Colm Collins has been rightly lauded for his achievement in taking Clare from Division Four, where he found them in 2014, to a long stay in Division 2 – and their win over Roscommon on Saturday propels them to a second All-Ireland quarter-final of his tenure.
Saturday’s win was Clare’s first ever in Croker, not including the 2004 Tommy Murphy Cup final. Collins’s managerial record in championship football now reads played 32, won 14, lost 17, drew one.
Of those 14 wins, four have come against sides with higher league standings than Clare – the Laois and Roscommon wins in 2016 and the recent victories over Meath and the Rossies again.
More than anything, the manager has instilled resilience. In his time, Clare have been knocked out of Munster by Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Tipperary and drew with Waterford – yet they keep coming back and league form has been extraordinarily consistent.
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The bogey team has been Kerry, who have beaten Clare seven times under Collins, including twice in 2016.
Lee Keegan chalks up yet another masterclass
Lee Keegan was at it again on Saturday and media and ex-players alike lavished praise on the Westport warrior.
“Mayo’s team of half backs come and win the game again. None better than Lee Keegan of course. Is there any limit to his resources and leadership?” asked journalist Colm Keys.
“Could a sixth All Star be on the cards for Lee Keegan? Immense today, really good last week. What will we do when he goes? The greatest Mayo player I’ve ever seen,” commented Mayo News reporter Ed McGreal.
Meath’s Bernard Flynn echoed that (”Mayo’s greatest player of all time amazing attitude application and a model of consistency) while on Off The Ball, Dublin’s Tomás Quinn described his performance as “absolutely sensational”.
“And for me,” added Quinn, “he’s probably Mayo’s best-ever player.”
Kerry and Tyrone keep the scoring on the minor side
The scoreline which raised most eyebrows across all of the grades over the weekend was surely Kerry v Tyrone in the All-Ireland minor quarter-final, the Kingdom winning by 0-8 to 1-4 in Portlaoise.
The quarter-final stages were added to the competition 20 years ago and Saturday’s result was, by a distance, the lowest scoring last-eight tie yet staged and, indeed, the lowest-scoring game in the All-Ireland series as a whole during that period.
Curiously, Tyrone had racked up big scores in the Ulster Championship, including 3-17 against Cavan and the same against Antrim and 4-8 versus Derry while Kerry had oscillated wildly, beating Cork 1-16 to 0-5 before losing to them in the Munster final, 3-11 to 0-9.
Armagh continue tradition of turning tables
As predicted by many, Armagh turned out to be the draw from hell for Donegal. There is a long history of provincial results being overturned when sides meet later in the All-Ireland race, with Kerry turning the tables on Cork four times in the 2000s alone.
Prior to the weekend gone by, there had been 26 occasions when provincial fixtures were repeated in the All-Ireland series and, remarkably, the result was reversed 15 times.
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Meeting Deep Throat in underground car park to get the attendance figure for Croke Park yesterday. Keep it to yourselves. – Journalist Kieran Cunningham wonders what the official attendance was for Saturday’s double-header at HQ.
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Roscommon’s odds in running against Clare when they pulled five clear with four minutes to go.
