*Éire Óg’s senior footballers. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ÉIRE ÓG produced their worst performance of the year to bow out of the Munster club in their first outing.
A five point loss to Waterford champions Rathgormack in Dungarvan left Éire Óg with a long journey back to Ennis following another premature exit from the provincial championship.
Sloppy in possession, Éire Óg gifted possession to Rathgormack too often and too easily, manager Shane Daniels reflected. “We’re very disappointed, we gave away the ball too much, we turned over the ball which we hadn’t been doing all year and we were gifting the ball to Rathgormack which gave them easy counter attacks and they punished us on them”.
According to the two-time Clare SFC winning manager, Sunday’s showing where they lost 2-15 1-13 was their worst performance of the season. They went 1-4 0-1 in front but were outscored 1-6 0-1 to head into the dressing room 1-7 1-5 behind. “To be honest even when we went up we gave the ball away too much and we didn’t get punished because they were dropping shots short or kicking them wide. We were sloppy, it was the worst game we played all year, we were very disappointed with the performance. We’re not taking away from Rathgormack, they were well up for it and we didn’t match them”.
Rhys O’Mahony sealed what was the first win for a Waterford side in the competition in eight years when he struck to the net on fifty eight minutes. The wing back was unmarked when Conor Murray picked him out with an exceptional outside of the boot pass.
Poor marking which left O’Mahony free typified how Éire Óg were off their standards. “At that stage we were two down, we were pushing up the pitch and at that stage of the game those mistakes can happen when you’re chasing a game, overall our game play was way below what we usually produce, we don’t give the ball away very often but generally every time we did on Sunday we were punished”.
Daniels said he and his management will need to reflect on what caused their below-par display. “It’s something we have to assess. My initial thought was we prepared well for the game, we have to go back and diagnose as a management what happened to see did we do everything right, there’s aspects we need to improve on and we need to look at”.
Winners of the Clare SFC for five of the last six seasons, Éire Óg have yet to win on the road and have not put together successive victories in the province. Given their dominance within the county, the Townies’ struggles to make inroads in Munster is a worry for Clare football.
Shane told The Clare Echo, “I’ve said this before when you get out of Clare you have to play well, if we played well then we could have won but if you drop your standards and don’t play well then you won’t win games. Éire Óg and Clare are two completely different teams but the same rule applies, if you are sloppy on the ball and give it away then you won’t win games, it is the performance on the day that needs to be right”.
