Matthew Clancy

Matthew Clancy is a former Gaelic footballer who played for Galway.^[1] He won All-Ireland medals at under-21 and senior level. He plays his club football with Oughterard in Galway.

Matthew Clancy

Personal information
Irish name	Maitiú Mac Fhlannchaidh
Sport	Gaelic football
Position	Right half forward
Born	(1982-05-16) 16 May 1982 (age 42) Galway, Ireland
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Occupation	Engineer
Club(s)
Years	Club
1999–2012 2013–2017	Oughterard Cuala
Colleges(s)
Years	College
	NUI Galway
College titles
Sigerson titles	1
Inter-county(ies)
Years	County
2001–2012	Galway
Inter-county titles
Connacht titles	4
All-Irelands	1
NFL	0
All Stars	0

Clancy won the 2003 Sigerson Cup while playing for NUI Galway.

Career

Club

College

Clancy played for NUI Galway and the team won the 2003 Sigerson Cup.^[2][3]

Inter-county

Clancy began his inter-county career in 2001. After a poor start in the Championship, Galway regrouped to progress through the qualifiers in style and get revenge over Roscommon in the quarter-final. In the semi-final, Galway were second best to Derry for large periods of the game and in the 55th minute, the score was 1–10 to 0–08 in favour of Derry. However, a revival led by Derek Savage saw Galway fight back and in the 66th minute, Matthew struck the haymaker for Derry's chances of victory. He was on the field for just over ten minutes as Bergin's replacement. Declan Meehan and Michael Donnellan wove their way up the right flank, before releasing Savage. He jinked this way and that, creating enough space to allow room for the pass. Clancy drifted unmarked into the space in front of Eoin McCloskey's goal to take it, turned and fired high past the ’keeper. A couple more scores, from a Pádraic Joyce free and Paul Clancy, made certain the victory and Galway qualified for the All-Ireland final with a 3-point victory, 1–14 to 1–11. Galway went on to win the All-Ireland final that year, outclassing a Meath side who had destroyed reigning champions Kerry in the other semi-final. The final score was 0–17 to 0-08.^{[citation needed]}

Clancy was also part of Galway's Under-21 All-Ireland success in 2002, defeating Dublin by 0–15 to 0-07. Over the next few years, he progressed form his super-sub role into a first choice pick for the Galway set-up, combining his progress with his university studies at Galway. Clancy won 4 Connacht titles, these came in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2008.^{[citation needed]}

After a few lean years during Peter Forde's time in charge, Galway recovered under a newly appointed manager, Liam Sammon, to become a potential tip for the Sam Maguire Cup. Clancy became an influential presence in the Galway forward line alongside Pádraic Joyce and Michael Meehan. He was named Man Of The Match for his performance against Roscommon in the Connacht SFC 1st round in May 2008. He won his fourth Connacht title against Mayo on 13 July and earned a place in the quarter-finals as a result. In the build-up to the quarter-final clash against Kerry, Clancy struggled with injury and despite starting the match, he was taken off midway through the first-half. He came back on in the second half but Kerry ran out 1–21 to 1-16 winners over Galway. He scored 1–05 in the 2008 Championship.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, Clancy announced his retirement from inter-county football.^[4]

References

1. O'Riordan, Ian (23 July 2009). "Galway recall Fitzgerald and Clancy". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
2. Foley, Alan (25 August 2012). "Forward motion". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Later that year, he began his studies in Financial Maths and Economics at NUI Galway, winning the All-Ireland Freshers alongside players like Matthew Clancy from Galway, Clare's Mikey O'Dwyer and Mark O'Connell, John Donoghue of Meath and David O'Shaughnessy, a native of Westmeath... "Winning the Sigerson in Cork wasn't something that might've been expected of us at all," McFadden says. "We had Lorcan and Brendan Colleran, Mattie Clancy again and Michael Meehan, who was unreal. Dessie Dolan pulled his hamstring in the quarter-final and missed out but we took in a lad from Mayo, Michéal Keane, who played as a sweeper and was brilliant. They were a good group."
3. "What a year it was!". Hogan Stand. 20 November 2003. "We [Dundalk] then went to NUI Galway [formerly UCG] and put in another great performance against a team that included Matthew Clancy, Michael Meehan and Brendan Colleran of Galway. They also had Dessie Dolan from Westmeath but Dessie missed most of the campaign through injury. When NUI Galway went on to actually win the Sigerson cup out, it put our performance into context.
4. "Clancy retires from football". Galway Independent.