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*St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield defender, Odhran Flynn. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
COUNTY FINALISTS last season, the 2026 campaign is already “different” for St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield who face a crunch tie with Kildysart this weekend.
An opening round draw last year between the sides would prove to be the only points they amassed in the group stages. Scoring difference sent Doora/Barefield through to the knockout stages with Kildysart ending up in a relegation battle.
Both roads led them on different paths, Kildysart successfully maintaining their status while Doora/Barefield took major scalps to eliminate Kilmurry Ibrickane and Cratloe before facing off with Éire Óg in their first Clare SFC final since 2012.
Injuries and availability has disrupted preparations for St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield. They remain without US based Darragh O’Shea, their captain of last year and James Curran (ACL).
Manager Donagh Vaughan outlined, “This year has been different for us and it has been more getting lads back on the field than having them there, it is what it is, we have to regroup and go for Kildysart”.
He added, “We’re still there, we’re getting lads back on the field, we are where we are, we have no real faults, we’re disappointed, we know we have a lot of work to do and a lot of improving for when we come up against Kildysart, we have to park it, dust ourselves down and look at what happened and what we can change, that is where we’re at”.
Beaten by five points to Ennistymon, The Parish were “disappointed but in all fairness in the second half Ennistymon got a grip on the game, that was ultimately the difference,” according to Vaughan.
One of the big disappointments from their defeat was their second half display where they only hit 1-2. “We started so well, we got a great lead, we got into our rhythm fairly quick but Ennistymon clawed their way back into the game. In the second half, we couldn’t really deal with Brendy (Rouine), he was everywhere, he was very effective for them, that was the big difference, we stayed at it and got a goal back, at the end of the day we can have no complaints and we have a lot of work to improve on certain areas”.
