*Brian Foudy of Inagh/Kilnamona under pressure from Darragh Dillon. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
INAGH/KILNAMONA were left scarred following their defeat in the Clare Cup final but are doing their utmost to apply learnings from the loss in the TUS Clare SHC.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Temple Gate Hotel.
Despite holding a ten point lead, Inagh/Kilnamona let the opportunity to win a first-ever Clare Cup title slip through their fingers when losing 1-17 2-13 to Clonlara at the beginning of July.
In the first-ever North Clare derby between Inamona and Corofin in the opening round of the Clare SHC, they bounced back to winning ways on a score of 0-31 0-18.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Inagh/Kilnamona manager Tomás Kelly admitted the manner of their Clare Cup final defeat did leave a mark. “There’s obviously going to be scars, we left them off for a couple of days and went back training on the Wednesday night, whatever about scars there has to be learnings, it was a disappointing defeat and we can’t get away from that so we just have to learn from those days but you will have a lot of those days in sport, it is about taking the learnings from them, if we can learn it will be a worthwhile experience but if we can’t take the learnings from it then it won’t”.
Having lost first round ties in 2023 to Ballyea and 2024 to Scariff, starting with a win was a focus for Kelly’s side. “That was the target because the last couple of years the first round hasn’t gone so great for us and we’ve been behind the eight ball and it makes life a lot harder, we’re happy to get the win, there was lots of things we looked back on that we could improve on but there was things we did well so we’re happy to have two points on the board”.
Three points separated Inagh/Kilnamona and Corofin by half-time when it was 0-11 0-8 in their favour. “Even though there was a three point gap we were happy at half time because it was a fairly strong wind, I know the wind won’t win you anything but as long as we kept doing what we were doing and stuck to the process we knew the wind would help us out, it was just a matter of going out in the second half and piling it back on again, we were delighted with where we were at half time and we knew Corofin would come strong at the start of the game, we pushed on in the second half”.
Twelve different scorers over the hour formed part of a strong collective display for Inamona. “That is what you want, you can’t become too dependent on any one player because one player can be shut down on any given day, the five lads that came on had a big impact on the game. A lot of lads came on, a lot of lads are disappointed they didn’t come on so we were lucky that we have a good panel, it was a total team effort”.
Kelly acknowledged it was a historic occasion to face Corofin for the first time at senior level. “We would have met at senior level when it was Inagh on our own but you’re going back to 2007 and 2008 when some of us older lads were still hurling, it is the first time that Inagh/Kilnamona and Corofin have played in senior championship so it was a historic occasion. We’re delighted to come out on top because a derby game takes on a life of its own, form and favouritism goes out the window”.
Conner Hegarty returned from a stint in Chicago in flying form for the Mid-Clare outfit, hitting 0-6 over the hour. “Conner was probably our best player in the Clare Cup up until him leaving so it was just a matter of looking after himself in Chicago, he played a good bit of hurling over there and he’s in good shape returning so we’re delighted to have him and the other boys back”.
Inter-county panellist Shane Woods is still some time away from overcoming an ankle injury, he confirmed. “Shane has made great progress recently, he is on a return to play protocol so we’re hoping he might return to training in the next week or two, as to whether he’ll make it back for the group stages that remains to be seen”.
Round two sees them face Clooney/Quin at 3pm on Sunday in Cusack Park where the winner will move to top spot in Group 2. “We weren’t looking any further than Corofin, we know the pedigree of Clooney and Broadford, no disrespect to those two teams but we weren’t looking any further than Corofin because of the troubles we’ve had in first rounds over the last few years so we weren’t in a position to look any further than that. We know we’ll have to go up a few levels to be able to compete against Clooney/Quin the next day, that is for us to get back on the training field and bring it up another few levels”.
