*Cratloe’s Seán Collins. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CRATLOE’s bid to reclaim the Jack Daly from the tight grip of holders Éire Óg begins in earnest this weekend when they face the reigning champions in what is billed as the tie of the round.
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Cratloe Factfile
Management: Colm Collins (manager), Sean O’Dea (selector), Brian O’Connell (selector), Jody O’Connor (selector), Paul O’Sullivan (selector), Shane Markham (selector), Derry O’Donoghue (selector), Brian Carson (coach), Oscar O’Dwyer (S&C), Ger Crotty (physio)
Captain: TBC
Key player: Cathal McInerney
One to watch: Tadhg Lohan
Fresh blood: Marc O’Brien, Tadhg Lohan, Denis Mundy,
Departures Gate: Shane Neville (transferred)
Treatment table: Nobody completely ruled out.
Titles Won: 3 (2013, 2014, 2023)
Last year’s run: Eliminated in the semi-finals by Kilmurry Ibrickane.
Schedule of games: Round 1 vs Éire Óg on Friday July 18th in Cusack Park at 19:30
Round 2 vs Kildysart on Saturday August 2nd in Cusack Park at 17:00
Round 3 vs St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield in Clarecastle at 18:00
Championship power ranking (1=weak/unlikely winners, 10=strong contenders): 9
Colm Collins heads into his seventeenth season in charge of Cratloe’s top team. He oversaw their intermediate success in 2009 and has patrolled the line for their historic senior championship wins in 2013, 2014 and 2023.
In between, he has built a reputation as one of the most respected inter-county managers of this era having steered Clare’s rise from Division 4 in the National Football League to Division 2 where they narrowly missed out on promotion to the top tier and guided Clare to reach All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2016 and 2022 before stepping away as Banner boss in 2023.
Pitted alongside champions Éire Óg, Cusack Cup finalists St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield and Kildysart who defeated them in the second round of the 2023 championship, Cratloe are aware that Group 1 poses plenty of stiff tests.
There’s no tougher assignment than starting off against a high-flying Éire Óg this Friday evening in Cusack Park according to Colm Collins. “Éire Óg are the team to beat, they have strength in depth, it is not going to affect them to be down some players for this game because they are have a really good panel. We’ll know where we are from Friday night and that’s the beauty of championship”.
With three teams to qualify from Group 1, it eases the pressure, Collins said while flagging they don’t deserve to be in the knockout stages if they can’t be one of the three advancing sides. “It is a big help that three teams qualify. If you’re in a group of four and three come out to be perfectly honest if you don’t come out you don’t deserve to be in the championship, there’s no hard luck story then because it’s a simple enough case, if you can’t get out as one of the three teams then you deserve to be sitting at home for the knockout stages”.
Ex Clare players Kevin Harnett, Podge Collins, Cathal McInerney and Seán Collins all remain pivotal cogs in the Cratloe wheel and they are a team with plenty of life still in them, it is likely that six members of their side this weekend will have lined out when the club won their first senior championship in 2013. “I’d be very happy with the panel we have, I’m delighted to see young fellas coming through which we hadn’t in the past, the future is bright, a lot of the panel are on the older side but we’ve plenty of new young blood coming through”.
A three point defeat to Kilmurry Ibrickane in October ended Cratloe’s reign as champions. “We got to where we got to, we didn’t deserve to win the game, lots of little things can be tidied up on, hopefully we will do that. A lot of the games there’s very little between the teams, you have to have your stuff in order and hopefully we will this weekend,” Collins said when reflecting on last year’s campaign.
Preparations have been boosted by the addition of former Clare coach, Brian Carson to their management. “He’s an excellent coach, I was very lucky to get him, good coaches are hard to get especially those like Brian with inter-county experience, he is a really excellent coach and he is a lovely fella to boot, I’m delighted to have him with Cratloe”.
This will be his second full season in a row at senior level getting to solely focus on the club commitments given he is no longer Clare manager. “It’s a lot easier when you’ve only one thing to work on so you can devote your total attention to it, it is good from that point of view, it is great to see the lads doing well with Clare and hopefully Peter Keane stays on and continues the good work he has started”.
His time as Clare manager gave him an intimate knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the top players in the county, an advantage he no longer has for young players making the step-up to inter-county. “If you’ve a genuine interest then you’ve a genuine interest and you’re still going to the games and you’re watching out for these new kids. A lot of them are talented enough but it is always to see if they can tick the other boxes, have they the work ethic and attitude and that is what we see in inter-county, it isn’t always just the talented players”.
