Clare GAA’s centre of excellence, Caherlohan has been described as a quality facility by county senior football manager Colm Collins.
Criticism of the facility located near Tulla has been voiced, most notably in the past year and relates to the suitability of pitches following periods of rain. A statement released on behalf of the Clare senior hurlers in October called for further investment at Caherlohan by the County Board.
Kit man with the Clare senior hurlers, Niall Romer previously described the facilities at Caherlohan as “substandard”.
A motion to the 2019 Convention of Clare GAA proposed by Tulla that Clareabbey be sold and Caherlohan be used as the base of operations was rejected. “Players are paying for gym memberships, we have one in Caherlohan but there isn’t enough equipment,” Tulla delegate Brian Torpey stated at the Convention. He also claimed the pitches were “not able to drain water”.
Delegates were strongly against the proposal and cited that it would add an additional 30km to the journey of volunteers for meetings of the County Board.
Figures provided by Clare GAA stated that as of November last year, a total of €4.8m had been spent on Caherlohan with further investment required to make additional improvements.
In the lead up to their Munster SHC quarter-final with Limerick last month, Brian Lohan and his management opted not to use Caherlohan as their training base and instead trained in all four corners of the country including Shannon, Tubber, Meelick and Clarecastle. Cusack Park in Ennis was the venue for Sunday morning’s hurling session.
Their decision not to use Caherlohan fuelled speculation that fresh problems had emerged at the Centre of Excellence.
However, as they prepared for both the Munster SFC and the concluding rounds of the Allianz National Football League, the Clare senior footballers utilised Caherlohan as their training base with no issues present according to manager Colm Collins.
“I started with under 14, and moved up with 15, under 16 and under 21.In that time a lot of my energies went with finding pitches. With the senior team we have used Caherlohan and been delighted with the facility. There is a senior football pitch and a senior hurling pitch. The football pitch is is in great nick and thanks to Michael Maher for his work there. It’s great to have a place to go to,” Collins told The Clare Echo.
