Feakle off to a flier with victory over Éire Óg

Steven Conway. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

FEAKLE began their Clare SHC bid on a high, overcoming last year’s beaten finalists Éire Óg by two points.

Feakle 2-13
Éire Óg 2-11
Venue: Fr Murphy Memorial Park, Newmarket-on-Fergus

Two goals from Raymond Bane proved to be invaluable for Feakle as they saw off the challenge of Éire Óg in a rare championship encounter in Newmarket-on-Fergus.

Even the most ardent of Éire Óg supporters will feel that the two point deficit is not an accurate picture of the contest with Feakle impressing far more than the end result gives them credit for.

With Éire Óg scoring both of their goals from the fifty sixth minute onwards, it makes the final score some bit more palatable from their perspective but the result will certainly not leave a pleasant taste.

Of some solace will be the fact that they had three championship debutants in the guise of Fionnan Treacy, Luca Cleary and Liam Kavanagh all of whom acquitted themselves well over the hour.

Their backline on paper is also the strongest it has been for some time so although the result is a setback, it certainly doesn’t end their involvement in the race for the Canon Hamilton. However, Danny Russell’s absence from attack was missed, not least due to his reliability from placed balls.

Quick restarts with the ability to go long and short aided Feakle’s puckouts while Éire Óg lacked options from Philly Walsh’s distributions.

Crucially Feakle applied more pressure in the middle third and made it very difficult for their Ennis opponents to break through in this sector and thus limited the amount of runs through the middle.

Adam Hogan was assigned the task of man-marking Shane O’Donnell and rose to the occasion, winning the battle against the All Star in waiting.

Scores were not overly plentiful from the off with only four points inside the first twenty minutes. Éire Óg were dealt a blow when they lost dual player David McNamara to injury but moments later had a double goal opportunity with Luca Cleary first denied by the crossbar and then Gavin Cooney’s rebound well stopped by Eibhear Quilligan.

Chief marksman Shane McGrath accounted for all but one of Feakle’s scores in the opening half while Éire Óg’s tally was largely thanks to David Reidy with Darren O’Brien and Cooney also splitting the posts. By the sounding of the half-time whistle, the scoreline read 0-08 0-06 in favour of the East Clare side.

1-02 without reply in the first seven minutes of the second half teed Feakle up for victory. Enda Noonan and McGrath raised the white flags while Raymond Bane capitalised when a shot from Eoin Tuohy was fumbled in his direction by Éire Óg netminder Walsh.

Three Reidy frees in succession cancelled out Bane’s goal but Feakle struck back with the next score when Eibhear Quilligan was allowed solo close to 40m before splitting the posts, they hit the next effort via McGrath before Reidy replied with two frees in a row.

Luca Cleary was fouled leaving Chris Maguire with little hesitation to award a penalty which was expertly dispatched by Reidy to bring the gap to a single point with fifty six minutes on the clock.

This narrow margin gave Éire Óg plenty of belief but it quickly evaporated when Raymond Bane struck for goal number two in the next attack, he was loose before getting to pull the trigger but the move all began with a vital turnover from Fiachra Donnellan to stop the Townies from clearing their lines.

Oisin Donnellan hit the next score before Luca Cleary had the last opportunity of the afternoon and he duly pounced for Éire Óg’s second goal.

For Feakle it is a massive lift to start the championship with a fully merited win against one of the championship contenders. Put simply their use of the ball and workrate was superior. Adam Hogan, Shane McGrath, Evan McMahon and Martin Daly were best for Ger Conway’s charges.

An expectation for Éire Óg to emerge from the group is still strong and their response to the two point loss will dictate this. David Reidy, Luca Cleary and Gavin Cooney showed well for Matt Shannon’s outfit.

Scorers Feakle: S McGrath (0-09 4f 1’65), R Bane (2-00), S Conway (0-01), E Noonan (0-01), E Quilligan (0-01), O Donnellan (0-01).

Scorers Éire Óg: D Reidy (1-09 7f 1’Pen), L Cleary (1-00), D O’Brien (0-01), G Cooney (0-01)

Feakle:
1: Eibhear Quilligan

4: Oisin Clune
5: Adam Hogan
7: Ronan O’Connor

3: Evan McMahon

2: Killian Bane
6: Con Smyth
9: Eoin Tuohy

10: Oisin Donnellan
11: Enda Noonan

12: Martin Daly
8: Shane McGrath
13: Steven Conway

14: Raymond Bane
15: Oisin O’Connor

Subs:
17: Gary Guilfoyle for K Bane (39)
20: Fiachra Donnellan for Noonan (52)
18: Eoin O’Connor for O’Connor (60)

Éire Óg:
1: Philly Walsh

3: Aaron Fitzgerald
7: Ciaran Russell
4: Fionnan Treacy