*Brian Shanahan. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
SEVEN-TIME Clare SFC winner Brian Shanahan will return for a second season as manager of the Doonbeg senior footballers. BRIAN SHANAHAN will return for a second season as manager of the Doonbeg senior footballers.
Shanahan is in his second stint in charge of Doonbeg and he will be continuing in the role for the 2026 season, a decade on from his first tenure as manager.
Ex Clare midfielder, David Russell will be involved for his fourth season as Doonbeg coach. A two-time Clare SFC winner with St Senan’s Kilkee, Russell resides in Doonbeg and was brought into the Magpies management by Shanahan’s predecessor John Keane. He also spent two years as part of the Kilmurry Ibrickane senior football management after two years as Cooraclare manager.
Former Doonbeg footballer, Brian Dillon remains part of their coaching ticket. The secondary school teacher was manager of the Kilmihil side crowned Clare IFC champions in 2023.
John Killeen continues as a selector in Shanahan’s set-up with Shane McNamara returning as S&C. Liam Roche joins the backroom team with responsibility for statistics.
During his first term as manager, Brian led the Magpies for their campaigns in 2015, 2016 and 2017 when they reached the quarter-finals in two of these three seasons.
Winners of the Clare SFC on eighteen occasions, Doonbeg have not reached the knockout stages of the championship since 2019.
Pitted in Group 2 of the Clare SFC last season, Doonbeg began their campaign with a one point loss to Ennistymon in what was the fifth meeting in seven years between the sides.
They recovered in the second round, a Tadhg Lillis goal on sixty three minutes forced a 1-12 0-15 draw with Lissycasey. In a derby showdown with Kilmihil in the final round, they emerged 2-13 2-11 victors, Gavin O’Shea bagging both goals with David Tubridy and Darragh Burns kicking 0-8 and 0-3 respectively pushing them into the last nine.
Their run ended in the preliminary quarter-finals when losing 1-12 0-11 against St Joseph’s Miltown in what was their third defeat in as many seasons to Miltown.
Last year’s captain Mikie Tubridy has been called up to Paul Madden’s provisional county panel alongside James Killeen joining Darragh Burns who was part of the Clare squad in 2024. Eamon Tubridy who was first-choice goalkeeper for Clare last season will miss the majority of the Garry Cup.
Reflecting on his first year back as Doonbeg manager, Brian said it was a campaign of “improvement”. He stated, “We should have got something out of the Ennistymon game, I know we got something out of the Lissycasey game, it was improvement, we would have loved to been in the quarter-final draw because we’d have loved to play any of the teams we’d have been up against because I don’t think they would have liked to play us. We have five young lads to come into the team next year which will freshen things up, hopefully everyone else will stay on”.
For him, their second half showing against Ennistymon in the first round was a costly period to stop them from reaching the quarter-finals. “Going back to our second half performance against Ennistymon, there was just a kick of the ball in it, it was only a kick of the ball in it against Lissycasey, we weren’t far away from a quarter-final spot but that is the way it goes”.
