ALFIE HALE TELLS a story about running into George Best in the mid-1970s, during a friendly game in Cork.
Hale, once of Aston Villa and a legend in Waterford, was winding down his career, playing for Cork Celtic against a non-league Dunstable Town selection that included Best, still just 28.
When they bumped into each other before the game, Best, taken aback, asked ‘What are you doing here?’
“I just turned around and said, ‘What are you doing here?!’” recalled Hale, aghast. “He was the one who shouldn’t have been there!”
Brian Lohan and Niall Ó Ceallacháin might have a similar conversation in Ennis.
Clare, relegated from Division 1A last year immediately after winning the 2024 All-Ireland, shouldn’t be here, in 1B.
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And neither should Dublin who surprisingly lost to Offaly at Croke Park last February, a result that cost them promotion out of the second tier.
Ties against Carlow, Kildare and Down will be their shared reality for the early months of 2026.
Not the best platform to launch a Munster or Leinster championship assault from. Hardly ideal to be playing your biggest rival for promotion on day one either. At least Clare have home advantage. For Dublin, it is the most frontloaded and intimidating start possible.
That’s not to erase Wexford entirely from the Division 1B promotion picture. It was only the ‘ghost’ goal – Dublin were awarded a goal from a penalty despite the sliotar apparently failing to cross the goalline – that stood between the two teams in last year’s Leinster championship.
But even the most one-eyed Wexford fan would accept that last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists, Dublin, and a Clare team still jampacked with All-Ireland medals, wizards and sorcerers, are the two favourites to go up.
And whoever wins will feel that with almost a full week still to run in January, they’ve already got one foot back in Division 1A. That’s how much of a divide there is in 1B with bookmakers installing Clare, Dublin and Wexford on relatively short odds to win the division. Next up then is Kildare at 25/1, the same as Antrim and Carlow. Ronan Sheehan’s Down, back in the top flight of the League for the first time since 2007, are 100/1 long shots.
Expect Clare manager Lohan and his Dublin counterpart O Ceallacháin to experiment heavily when those games roll around. Round 1, however, seems like a time for tried and trusted performers, the sort who have won All-Irelands or, in Dublin’s case, beaten Limerick at Croke Park.
“We would hope to hit the ground running,” said Dublin’s James Madden of the Clare challenge. Equally, he acknowledged that it is the toughest possible start. “I would say so, yeah,” he nodded.
Danny Sutcliffe, an All-Star in 2013, has retired but Dublin will still travel to Ennis with a stronger panel than 2025. The return of both former captain Eoghan O’Donnell and Davy Keogh from football ensures that. O’Donnell’s ability, mainly at full-back, but also in attack if required, is well known.
Keogh’s comeback has flown under the radar and could yet prove even more significant. He came on four times for the footballers in last year’s league but, like O’Donnell, couldn’t convince Dessie Farrell that he deserved more regular game time.
The Thomas Davis man is a huge option around the half-forward line and featured in all four of Dublin’s Walsh Cup games, starting three and registering 1-6 from play.
AJ Murphy, the reigning Club Hurler of the Year, has left the group, along with his All-Ireland winning Na Fianna clubmate Colin Currie. Both were restricted to a single championship start last summer. Rian McBride, who lined out in the win over Limerick, and against Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final, has also left.
But Ó Ceallachain will feel he’s well set overall with Conor Groarke – another All-Ireland club winner at the start of 2025, as a footballer with Cuala – Ollie Gaffney and Cathal Kennedy suggesting throughout the Walsh Cup campaign that they’re ready for spring activity.
Lohan has the same welcome selection headache in Clare. Jack O’Neill ripped it up again for UL on Wednesday evening, firing five points from play on the astro turf at DCU. That’s 0-9 so far for the Clooney-Quin man in the Fitzgibbon Cup. Keith Smyth and Diarmuid Stritch featured in that game too.
Clonlara’s Stritch was called into Clare’s senior panel last summer from the U-20s but didn’t play. Lohan fielded Stritch, O’Neill and Smyth against Limerick more recently in this month’s Munster Hurling League.
Aidan Fawl, Niall O’Farrell and Senan Dunford made their senior debuts in the subsequent game against Cork. They have all been retained in a 38-man League panel.
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Seadna Morey and Aidan McCarthy are the only two from those that played in the 2024 All-Ireland final to have left.
Lohan may look on Division 1B as a useful, low key training ground to blood new talents away from the prying eyes of Munster counties that they will face in the summer.
For now though, it’s all about getting back on the winning trail, and claiming pole position in the promotion race.
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Clare and Dublin eye pole position in promotion race as early showdown looms
ALFIE HALE TELLS a story about running into George Best in the mid-1970s, during a friendly game in Cork.
Hale, once of Aston Villa and a legend in Waterford, was winding down his career, playing for Cork Celtic against a non-league Dunstable Town selection that included Best, still just 28.
When they bumped into each other before the game, Best, taken aback, asked ‘What are you doing here?’
“I just turned around and said, ‘What are you doing here?!’” recalled Hale, aghast. “He was the one who shouldn’t have been there!”
Brian Lohan and Niall Ó Ceallacháin might have a similar conversation in Ennis.
Clare, relegated from Division 1A last year immediately after winning the 2024 All-Ireland, shouldn’t be here, in 1B.
And neither should Dublin who surprisingly lost to Offaly at Croke Park last February, a result that cost them promotion out of the second tier.
Ties against Carlow, Kildare and Down will be their shared reality for the early months of 2026.
Not the best platform to launch a Munster or Leinster championship assault from. Hardly ideal to be playing your biggest rival for promotion on day one either. At least Clare have home advantage. For Dublin, it is the most frontloaded and intimidating start possible.
That’s not to erase Wexford entirely from the Division 1B promotion picture. It was only the ‘ghost’ goal – Dublin were awarded a goal from a penalty despite the sliotar apparently failing to cross the goalline – that stood between the two teams in last year’s Leinster championship.
But even the most one-eyed Wexford fan would accept that last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists, Dublin, and a Clare team still jampacked with All-Ireland medals, wizards and sorcerers, are the two favourites to go up.
And whoever wins will feel that with almost a full week still to run in January, they’ve already got one foot back in Division 1A. That’s how much of a divide there is in 1B with bookmakers installing Clare, Dublin and Wexford on relatively short odds to win the division. Next up then is Kildare at 25/1, the same as Antrim and Carlow. Ronan Sheehan’s Down, back in the top flight of the League for the first time since 2007, are 100/1 long shots.
Expect Clare manager Lohan and his Dublin counterpart O Ceallacháin to experiment heavily when those games roll around. Round 1, however, seems like a time for tried and trusted performers, the sort who have won All-Irelands or, in Dublin’s case, beaten Limerick at Croke Park.
“We would hope to hit the ground running,” said Dublin’s James Madden of the Clare challenge. Equally, he acknowledged that it is the toughest possible start. “I would say so, yeah,” he nodded.
Danny Sutcliffe, an All-Star in 2013, has retired but Dublin will still travel to Ennis with a stronger panel than 2025. The return of both former captain Eoghan O’Donnell and Davy Keogh from football ensures that. O’Donnell’s ability, mainly at full-back, but also in attack if required, is well known.
Keogh’s comeback has flown under the radar and could yet prove even more significant. He came on four times for the footballers in last year’s league but, like O’Donnell, couldn’t convince Dessie Farrell that he deserved more regular game time.
The Thomas Davis man is a huge option around the half-forward line and featured in all four of Dublin’s Walsh Cup games, starting three and registering 1-6 from play.
AJ Murphy, the reigning Club Hurler of the Year, has left the group, along with his All-Ireland winning Na Fianna clubmate Colin Currie. Both were restricted to a single championship start last summer. Rian McBride, who lined out in the win over Limerick, and against Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final, has also left.
But Ó Ceallachain will feel he’s well set overall with Conor Groarke – another All-Ireland club winner at the start of 2025, as a footballer with Cuala – Ollie Gaffney and Cathal Kennedy suggesting throughout the Walsh Cup campaign that they’re ready for spring activity.
Lohan has the same welcome selection headache in Clare. Jack O’Neill ripped it up again for UL on Wednesday evening, firing five points from play on the astro turf at DCU. That’s 0-9 so far for the Clooney-Quin man in the Fitzgibbon Cup. Keith Smyth and Diarmuid Stritch featured in that game too.
Clonlara’s Stritch was called into Clare’s senior panel last summer from the U-20s but didn’t play. Lohan fielded Stritch, O’Neill and Smyth against Limerick more recently in this month’s Munster Hurling League.
Aidan Fawl, Niall O’Farrell and Senan Dunford made their senior debuts in the subsequent game against Cork. They have all been retained in a 38-man League panel.
Seadna Morey and Aidan McCarthy are the only two from those that played in the 2024 All-Ireland final to have left.
Lohan may look on Division 1B as a useful, low key training ground to blood new talents away from the prying eyes of Munster counties that they will face in the summer.
For now though, it’s all about getting back on the winning trail, and claiming pole position in the promotion race.
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