*Brendy Rouine. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
ENNISTYMON’s battling qualities have been praised by manager Ger Quinlan as they prepare to take on the reigning county champions.
A spirited second half showing from Ennistymon saw them come from six points down against Doonbeg to claim victory in the opening round of the TUS Clare SFC and the North Clare side are determined to bag successive victories when they face Cratloe in Cusack Park on Sunday.
They were back in Hennessy Memorial Park in Miltown Malbay for the championship opener, the same venue where they only kicked two points in the entire hour for the Cusack Cup final loss to Lissycasey. They had two points on the board in the opening half of round one but Quinlan said they stayed composed. “We didn’t panic I won’t lie, there was a nice bit of a gale in it and we know the character that is in our dressing room that the lads were never going to give up and they were never going to die, that is what we expected from them and we got it in spades”.
Standing on the same pitch in September 2022, Quinlan’s predecessor Mark Shanahan emphasised the word resilience in the aftermath of their third round victory over Doonbeg that year, the 1-8 0-9 result sent them through to the quarter-finals whereas entering additional time of that game they were not going to qualify, they ended up contesting the county final that year.
Quinlan said, “It’s (resilience) still there, that hasn’t left the camp, that resilience is there, these boys will never give up, that is one of our traits and they will always stand by that. That time we were lucky to come out of it, it could have been a call either way”.
Having Brendy Rouine and Diarmuid Fahy back on the field for Ennistymon has been a big lift, the former Clare midfielder said. “There was lads out there that hadn’t played in a long time, it was good to get these lads on the field together, a few of those boys hadn’t played on the field together for a year and a half so that was the main thing for us, what we’ll call the rusty diesel is gone off them but we know the challenge that is ahead, Cratloe got a win under their belts and they are next for us”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, he described the Doonbeg game as a character building win. “We will build from that, hopefully we’ll have some learnings too because it wasn’t all good in that second half either, we have a lot to work on too”.
Adjusting and getting the match-ups right were important, he said when speaking of the first half damage caused by Darragh Burns who kicked four points. “He was causing us problems, we switched the man on him, he got four points in the first half and he was causing us problems but we gathered the lads in at half time and made sure we got our match-ups right, it worked out and we’re delighted”.
