Cathal O’Reilly is fouled by Ikem Ugwueru and Niall McMahon. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Niall McMahon is one of Éire Óg’s unsung heroes. A dual player, he plays corner back for the hurlers while he is a defensive wing forward for the footballers, never one to grab the headlines this doesn’t bother him in the slightest.
Years of near misses and quarter final losses made McMahon appreciate the success even more. “I’m thirty years of age and up until 12 months ago I could only dream of playing in a County final. I’ve now played in three and it’s the stuff dreams were made of. We were long enough losing quarter finals so to make the breakthrough last year was special but today we’ve shown we are the best team in the county. It’s just great to deliver on the potential”.
He felt Ennistymon’s defensive approach was unable to upset their plans. “It was a battle and we knew they would try frustrate us. We’ve done enough video analysis on them and to be honest with Clare TV I’ve watched every game this year so we knew what Ennistymon were going to bring. Credit to them they are a fine young team and I’ve no doubt they’ll be back but we aren’t planning on going anywhere. If you want to play defensive against us we have the best defence in the county. Sure I can’t remember when we last conceded a goal. If you want to attack us and go toe to toe we can do that also. We are the best team in the county and back to back titles proves it”.
Retaining the Jack Daly was a help in bouncing back from their one point loss to Ballyea in the Clare SHC final a week previous. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get over losing the hurling. I’ve no words to say how heartbreaking it was but today will help patch over the pain. We won it today for the whole club. It was all about not losing two County Finals in a week”.
Celebrations will be enjoyed but Nially Boots said the Ennis club was determined to drive on in Munster. “We will celebrate this for a few days but we will definitely refocus quickly. We have massive potential, great players and we have to show that in Munster. We showed today that we are the best team in Clare and we will celebrate that but we need to really see how good we can be. We have to give Munster a crack.
“There’s massive strength in depth in our squad. We have players who can come in and do a job. We have other players waiting to break onto this team and what a team to be coming into. Back to back County Titles is just a huge achievement. We set our stall out to retain Jack Daly and we won’t want to let him go. Who knows how far we can go but we won’t be found wanting. We have all the tools. We have a great manager, great coach and a brilliant back room team. We are all in it together for the club and the club can celebrate this historic day”.
