*Éire Óg defender Liam Corry. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
HOURS DEDICATED by senior club players is increasing in the GAA each year but it doesn’t feel like a draining commitment for Éire Óg’s Liam Corry because the enjoyment levels are so high.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Shannon Springs Hotel.
Liam is one of the leaders within the Éire Óg side bidding to pick up their first senior hurling championship in a generation. He was captain when they last contested the final in 2022 and will form part of their defence that faces off with a lively Clooney/Quin attack on Sunday.
Part of the Clare panel to win the All-Ireland and Munster U21 hurling championships in 2013 and 2014, he lined out for both the county footballers and hurlers at that grade in 2015. The level of commitment involved in the club game in 2025 has surpassed the level of inter-county panels a decade ago, he said, “I think it has increased a lot. I was on the county U21 panel for a couple of years I didn’t play county minor but when I started playing senior with Éire Óg, there is a huge difference in twelve years, maybe it is because I’m pushing on and I’ve played for the twelve years that you have to be more focused on the recovery.
“With the Clare U21s in 2013 and 2014, there was a huge commitment and you’re still training three times a week but nowadays on your days off you’re in the gym, some days you might be too sore for the gym so you go to the pool, you’re doing everything you can all the way through the week, it is a full-time gig, nearly, but you love it too, if you didn’t love it you wouldn’t be doing it because of the hours you put into it on top of your job, if you didn’t absolutely love the game and coming down to the club, playing with the boys that you have grown up playing with then you wouldn’t be putting the time in, it doesn’t feel like a massive commitment because you enjoy it so much,” he added.
Given the hours devoted to the cause, it is rewarding to be preparing for his second-ever Clare SHC final. “You have to embrace it, there will be a lot going on and a lot of people talking to us about it but you have to maintain the same focus that is the same process as it was for game one, there will be a bit more around it because it is a county final but it does go back to game one, you have to take a lot of it in one ear and out the other and be focused on your own performance and preparation, to make sure you can help the boys prepare too and be a helping hand to anyone that needs it”.
His senior championship debut for the club was back in 2013 against Ruan, making the step up from the Junior A side. This season, there is more competition for places in the Éire Óg defence where he is joined by the experienced duo of Ciaran Russell and Aaron Fitzgerald alongside former Clare minors Fionan Treacy and Robert Loftus along with Rian Mulcahy who is completing his first senior campaign. “At the start of the year we had 23 or 24 lads that all would have felt they could or should be starting which lends to huge competition and that is great. Fionan (Treacy) has three years played I think, Robert Loftus and Mulla (Rian Mulcahy) are there on merit, it’s Rian’s first year, they are there on merit and because they are well able, they have shown that in their games, Robert is a super performer in every game we play, it helps them no more than it helps me to have Ciaran (Russell) and Aaron (Fitzgerald) at three and six, they are huge, they are absolute leaders and the experience they have is something we feed off and it goes all around the field, it is great for the young lads coming through to have that to look up to and play with”.
Éire Óg have contested the last ten quarter-finals in a row, a record no other club can match but they have only reached the semi-finals in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025. Liam believes the addition of talented young players helped them get over their quarter-final hurdle and has been a major asset in reaching the final. “We always felt we were competitive and getting to quarter-finals is an achievement in a way but we’ve been in so many of them and we were only beaten by a score or never beaten by too much, most of the time anyway. The first quarter-final we won was in 2020, the Clare championship is so tight that any team can beat any team on any day, some day you get the rub of the green, some days you don’t, in the last couple of years especially we’ve a good influx of young lads coming through like Robert Loftus, James O’Dwyer, Conor Perrill, Marco Cleary, Rian Mulcahy and all these boys which gives a boost to the lads playing for ten years or more, it drives it on more, they all put their shoulder to the wheel which is what we’ve seen in the last couple of years, I know we didn’t make a semi-final last year but the influx of youth, boys that are able to hurl and they are committed to the group which adds to it”.
Thirty one year old Liam started his new role as a primary school teacher in St Senan’s NS in Kilrush a month ago. The Mary Immaculate College graduate taught Abu Dhabi for less than two years, the Kilrush climate is less warmer amongst other things. “Kilrush is great, the staff are sound and the class are nice so I can’t really complain, I’m teaching fourth class, they don’t be slagging too much about the hurling but they are clued in to be fair to them, they are football mad but they are all tuned into the hurling and are clued in to what is going on, they are Clare fans, they have their ear to the ground with everything”.
Injuries have curtailed his career, he was part of the Clare senior hurling panel in 2020 and 2021 but an ongoing groin problem proved a barrier while it was also the reason he has opted to focus on hurling over football with Éire Óg since 2022. Leaving the footballers was “difficult,” he admitted. He previously captained their minor footballers to championship glory in 2012 before winning three-in-a-row U21 titles from 2013 to 2015. “The reason I pulled away initially was because I had a serious enough groin issue, I couldn’t keep up with the load for the two sports so I stayed with the hurling, I had that operated on and then the following year I stayed with the hurling again, it became easier again and you have to listen to the body, some of the boys are still playing the dual which is super, they are supreme athletes to be able to do it, as you push on in the years you have to be a bit smarter with it, I’d love to still be playing football too but you have to know your limitations”.
Osteitis pubis, Gilmore’s Groin and Inguinal hernia are among the names for the injury which he described as challenging. “You could play through it a small bit but you were in serious pain all the time, you could be in pain for four or five days after a game, you’re trying to get yourself to the next game, I went through that in 2021 and got it operated then, thankfully it has been fine since but the other parts of the body have been breaking down”.
Recovery has taken on more of an important role in his preparation. “I’m doing everything and anything I can, whatever you’re told to try help out, you’re trying to be smart and do the basic things like your sleep, nutrition and keep up the gym work to keep the body in order. Damien McMahon of Physio Recovery Room has been a great help to me to keep me on the field the last few years, you try everything, you do different gym sessions but you need to recover and I spend a good bit of time in the pool, I get to the sea if I can and I do reformer pilates over the winter, small bits like that to keep the body ticking”.
Reaching the Clare SHC final is no mean feat given how tight the margins are between all clubs in the top flight. “2022 that final was my first-ever senior final and our first with Éire Óg in 22 years, you know then that it is not easy to get to them, you start the year in 2023 and hope you will get back there, you think you’re good enough to get back there and we were pipped by Clonlara by a goal in the Park, last year Inagh/Kilnamona beat us by two points, it goes to show the standard in Clare is outrageous, among the sixteen teams any of them could win it any year, you have to be on-song, you have to take it year by year and you can’t look back and say it has been this long because every year is different with different players coming in and other clubs are different every year. It is very hard to get there, when you get to a final you don’t know if you will get back there again,” Corry explained.
Sunday’s decider will be treated as “just another game,” he explained. “I know it’s a final but it is another championship game, it is game six of six in Clare, it is the same preparation for game one, two and three and all the way up, if you go changing your routine it will be a bad thing so you have to keep doing the same thing, go to training and tick them off as you go, keep the body right for the game and treat it the same as we did for the first round against Newmarket-on-Fergus in Clarecastle, it’s the same preparation and it has to be”.
Turning points in the campaign included defeating county champions Feakle in round three and overcoming Inagh/Kilnamona in the quarter-finals, he felt. “Beating Feakle in the third round was a big step for us, they were county champions and they beat us the last time we played in 2023, I know they were down a couple of major players but it was a very tough game, moving on then we were playing Inagh/Kilnamona who beat us last year, it was another massive game to get through and in the semi-final against Kilmaley we knew the savage workrate they have had this year, they are a different animal to what they’ve been before, the intensity and workrate of their forwards was just savage, to get through that game while not playing well has to give us massive belief. Taking it in half hour blocks, first half, second half is what we did in the semi-final, we wanted to get to half time and we weren’t thinking about the second half, half time came and we went for the second half, taking it step by step is the main thing and we were delighted to get over the line because it was a huge battle which you will always get off Kilmaley because they are a savage team”.
