Limerick

Tommy McCarthy Mountcollins Limerick

Stephen Behan Fr.Caseys Limerick

James Brouder Mountcollins Limerick

Chris Dixon Kilrush Clare

Joey Rouine Ennistymon Clare

Contact Munster GAA PRO Ed Donnelly at pro.munster@gaa.ie for more information

For the Record

Fixtures and Results

Preliminary Round (Extra time)

Saturday January 5^th

@ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney       Kerry v IT Tralee                                                        @ 2:00pm

Sunday January 6^th

@ Miltown-Malbay                            Clare v LIT                                                                  @ 2:00pm
@ Cork IT                                           Cork v CIT                                                                  @ 2:00pm

Quarter-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 13^th

@ Limerick venue                             Limerick v Clare or LIT                                             @ 2:00pm

@ Kerry venue or TBC                     UCC v Kerry or IT Tralee                                          @ 2:00pm

@ Cork or Tipperary venue Tipperary v Cork or CIT                                            @ 2:00pm

@ Waterford venue                           Waterford v UL                                                          @ 2:00pm

Semi-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 20^th

Final (Extra time)

Sunday January 27^th

McGrath Cup Senior Football – Odds and Ends

Since 2000, Cork’s McGrath Cup success rate is 89% (best of any county) with 16 wins out of 18 in the competition.  In the same period, Kerry have won 11 of their 13 matches (a 85% success rate).

Despite a goal-less final, there was an average of 2.4 goals per match in the 2012 McGrath Cup competition (22 goals scored in total). This contrasts with 16 goals scored in the 2011 competition over 11 matches (an average of 1.4 goals per match).

The record of the Third Level Colleges in the McGrath Cup since entering in 2005 is Won 21, Lost 44 (32% success rate). None of the six colleges have a winning record in the competition during that period. UCC have the best record, winning 7 of their 15 matches (47% success rate). CIT have won 6 of their 14 matches (43% success rate) followed by UL who have won 5 of their 12 matches (42% success rate). Meanwhile IT Tralee, LIT and WIT have won 3 out of 24 matches between them.

Kerry have not lost a match in the McGrath Cup since the 2006 final where the Kingdom lost to Cork by 1-9 to 0-6 at Pairc Ui Rinn.

Limerick footballers have won 1 of their last 6 matches in the McGrath Cup. Waterford have won 1 of their last 5 matches.

Tipperary is the only team to have won at least 1 match in the last 3 years of the McGrath Cup with a 66% record during that period, Won 6 Lost 3.

Clare footballers have won 4 of their last 6 matches in the McGrath Cup over the last two seasons. During that span, Clare have scored 3 goals and conceded 3 goals.

McGrath Cup Senior Football Roll Of Honour

Clare (12) – 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008

Cork (6) – 1998, 1999, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Limerick (5) – 1985, 1987, 2001, 2004, 2005

Tipperary (3) – 1989, 1993, 2003

Kerry (3) – 1996, 2010, 2011

Waterford (1) – 1981

London (1) – 1988

Visit the Munster GAA web site History section to view the complete Roll of Honour since the competition began in 1981 – https://munster.gaa.ie/history/mcgrath-cup-football/

McGrath Cup

Presented by Joe McGrath on June 21st, 1981 for the promotion of Senior Football in Munster.