21/09/2023: That's the Senior Men's season complete and it's been some campaign, the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. Thanks again to the Senior players & management for your passion and commitment and here's to looking forward to the 2024 campaign. Also congrats to Fergal Ginnane for making the Quarter Final Senior Team of the Week.
Tap here to watch Kildysart v Miltown Quarter Final
19/09/2023: The quarter-final loss delivers up mixed emotions for everybody: absolutely gutted for the lads and management at the loss, but so much pride in the team, their performances, their tenacity, their season. There was whispering at the start of the campaign that we’d be happy/lucky just to keep our senior status. But the boys wanted more, knew they were capable of more, took the group stages by the scruff of the neck, and earned themselves a quarter-final spot. That they lost on the day is just part and parcel of sports. Speaking from the heart of all supporters - thanks to the team and management for the journey, the great days out, and daring to dream of greater things to come.
Tap link for highlights of the Quarter-final Kildysart v Miltown
15/09/2023: Discussion of Kildyart v Miltown Quarterfinal on Sideline View starts at 15 minutes, 30 seconds
Tap for Tickets to Cusack Park for Kildysart v Miltown. Tap to Purchase Livestream. It's also on Clare.FM
14/09/2023: Clare Champion Quarter Final Preview - Underdog Status and the O'Sullivan Factor - we like it !
This next bit is just for fun with a set of 1/4 zips on the line.
11/09/2023: The quarter-final draw took place this evening and the first order of business was to fill the 4th-seeded spot. This went to St Breckan’s. The quarter-final pairings were next and are as follows:
1) St Breckan’s v Lissycasey Sunday 17th Cusack Park 1pm (Niall Quinn)
2) Eire Og v Doora Barefield Saturday 16th Cusack Park 3pm (Barry Kelly)
3) Kildysart v Miltown Sunday 17th Cusack Park 3pm (Fergal O'Brien)
4) KIB v Cratloe Saturday 16th Cusack Park 1pm (John O'Connell)
Interesting Fact: of the 8 quarter-finalists, St. Breckan's is the only club not to have won a Senior Football Championship.
In honour of our first senior quarter-final in 34 years…..here is the match report from the last time we reached this position.…
1989 Quarter Final Between Kildysart and Doonbeg: The match at Labasheeda saw Doonbeg eventually run out 2-10 to 2-04 winners over Kildysart, but their final scoreline in no way tells of the fright Kildysart gave the “Magpies”.
Ahead by 2-03 to 0-2 at the interval, Kildysart’s goals came from Kieran McNamara and Jacko Cleary, and later a 39th-minute point from Jacko Cleary seemingly pushed Kildysart into a match-winning eight-point advantage.
But the never-say-die spirit of Doonbeg then surfaced and four Gerry Killeen points as Kildysart's defence began to concede silly frees revived the Magpies’ challenge. Then a Michael McInerney fisted goal further reduced the leeway.
The tie was then decided in highly controversial circumstances as Doonbeg secured a dubious penalty kick converted by Gerry Killeen.
After this the Kildysart challenge fell away and the relieved Magpies progressed to the last four in the race for the Jack Daly Cup. Kildysart knew they had cast aside a once-in-a-lifetime chance of capturing a prized scalp.
The above extract is from Seamus O’Reilly’s book, Clare GAA, The Club Scene 1987-2010, kindly provided by Seamus McQuaid.
Here’s hoping we can make some more history this weekend !!!
07/09/2023: Round 3 Round Up
Kildysart's decisive win over Lissycasey in round 3 has them well-placed heading into their first Senior quarter-final since 1989. Outstanding performances from Emmet McMahon and Fergal Ginnane earn them a spot on the Senior Championship Team of the Week, marking Emmet's second such accolade and bringing Kildysart's total to 5 different players over the group stages. The final quarter-final spot will be decided in Cusack Park on Sunday (10th Sept) as Lissycasey takes on Doonbeg with throw-in at 1pm. The quarter-final pairings will be known after the draw on Monday 11th September with the matches to be played over the following weekend (16/17th Sept). The first relegation match will be played that weekend as well, with Clondegad awaiting the winner of Ennistymon v Corofin. Exciting times for Kildysart.
Tap to watch the Kildysart v Lissycasey match.
Clare Champion Match Report
03/09/2033: Quarter Finals
The group stage of the 2023 Senior Football Championship is now over and the quarter-finalists are, from Group 1: KIB, St. Breckan's, and Doora Barefield, from Group 2: Eire Óg and Miltown, and from Group 3: Kildysart and Cratloe. The Lissycasey and Doonbeg playoff is this Sunday (10th Sept) at 1pm in Cusack Park. Kildysart and the other teams that topped their groups will be seeded for the quarter-finals and the last seeded spot will be selected by an open draw. Ennistymon and Corofin are in the first relegation playoff on the weekend of 16/17th September where the winner secures their senior status and the losing side plays Clondegad in the second relegation playoff. The loser of that match drops down to the Intermediate championship for 2024. The quarter-final draw will take place on Monday 11th September, with no repeat pairings. The quarter-finals will take place over the weekend of 16/17th September.
