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*Eoin Lahiffe of St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
TWO THIRDS of St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield team will be under the age of twenty one, with youth comes a sense of fearlessness which The Parish need to tap into.
There are championships and then there are championships within championships. That’s perhaps evidenced most by a treacherous Group 1 that sees perennial title contenders Ballyea, Clonlara and Inagh/Kilnamona all gunning for the prestigious Canon Hamilton trophy whereas for a fresh-faced St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield, taking the scalp against any of those three would be viewed as a real step in the right direction.
After all, since bouncing back to the top flight following intermediate success in 2022, three consecutive winless group campaigns have made the threat of championship relegation much more pertinent than championship elation.
Consequently, having been handed a draw of three teams that the Parish arguably would have avoided if they could have handpicked it themselves, breaking that unwanted group record doesn’t get any easier for Damien Kennedy and his management team in their second season either. “You’d take an awful lot of learnings from year one. While we would have known a lot of the players previously, you only get to really know the real personality of these lads as you go through the year in the trenches with them”.
The Parish’s biggest ongoing issue is that for all their undoubted emerging talent, they always seem a young squad that lacks an experienced spine to help assimilate them to senior level.
“You need that experience especially with the amount of young players coming through. Unfortunately last year we lost the two Hannans [Tom and Jack] and this year we saw Cian Barron play for New York and we’re also after losing Darragh O’Shea who has gone to the US following a work promotion. And it’s not that he’s transferred to another club in the US, he might be available to us later in the championship but for the moment he’s a massive loss because he’s 26 or 27 now and was last year’s senior football captain so he’s the type of player needed to backbone the team.
“We’ve lots of talent in this panel, it’s just that the majority are very young at the top level. The bottom line is that we have to get the best from what we have but at the same time we know exactly who Clonlara are, what they’ve done and who they’ve got. We know Inagh/Kilnamona and the conveyor belt of talent that they possess and we’re all well aware of Ballyea, a hugely successful club with a vast amount of experience. So we‘re fully aware what’s in front of us but we’re just going to have to go and give the best account of ourselves. Look, if it’s good enough, it’ll be good enough and if it’s not, it’s still about developing these young players,” Kennedy told The Clare Echo.
The latest chapter of that development path commences in Shannon on Saturday evening when facing 2023 champions Clonlara (6pm). And having almost pulled off an opening shock against Crusheen in last year’s opener, Kennedy and Co. will be gunning to produce a similar rallying call this weekend.
“We knew at the full-time whistle against Crusheen last year that the result would haunt us and it did. They are the thin margins in the senior championship, that first round win is crucial as if you can get off the mark with a win, you can then begin to play with a bit of freedom, knowing that another is probably going to get you through to the next stage.
“There’s probably going to be a lot expected from the likes of Tom [O’Connor] and Graham [Ball] following their brilliant Munster and All-Ireland Under 20 successes this year but you have to be realistic too and remember that Graham is only 18 and Tom is just 19. In fact, two-thirds of our team will be under the age of 21 so we’re under no illusion as to where we are in the pecking order and what’s expected of us but there’s a way bigger picture in Barefield than just gunning for a quarter or semi-final. It really isn’t all about that, it’s more about development and ultimately keeping this group together to the age of 24 or 25 as if you continue to lose players for whatever reasons, you’ll be back to square one.
“We know that we’ll be totally written off in this group and from the achievements of the other three, that’s understandable. But for us, the youth excuse can only be thrown around so often so our players are going to have to grow up quickly and realise that we can’t keep going around in circles.”
St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield Factfile:
Management: Damien Kennedy (Manager); Damien Ryan (Coach); Sean Duggan, Sean Flynn, Tommy Lee, David Morrissey (Selectors); Michael Frawley (S&C): Cathal O’Sullivan (Physio); Sean Conroy (Kit Man); Kevin Frehill, Stephen Twomey (Stats); David Culligan (Video)
Captain: Adam Mungovan
Key Player: Davie Conroy
One to Watch: Graham Ball
Fresh Blood: Graham Ball, Cian Breslin, Leon Talty
Departure Gate: Cian Barron (abroad), Darragh O’Shea (emigrated); Jarlath Colleran (Retired)
Treatment Table: Darragh Ball (MCL), Eoin ‘Ogie’ Fanning (Hamstring)
Titles Won: 5 (1954, 1958, 1998, 1999, 2001)
Last season’s run: Defeated Corofin in relegation Play-Off Final
Schedule
Round 1 v Clonlara at Wolfe Tones GAA, Shannon (Saturday, July 25th) 6pm
Round 2 v Inagh-Kinamona at Ruan (Saturday, August 8th) 5pm
Round 3 v Ballyea at Fr. Murphy Memorial Park Newmarket-on-Fergus (Saturday, August 22nd) 4.30pm
Championship power ranking (1=unlikely winners, 10=strong contenders): 4
