Eugene Cloonan

Infobox GAA player
code= Hurling
sport = Hurling


name = Eugene Cloonan
irish = Eoghan Ó Cluanaigh
fullname = Eugene Cloonan
placeofbirth = Athenry
countryofbirth = County Galway
bday=22
bmonth=12
byear= 1978
height =
nickname =
county = Galway
province = Connacht
club = Athenry
clposition = Forward
clubs =
clyears =
clapps(points) =
clcounty =
clprovince=
clallireland =
counties = Galway
icposition = Forward
icyears = 1997-
icapps(points) =
icprovince = 0
icallireland = 0
nhl = 1
allstars = 1
clupdate =
icupdate = Eugene Cloonan (born 22 December, 1978) is an Irish sportsperson. He plays hurling with his local club Athenry and with the Galway senior inter-county team.

Early & private life

Eugene Cloonan was born in Athenry, County Galway in 1978. He was educated locally at the Athenry Vocational School where he first tasted success at the game of hurling as Cloonan collected an All-Ireland vocational schools title. Cloonan currently works as an electrician.

Playing career

Club

Cloonan plays his club hurling with Athenry and has enjoyed much success. He won county titles at under-14 and under-16 grades, before collecting three minor county titles. Thes underage titles were later converted to success at senior level. Cloonan won his first senior county title in 1996. He added a second county medal to his collection in 1996. This was later converted into a Connacht club title. Cloonan later won an All-Ireland club title as he scored nine points to seal a 0-14 to 1-8 victory over Wolfe Tones. In 1998 Cloonan won another county title before winning the first of three Connacht club medals in-a-row. He added two more All-Ireland club medals to his collection in 2000 and 2001. The following year Cloonan collected another set of county and provincial medals, however, there was no All-Ireland success. Two years later in 2004 he won further county and Connacht titles, however, Athenry were beaten by James Stephens in the All-Ireland final.

Inter-county

Cloonan made his inter-county debut for Galway against Tipperary in the under-14 Tony Forrestal competition in 1992. He was quickly spotted by the county minor selectors and he soon made the team. Cloonan had little success in this grade as Galway were defeated by Tipperary after a replay in the All-Ireland final of 1996. That same year, in spite of being only 17 years-old, he was selected as goalkeeper on the Galway under-21 team. He collected an All-Ireland under-21 medal that year as Galway defeated Wexford. It was the first of four consecutive All-Ireland under-21 finals, howeber, he never again tasted victory as Galway lost the 1997 and 1998 finals to Cork and the 1999 final to Kilkenny.

Cloonan made his senior championship debut in 1997, however, Galway were defeated by Waterford in the All-Ireland semi-final. Galway had little success during these years, however, in 2001 the team shocked Kilkenny to book a place in the All-Ireland final. Unfortunately for Cloonan, Tipperary emerged victorious on that occasion. In spite of this defeat he ended the year with an All-Star award. Galway went into decline again following this defeat, however, Cloonan added a National Hurling League medal to his collection in 2004. He played for Galway during the National League in 2005, however, he drifted away from the team then and played no part in Galway's All-Ireland final appearance that year. He returned to the panel in 2008.

Provincial

Cloonan has also lined out with Connacht in the inter-provincial championship. He has won one Railway Cup medal in 1999.

Teams

References

* [http://www.hoganstand.com/Galway/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=44520 Profile of Eugene Cloonan]
* [http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2001/09/06/story12090.asp Intervie with Eugene Cloonan]