*Martin Daly scored Feakle’s goal in the semi-final. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FEAKLE “deserve their crack” at a county final, the manager of their senior hurling side has said.
A first Clare SHC final appearance since 1988 awaits Ger Conway’s charges after they recorded a two point semi-final win over Cratloe in Cusack Park on Saturday.
Having come up short to last year’s champions Clonlara at the semi-final stage in 2023, Conway said they were determined to make amends. “The target all week was to come here today and win. We came here last year and we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice. The lads made a promise to themselves that they were going to leave everything out there and try and get into a county final and, thank God, it did happen”.
Wind and rain made matters difficult for all players on the field, he flagged. “Conditions were very bad. It was raining all the time coming up to the match but thankfully it did stop for the game but there were patches of the field that there was water on. It was very hard for players to keep their feet especially at the pace games are being played at now. Great credit is due to both sets of players for the game they provided”.
Conway told The Clare Echo, “We were under no illusions coming in here today. Cratloe are there or there about for the last ten or twelve years, they are brilliant hurlers, Conor McGrath, the Collins, Rian Considine, Diarmuid Ryan, they have oceans of hurling. We knew what we were going to get from Cratloe. They were going to leave everything out here. You have to admire them the way they keep hurling and football at the top level”.
It has been a long wait for the East Clare club to get back to the county final, Conway outlined. “Thirty six years since the title went to Feakle, It was brilliant in ‘88. We are a long time in the doldrums since. We were down intermediate for a while. This bunch of players have worked tremendously hard for the last couple of years. There has been bits of underage success. We won a few 21 A’s, this team has been building, there is no doubt about it. They deserve their crack at a county final”.
A major doubt for their county final with Sixmilebridge is full-back Evan McMahon who was stretchered off with a knee injury. “We don’t know yet the seriousness of Evan McMahon’s injury. If he is out he will be an awful loss to us as he marshals the centre of the defence for us. Hopefully it may not be as bad as it seems. We have been lucky enough on the injury front all year”.
