Éire Óg canter past depleted Cratloe at their ease

*Mark McInerney offloads as Ryan Bowden and Tommy Rooney clamber for possession. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

CHAMPIONS Éire Óg are off the mark, beginning their defence of the Jack Daly

Éire Óg 1-17
Cratloe 0-4
Venue: Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg, Ennis

Anything other than an Éire Óg victory would have been a tremendous shock considering Cratloe lined out without Podge Collins, Cathal McInerney, Rian Considine and Tadhg Lohan from their attack while captain David Collins is also sidelined with injury.

Though the victory for Éire Óg was expected, the manner of such a poor Cratloe showing was not. This marked the start of Colm Collins’ twentieth season in charge but this defeat will rank as among their worst displays during his tenure, largely contributed to by the lack of key men.

Cratloe lacked any bit of creative force up front and their return of 0-4 in sixty plus minutes was indicative of this. They had players who rarely got their hands on the ball if at all and were fortunate to see the final whistle and not be substituted.

Often the first round will give teams an accurate indication of where they were at but this tie won’t have delivered many learnings for the title holders. The pluses include how seamlessly Ronan Lanigan moved from the full-back out to half-back line where he was a solid anchor at centre back, championship debuts for the young Danny Lyne and the old Bernard Power, both of whom acquitted themselves well enough to retain their starting spots for round two.

For both dual clubs avoiding injuries was vital, they did that and in Cratloe’s case it couldn’t get much worse considering how busy the treatment table is. For the Éire Óg footballers, seeing David McNamara get dismissed with fifty minutes played was something they could have done without, the powerful midfielder was involved in an off the ball incident with Enda Boyce that resulted in him getting his marching orders and as it stands he’ll miss the second round against Doonbeg.

Referee Chris Maguire flashed the red card after linesman Barry Kelly spotted the altercation. Maguire took over duties after the appointed official Niall Quinn had to pull out in the hours before the tie.

It would take seven minutes for the first score of the game, corner back Manus Doherty pointing after Éire Óg worked a short kickout to Aaron Fitzgerald up to the other end of the field where the lively Manus split the posts. There should have been a green flag at the other end but Power saved from a casual Jamie Moylan who fielded the ball just outside the square.

Moylan did Cratloe off the mark on nine minutes but Éire Óg struck for the game’s only goal in their next attack when Luke Pyne calmly slotted to the bottom of Cian O’Gorman’s goal.

Power denied Marc O’Brien as Cratloe went in search of a response, they had to settle for a white flag in a subsequent move from Ryan Harkin but Éire Óg hit back with an unanswered 0-4 including a two pointer from full-back Fitzgerald.

Diarmuid Ryan and Mark McInerney traded scores as a poor opening half drew to a close, by which stage Éire Óg were 1-6 0-3 in front.

Spectators in Cusack Park would have agreed that the first half was a drab showing but very few of them would have expected the second half would finish 0-11 0-1 in favour of Shane Daniels’ side.

They started with a burst of 0-3 inside nine minutes, two from McInerney and one from Pyne before Ryan Harkin landed Cratloe’s sole score of the half on forty minutes.

Well taken two pointers from Darren O’Brien and substitute Jack Joyce sealed the deal for the Townies as Cratloe were delighted to hear the sounding of the half time whistle.

Over the hour, Cratloe missed four scoreable placed balls, the duty of freetaker falling to debutant goalkeeper Cian O’Gorman in the absence of the ever-reliabe McInerney. O’Gorman fared well between the posts and off his kickouts where the retention rate was high.

Losing by such a margin and delivering such a underwhelming display leaves Cratloe needing to win against St Joseph’s Miltown and Doonbeg if they are to become one of the three teams emerging from the group. They’re fortunate that it was indeed the champions they faced on this occasion as they could have well went under against either of the West Clare teams and would then be required to pick off points against Éire Óg had the order of fixtures been different.

Along with the trio of Lanigan, Lyne and Power, others to impress for Éire Óg included Aaron Fitzgerald, Manus Doherty and Darren O’Brien.

All photographs by Gerard O’Neill

Scorers Éire Óg: M McInerney (0-6 3f), L Pyne (1-1), A Fitzgerald (0-2 1TP), D O’Brien (0-2 1TP), J Joyce (0-2 1TP), M Doherty (0-1), D Lyne (0-1), D Moroney (0-1), O Cahill (0-1).

Scorers Cratloe: R Harkin (0-2), J Moylan (0-1), D Ryan (0-1)

Éire Óg:
1: Bernard Power

4: Dean Ryan
3: Aaron Fitzgerald
2: Manus Doherty

5: Ciaran Russell
6: Ronan Lanigan
7: Gavin D’Auria

8: David McNamara
9: Darren O’Brien

10: Oran Cahill
13: Luke Pyne
12: Darren Moroney

15: Mark McInerney
14: Ikem Ugwueru
23: Danny Lyne

Subs:
11: Gavin Murray for Moroney (45)
20: Jack Joyce for Lyne (45)
18: David Loftus for O’Brien (54)
22: Jarlath Collins for Doherty (55)

Cratloe:
1: Cian O’Gorman

19: Mike Brennan
3: Kevin Harnett
2: Marc O’Brien

4: Riain McNamara
6: Ryan Bowden
5: Enda Boyce

9: Diarmuid Ryan
8: Conor Ryan