Round 3 Update:
Clare FM match report: Kildysart Book Quarter-Final Spot Following McMahon Masterclass
Clare Senior Football Championship Group Three: Kildysart – 0- 13 V Lissycasey – 0-08
All was to play far in Clarecastle as Lissycasey and Kildysart battled it out for a coveted spot in the quarter-finals of the Clare Senior Football Championship. With all sides deadlocked on two points apiece heading into the final round of group three’s fixtures, both outfits took to the field knowing their fate was in their own hands.
After a cautious start, Lissycasey netminder Tomás Collins opened the scoring with a 45 after eight minutes. County star, Emmet McMahon wasted no time in leveling matters with his first of many to come on the day before Conor Finucane and Aaron Griffin restored the Lissycasey lead. The seesaw battle would ensue until the half-time whistle with three further contributions from Mc Mahon, complemented by a pointed mark from Diarmuid O’Donnell. Meanwhile, for the Lissycasey men, Aaron Griffin and Conor Finucane were once again on hand to split the posts to see the sides level at 0-05 to 0-05 at the halftime whistle.
On the restart, it was the newly promoted Intermediate Champions who emerged from the dressing rooms with the greater fire in their bellies with efforts from Séamus ‘Sham’ Casey, Mikey Donnellan, and a further three in a row from Emmet McMahon seeing Kildysart into a 0-10 to 0-06 lead. Lissycasey was dealt a further blow during their opponents' scoring spree with goalkeeper Tomás Collins, whose precision kick outs provided the launching pad for many of his side's scores, withdrawn with a hamstring injury. Scores from Darragh Hill and Aaron Griffin would stem the tide for Aidan ‘Horse’ Moloney’s charges, however, on fifty minutes, Emmet McMahon’s tour de force would continue as he added his eighth of the day to hand Kildysart a three advantage. A Diarmuid O’Donnell free in the closing stages was soon supported by Mikey Donnelan’s second of the day to send Kildysart five points in front with only injury time to play. Lissycasey’s best efforts to breach Conor Cusack’s rearguard were ultimately to no avail in the closing stages. Kildysart booked their spot in the Quarter-Final of the Clare Senior Football Championship as group winners on a full-time score of 0-13 to 0-08.
30/08/2023: Round 3 Preview: It’s all to play for in Group 3 of the Senior Football Championship as all 4 teams are on 2 points with a win and a loss each. This means each team is still in contention for one of the two guaranteed quarter-final spots, a QF playoff spot or a relegation playoff spot. All will be revealed on Saturday 2nd Sept by approximately 3:30 as both Group 3 matches throw in at 2pm with the local derby of Kildysart v Lissycasey taking place in Clarecastle and Cratloe v Ennistymon in Gurteen. The fate of each team is in its own hands as winners on the day will be guaranteed quarter-final spots. If two teams are level on points, then the head-to-head result comes into play, but if more than 2 teams have the same points (all teams draw in round 3) then points difference is the determining factor with Lissycasey (+4), Ennistymon (+1), Cratloe (-1), Kildysart (-4). There are many permutations that see Kildysart coming in either first, second or third but the two scenarios that would lead us to a relegation playoff are: 1) if both matches end in a draw, as we have the worst points difference or 2) We lose and Ennistymon lose, as they beat us in the head to head.
Kildysart are settling into their senior status with 4 players making the Senior Team of the Week over the course of 2 rounds, (second only to football stalwarts Eire Og & KIB who have 5 players each) and are playing great team football with 8 scorers over the two matches. With Kildysart playing some of their best football in recent memory they won’t fear their near neighbours come Saturday week.
19/08/2023: Round 2: Kildysart supporters outflanked their Cratloe counterparts by about 4 to 1 in Cusack Park and were delighted to witness the Sky Blues demonstrate that they belong in the senior ranks. While the neutrals might have been caught off guard by the “seismic” performance, Kildysart gave a determined team effort that we all knew was in them.
Tap to watch the Kildysart v Cratloe match.
04/08/2023: Round 1: Kildysart had a great first half in their opening senior championship match v Ennistymon being only 1 point behind last year's beaten finalists at the break, 5 points to 4. However, Kildysart wasn't able to recover from a blitz of 1-3 from the north Clare side in the second-half opening minutes and lost by 7 points, 2-10 to 0-9.
31/07/2023: Championship Format: The 2023 Senior Football Championship consists of 3 groups of four teams and Kildysart, playing in senior for the first time since 2004, is in Group 3 with Ennistymon, Lissycasey, and Cratloe. The four semi-finalists from 2022 (Corofin, KIB, Ennistymon & Eire Og) are seeded into the three groups, with Group 1 having both Corofin & KIB along with Doora Barefield and St. Breckans. Group 2 is made up of Eire Og, Clondegad, Miltown and Doonbeg.
Quarter Finals: The top two teams in Groups 2 and 3 plus the top 3 teams of Group 1 make the quarter-finals. The last quarter-final spot will be decided by a playoff between the third-placed teams in Groups 2 and 3. The quarter-final groupings will be seeded with the three group winners plus one 2nd place team (decided by open draw), with no repeat pairings.
Relegation: The last placed team in each group is in the relegation playoff, with the first two teams drawn playing each other. The winner retains its senior status while the beaten team plays the third team, with the loser being relegated to Intermediate for 2024.
