*Seán Crowley. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
REIGNING intermediate champions Kilmihil are determined to show they belong in the senior ranks.
After a fifteen point loss to Lissycasey in the opening round of the Clare SFC, Kilmihil are back in action against one of the leading contenders to lift the Jack Daly, Éire Óg.
Suspension ruled Dan Keating out of the first round but the former Clare panellist is eligible to line out on Sunday in Cusack Park.
Keating’s return is a big plus, manager Mickey Doran flagged. “We’ve Dan Keating coming back into the team the next day which will be a big help, we’ve to knuckle down, we know where the gaps were there, they (Lissycasey) played with a lot more intent than we did, they brought a lot more intensity and those are the things we need to work on”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Doran insisted that despite the margin of their opening round loss that Kilmihil are more than capable of competing in the top tier. “People are going to say that but we don’t subscribe to that, this is where we feel we belong, we think we’re well able to compete with these teams, it’s about fifteen to eighteen lads turning up and putting in a full game but when you’re playing with only five or six really turning up then it is going to be difficult. People will say that and that is what people are thinking but within our own camp this is where we belong and it is about bouncing back and showing that the next day”.
Reflecting on the first round, he said, “We’re feeling like we didn’t turn up at all. It’s funny, you can have different emotions after games especially after you lose them but it is one of disappointment today more than anything because we’ve a lot of work done, we had a level of confidence coming into this but not enough lads turned up and played the full game”.
Part of that ‘not turning up’ was going thirty nine minutes without score. “It is one of the things we need to focus on, we’re going to come up against teams that drop men back behind the ball, it’s hard running breaking through the lines to counter against that, I think that’s really where we didn’t turn up today, we didn’t have enough people doing that”.
Having attended the first round tie between Éire Óg and Kilmurry Ibrickane, he is expecting a tough contest in Cusack Park. “Two good teams, it was a tit for tat game, a very physical game, that is going to be a focus and again it is being able to break teams down and get through defensive lines, that comes with hard running and that is what we will be focused on”.
