*Patrick Crotty. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FIVE MEMBERS of the Clare senior hurling panel have been dropped as attention begins to switch to next year’s campaign.
November 21st is the date by which collective training for inter-county teams can commence, in advance of this preparations are being put in place by Brian Lohan and his management team.
Among their initial jobs has been to decide on what players to let go from the 2025 panel.
Of the five that have been omitted from next year’s squad, only Patrick Crotty has featured in the championship for the county seniors.
Scariff’s Crotty first joined the senior panel in 2022 and was introduced as an extra time substitute in the Munster final that season when Clare lost 1-29 0-29 to Limerick in an epic provincial decider.
Crotty started at wing forward in Clare’s first outing of the season when they lost by two points to Kilkenny in the opening round of the Allianz National Hurling League. He scored two points from the same spot when retaining his starting jersey for the 2-21 0-20 loss to Galway. He chipped in with a point from wing forward when Clare lost 1-23 1-17 in Cusack Park to Wexford in round three. He didn’t feature in the fourth or fifth round but was introduced for the final six minutes as a substitute to Tipperary.
In May of this year, Patrick was named on the Higher Education Team of the Year at wing forward after helping the University of Limerick to win a third Fitzgibbon Cup in four seasons. He captained UL to win the All-Ireland Freshers title in 2022. Last December, he captained Scariff/Ogonnelloe to win the U21A hurling championship, winning his second medal at the grade.
Also part of that Scariff/Ogonnelloe side was Gearoid Sheedy and he has also been removed from the couny senior panel. He joined the panel in 2024, making his debut in the first round of last year’s National League in front of 7,380 in Cusack Park when Clare defeated Cork 1-25 2-19, scoring a point from wing forward during his seventy minute appearance. He was introduced as a substitute in the following rounds against Waterford and Wexford before winning back a starting jersey in the 0-23 1-19 win over Offaly which saw him substituted at half time.
Game time was more scarce for the Ogonnelloe man this season but he was listed among the matchday panel for games in the National Hurling League. Gearoid had been part of the county U20 side in 2023 before making the step-up to senior. His club were eliminated in the Clare intermediate hurling semi-final this season.
Although he started the first three rounds of the National Hurling League, Ian Macnamara has not been kept on the county panel. He played the full game at corner back for Clare’s defeats to Kilkenny, Galway and Wexford before falling down management’s pecking order, he was named to start for the fourth round against Limerick but was among numerous changes announced before throw-in.
This is the Killanena’s man second time getting dropped from the senior panel by Lohan, he was added to the panel for the 2023 campaign but was one of four players guided to the departures door in the aftermath of Clare’s one point Munster final loss to Limerick that June. He returned to the panel for the 2025 season. A former captain of the UL’s Freshers side who won the All-Ireland league in December 2022, he also lined for Clare at minor and U20 level at centre and corner back.
Centre back on the Feakle side that lifted the Canon Hamilton in 2024, Conn Smyth is among the exits from the county panel. A hamstring injury which required an operation kept the strong defender sidelined and out of action for the inter-county campaign this season.
Smyth was recruited to the county panel in 2024 and started in the final round of the National League at wing back when Clare defeated Offaly by a point, he played for the entire game but was not part of the defence for the subsequent semi-final and final victories. He was the only defender in the 2023 Clare SHC to keep John Conlon scoreless.
Killian O’Connor’s time on the senior squad has also come to an end. He was added to the panel in 2024 but did not receive a minute of action during his two years involved. He was centre back on the Corofin side that were relegated from the Clare SHC last month.
A Harty Cup winner with St Flannan’s College, O’Connor struggled with injuries in 2024.
