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*Darren O’Brien accepts the man of the match award from Chief Operating Officer of TUS, Jimmy Browne. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
PART of the starting team for all three of Éire Óg’s successive title wins, Darren O’Brien began their latest campaign determined to show what he could offer on the scoring front.
Motivated by the loss of Colm Walsh O’Loghlen and Gavin Cooney to injuries, two of their leading scoring threats alongside talisman Mark McInerney, other players needed to assist McInerney with green, white and orange flags and O’Brien certainly delivered in that aspect.
Such was the growing influence Darren had on the Éire Óg side this year was the deserved accolade of picking up man of the match following Sunday’s final where they overcame Kilmurry Ibrickane 2-15 1-10.
Across the course of the 2026 Clare SFC, O’Brien kicked 1-11, up from the tally of 1-2 he amassed across the entire 2025 campaign. This year, he showed his ability to kick two pointers which is why he and McInerney were the two threats that St Joseph’s Miltown focused most of their energy on prior to their semi-final clash.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Darren said it was “mostly this year” that his ability to kick two pointers came to the fore. “The management give you the licence to take it on, as long as you are putting the ball dead it is not too bad so luckily a few of them went over for me this year, we’ve plenty of lads that can do it., I know Mark gets all the credit up top but a few of us can do it”.
His penchant for raising two flags came to bear, simply because he put more time into long-range shooting than ever before. “With Gavin Cooney and Colm Walsh O’Loghlen out we were probably relying on Mark a bit too much so a few of us had to step up and take a few scores, we got them so we’re happy they went over today”.
Kicking 1-2 without reply in the first six minutes of Sunday’s final gave them an unshakeable platform, he acknowledged. “It is unbelievable, we’ve had the two and then we lost to Cratloe three years ago in the semi-final, we spoke about it during the year the hard that brought, we were all guns ahead for today, we got off to a great start, we got the first few scores and a goal to give us a cushion and we never looked back from there”.
Starting with a bang was the target for the Townies in the lead-up to the county final, the Tax Senior with EY outlined. “We targeted that for the two weeks, we started poorly in a few games and allowed teams get a point or two ahead of us, we knew if we got on top from the start, minded the ball, take the percentage shots that we’d be comfortable enough”
Leaving Cusack Park with the man of the match accolade under his arm was a proud moment for O’Brien and his family. “I don’t get them too often, I wouldn’t be one for scoring but delighted to get it, it could have been anyone, I know it is a cliché but it is a team performance, happy it worked out today”.
A dual-player with Éire Óg, getting to pour all their energy into football following their semi-final loss to eventual Clare SHC winners Inagh/Kilnamona has been “massive” in ensuring relinquishing the Canon Hamilton didn’t keep them on a downer for the winter. “We didn’t have too long to dwell on the hurling, we were back training on Tuesday night for football, it is not nice to be knocked out of the hurling but it gave the footballers two weeks of training which we haven’t had in two years between winning both last year so it was massive for the likes few weeks and to be able to do a bit of work on Kilmurry and ourselves”.
Reflecting on their “unbelievable” period of football success and the club’s first senior three-in-a-row, Darren commented, it hasn’t been done by anyone in fifty odd years or whatever so it is an unbelievable achievement, it won’t dawn on us at the moment and we’ll look back in twenty years and realise how hard it was. To even win five in six years is special so it is special days for the club and for everyone”.
