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*Feakle midfielder Ronan O’Connor. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FEAKLE are expecting a “huge test” as they face off with Clooney/Quin in a repeat of last year’s Clare SHC quarter-final.
Fresh from recording a comprehensive ten point victory over O’Callaghans Mills in the opening round, Feakle have turned their attention to Clooney/Quin.
They’re not short of motivation having lost out to Fergal Lynch’s side in the last eight of the 2025 Clare SHC, exiting on a 1-20 1-11 scoreline.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Feakle manager Ger Conway underlined the stiff test that lies in front of them this weekend. “We’ve got to park this result and concentrate on Clooney-Quin. We played them in the Park in last year’s quarter-final and obviously they won that so we’ve a big task ahead of us so we just need to put our heads down over the next two weeks and try to ready for that huge test”.
Taking down O’Callaghans Mills in round one in such emphatic fashion served as a big lift for the 2024 champions, especially so as the Mills had been the form team thus far of the year with Clare Cup success already on the mantle. “I’ve always said that the first round in Clare is fierce important as a win gives you a great platform for the rest of the group while if you lose you’re in knock-out territory for the rest of your campaign”.
Avoiding injuries will remain central to how they progress, Conway stressed. “It’s vitally important for us that we have all our players every time we go out because we wouldn’t have the same depth of squad that some of the bigger clubs would have. So to have the likes of Con [Smyth], Ronan [O’Connor], Shane [McGrath] was out injured last year as was Eibhear [Quilligan], the whole campaign with injuries last year was just a freak really with the amount of them that we had to deal with so it was brilliant to have them all again for this first round”.
Shane McGrath’s exceptional return of 0-19 powered Feakle past the Mills, the East Clare Fitness co-owner securing St Francis Credit Union / The Clare Echo player of the week for his exploits. “Shane is phenomenal, he’s one of the top performers in the championship year in and year out which is coming up to around 14 or 15 years at this stage. His leadership, commitment, skill, accuracy and freetaking is beyond question, we were just surprised how much room he was given. Look, if Shane is in that type of mood and scoring form, we’re always going to be in with a shout in any game”.
