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*Conor Burke and Josh Moloney celebrate Kilmurry Ibrickane scoring a goal. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
KILMURRY IBRICKANE were one of the standout sides from the opening round of the Clare senior football championship (SFC), manager Enda Coughlan admitted they played “some unbelievable stuff” but mixed it with “some awful stuff”.
A powerful blitz of 1-8 without reply saw Kilmurry Ibrickane take charge in the opening half against St Breckans to create a nine point lead by the sixteenth minute but the power of two pointers saw the Spa come within two points eight minutes later.
Their 4-14 0-17 win marked a successful championship start for Enda Coughlan in his first SFC outing as manager “For the first fifteen or twenty minutes I thought we played unbelievable stuff, the new game they got two pointers and we went from 1-8 0-2 up to 1-8 0-9 in the blink of an eye and they had all the momentum. Luckily enough Caoilfhionn got a second goal which gave us a bit of a cushion at half time, we got a goal after half time then. Ultimately, I thought we were sloppy but we saw it out, there was a strong wind there and we played really well against it in the first half, we’re happy to get the two points and we’ve plenty to work on”.
Finding a sixty minute performance is their focus now, the nine-time Clare SFC winner stated. “We’re delighted to get the win, it was all about this game and it is all we concentrated on, it is good to get two points on the board but two weeks time we have to go again and see what we can do, we got a clipping off Lissycasey in the league so we know we have a lot to work on. We had some good patches, I thought we played some great football and I thought we played some awful stuff, it is trying to get that for sixty minutes is the key going forward”.
Caoilfhionn O’Dea hasn’t featured in a competitive fixture since coming on as a substitute in the second round of the National Football League for Clare in February, he suffered a hamstring injury in the aftermath which has sidelined him for over five months. Showing no signs of rustiness, he kicked 2-1 for the Bricks, each goal coming off either foot. “We haven’t seen a lot of him but that is what he can do, he is an exceptional player but he hasn’t much played since February, we had to pull him for a finish because he was struggling, we had to take him for a finish and that is the longest he has played since February so hopefully it will stand to him, he will be sore for a few days but he is a quality player and we need him”.
Regrettably it looks like the Bricks suffered an injury blow with midfielder, Diarmuid King who was part of the last Kilmurry Ibrickane team to lift the Jack Daly sustaining a serious knee injury with twenty minutes played of the first round. “It looks like we unfortunately picked up a bad injury with Diarmuid King, it looks like it is his knee and I’ve done enough of them to know but I don’t want to say until we get a scan but it didn’t look good and he doesn’t go down easy”.
Nine different scorers contributed to Kilmurry Ibrickane’s tally in a statement performance. Coughlan told The Clare Echo, “In the new game you need it, good players will be man-marked so it is up to others to step up, we had good spread, we need that and we need more the next day, it is about getting that on a more consistent basis because during the league we had a load of chances and our shooting efficiency was very poor, it was better but we still have other stuff to work on which we will in the next two weeks”.
Lining out in the Clare SFC for the first time, Conor Burke chipped in with 1-2 while Ajay Daly brought aggression in defence. “We’re very happy with them, Ajay had a yellow and a tick so we had to take him off unfortunately at that stage, he was doing really well, Conor can do that and there is more in him, he got 1-2 and we expect so much out of an eighteen year old, he is a quality player, we’ve seen glimpses of that and hopefully we’ll get to see more of that in the next few years,” Enda said.
Defensively the former Clare footballer felt the sixteen time champions will have to tighten up. “We have plenty to work on, we conceded 0-17 which is a lot to concede so we’ve to work on that, in the new game I think you will concede scores no matter what you do at the back, not conceding any goals was massive, we got four goals and that was the different ultimately between the two teams”.
