*O’Callaghans Mills manager Seán Doyle with Mark Pewter. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
O’CALLAGHANS MILLS are continuing their upward trend under Seán Doyle with Clare Cup honours the latest step on the ladder.
A first Clare Cup title since 2023 was secured when the Mills prevailed in an East Clare derby which went all the way to extra time, a brace of Seán Boyce goals helping them overcome Scariff 3-26 1-23.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Mills manager Seán Doyle was happy to pick up some silverware but was quick to point out championship requires them to bring their game to another level. “Overall, you’d have to be pleased. Loads of guys got game-time in the cup and at the end of the day it’s always nice to win a bit of silverware but as I’ve said we’ll have to step up the levels against for three weeks time. We got what we expected, a good tough battle. I thought in the first half that we played really well against the breeze but we did drop our levels after half-time and Scariff went five points up. Now they have some class players, a lot of whom have played at inter-county level like Paul Rodgers, Keelan Hartigan, Patrick Crotty and Matthew Crotty, good players and obviously we have some good players ourselves”.
Jacob Loughnane returned from injury while they lost county panelist Aidan Fawl to an ankle injury during Saturday’s final. “Now we’re trying to get a few lads back from injury which is difficult to manage. That was Jacob {Loughnane]’s first match back in a month. He hasn’t much training done but made a huge impact when he came on. Look overall you have to be pleased with the game and the win but in three weeks time it will be a totally difference animal altogether and you’re trying to get your levels up as much as we can”.
He added, “You have to admire the likes of Aidan O’Gorman who despite being injured wouldn’t come off and scored a crucial late point and obviously we also hope that Aidan Fawl isn’t too bad with his injury that forced him off”.
All over the field he felt the Mills stood up to the task at hand. “Darragh Moroney was excellent today and that goal and its timing was the changing of the game for us. I said to him afterwards ‘you’re very good in finals’ because he was also excellent against Clarecastle in the intermediate final last year but he stuck that ball well. I give out to him sometimes for trying ambitious shots on goal but there was no complaints when he struck that ball well into the corner of the net. And then Sean Boyce was having it a bit difficult at times as did Liam Murphy but Sean really came into it in extra-time with two great goals”.
Seán added, “The full-back line played very well. We brought in Niall Melody this year and I thought himself and Paul Rodgers had some battle in there. And he kept him fairly quiet as Paul Rodgers is some player but Melody is tough out. I’d say Melody doesn’t know who Paul Rodgers is, that’s the way he is. Look, it was a big decision to make but I thought he did so well and has really come on in leaps and bounds”.
Bodyke native Doyle has overaw a sixteen game unbeaten run in Clare for the Mills including their run to win last year’s Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship. “You have to try and get up through the levels. I mean to win the Premier Intermediate was great and winning the Clare Cup was another step but senior championship is a totally different level altogether. We in the Mills just want to make sure that we’re good and competitive this year and see where it takes us then. We’re hoping to get back more guys from injury in the coming weeks because Feakle are a serious team to be facing in the Park on day one. They won the championship two years ago so if we want to match them, we’ve got serious work to do over the next few weeks”.
