Clare GAA CEO questions if Liam MacCarthy title demands cost Banner in 2025

Deirdre Murphy also said Paul Madden becoming Clare's third senior football manager in as many years “is far from ideal for our team” and “as we have learned, a risk that seems to come with appointing managers from outside the county”.

Outgoing Clare GAA CEO Deirdre Murphy suggested the demands on the Banner's hurlers, should they win Liam MacCarthy again, deserve consideration. Pic: Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Clare GAA’s team expense bill for 2025 fell by only €64,254, despite their hurlers exiting the championship two months earlier than last year’s All-Ireland winning campaign.

Team expenditure totaled €1,502,208 for the shorter 2025 campaign, with year-on-year spend increases recorded in mileage, expenses, medical, facility hire, and travel and accommodation.

While commercial income held firm just above the €1m mark, fundraising income fell by 59% to €303,302. This was largely attributable to the almost €700k pulled in last year from the Win a House/Car draw fundraisers, and the absence of similar such money-spinners in 2025.

In her last annual report as Clare CEO, Deirdre Murphy questioned if the off-field demands on the Clare hurlers in the aftermath of winning Liam McCarthy impacted a title defence that ended on the second last weekend of Munster round-robin fare.

“Reflecting on the aftermath of winter 2024 and the 2025 campaign, I often wonder did the energy expended by our players to help everyone in the county meet the Cup, help with fundraising etc, do everything ‘right’ etc, leave them with little downtime and low in energy when 2025 rolled around,” Murphy wrote.

“I don’t suppose there are any concrete answers to that, but it is worth ruminating on if and when we are in this happy position again.” 

Murphy also pondered how Clare’s title defence may have fared had the final whistle sounded when David McInerney fetched Patrick Collins’ Cork restart 56 seconds past the allotted six minutes of injury-time in the county’s Munster championship opener.

Referee Liam Gordon instead allowed play to continue. Shane Kingston intercepted McInerney’s attempted handpass, with Cork securing a share of the spoils after Ciarán Joyce was deemed to have been fouled.

“2025 differed from the euphoria of 2024 and demonstrated the wafer-thin margins of elite sport. As Tipperary winter with Liam McCarthy, it is true to say that it was the finest of margins that had the Premier County claim the third spot in Munster ahead of our senior hurlers.

“Despite an injury-ravaged season, our players and management gave every ounce once again. One still wonders how different the year may have been had the final whistle blown in Ennis as David McInerney claimed that puck out.” 

With Paul Madden the third manager to take the Clare football reins in as many years, Murphy remarked that this level of sideline turnover “is far from ideal for our team” and “as we have learned, a risk that seems to come with appointing managers from outside the county”.

The same as Cork, Clare have opted not to reveal the amount paid to Revenue to cover potential tax liabilities for the period 2021-24.

Overall income for the year reached €4.33m, marginally up on 2024. Expenditure rose by €300k to €3.6m, leaving an overall surplus of €733,649.

Murphy revealed that €1.5m may need to be raised to complete the project of further expansion at their Caherlohan Centre of Excellence.

Clare GAA was awarded €3.2m in Large-Scale Sports Infrastructure Funding last year, and while the county board can draw on €1.2m of a Munster Council grant and currently have €1m of their own funds ringfenced, Murphy said “it would be prudent to estimate that a further €1.5m may need to be raised over the next two years to complete the project”.

The planned upgrade includes the installation of floodlights, a full-sized 4G pitch, and new sand-based playing fields.