*Aiden ‘Horse’ Moloney. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
AIDEN ‘HORSE’ Moloney finds himself coming up against his native club Kilmurry Ibrickane in one of the more intriguing ties of the second round of the TUS Clare SFC.
Moloney captained Kilmurry Ibrickane to win the Clare SFC in 2002 and managed their championship winning campaigns of 2016, 2017 and 2020. On Saturday evening in Cusack Park, he’ll patrol the sideline in the opposite camp as manager of the Lissycasey senior footballers.
He was a spectator in Cooraclare when Kilmurry Ibrickane took on Éire Óg in the opening round of the championship. “I thought they were two impressive teams, there was very little mistakes made by both of them, they both have plenty of pace through the middle, Éire Óg look that little bit sharper than Kilmurry did, they probably have a stronger bench which I think was the secret because they brought on some subs that did get them over the line, I think Kilmurry left a few chances out there especially from frees, both of them will still be knocking on the door”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo after his Lissycasey charges stormed to an opening round sixteen point win against Kilmihil, he noted, “It was a must-win game for both teams, we knew the importance of it, we’re delighted with the result, in general we played well and of course we got a great start which set the tone, we kept the scoreboard ticking and eventually once we got Connor Meaney back onto the field ten minutes into the second half we were solid and there was only going to be one winner”.
Meaney has been a revelation during Moloney’s two year term, the former Clare minor has moved from an attacking role to centre back and in the first round kept Clare senior Ciaran Downes scoreless from play. “He’s a fine player, a great athlete, he has plenty of football and did a great job for us in nullifying that outlet, I know Kilmihil are down a few players but that is a big result for us, it sets us up to have a cut against Kilmurry Ibrickane and Éire Óg, hopefully we can get something out of one of those games”.
Up front, Lissycasey are impressing. The attacking quartet of Shane Griffin, Daire Culligan, Conor Finnucane and Aaron Griffin contributed 2-12 between them against Kilmihil. “We look like we have a threat up front, we’ve good pace up front, we’ve other issues but today every time we went forward inside the 45 we looked like we were going to get a score and that is one of the positives for us today. I think our defence were under a bit of pressure here and there but once we controlled Downes and O’Leary we were fine”.
Having claimed the Cusack Cup already in 2024, the first round gave a chance to see how Lissycasey were regarding championship pace. “We’ve been showing some good form, they have been progressing, they are starting to buy in to what we are trying to do, we know we are not the finished article by a long shot but at this point at time you will never get things right for a first round of championship, the league is over and we had a few new starters today, we had a few lads that came on and impressed when they did, you need a panel and that is what we are trying to achieve with at least twenty lads who can make a difference when they come on”.
