*Cratloe players celebrate in Cusack Park. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CRATLOE HAVE BEEN crowned Clare SFC champions for the third time in their history and first since 2014.
Cratloe 1-10
St Breckan’s 1-8
Venue: Cusack Park, Ennis
Dubbed by manager Colm Collins as “the sweetest” of their three titles, Cratloe end the year as county champions when they their focus at the beginning of the campaign was to consolidate their status as a senior club.
Cathal McInerney’s haul of 1-6 was central to their win and also saw him earn the MD MyClubShop.ie/The Clare Echo top scorer award of the championship, pipping St Breckan’s Jamie Stack by a margin of two points.
Experience of the big day was an aid to Cratloe who lined out in their sixth county final under Colm Collins, not to mention the six deciders a sizeable of their panel would have also played in the Clare SHC.
McInerney’s forty third minute goal was a turning point. A kickout from Mark O’Donnell went to the talisman who duly lobbed his opposing netminder giving Cratloe their biggest lead of the day, a four point differential.
Further opportunities to Podge Collins and Diarmuid Ryan for green flags in the subsequent four minutes and St Breckan’s inability to retain their kickout prompted Declan O’Keeffe and his management to make the difficult call in substituting O’Donnell for ex Clare goalkeeper Tristan O’Callaghan.
Losing both wing-backs, Jack Sheedy and Colm O’Brien were massive blows to the men from Doolin, Kilshanny and Lisdoonvarna. Sheedy sustained a suspected concussion after a collision with Riain McNamara in the opening twenty minutes while O’Brien was struggling with injury from early on and had to limp through proceedings until he could do no more, exiting the field in the opening exchanges of the second half.
A high-scoring contest was never on the cards even before the ball was thrown in by Niall Quinn.
Following a long passage of play, Cratloe opened the scoring on four minutes via McInerney from a placed ball with David Collins fouled by Rowan Danaher in the build-up.
St Breckan’s broke through the Cratloe defence with five players involved for the opener, Maccon Byrne finding Colm O’Brien who linked up with Cian Burke before Alan Sweeney offloaded to shooter Jamie Stack to level matters on six minutes.
Tommy Rooney with a composed attempt put Cratloe back in front and their lead was doubled with McInerney’s first score from play on ten minutes.
Stack and Diarmuid Ryan traded scores before Ryan turned provider with a neat pass to pick out Rian Considine who had the smarts to fist the ball over the cross bar to carve out their biggest lead of three points by the twenty first minute.
Their lead became even greater when Sean Collins was fouled and McInerney converted the free but St Breckan’s rallied with the final two scores of the half, both via Jamie Stack to head in just two points adrift at the interval.
They almost raided for goal Joe McGann just missed the target but earned a 45. The miss from the resulting 45 by Padraig Kelly was a let-off.
Momentum swung with Declan O’Keeffe’s men on the restart, they were level within three minutes with McGann kicking two points as his influence began to increase. At the other end, Danaher made a goal-line clearance to stop Podge Collins from raising a green flag.
McInerney kicked Cratloe’s first score of the second half on thirty seven minutes, St Breckan’s worked the ball up-field from O’Donnell’s kickout, a sublime David Collins interception stopped Joe McGann in his tracks when the Doolin man was about to pull the trigger. Kelly nailed this 45m effort to put the sides on level terms again.
Another free was split between the posts by McInerney when Cratloe moved forward and the kickout from their eighth point was the defining one as it fell to the danger man McInerney who took his shot to lob O’Donnell and deflate St Breckan’s.
They added the next two points via McInerney and Mike Brennan while Podge Collins and Diarmuid Ryan saw goal chances just go wide of the mark.
Jamie Stack pointed from play on fifty minutes and then St Breckan’s had further hope when Rowan Danaher picked out Joe McGann, the man with pace to burn showed just why when he got away from Kevin Harnett to leave the ball in the back of the net and reduce the deficit to two points.
Crucially this was the final score of the contest, Cratloe became even-more defensive from here on out and St Breckan’s only managed one more opportunity, they opted to go for a point from full-back Raphael Considine when they hadn’t the time to do so. Ultimately the time ran out on their challenge with Cratloe soaring to victory.
Chairman of Clare GAA, Kieran Keating presented the Jack Daly to victorious captain Kevin Harnett accompanied by goalkeeper Padraigh Chaplin who doubled up as Harnett’s best man when it came to the speech.
From the get-go, Cratloe went in front and they stayed in front, it sounds simple but it was a deciding factor as a St Breckan’s outfit lining out in their first senior final since 1996 needed to go ahead to strengthen their belief. Instead, it was the experienced Cratloe who steered the way, they may have been level on three occasions in the game but the men from South Clare managed the game very well.
At the outset, few if any predicted that Cratloe would be the 2023 champions. With a rising age of their golden generation coupled with defeats in their last two finals, it could have been argued that the ship had sailed but a firm anchor has been put around Jack Daly and he’ll be residing in Cratloe for the next twelve months.
Key to the success of Colm Collins’ men was the defensive structure they adopted, they swarmed the middle third where St Breckan’s are so effective with a press while for the most part they were clinical when the opportunity presented itself and their patience on the ball may have annoyed the attendance of 4,554 but it worked.
Best for the winners were Cathal McInerney, Mike Brennan, Conal O’Hanlon, Diarmuid Ryan and David Collins.
Disappointment will cloud the St Breckan’s football community but they can take solace in how close they are to a breakthrough, key to shattering the glass ceiling is bouncing back next year with renewed vigour.
Setbacks were the undoing for them, injuries cannot be avoided in sport but they gave away careless frees which McInerney punished and also struggled for the second game in a row when it came to their kickout.
Captain Cian Burke was immense for St Breckan’s with Joe McGann, Alan Sweeney and Jamie Stack setting the way, the duo of Cian Burke and Paddy Doherty had tough tasks in managing Podge Collins and Cathal McInerney but did well in their efforts.
Scorers Cratloe: C McInerney (1-6 3f), T Rooney (0-1), D Ryan (0-1), R Considine (0-1), M Brennan (0-1).
Scorers St Breckan’s: J McGann (1-2), J Stack (0-5 3f 1M), P Kelly (0-1 1’45).
Cratloe:
1: Padraigh Chaplin
4: Liam Markham
3: Kevin Harnett
2: David Collins
7: Riain McNamara
6: Mike Brennan
5: Enda Boyce
12: Tommy Rooney
8: Diarmuid Ryan
9: Conal O’Hanlon
11: Sean Collins
23: Shane Neville
10: Rian Considine
14: Cathal McInerney
15: Padraic Collins
Subs:
25: Conor Ryan for Rooney (HT)
13: Jack McInerney for Considine (53)
St Breckan’s:
1: Mark O’Donnell
2: Cian Burke
4: Paddy Doherty
3: Raphael Considine
5: Colm O’Brien
12: Alan Sweeney
7: Jack Sheedy
8: Padraig Kelly
18: Liam Tierney
6: Cian Burke
11: Joe McGann
10: Maccon Byrne
14: Shane Fitzpatrick
13: Jamie Stack
15: Rowan Danaher
Subs:
19: Padraig O’Dwyer for Sheedy (20) (inj)
9: Denis O’Callaghan for O’Brien (37) (inj)
16: Tristan O’Callaghan for O’Donnell (49)
26: Cathal Guerin for Fitzpatrick (55)
Referee: Niall Quinn (St Joseph’s Miltown)
