*Aaron Griffin is ruled out with injury for Lissycasey. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
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LISSYCASEY and St Joseph’s Miltown will square off on Sunday with the chance to lift silverware before the commencement of the Clare SFC next month.
When the race for the 2026 willwego.com Cusack Cup kicked off in March, neither Lissycasey or St Joseph’s Miltown were earmarked as favourites for league honours.
On Sunday at Shanahan McNamara Park in Doonbeg, they will do battle for the title, three weeks before both will begin their challenge for championship honours. The game is due to start at 13:00 with Corofin’s Eoin Keane appointed referee.
An enthralling Garry Cup campaign will come to an end this Friday with a Shannon Estuary derby. Clondegad and Kildysart face off in Cooraclare from 19:30 with Chris Maguire the man in the middle. The tie is expected to draw a fierce crowd to West Clare.
Both Lissycasey and Miltown have made their way through the league without key players. Miltown’s Conor and Eoin Cleary and Cormac Murray saw little league action due to their involvement with Clare at senior level. Eoin Cleary and Murray showed their value to the team when playing leading roles in the side’s semi-final win over St. Breckans, accounting for 2-11 of their 3-19 tally.
Clare’s exit from the All-Ireland SHC on Sunday means Conor Cleary could play his first football match for his club this year on Sunday.
Aaron Griffin, Connor Meaney and Shane Griffin missed their club’s league campaign due to their involvement with the Clare senior footballers. This was the same for Daire Culligan, Michael Kelly, Aaron Killeen, Diarmuid McMahon, Conor Hill and Aidan Weaver who were part of the Clare under 20 squad.
The under 20’s with the exception of Conor Hill who was injured, along with Meaney and Shane Griffin were available for the team’s final group game against Kilmurry Ibrickane, a game Aaron Griffin missed due to injury, an injury which will keep him out of Sunday’s final.
Griffin sustained that injury in the Munster semi-final against Kerry and aggravated it in the Tailteann Cup games against Offaly and Longford. Michael Kelly retired with a leg injury in the second half of Lissycasey’s final league game and, as a result, he is extremely doubtful for Sunday’s game.
Both clubs are under new management this season. Sean O’Brien is at the helm in Miltown and he was their goalkeeper in 2021 when the title last came to their club. There wasn’t any final that year because of COVID-19 but Miltown were crowned champions as they topped the table after the round robin stage. That win marked their eighth success in the competition, having previously won the title two years earlier in 2019 when they defeated Clondegad (1-4 to 0-6) in the final.
Lissycasey have captured this title on two occasions, the first in 2007 when they also won their only senior championship title. In 2024 Lissycasey won the league title for the second time, defeating Ennistymon in the decider.
When the sides met in the league back in mid-April, Lissycasey emerged with a three point win, 0-19 to 0-16.
Miltown must plan without defender Cormac Devitt for Sunday’s final as he is ruled out due to injury. “We have a few carrying knocks and we will make a final decision on their fitness nearer match time”, manager O’Brien told The Clare Echo.
“It’s great to have a game like this before the championship, it’s better than trying to be finding challenge games. We have a lot of young lads coming through and this helps us to blend them in with the regulars. It would mean a lot to them to win this and it would be a big boost ahead of the championship”, the Miltown boss said.
Lissycasey manager David Considine told The Clare Echo “it is good to have games like this coming up to the championship. The hardest thing ahead of the championship is to get meaningful games. Managers from many counties find it frustrating to get challenge games, it’s very very difficult. This is good preparation ahead of the championship When you get to a final you want to be competitive and it would be nice to win, We haven’t won many. If the performance is good the result will take care of itself”.
