*Aidan McCarthy in action for Kilmurry Ibrickane. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
KILMURRY IBRICKANE expect to be able to use Aidan McCarthy for “a small part” of Saturday’s third round tie with Kilmihil in the Clare SFC.
All-Ireland winner McCarthy has not yet lined out in the club championship. He picked up a quad injury after returning to Kilmurry Ibrickane training in the aftermath of Clare’s All-Ireland success.
His loss has deprived Inagh/Kilnamona’s hurlers of their chief marksman with Aidan missing their first round defeat to Scariff and second round win over O’Callaghans Mills. He has also been unavailable for Kilmurry Ibrickane in their first round loss to Éire Óg and second round victory against Lissycasey.
A starting role is unlikely to be handed to Aidan for the meeting of Kilmurry Ibrickane and Kilmihil, however Bricks manager David Egan is hopeful McCarthy will definitely see game time. “We’ve Aidan McCarthy, Cathal Talty and Caoilfhionn O’Dea to come back, Ciaran Morrissey had a stormer of a game against Éire Óg but just went down with his back, we had to make three changes to fit in that one change and it unsettled us a small bit I thought in the first half, hopefully his isn’t too bad and he will be back the next day”.
On the prospect of Aidan returning for round three, Egan stated, “I’d say we will have him back for a small part of it, not the whole lot. He’s had a long year, he needs to be minded, it was the very first training session he came back, I don’t know was it a freak accident, maybe he is not used to kicking the ball, it was the quad that went, we’ve to be careful with him because to be fair to him he is an honest bloke and I don’t want to throw him in the deep end and maybe we already did that after a week of celebrations before the Éire Óg game but we will mind him and hopefully have him back, we won’t have him back for the full game but maybe a small part”.
Overcoming Lissycasey 1-9 0-9 has Kilmurry Ibrickane in a strong position to claim one of the direct routes to the quarter-finals provided they back it up by beating Kilmihil. “The win was there, on the performance I still think there’s a bit more in us on that side but championship games are for winning and we won it,” he said of the Lissycasey win.
Egan believed their converted penalty from Keelan Sexton was “massive”. He said, “We took the penalty and David (Sexton) saved theirs which is probably the difference, it was a three point difference in the end so that was the difference, it was a super save from David in the first half and there was no keeper going stopping Keelan’s penalty, that is the difference at the end of the day. I thought it was a very measured performance by us, we kicked a few wides in the first half that we need to go back and work on them but other than that I’m delighted to come out of here with the win”.
With a return of 1-3, Keelan Sexton’s value not that it was ever in doubt was emphasised. “I could see in the last two weeks that he is only a shadow of what he can be but he is starting to get into his groove, it is going to take another four to six weeks, that is the way it is going to be but in fairness to him anything that needs to be done that man will do it to get there”.
Offaly native Egan admitted there was a fine sense of pressure within the camp following their opening round loss. “Kilmurry Ibrickane is Kilmurry Ibrickane they are a football mad parish, the pressure down there in the last two weeks, not among people outside but among the lads themselves, they knew they didn’t perform against Éire Óg and it was driving them absolutely insane, to be honest it took me a week to figure out what was going on in training, the training was dead for a week after the Éire Óg game and it was just because they were so disappointed with themselves. I don’t think the performance here was magic but for the second round of the championship it is enough”.
Given that there is such expectation, Egan quipped that he was quite pleased to be living outside the parish. “I’d say all they do down there is talk football and maybe a bit of fishing, it is nice to get away from it alright”.
