*Cian Austin. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
SHANNON HIBS will need to “come of age” as they prepare for their return to the CDSL Premier Division.
Setting out their stall, Hibs are eager not to drop points when they travel to St Flannan’s College to face Ennis Dons in their return to the top flight on Saturday evening.
Mikey Wall lined out for Hibs when they last played in the Premier in 2022. He’s now manager of the side and keen that they give everything they can to avoid relegation. “Our definite focus is trying to compete and stay in the Premier Division this season, we’d be happy if we managed to do that. We’re under no illusions how difficult it will be especially against the top four”.
He told The Clare Echo, “We’ve a young team, we have some old heads still that were on the team the last time we were in the Premier Division even though I was the oldest on the team by a good bit. Most of our team is young, about seventy five percent of our team is aged between seventeen to twenty two so we are hoping they will come of age”.
In 2022, both Hibs and Shannon Olympic were relegated from the top flight, Olympic since returned but dropped back down at the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Despite the ability within the town, Shannon sides have not made their mark on the Premier Division apart from Shannon Town’s title winning season of 2017. “Maybe it’s because there’s too many clubs, I don’t know,” Wall outlined. “I would say there’s too many and we have better players going to the top teams in Clare and Limerick, it’s hard to keep the Shannon players, I don’t know why the big divide is there but it is”.
Although they secured promotion from the First Division last season, Mikey felt they got weaker as they went on. “We started off last season fantastic and then we lost lads to long-term injuries and work commitments became a big issue, we had lads that just couldn’t train because of work and it shows it’s a lot different to how it used to be. We just stuttered over the line in getting promotion really, we won the league cup at the start of the season which may have been a bad thing, maybe we thought we were better than we were”.
To try navigate the jump from divisions, Hibs need to pick off points early, Mikey maintained. “We have to work hard to try pick up as many points as we can against teams that aren’t in the top four. We were going great until the Hugh Kelly Cup started in the last month, injuries have hit us and we’re struggling a small bit but hopefully lads will be back between holidays and injuries”.
Involvement with Wolfe Tones on the hurling and football field has kept Hibs without Kevin Hanley, Chris Dunning and Dean Devanney but the trio will strengthen their cause when they return. “They were all starters for us last year, it can always be a tricky start, we don’t want to be chasing the whole year, we’re hoping the lads playing GAA will come in fit as fiddles and raring to go”.
Shannon Hibs Factfile
Management: Mikey Wall (manager), Julian Woods (coach), Andy Fitzgerald (coach), Mossy Mason, Stephen Mcinerney
Captain: Pa Devanney
Key Player: Kevin Hanley
One to watch: Denis Martsenyuk
Fresh blood: Denis Martsenyuk, Peter Connors, Georgie Pyke, Paschal Palka, Owen Alford, Alex Cole, Darragh McDaid, Shashi Shinde,
Departures Gate: Luke Whelan
Treatment table: Tom Purtill (broken collarbone), Owen Alford (ankle), Darragh Lindsay (ankle), Kevin Hanley (hamstring).
Last season’s run: Promoted from the First Division.
