*Jason Linnane of Doonbeg. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.ย
WITHIN Doonbeg there is a quiet confidence that the eighteen-time Clare SFC champions could end a long wait of six years to return to the knockout stages.
Doonbeg Fact File
Management: Brian Shanahan (manager), Brian Dillon (coach), David Russell (coach), John Killeen (selector), Shane McNamara (S&C),
Captain: Mikie Tubridy
Key player: David Tubridy
One to watch: Shane Bermingham
Fresh blood: N/A
Departures Gate: Sean Conway (emigrated), Conor OโMahoney (J1)
Treatment table: None
Titles won: 18 (1955, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2010)
Last yearโs run: Defeated Kilmihil in the relegation semi-final.
Schedule of games:
Round 1 vs Ennistymon in Hennessy Memorial Park, Miltown Malbay on Friday July 18th at 19:00
Round 2 vs Lissycasey in Hennessy Memorial Park, Miltown Malbay on Saturday August 2nd at 17:00
Round 3 vs Kilmihil in Cooraclare on Sunday August 17th at 16:00
Championship power ranking (1=weak/unlikely winners, 10=strong contenders): 4
Having competed in the relegation play-offs for two of the last three seasons, Doonbeg want to be nowhere near such mire for their 2025 endeavours and theyโre aiming to get off to a winning start against Ennistymon this Friday.
Brian Shanahan was in charge of Doonbeg for three seasons from 2015 up until 2017, they reached the quarter-finals in two of those campaigns and on his return as manager heโs keen to guide them back to the knockout phase of the championship.
โFor the last few years weโve been in the relegation dogfight and weโre looking beyond that now and weโre hoping to qualify for the quarter-finals automatically from this group which would be our aim at the minute and weโd take it from there,โ he told The Clare Echo.
On what has changed between his first and second stint in charge of the club, Brian noted, โthe new rules are the biggest change, football and the club is the same but the game is much more enjoyable with the new rules, nothing else has changed majorly football wiseโ.
For 2019 to be Doonbegโs last appearance in the knockout stages of the senior championship is โa long time,โ he acknowledged. โI thought last year they played well in all three group games, they were unlucky not to get results against Miltown, Ennistymon and Cratloe, they had three good performances, I know we lost to the three of them but we could have easily won them gamesโ.
This will be the fifth championship meeting between Doonbeg and Ennistymon in seven years, Ennistymon have prevailed in all four encounters, three of which were first round ties. The winning margin has been three points (2019), one point (2020), two points (2022) and two points (2024).
While they havenโt overcome their North Clare opponents in some time, Shanahan is confident they could end that trend this weekend. โWe wouldnโt feat them, Doonbeg have come up against them a good bit in last few years, we havenโt got over the line against them but we wouldnโt fear them, that said weโd respect them and weโll be doing our best to beat themโ.
For Group 2, Lissycasey carry the favourites tag to finish in top spot but flagged that it is a very open group. โLissycasey will be group favourites given the amount of players they have at county level, on the day any of the four can beat each other, Iโd say it is an open group, I wouldnโt go into any game thinking we could win or lose, it is an open groupโ.
Within the past week, Seรกn Conway has emigrated to Australia which as Brian highlighted is โa savage lossโ while defender Conor OโMahoney is in the United States of America and is unlikely to be back in action until the middle of September. โSeรกn just left for Australia on Tuesday, we tried to convince him to stay for another few weeks but he is young so we canโt blame him and he is my own nephew. Hopefully heโll be back playing with Doonbeg in a year or two but it gives someone else a chance. Seรกn is a player that could play anywhere in the backs or midfield. Conor is more of a corner back and he had a very good championship last year. They are two big losses and it leaves us with holes to fill in our defence.
On a more positive note, ex Clare minor and U20 Tadhg Lillis is back at โfull tiltโ after some difficult spells with injury. โHe missed a few months of the Garry Cup but heโs going away very well for us, heโs keeping injury free which is a big plus, he is a vital player in our defence and weโre hoping heโll play a big roleโ.
To have Eamon Tubridy and Darragh Burns lining out with Clare this season has been a lift for the club, Shanahan maintained. โWeโve played a couple of challenge games since Clare finished up, Darraghโs return has been a huge plus, we were missing that fire power up front, Eamon has had a good few years with Doonbeg and had a good year overall with Clare, he has plenty of experience. Darragh is still young but Eamon brings a certain amount of experience and calmnessโ.
They faced teams from Offaly, Limerick and Kerry as part of their preparation for the first round. โThe challenge matches went well for us, a different club that you wouldnโt have played before brings a different test, the challenge matches were fine, youโre there to learn and figure out, the result doesnโt really matter, youโre trying to get gamer time into likes of Darragh Burns who had no club game played since the relegation game with Kilmihil last yearโ.
