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Why did an inter-county hurler travel over to England to play in what is effectively a junior club tournament?

I have to admit that I wasn't aware that you could simply transfer to a club for say a weekend or week. Surely this goes against the spirit of playing for a club. The fact that there were a number of other players suspended out of this would indicate that guys were not simply playing in this tournament for the love of the club/game.
The 48 weeks for Shore does sound excessive and I think this is so because his "illegal" transfer is deemed inter-county as opposed to inter-club.

Personally I don't have much sympathy for Shore, and really hope that the GAA don't overturn the ban just because he is inter-county standard.

Am I being overly harsh here?

Not sure if I'm way off the mark here or not.

On Sunday Sport last Sunday the fella from the CCCC made a very interesting comment. He made the point that in some cases suspensions are given but are not always publicised by saying that the CCCC will never ever comment on an individual case, and said that even though a player may receive a suspension it may not become public knowledge if the county board or player involved decide to keep it quiet. (obviously if a player is injured/retired for length of suspension then there's no need to publish it)
And then he stated that this has happened.

Now there were a few indirect references to challenges that happened in the 1st few seconds of games, and you could not but think that they were referring to Kennelly's tackle on Nicholas Murphy in the 1st minute of the all-Ireland final.

I'm not saying that Kennelly did receive a suspension, but if he did he would definately fall into the above category in that there was no need to publish the suspension as he had "retired" himself.

Any thoughts?

P.S. If a person receives a suspension then the GAA should publish the fact that the player has received a suspension IMO. There is enough cloak & dagger stuff going on in the displinary process without lads getting suspended and no one ever hearing about it.

This game itself is brutal stuff, but the banner behind the goals is awful funny.

Surely Spillane will have a comment on the Sunday game about it

[Injury forces All-Ireland hero Lynch to call time on Banner career]

Colin Lynch has called it a day.
A super hurler who epitomised everything that there was about the Clare team in the late 90s, fitness, determination and with no shortage of skill.
Himself & Ollie Baker were a powerhouse in midfield and it's hard to believe that Lynch has only 1 all-Ireland medal
A great servant to Clare hurling (and also a very good footballer), and I wish hime the best on his retirement



Injury forces All-Ireland hero Lynch to call time on Banner career

Clare midfielder Colin Lynch has been forced to concede that his time as an inter-county hurler is over.
There was much speculation in Clare over the weekend that Lynch would not be in a position to hurl on with Care in 2009 because of a persistent back injury.
He held off on confirmation of that until he paid a visit to a specialist in Dublin yesterday and came to the conclusion that involvement with his county would be beyond him in 2009.
Accordingly the 34-year-old has brought the curtain down on an inter-county career that spanned 12 championship seasons.
"I suffered a back injury six weeks ago at training, I have missed too much time and it would not be possible to to be ready for a Munster championship at this stage," said Lynch yesterday.
"I had been following a personal training programme with (physio) Gerard Hartmann since November so I am disappointed it has come to this but, given the circumstances, it is the right decision," he added.
Lynch's departure means that Niall Gilligan is now the only survivor from Clare's last All-Ireland hurling title success in 1997. Gilligan himself had considered retirement towards the end of last year before re-committing.
Lynch was one of the most forceful and energetic midfielders of his day and forged a strong partnership with Ollie Baker towards the end of the 1990s.
He was controversially banned for three months in the summer of 1998 for incidents at the beginning of the Munster final replay against Waterford, a penalty that enraged the then manager Ger Loughnane and which would go on to dominate the summer's GAA headlines.
Among his better moments was his winning point late in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway in 2002.
Lynch made his inter-county debut in 1997 but he had been part of the training squad in late '94, when Loughnane took over, before illness forced him out of the plans.
He hopes to be back playing for his club in time for the local championship, which starts next month. Clare are not due out in the Munster championship until mid-June when they face Cork or Tipperary in a semi-final.

End of era as Lohan calls time on career (Irish Independent)

The last remaining member of Clare's ground-breaking 1995 All-Ireland winning team has retired with Frank Lohan confirming he's hanging up his boots.

And Niall Gilligan admitted yesterday that he is thinking about following Lohan into retirement.

Lohan's retirement now means that not one of the 1995 team will figure in Clare's hurling squad in 2009. Lohan (33) said it was always his intention to walk away at the end of 2008 and admitted he would have done it 12 months ago if 2007 had been better.

He was captain then in a turbulent year that saw manager Tony Considine clash with the County Board over a range of issues and at odds with Davy Fitzgerald over training schedules.

"I'm glad I came back for 2008 because the previous year had gone to so bad," said Lohan. "We recovered ground this year. We were disappointed with the way we played against Tipperary in the Munster final and we felt we should have beaten Cork but at least our stock is higher than it was."

Gilligan says he has no firm decision made yet but thinks the commitment to 2009 is something he may not be able to deliver.

"My mind isn't made up completely yet but I'm thinking that way," he said.

Was in Kilmihil to witness a huge victory by the banner over Kerry. Clare were completely dominant and should have won by a lot more. I know Clare have a decent enough team, but that was a very poor performance by the kingdom. Best of luck to Clare anyways, but a bit worrying for the kingdom boys..