*Conor O’Brien charges out of the St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield defence. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
TWISTS and turns lay ahead in the Clare senior football championship but St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield are delighted to have passed the first junction with a win under their belts.
In a tight affair in Shannon, The Parish prevailed over Corofin on a score of 1-11 0-12 in a repeat of the 2020 Clare IFC final.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield boss Donagh Vaughan stated, “We’re delighted with the winning start, the first round is a very important game for both teams, we’ve two other hard teams in the group but it was all about the first round and we got over it today”.
Playing with the aid of the breeze in the first half, Doora/Barefield led by only two points, a margin that didn’t reflect how strong the elements were. “To be honest we felt we weren’t far enough ahead in the first half, it was a very wind, a strong wind but a hard wind to play with, we regrouped at half-time and realised we weren’t happy with our workrate but everyone got stuck in, we repositioned a few players and the chance came we got our goal and defended hard then, Corofin pushed forward but we just managed to hold out, there was balls kicked off the line at the very end. These teams know each other very well, there is never anything between them and it was the same pattern that it always takes on”.
Lengthy deliberations were held by the Doora/Barefield management prior to entering the dressing room. Donagh gave an insight into what they were discussing, “First of all the focus was that we were two points up and playing into a strong wind, we made positional changes to maximise our defence and the message was to be able to attack at pace when we did turnover ball and get our runners onto it, it was a case of dropping a few positions and getting our best men in possession, if we turn over a ball then we’d have been able to attack very quickly”.
Crusheen’s Oisin O’Donnell in his first Clare SFC tie finished the hour with 1-01 to his name, the goal proving decisive in the outcome. “Oisin played with us all the way up at underage, he wasn’t with us last year but he came back in this year and we’re delighted to have him back, he is a great athlete, a fit man from his Clare U20 campaign, getting more football into that guy because he is a very talented lad”.
Full-back Conor O’Brien has experience of playing in the SFC but was an absentee from their team last year, his return was a welcome addition to the heart of their defence. “Conor is our most experienced man at 28 years of age, he is guiding these young lads and doing a great job at it”.
Vaughan added, “St Breckan’s are next now, we’re delighted with a first round win and we’ll go back to training and take it from there”.
“This hasn’t came overnight, this is three years of hard work and we have now turned over semi-finalists from last year in Corofin who are a great side, there will be twists and turns in this group yet but at the end of the day we have two points on the board and that is what matters”.
