Over 900 'isolated players' given permission to play for clubs other than their own in Clare

ISOLATED PLAYERS: An incredible 900-plus GAA players have been given permission to play for clubs other than their own in Clare this year. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

An incredible 900-plus GAA players have been given permission to play for clubs other than their own in Clare this year.

The Clare Echo reported from Tuesday’s board meeting that the lack of dual clubs in the county has meant record number of footballers and hurlers have requested to play a code that isn’t played in their home club.

The total of “isolated players”, as they are known, for this year amounts to approximately 928 – 428 at adult level and around 500 in under-age grades. The 1,000 mark could yet be exceeded as the deadline isn’t until the end of this month.

The county “is unique in the number of players given permission annually to play either football or hurling with a club other than their home club”, chairman Kieran Keating told delegates in Clareabbey on Tuesday night.

He continued: “No other county had anything like this. It’s a weakness in our structure. There are not as many dual clubs as there should be. We want clubs to play both hurling and football.” 

Of the county’s 53 clubs as listed on the Clare website, only eight are dual – Clooney-Quin, Corofin, Cratloe, Éire Óg Ennis, St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, The Banner, Wolfe Tones and Parteen Meelick GAA.

Among the most prominent isolated players are Clare senior hurling full-back Conor Cleary who plays hurling for Kilmaley but his home club is St Joseph’s, Miltown-Malbay, which is 22 kilometres away. Clare football midfielder Brian McNamara plays football for Cooraclare and hurls for Kilmaley, which are 28km from each other.

Former Clare hurler Domhnall McMahon’s split is Michael Cusacks outside Bellharbour for football and Tubber for hurling, a 24km distance. Stan Lineen, who captained Ballyea to the 2016 Clare senior hurling title, hails from Kilmihil, which are 24km apart. 

Recently-retired inter-county footballer Cathal O’Connor’s football club is Coolmeen, which is 26km away from his hurling outfit Ballyea.

Meanwhile, the Clare executive have decided not to put a charge on admission to club league games. Although the county is one of the few in the country not to do so, the top table elected not to go forward with the proposal to ask over 16s to pay into fixtures following opposition at last month’s meeting.

Elsewhere, Clare Fine Gael councillor Paul Murphy has described the GAA’s ticket pricing structure as “outrageous”. 

Murphy, who previously slammed the decision to charge U16s €5 to higher division Allianz League games, said: “I’m not finished with it – I don’t know what tack I’ll be taking – a lot of people are annoyed with charges.”