*Eoghan Thynne scores a goal for St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield in the first round.
ST JOSEPH’S Doora/Barefield head into a first Clare SFC final in thirteen years as underdogs against champions Éire Óg but they will have no fear of taking down the holders according to one of their longest serving players.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SFC is with thanks to The Shannon Springs Hotel.
Having taken Éire Óg to extra time in the 2023 Clare SFC quarter-final and again in this year’s Cusack Cup final, St Joseph’s are confident in their ability to upset the odds.
Utility man Eoghan Thynne is expecting the rivalry to be evident for all to see in Sunday’s county final. “There is a bit of rivalry there even though we haven’t won yet but we’ve been close a couple of times, in a final anything can happen, we’re just hoping to try stay with them and it’ll be fiery enough I know that for sure”.
For him the tension between the sides dates back to their quarter-final of 2023 where Éire Óg had been 0-8 0-4 ahead at half-time only for James Curran’s goal forced extra time and Mark McInerney kicked the winner in the second half of extra time for the Ennis side who won 0-15 1-11. “When we played three years ago, we drew the first time and it went to extra time, going into that game I don’t think anyone gave us a chance, I don’t think we even gave ourselves a chance. We gave them a scare that day and we probably should have won in extra time and it built from there. There was an awful lot of hits going, there was a bit of a shemozzle at half time so there is a bit of an edge there which is good, that’s what you want to see in matches, people don’t want to see a dour affair”.
Thynne recalled to The Clare Echo, “When we got the goal at the end we didn’t want it to be blown up, we wanted one more play because we had them on the ropes but there’s always going to be a bit of needle when it’s the Townies versus the neighbours, it would be no more than the western teams going at it. I think that’s what people want to see, it’s good to have a derby and a unique final”.
He continued, “At the end of the day it’s only healthy rivalry. We’re trying to win and everyone puts in a huge amount of effort on, on both sides. The big thing for us is that we have progressed but we may not get to a final again, that is the reality of it because Éire Óg are obviously at the top in Clare and then the next eight or nine teams are in around the same so it’s very difficult to get to the final so when you do get there you need to make every effort to win”.
Proving his point on the difficulties of reaching the final is the fact that Doora/Barefield have not come within sixty minutes of lifting the Jack Daly since 2012. “It’s massive. There’ll be a bit of a buzz now around the club, we have to enjoy it and embrace it because you may not be there for a long-time again so we need to put our best foot forward. I think we’re going to try and really go for the game, you don’t want to be going in with any fear or anything like that, don’t be too passive, go for the game, you might only be there once so enjoy it and go for it”.
Twenty five year old Eoghan joined the Doora/Barefield senior panel in 2018, a year in which they were relegated. After failing to win a game in the group stages, their first round draw with Kildysart was enough for The Parish to qualify and he said their quarter-final victory over Kilmurry Ibrickane was a seismic moment. “Breaking the quarter-final barrier was the main. Obviously the group stage didn’t go too well for us, we had the blip there but were somewhat vindicated in that Éire Óg, Cratloe and ourselves got to the semi-finals, so it was a tough group, like but obviously the performances weren’t that great, but once we got the win over Kilmurry Ibrickane we were moving forward then”.
Beating the Bricks twice in the Cusack Cup ensured they backed themselves to cause an upset. “I don’t think there was any fear there. I think it’s really just about getting a sixty minute performance. They had the experience but the two-pointers have just revolutionised the game and now you’re always in the game so if you stay within three, four or five points there is still a chance. It was a terrible day so it was just about hanging in there, once we got the goal in the second half it gave us the bit of a confidence boost then to push on and get the win”.
Capable of lining out in all lines of the field, Eoghan was corner back for their semi-final when he had the task of trying to curtail Podge Collins. “The last day was a bit unusual playing corner back but I think with the modern game now where you need the three up it gives you an advantage to push on and your man can’t actually go and mark you if you’re a deep runner, you see it with Éire Óg and Manus playing the deep nine role you can get lots of scorers out of it. I would have done it (man marking) a lot in the hurling like so I was kind of him but he still did a bit of damage. You’re just trying to do the best you can and limit the damage and do something going the other way”.
As one of three senior dual clubs in the county, Doora/Barefield has Darragh O’Shea and Michael Nash starting on both teams while Eoghan is also a dual player, his other sport seeing him at centre midfield for Avenue Utd. On the evening before their Clare SFC quarter-final, he featured for sixty minutes as Avenue opened their Premier Division campaign with victory over Fair Green Celtic. “It’s difficult, this year it’s more different because we’ve gone further in the football so you’re trying to juggle it but I’m lucky in that the soccer is changed this year and the FAI Junior Cup isn’t until after Christmas so there’s been no real big games as of yet so you’re just trying to manage it and trying to get the one training in with the soccer and keep in touch and communicate with the managers. We’ve a big squad this year with the soccer”.
Within the Avenue dressing room, he won’t be getting much support from his teammates this weekend. “You’d be getting the jibes from the lads in the soccer saying ‘you haven’t a hope’ but I can’t say anything until we actually go and beat them, that is the only way we can show lads that Doora/Barefield are capable”.
Managing the load of a dual player is always difficult, he noted. One less sport has been taken out of the equation with his decision to leave the Doora/Barefield hurling panel “six weeks before the championship, towards the end of the league. I’d been thinking about it from the start of the year to be honest. I probably wasn’t going to be in the mix to start, soccer has always kind of been number one for me, it’s very difficult to do two don’t mind three sports. The players who were there in the hurling were better than me I might as well say that so I don’t think there was a real problem with the decision. We were beginning to ramp up with the soccer at that stage, once that finished you’d be doing the league with the two and jumping in and out but at the end of the hurling league I didn’t think I’d be in the mix and I knew the soccer would be starting soon. It’s a new season with Avenue and every year with Avenue we’re trying to push forward and try do better in Munster and FAI so I knew that eventually it was going to come to a head”.
Players must be “willing and motivated” if they want to make it work having more than one sport on the go, the UCC graduate said. “It depends on the levels of both teams. Éire Óg are competitive in both, they’re always in the knockout stages of both, it’s probably easier to do it with a team like that, if you’re with a team that is maybe struggling in one or better in another lads tend to move so that’s where I see it falling down. It can still be done but it is getting more difficult I think every year with the demands on players, the training, the gym, you need your club facilitating it”.
Based in Ennis as a trainee solicitor with MHP Sellors, Eoghan lives beyond Drumcliffe in Larch Hill. “I’m right on the boundary, I’m closer to a lot of clubs than to Gurteen but I’m still in the parish”.
His older brother Kieran left the panel last year along with the Hannan twins, Jack and Tom plus Cathal O’Brien and Conor Brannock. “Kieran left the panel this year, we don’t really have any players travelling this year because it’s just too much to do really. Darragh O’Shea is the only one travelling and he’s coming from Cork. It’s tough to do it like, my brother did it for a couple of years and it’s very difficult to keep the commute up. Lads might maybe come back if we get a win,” he quipped.
There is a level of sympathy for these former teammates who are missing out on county final day. “You definitely have to have sympathy because we’ve done an awful lot of years where we were stagnant. We weren’t really progressing forward and people have talked about the potential in Doora/Barefield but it’s only potential until you actually fulfil it so that’s what we’re trying to achieve. I’m deemed one of the older players at twenty five so we have an incredibly young team but eventually you have to try and get over the line and make that leap, Éire Óg have done that, they had a team for a long time that hadn’t won and then eventually they did win and now they’re the dominant force”.
Already the holder of an U12, U16, two Minor A titles and a Clare IFC medal, Thynne is hopeful of adding to the collection this weekend. “A lot from the team that won two minors have gone through, there’s a new bunch coming behind that are twenty and twenty one. We’ve had decent underage success but you really want to try and win a senior, this is my eighth year now so you want to push on and get the medal”.
He was part of a side which lost an U21 decider to Éire Óg, Colm Walsh O’Loghlen and Darren O’Brien were part of the Townies team. “Retaining players has been hard for us, when lads move to Dublin and stuff you just can’t expect them to be doing the travelling. One of the photos is of the U16 we won, only Darragh O’Shea and myself are left from that team, that shows it. There’s eighteen and nineteen year olds in the squad now, we’re lucky in Doora/Barefield that we have the population size that we’re going to be bringing through players every year. If you win with a team, you might get more dual players, that’s what we’re trying to push towards”.
