In their first outing of the 2016 All-Ireland Intermediate Ladies Football Championship, Clare face near neighbours Limerick.
It’s a short journey for Clare supporters with the game taking place in the Gaelic Grounds at 2pm today (Sunday). The winner progresses to the All-Ireland quarter-final where they will meet Ulster Champions Tyrone.
Having met already this year in the Munster Championship where Clare prevailed on a scoreline of 1-18 to 2-10 the sides will be accustomed to each other.
Since then Clare have suffered defeat in the provincial decider where they paid the price for a sloppy second half. A win against Limerick will help them to move on from that defeat and with a full squad to choose from they will be expected to do that.
Manager Neil Moynihan told Clare FM that he is anticipating a close battle between the teams. “I think if you look at past results any time Clare and Limerick do meet in championship it’s always a close game, if you look at the result from last year it was 4-08 to 3-07 and 3-07 to 3-06 so there was only a point in one of them and again this year I think we only beat them by five or six points so I’m expecting a very close game again this Sunday”.
Clare: Ciara Harvey (West Clare Gaels); Eva O’Dea (Banner Ladies), Laurie Ryan (Banner Ladies), Laura Egan (Kilmihill); Roisín Considine (Liscannor), Ellie O’Gorman (Kilmihill), Gráinne Harvey (West Clare Gaels); Louise Henchy (Banner Ladies), Kayleigh McCormack (West Clare Gaels); Sarah Bohannon (Shannon Gaels), Ailish Considine (Kilmihill), Niamh Keane (Banner Ladies); Ciara Hickey (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Niamh O’Dea (Banner Ladies), Grainne Nolan (Banner Ladies).