Two-time All Star, Colin Lynch has been unveiled as a member of John Carmody’s management team for the Clare U21 hurlers.
By Jamesy McConigley
Carmody succeeds Donal Moloney in the position of the county’s U21 and intermediate manager and he has recruited Lynch to his setup. The former Clare midfielder was most recently in charge of the Newmarket-on-Fergus senior hurlers leading them to a quarter-final in 2015 and a third place finish in the Clare Cup before the Blues had to fight off relegation from the 2016 championship.
Prior to taking over the county side, John was in charge of the Crusheen senior hurlers for the past two seasons. Kevin O’Grady was involved with the North Clare club alongside the Kilmaley man and he remains on with the county team having been a coach during Donal Moloney’s two year term.
Tulla’s Raymond McInerney and Barry Coffey from Ballyea are selectors for the 2017 season while Alan Griffin who was also involved with Crusheen last year is the team’s S&C coach.
With the Banner County boasting three Munster Championship titles in the last five attempts, Carmody understands that the Clare public’s expectations will be high but his main priority is to focus on preparing correctly for their opening fixture on the second week of July.
“Knock-out championship 12th July we’re playing the winners of Limerick and Tipperary in the Munster semi-final so we can’t look beyond that, we’ll be looking to have the work done to produce the performance on the day and I suppose the aim is to get to a Munster Final”, Carmody told The Clare Herald.
He will be hopeful that his side can win back to back Intermediate provincial honours come next season. But the Intermediate All-Ireland has been subject to reform in 2017, “It’s an U25 competition this year so that will be on as the curtain-raiser to Clare and Limerick on the 6th of June”.
Former inter-county star and Kilmaley club man Conor Clancy believes Carmody is the perfect appointment to replace Donal Maloney in the vacant hot seat.
“John is a great manager, huge amount of experience and he has put together a very good backroom team. He’s a brilliant replacement for Donal and Gerry and the most positive thing is he wanted the job, some fellas want to cherry pick positions but you know John put his name forward for the role and you’ve got to admire that and I think he’ll be fine as manager.”