Online Club Hurling Championship coverage brought to you by the Temple Gate Hotel—home to Chapter 24 Gastropub and Gate 96 Restaurant.
*Shane McGrath was in scintillating form for Feakle.
FEAKLE were resounding ten point winners over O’Callaghans Mills laying down a marker in the opening round of the TUS Clare SHC.
Feakle 0-28
O’Callaghans Mills 0-18
Venue: Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg, Ennis
It was the county champions of 2024 who inflicted a first defeat in Clare on the Mills since October 2024 and it was a comprehensive one.
Since their relegation two seasons ago, the Mills forged a winning run to bounce out of the second tier at the first attempt winning all six games and they followed this up in 2026 by prevailing in ten of ten outings to lift the Clare Cup. Adding to their woes was the dismissal of Conor Cooney on fifty one minutes but fortunately for them it was for a second bookable offence meaning he will be available for their second round.
League and championship proved to be worlds apart as Feakle collected a valuable two points in what will be a competitive Group 3 where any team is capable of ending up in the quarter-finals and equally the relegation battle.
Shane McGrath excelled for Feakle hitting 0-19, more than the entire Mills side. Adam Hogan completely marshalled the threat of Seán Boyce who was substituted before the final whistle while Ronan O’Connor’s return from the United States saw him serve as a powerful addition in the middle of the field.
Having been dogged by injury in last year’s title defence, there seemed to be an extra determination to make up for lost time as Ger Conway’s side led from start to finish accentuated by a metronomic scoring masterclass from McGrath.
One does wonder what O’Callaghan’s Mills’ plan for Feakle’s talisman was as McGrath appeared to have the freedom of Cusack Park to wreak havoc and dismantle the powerful wave of momentum that Sean Doyle’s side had built up.
Aidan O’Gorman sat back in a defensive anchor role but was largely redundant as McGrath picked off the Mills from distance and the mere fact that he scored 19 points and Feakle amassed the highest points tally of the entire first round shows how ill-advised that tactic turned out to be. More than that though, Feakle’s ravenous pack hunting which was also a feature of the Mills’ Clare Cup form was only evident on one half of the divide.
And yet while seven McGrath points, five of which came from play, had boosted a wind-assisted Feakle to a 0-13 to 0-09 lead by the 24th minute, the Mills would still have been hugely content with that position thanks in the main to a four point haul from Bryan Donnellan.
Feakle upped the ante for the remainder of the half though, with Shane McGrath converted four placed balls to stretch the gap to seven by the break at 0-17 to 0-10.
Half-time couldn’t come soon enough for a surpassingly lacklustre O’Callaghan’s Mills to regroup and re-energise but unfortunately for last year’s inaugural Premier Intermediate champions, nothing much changed tactically or narratively on the resumption.
Instead, the lethal McGrath extended Feakle’s cushion to nine and while it was the Mils that craved a goal to kickstart their challenge in earnest, the 2024 senior winners were desperately unlucky not to make the breakthrough themselves at the turn of the final quarter.
A trademark Feakle move saw Eibhear Quilligan’s puck-out fielded by Oisin Donnellan and instinctively hand passed into the path of Shane McGrath to bear down on goal, only for goalkeeper Killian Nugent to come to the rescue.
Two minutes later, Nugent surpassed that feat by tipping away and even more powerful Martin Daly attempt but even those relieving saves couldn’t spark a subdued Mills into life.
There was still nine points separating the sides when Cooney got his marching orders for a late tackle on Oisin Donnellan, leaving the Mills to strive for damage limitation while a rampant Feakle eased up to their biggest championship triumph since blitzing Crusheen at the last eight stage in their title lifting season two years previously.
If they can keep their key protagonists fit, they won’t be far away from another tilt at the Canon this year as well.
Scorers Feakle: S McGrath (0-19 10f 1’65), E Tuohy (0-2), O Donnellan (0-2), E Noonan (0-1), S Conway (0-1), O McGann (0-1), O Clune (0-1), M Daly (0-1)
Scorers O’Callaghans Mills: J Loughnane (0-10 8f), B Donnellan (0-4), K Nugent (0-2 1’65), S Cotter (0-1), C Murphy (0-1)
All photographs by Gerard O’Neill.
Feakle:
1: Eibhear Quilligan
4: Enda Madden
3: Killian Bane
2: Adam Hogan
5: Oisin Clune
6: Conn Smyth
7: Eoin Tuohy
21: Ronan O’Connor
9: Enda Noonan
10: Oisin Donnellan
11: Shane McGrath
13: Martin Daly
14: Owen McGann
8: Patrick Daly
12: Steven Conway
Subs:
15: Oisin O’Connor for Noonan (44)
20: Gary Guilfoyle for R O’Connor (49)
18: Diarmuid Bane for Daly (54) (inj)
17: Evan McMahon for Smyth (56)
19: Eoghan Daly for Tuohy (61)
O’Callaghans Mills:
1: Killian Nugent
2: Niall Melody
3: Conor Cooney
4: Keith Donnellan
5: Seán Cotter
6: Aidan O’Gorman
7: Aidan Fawl
8: Fionn Hickey
9: Cormac Murphy
20: Jacob Loughnane
11: Darragh Moroney
10: Conor Henry
13: Seán Boyce
14: Bryan Donnellan
15: Liam Murphy
Subs:
17: Colin Crehan for B Donnellan (40)
18: Cathal McNamara for Fawl (42)
19: Mark Pewter for Boyce (54)
12: Stephen Donnellan for Moroney (57)
24: Colm Cleary for Cotter (59)
Referee: Eoghan O’Leary (Whitegate)
