*Jarlath Collins shelters possession from Podge McMahon. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
AN ELEVEN point win may have been secured by Éire Óg to kick off their bid to retain the Jack Daly but repeat performances will not suffice in the eyes of their manager Paul Madden.
It finished 1-15 0-07 as the Townies had way too much for Clondegad in Cusack Park on Saturday with corner forward Philip Talty amassing a personal tally of 1-06.
Most certainly it was a case of job done for the champions but Madden was adamant they still had a lot to improve on. “When the draws were made Clondegad in round one was the only one we were focused on, we always get a good challenge from Clondegad, I suppose we pulled away in the end, I’m not sure if the scoreline flattered us or not but at the end of the day we’d be happy with a lot of it but a lot of it won’t do the next day against Miltown and we’re very aware of that, we’ve plenty to work on which is always good coming out of a game especially when you win”.
Elaborating on the work-ons, Paul stated, “We were unhappy with a lot of our hands-on in the middle third but to be fair when we ran at them with our skillset which is pace we created goals and in fairness our lads up front finished the ball well, we had a spread of scorers”.
David McNamara’s season-ending injury allowed for a midfield pairing of Darren O’Neill and Westmeath native Gavin Murray to take to the field while the tie also marked the return of former Clare defender Dean Ryan to the Éire Óg colours in championship fare but this time in attack.
To his credit, Madden has never lamented the absence of players during his tenure and he’s not about to start adapting such a trait anytime soon. “Of course when you’re missing three or four players which we were it will give you an opportunity to bemoan but we’ve developed a good squad, there is great competition for places, there’s lads that didn’t come on today who will be absolutely firing at training next week. Our focus for the next seven days is Broadford in round two of the hurling, it’s important for us as a club and these dual lads that we got a win today, from our football ambition point of view we have nothing achieved and have only won round one, we’ve two massive battles ahead and we’re aware of that”.
“We don’t make apologies for not bringing lads on and we don’t bring lads on out of tokenism, they came on because they have shown it in training and they have shown it all year, we will have lads disappointed but that is the nature of it,” he added.
Talty’s showing was a positive, he acknowledged. “Philip had a great game but he knows there is more in it, we’ll acknowledge the fact he did well but we will be pushing him hard next Tuesday”.
Although he didn’t travel to Cooraclare to watch St Joseph’s Miltown versus Doonbeg, he is well aware of the task that the Garry Cup champions will pose in the second round. “I was focused solely on Clondegad so I didn’t get to see them, we know exactly what we will get from Miltown and we have two weeks to get ready for it”.
