*Éire Óg defender, Ciaran Russell. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
A “FASCINATING GAME” is on the horizon with Éire Óg facing Kilmaley in an eagerly awaited TUS Clare SHC semi-final.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Temple Gate Hotel.
Éire Óg are in the last four for the first time since 2022 and have overcome Newmarket-on-Fergus, Wolfe Tones, Feakle and Inagh/Kilnamona en route to the penultimate stage.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Éire Óg manager Gerry O’Connor pointed out their semi-final opponents Kilmaley have multiple aspects to their play. “They gave the standout performance of the quarter-final weekend, they mixed it really well, against the wind they ran the ball and were coming in waves but then when they launched it on Conor (Cleary) it worked, they have a lot of different facets to their attack and are well able to create opportunities. I’d say it will be a fascinating game and we’re looking forward to it”.
In the quarter-finals, Éire Óg blew away the challenge of Inagh/Kilnamona to prevail 3-21 1-17. “It was a similar situation when we were playing Inagh/Kilnamona last year and in fairness they got a run on us in the first half, we almost got back but we felt we should have got something out of that game last year so there was a second chance saloon for a lot of our players”.
O’Connor reserved praise for Éire Óg football manager Shane Daniels who gave them exclusive access to the club’s dual-players in advance of the Inamona win. “I have to say the football management and Shane Daniels in particular were incredibly accommodating and supportive to allow us to train exclusively with the hurlers for the last two weeks, that has to be said because it was a huge plus to our performance, we were able to for the first time in a long time prepare two solid weeks out from a championship game”.
He continued, “we said all year that we have a team of starters and a team of finishers, we’re building a panel of twenty plus to play championship, we’ve been lucky enough that the lads that have come in have been magnificent like Marco Cleary who was outstanding, Robert Loftus who did a really good job man marking Aidan McCarthy and I accept that Aidan was probably injured but having said that our match-ups worked extremely well. For the first time in a long time, Éire Óg outfought and outworked a team in the middle third which allowed us create the opportunities for the lads inside”.
Despite their strong showings, the former Clare joint manager flagged, “We’ve got through game four and we’re heading into game five. There’s nothing won and we’re around long enough to know that, you have to go and perform”.
Younger players who have been blooded during O’Connor’s tenure have been standout performers for the Ennis club. For Darren Moroney, Darragh Stack, Fionnan Treacy, Robert Loftus, Marco Cleary and Rian Mulcahy it will be a first Clare SHC semi-final. “It will be massive but to be fair we’ve had some young lads out there, Tom Kavanagh that was his second time ever playing in Cusack Park, I think he played there as an U10 at half time in a game, we’ve a lot of inexperienced young fellas who have really bought in to what we are doing, they have trained realty well. The B team has challenged the A team every night in training for the last two weeks, it’s been a long time since that happened in Éire Óg”.
Preparing for games like a semi-final “is what we train for, we’re on the go for the last eight or nine months, some might say we’re on the go for the last eight or nine years. This is what you train for”.
