Peter Keane: 'Seeding Cork and Kerry would be terrible for Munster Championship'

Clare lost to Louth by three points, missing out on a place in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals.

"Oh, you couldn’t but be proud of them," Peter Keane said about his defeated Clare side. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile

All-Ireland SFC group 3: Clare 2-14 (2-0-14) Louth 2-17 (2-1-15)

Clare manager Peter Keane had only just watched his side exit the 2025 Championship when he was coming out strongly against any move to ensure that Cork and Kerry will be seeded come next year’s Munster SFC.

The provincial council will vote on the matter next month and the result will have a massive bearing on the ability of Clare to follow up on their achievement of reaching three successive finals and the All-Ireland group stages that followed.

“It is interesting this week now there seems to be a move by the Muster Council to go back to seeding Cork and Kerry, which I think would be a terrible move for football in the province," Keane explained.

“You take any county, the only way you are going to get better is to get out of [Division] Three and into Two and get to a higher standard and play at a higher Championship level. You look at Louth, where they have come from over a four or five-year window.

“They have come from Four to Three to Two and stayed in Two and had success this year with a Leinster Championship. Counties have got to be given that chance. If you block it out altogether it’s no good for anyone.” 

These group stages have been a hard path for the Banner. This was their ninth defeat in as many outings since 2023 but they gave it everything in trying to break that duck and edge Louth out to the last preliminary quarter-final place on offer.

They started superbly, firing off the first three points but failing to make the most of subsequent chances, and they were made to pay for that after Manus Doherty earned a black card for a foul on Craig Lennon.

The Leinster champions outscored them 2-3 to 0-1 in the course of the next ten minutes. Sam Mulroy and Ciaran Downey got the goals, the latter rattling off a stunning 1-4 from play during that critical purple patch.

Down by eight points at the break, Clare fought the good fight, opening the scoring on the restart through a Ray Mcmahon goal that owed its origins to a bad error in his own third by none other than the otherwise excellent Downey.

They chipped away persistently and patiently from there to the finish, grinding the gap down to just three points by the end thanks in no small part to an Eoin Cleary goal, but falling short on the back of some poor attacking options at the end.

“Oh you couldn’t but be proud of them,” said Keane who expressed an enthusiasm for building on his first season with the county in 2026. 

“By Jesus, somebody said there they died on their backs and they died with their shoes on.” 

For Ger Brennan and his Louth team this was an edgy, uncomfortable afternoon. The manager described it as a mix of good, bad and terrible at the end of a group where they never rediscovered the sort of form that won a first provincial title in 68 years.

"The aim today was to win at all costs,” said the Dubliner. “It doesn't have to be pretty - today it wasn't pretty - but we got over the line and we're in the hat for [the draw] tomorrow morning, and that was the main aim.

"It's exciting, to be fair to the GAA, to have the draws after the weekend's action. It adds to the competition. We'll go anywhere. We've got great support. It was probably nine to one in favour of Louth in the stand today, even though we keep giving them heart attacks - and myself a heart attack on occasion - but they are our 16th man.” 

Scorers for Clare: M McInerney (0-5, 3f); E Cleary (1-2); R McMahon (1-0); E McMahon (0-2); B McNamara and A Griffin (both 0-1); S Ryan (0-1 ‘45’);

Scorers for Louth: S Mulroy (1-6, 1f, 1 2-ptr); C Downey (1-5); C Branigan (0-2); C Lennon, C Grimes, R Burns, R Walsh and (all 0-1);

CLARE: S Ryan; R McMahon, R Lanigan, M Doherty; A Sweeney, C Rouine, I Ugwueru; B McNamara, D Walsh; E McMahon, D Coughlan, C Meaney; A Griffin, E Cleary, M McInerney.

Subs: S Griffin for Meaney (24); B Rouine for Walsh (50); J Stack for Sweeney (59); K Sexton for Cleary (64); C Downes for McMahon (67).

LOUTH: N McDonnell; D Nally, E Carolan, D McKenny; C McKeever, P Lynch, C Lennon; T Durnin, D McConnell; D Corcoran, C Downey, C Grimes; C Keenan, S Mulroy, R Burns.

Subs: R Walsh for Lennon (32); D Campbell for Keenan and C Branigan for Grimes (both 53); A Williams for Burns (66); T Markey for McDonnell (66); K McArdle for Downey (68).

Referee: B Tiernan (Dublin).