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*Darragh McDonagh. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ST JOSEPH’s Miltown have put together the strongest panel at their disposal, it has reignited ambition and belief within their ranks of having a big say in determining the final destination of Jack Daly.
Successive quarter-final exits have left St Joseph’s Miltown outside of the top four, an extra time semi-final loss to St Breckans saw them miss out on reaching the 2023 decider.
Crowned champions in 2019 to win two titles on the bounce, Miltown have not reached the county final since then. Talk of marching behind the Tulla Pipe Band is not on the horizon just yet but there’s a renewed focus as evident by their Cusack Cup campaign where they showed a hunger to win every game, going as far as the final when Lissycasey prevailed after extra time.
Seán O’Brien was goalkeeper on the Clare SFC winning Miltown sides of 2015, 2018 and 2019. Taking on the top job in the club was always an ambition, he admitted. “I wanted the job, I’ve been involved with every age group in the club from U12 to U21. It came up a bit sooner than I expected but I still felt now was the time to go for it”.
Eoin Cleary and Cormac Murray will be central to their game plan. “I feel we have really strong forwards, we want to work on getting the ball from back to front quickly, to try and get more space for 1v1s and create opportunities for our best players to go 1v1”.
From his days as the netminder Seán was well able to give out instructions to his teammates, now in the guise of manager he said the transition from playing alongside to managing has been smooth. “There’s a lot of bodies to manage, we’ve a very big squad, our juniors and seniors train together, we’re all one squad is how we look at it. We were organising a lot of challenge matches and played a lot of games at the start of the year to give lads an opportunity”.
Experienced players such as Brian Curtin and Eoin O’Brien (Tayto) have returned to the fold this season while former Clare defender Gordon Kelly was back from the get-go for the Cusack Cup. “I want the best players in Miltown that are eligible to be part of the squad, whether they are seventeen or around forty years of age didn’t bother me. I wanted every available lad to be available to play for Miltown. I didn’t have much convincing to bring Tayto or Brian Curtin back, they were mad for road, I didn’t have to twist any arms, everyone has been mad to put their shoulder to the wheel”.
Oisin Looney who had been based in the Middle East as a teacher is now back in the country and available for selection for the entire Clare SFC. They will also be able to call on Conor Cleary who alongside Looney featured for Kilmaley as they began their Clare SHC campaign with a five point win over Newmarket-on-Fergus. “Our team isn’t settled yet, we’ve a lot of tough calls and close calls to make, it is a great problem to have but the hardest part of the job I’ve had to deal with is even thinking about who are likely to come on and who will start, figuring that out is the hardest part”.
Though they didn’t secure silverware in the Cusack Cup, O’Brien was pleased with their overall league campaign. “It was positive, we played thirty five different lads in the Cusack Cup, they got a taste of competitive football with some good wins and some not so good losses. It was a mixed bag in figuring out how we wanted to play but overall I was happy with how we performed and getting to the final was a nice bonus”.
Absent throughout the league was former Clare U20 Seán Neylon. He has returned home after spending a chunk of the summer in the United States. “He will be a possibility as we go on, he has been out for a long-time with a long-term injury, he has done everything he possibly can to get back and we hope to see him in action at some stage”.
Pitted against the most recent winners of the Jack Daly, Éire Óg and Cratloe plus the ever-dogged Doonbeg, there won’t be any facile outing for O’Brien as he begins his managerial reign in championship. “There’s no easy game in the group, there’s always two or three points between ourselves and Doonbeg either way, we haven’t the greatest of records versus Cratloe or Éire Óg in recent years but we want to compete and play against the best teams to find out where we are”.
Miltown and Doonbeg have faced off every year for the last four championship campaigns, the record stands 3-1 in favour of Miltown. “Both teams will have a mixture of a similar profile with some very experienced players and some very young players in action. It is always tight when we play regardless of the age or grade, I expect nothing different this weekend, I’ve been over underage teams that have played Doonbeg and you get nothing easy against them”.
St Joseph’s Miltown Factfile
Management: Seán O’Brien (manager), Paul Tubridy (selector), Maurice Reidy (selector), Danny McAlinden (selector), Derrick Morris (S&C)
Captain: Micheál Murray
Key Player: Eoin Cleary
One to watch: Conor Neylon
Fresh blood: Eoin O’Brien, Brian Curtin, David Barry, Conor Neylon, Oisin McCarthy, Paudí Killeen, James Hogan, Sean McMahon, Daxon Greenan, Andrew Skerritt.
Departures Gate: None
Treatment table: Mark Cunningham (achilles), Eoin Devanney (hand),
Titles won: 15 (1905, 1906, 1916, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1932, 1949, 1953, 1959, 1985, 1990, 2015, 2018, 2019)
Last season’s run: Knocked out in the quarter-finals 1-16 0-9 by eventual winners Éire Óg.
Schedule of games:
Round 1 vs Doonbeg on Saturday August 1st at 15:00 in Páirc Naomh Mhuire, Quilty
Round 2 vs Cratloe on Saturday August 15th at 17:00 in Páirc Finne, Corofin
Round 3 vs Éire Óg on Saturday August 29th at 15:00 in St Michael’s Park, Kilmihil
Championship power ranking (1=weak/unlikely winners, 10=strong contenders): 8
