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*Kilmaley’s Gearoid O’Grady. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
KILMALEY ARE DETERMINED to back up their Clare Cup success when it comes to championship.
On Sunday evening, Kilmaley recorded a 0-25 0-15 win over Clonlara in Cusack Park with Conor Cleary excelling at centre-back for the winners.
It’s the first time since 2019 that Kilmaley have claimed the league title, then managed by John Carmody. Conor Clancy is now in the role of manager, he was adamant that lessons from that success must be put into practice.
He said, “We’ve said it all along that it’s grand winning a Clare Cup final, but the last time we won one against Inagh/Kilnamona, we turned around a week later and lost to Éire Óg in the first round of the championship, for us the first round is everything, it’s an important one for us, we’ll target that match and hopefully put in a similar performance”.
Important to the winners was the twenty five point turnaround from their group clash with Clonlara three weeks previous. “It was a long campaign, we’ve played a lot of matches, we played well for most of the competition, we probably didn’t play as well against Clonlara a few weeks ago, it was good to come into The Park and show a better performance than we showed three weeks ago, that was the good thing for us today”.
Clancy added, “We were dominant for a lot of it, the lads put in a massive shift on a really warm evening, there was massive workrate which always helps. We got a couple of scores today and managed to stay in front, we played Clonlara a couple of weeks ago in our place and they taught us a lesson that day, we wanted to prove that we were better than what we were that day”.
Former Clare player, Michael O’Malley departed the field of play with an ankle injury in the opening half, but it should not hinder him from lining out in the Clare SHC opening round. They welcomed Daire Keane back to action, he was introduced as a second half substitute. “Daire has been out for the last couple of weeks with a back injury, he was only able to play the last ten or twelve there, it’s a good opportunity for some of the other players to come in and contribute which is a pleasing thing giving lads a chance to play at this level in this competition,” Clancy outlined.
