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*Samuel Costelloe of St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield.
ST JOSEPH’S DOORA/BAREFIELD reaching the Clare SFC final for the first time since 2012 has been “five hard years in the making”.
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Donagh Vaughan was a selector in 2020 when The Parish defeated Corofin 1-16 2-8 to seal their return to the senior ranks. He became manager following their promotion, they’ve remained in the top tier ever since and are now preparing for a first Clare SFC final in thirteen years.
On Sunday last, they defeated Cratloe 3-11 1-14 to tee up a final showdown with Éire Óg. A delighted Donagh told The Clare Echo, “This is five hard years in the making since we won the intermediate during COVID, our big thing was to get past one of the quarter-finals and to get to a semi-final, semi-finals are for winning, it was a tough battle at the end, we were trying to hang on in there and the goals were super which helped get us over the line”.
Prior to Sunday, thirty year old Conor O’Brien was the only member of their panel to have experienced a Clare SFC semi-final. “We didn’t over worry about the fact that a lot of lads hadn’t reached this stage, at the end of the day the majority of these boys had won an U21A at the end of last year, they also played in a Cusack Cup final this year, the group have been together and they have shown resilience. In the group stages, while performances left a lot of work to be done, it propelled us forward and we got a good bit of momentum to improve where we were, now we find ourselves in the final”.
With only a point separating them from Cratloe in the third round, Doora/Barefield certainly fancied their chances before the ball was throw-in for the semi-final. “There was nothing between us and we weren’t happy with our performance that day, we felt we didn’t give our best on the field, we felt there was improvement in us, obviously Cratloe came on again and had a few more back from injury but there is nothing between the teams, today the third goal sealed it”.
When they overcame Kilmurry Ibrickane by the smallest of margins in the quarter-finals, two pointers were the defining scores for St Joseph’s whereas in the semi-final it was the green flags from Odhran O’Connell, Joe Rafferty and Tom Curran that propelled them to glory. “In the first half Cratloe were killing our kickouts, we got a bit of work done on that at half time and we were a lot better on them in the second half, once we had possession going forward I thought the boys were super, I thought our forwards used the ball brilliantly and got great scores, once we got possession and could get more off the kickouts we were going well”.
Goals proved the difference but saves from Tom O’Brien and a block by captain Darragh O’Shea saw them withstand Cratloe’s fight back at the death. “We don’t do it easy, we were hanging on there for a finish and the bottom line is we’re in a final, that is all that matters”.
Familiar opponents of Éire Óg, a side they already faced in the Cusack Cup final stand between them and the Jack Daly. “It is Éire Óg again, we played them in a few competitions, we got a draw that day but they put us to the sword in extra time. At the moment, we’d like to pass on our condolences to Éire Óg and the O’Brien family, this is a game of football, this will take place in due course in two weeks time but our thoughts are with the O’Briens, we offer our deepest sympathies to them and we’ll see them on the field in due course,” Vaughan said.
