*Éire Óg defenders Ciaran Russell and Liam Corry surround Kilmaley’s Éanna McMahon. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ÉIRE ÓG’s “fighting spirit” proved decisive in overcoming Kilmaley in a real semi-final battle to qualify for a first Clare SHC final since 2022.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Temple Gate Hotel.
Though not a game for the ages in terms of its hurling with just twenty eight scores over the hour, Saturday’s semi-final between Éire Óg and Kilmaley was a proper dogfight with no team yielding an inch. In what was a very even tie, the sides were level on seven different occasions over the hour.
Analysis can never compensate for spirit, Éire Óg manager Gerry O’Connor explained. “You can do all the homework and tactics you want but that came down to a dogfight and heart, spirit and character, real fighting spirit which is what we’ve been talking about. We knew Kilmaley were going to come at us, we saw the performances they have given all year, they have been phenomenal on breaking ball and coming off the shoulder, we had to meet them face on physically and on breaking ball, we didn’t do that well enough in the first half but we did it really well in the second half”.
Part of their tactics saw midfielder Darren Moroney and centre forward David Reidy trade places at the beginning of the game, the end result seeing Éire Óg raid for goal with twelve seconds on the clock. “We got a great start, Darren has a very good strike,” O’Connor acknowledged.
He continued, “It was an absolute dogfight, we got a great start, we went asleep a bit and they came into it, ultimately we knew at half time that we were in a really good position because we felt that we didn’t play at all, we felt there was definitely going to be opportunities for us albeit we were against the wind. I think Darragh Stack was outstanding, Fionan Treacy was excellent, all of our defence really stood up but our subs won vital balls in the last ten to fifteen minutes, it was a real panel performance which is what we were really thrilled about”.
At half time only one point separated the teams with Killmaley 0-7 1-3 in front. A defining third quarter followed from Éire Óg who outscored their opponents 0-7 0-2 in this period, Darren O’Brien and Oran Cahill both converting two points each in this period. “The message was very simply that we were losing a huge amount of breaking ball on our puckout and their puckout, we vowed that we would fight for breaking ball in that second half,” Gerry said of what was the focus within their dressing room at half-time.
Conor Cleary struck for goal on fifty minutes to give Kilmaley the lead for the first and only time in the second half. Éire Óg’s response was impressive as they kept their opponents scoreless for the remainder of the game and struck three Danny Russell placed balls to seal the win. “We’ve been talking about that all year, there is going to be chaos and setbacks, you have to handle them and get on with it. It was a misfortunate mistime by Darren, ultimately it made us a better team because you’re going to have setbacks and you have to get over those setbacks”.
O’Connor was a selector to Matt Shannon in 2022 when Éire Óg lost out by a point to Ballyea in what was their last county final. He said they are delighted to be back in the showpiece event of Clare hurling. “We vowed after 2022, we brought on no sub in 2022, since we’ve been involved since 2022 all we wanted was to build a panel because you have to have subs to turn things around in the last quarter and in the second half in general”.
