*Clare goalkeeper Stephen Ryan will be lining out for Kilrush Shamrocks. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Kilrush lead the Clare senior football roll of honour with twenty one titles to their credit, their last having been achieved all of thirty four years ago in 1987.
Management: Aidan Daly (Manager), Kevin Shalloo (trainer), Noel Ryan, Michael Griffin, Tom Dillon (performance coach), Patrick Rominosky (physio)
Captain: Gearoid O’Brien
Key Player: Mark Shannon
One To Watch: Ross Phelan
Fresh Blood: Jamie Griffin
Players Gone: None
Titles Won: 21
Most Recent Title: 1987
While supporters of the Shamrocks long to see the West Clare side return to winning ways, the focus for those involved is on this Saturday’s senior championship first round meeting with Kilmihil.
“Look it’s great to be back playing, great for young lads to be playing ball,” team manager Aidan Daly outlined. “For a lot of our players, this weekend’s game will be just their third ever championship game at this level”.
In his second season back in charge of his home club, Daly and his backroom team introduced a big group of young players to senior football at the start of 2020. “We will be taking it game by game and we will see where it brings us. Nobody is looking past the first round, one can’t look past that. The league was squashed into four or five weeks and we were all trying to keep lads fit and healthy. It’s all about the first round game at this stage”.
For Kilrush, this will be their third meeting with Kilmihil in recent times. “They have beaten us in those three meetings so we can’t afford to look beyond this game,” Daly said.
He added, “We have learned a lot about the players during the league even though we were missing a few for each game. They have learned a lot about what we expect from them”.
This has the makings of another close contest between the sides who, despite being in the same division, avoided each other in the recently concluded division 2 league.
