Lissycasey’s contingent with the Clare minor footballers, manager Joe Hayes, players Cathal Geary, Caelum Killeen, Liam Keane, coach Ger Keane with rising star Oran Killeen.
CLARE claimed the Daryl Darcy Cup for the second time in three seasons with manager Joe Hayes maintaining that securing silverware has been just reward for their efforts this season.
On Monday, Clare travel to Tralee with the winner of this tie versus Kerry advancing to the Munster final to take on a flying Cork side.
There’s more of a bounce in the Clare step for this trip following their 2-8 0-8 win over Waterford which also saw them win the Daryl Darcy Cup.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, minor manager Joe Hayes was a delighted figure and said the team showed “a big improvement in a number of areas”, when accounting for Waterford.
“We had 13 shots in the first half but just scored three points, that was the thing that disappointed us most. There was a big improvement in our kickouts, big improvement in how we dealt with their kickouts and in the second half there was huge composure from the boys and great leadership from the likes of Shane (Cahill, the team captain), he scored 0-3, went wherever he was asked to go. He started wing back, went to centre back, went to midfield and Thomas Dillon to get two goals, they were excellent,” Hayes outlined.
Substitutes “made a huge difference,” Joe maintained. “Ryan Brody wasn’t on the match day squad the first two days, he went back to the Clare 16s a couple of weeks ago. I went to watch him and he moved up the rank. He came on today, won frees, took on his man, won every ball that was sent to him”.
Hayes said he was “delighted for Zak (O’Shea), he was below standards last week, he knows that himself, he came on today and was outstanding . Michael Normoyle, back after injury is a hugely important player for us and you could see what we have been missing the last few weeks without him”.
The manager also had a word of praise for “the boys that don’t get a game, it’s very tough on them and the boys that don’t get to tog out. It is the worst thing in the world having to name twenty four every Saturday before the game on Monday as you feel you are letting ten or eleven players down. Look they are a good bunch of lads, and we are happy tonight”.
Concluding, the former Clare goalkeeper stated, “it’s great to have silverware now, this competition is hugely important to ourselves, Limerick, Tipp and Waterford. We were very disappointed when we lost the final last year”,
He went on to mention the Darcy family and the parents of Daryl in whose memory the cup was presented “His parents go to a lot of the games. He is still talked about up in his club Shannon Rovers and we are proud to lift the cup this evening”.
