Davy Byrne flies into the air for O’Currys. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
O’CURRYS are back in the quarter-finals of the Clare intermediate football championship after shaking off the challenge of Coolmeen in their play-off to make the last eight.
O’Currys 1-9
Coolmeen 0-7
Venue: Captain Tubridy Park, Kilrush
This was far from clear-cut for the spirited men from the Loop Head Peninsula who started poorly before coming to life and then making almighty hard work of matters in the second half as they gifted Coolmeen every chance to take control of proceedings.
Indeed ten missed chances in the second half were costly for Coolmeen, four of these were potential goals and had they raised a green flag it would certainly have thrown the game on its head, this after O’Currys had mounted an eight point lead by the interval.
Returning to the O’Currys line-up for only the second time in the championship after a burst appendix, captain Shane Browne was a welcome addition and he opened the scoring inside a minute, Jim Marrinan winning back possession after immediately moving to his more defensive role.
Coolmeen got on top with three Aidan Corry points in succession, the last of which came from a placed ball on nine minutes.
A sign of the difficult conditions was typified by the battle umpire Paddy Frawley had to keep his hat on his head. On three occasions when signalling a wide in the opening half, his cap flew off his ceann, the struggles of the Kildysart man were akin to how the footballers fought to keep the ball in their hands over the course of sixty minutes.
Having picked up a shoulder injury with Ballyea’s hurlers last weekend, ex Clare midfielder Cathal O’Connor was restricted and lined out at full-forward. The decision of the O’Currys management to put Thomas Clancy, arguably their best player on him at full back for the opening ten minutes coincided with Coolmeen’s most dominant patch, not because Clancy struggled but rather the men from Carrigaholt and Doonaha greatly missed his presence around the middle third. The logic behind the move was questionable to say the least and was hardly to create an all-Clancy full-back line alongside Paddy and Jonathan so it came as no surprise that when Thomas was pushed back out the field where he belongs that they got back into the game.
After the move was made, O’Currys kicked 1-7 without reply and kept their opponents scoreless. They also got great joy from Coolmeen’s kickouts, winning eight of thirteen in the opening half. O’Currys were able to play it quick as evidenced with Cathal Downes’ delivery into Browne for their second point on twelve minutes, they could score from distance like Thomas Clancy’s seventeenth minute effort, they could run at the opposing defence with options off the shoulder such as Sean Haugh’s point while their ability to punish the kickouts led to their goal which was finished to the net by Eoin Brew on twenty nine minutes which had them 1-8 0-3 in front at half time.
On the restart they increased their advantage to nine points when Danny Downes converted a free on thirty four minutes and remarkably that was their last contribution to the scoreboard for the duration of the game.
Coolmeen did not capitalise on the glorious chance to form a memorable comeback. Aidan Corry kicked three of their four scores in the second, Dylan O’Halloran adding his name to the scoresheet on forty nine minutes.
They had an abundance of goal chances but found themselves blocked, doubled blocked and with their shots getting cleared off the line. Corry had an effort stopped on thirty seven minutes, himself and Dylan Power had a double attempt kept out on forty four minutes, Jim Marrinan cleared Eoghan Corry’s shot from the line on forty seven minutes while another chance fell to Cian Murphy on fifty one minutes.
Without a score in the first eleven minutes of the second half, Coolmeen made the call to withdraw O’Connor but as they were beginning to cut away at the deficit, they reintroduced him with five minutes of normal time remaining while at the same juncture, O’Currys called on Eoin Troy who was ruled out with a hamstring injury.
A mix of Coolmeen failing to take their chances and O’Currys laying the groundwork in the first half ensured that by the sounding of the half-time whistle, the men from Loop Head were victorious in the preliminary quarter-final.
Two weeks ago, sixty percent of O’Currys scoring tally was amassed in the first sixteen minutes, for the same timeframe for this play off the figure is forty percent but more worryingly on this occasion ninety percent of their entire tally was in the first half so the trend of them failing to kick on in the second half of games persists.
That said the main focus for Dinny McMahon’s side at the beginning of the year was to reach a quarter-final, they’ve done that and have nothing to lose when they line out in what will be their third quarter-final in four years. Shane Browne, Thomas Clancy, Seamus Keane, Jim Marrinan and Michael Foran impressed for the winners while Aidan Corry was the standout man for Coolmeen.
Scorers O’Currys: S Browne (0-3 1f), D Downes (0-3 1f), E Brew (1-0), C Downes (0-1), S Haugh (0-1), T Clancy (0-1)
Scorers Coolmeen; A Corry (0-6 2f), D O’Halloran (0-1)
O’Currys:
1: Damien Clohessy
2: Paddy Clancy
9: Thomas Clancy
4: Jonathan Clancy
5: Seamus Keane
6: Sean Haugh
3: Stephen Kelly
15: Jim Marrinan
11: Michael Foran
7: Eoin Brew
10: Eoin Kelly
20: Shane Browne
12: Cathal Downes
13: Danny Downes
14: Ian Roche
Subs:
19: David Byrne for Kelly (41)
8: Eoin Troy for Roche (55)
Coolmeen:
1: JJ Carrig
12: Dylan O’Halloran
5: Thomas Coffey
2: Adam Wallace
7: Rian Meaney
3: Gary Meaney
4: Alan Normoyle
8: Eoin O’Connor
6: Brian Markham
17: Ronan Murphy
11: Cian Murphy
15: Jamie Brooks
10: Dylan Power
9: Cathal O’Connor
13: Aidan Corry
Subs:
14: Ben Cleary for Brooks (HT)
18: David Hehir for Wallace (35) (inj)
16: Joe Corry for C O’Connor (41)
Cathal O’Connor for Power (55)
Referee: Barry Kelly (St Joseph’s Miltown)
