Clare Senior Football Championship Preview – Éire Óg vs Lissycasey
Football is flying high in Éire Óg at the moment, as evidenced by:
1) Our senior footballers won the Garry Cup at a canter, beating Ennistymon in the recent final out in Cooraclare on a score line of 0-14 to 0-10. Cusack Cup football is assured for 2019! This was achieved having gone through the campaign with 7 victories and no defeats or draws. Okay, the opposition included intermediate teams like Kilrush, Kildysart, Coolmeen etc. but impressive victories away against Cratloe (in recent years a bogey team for the men in red & white) and the Parish, Doora-Barefield. Added to that, in the Garry Cup final, the seniors rebuffed senior side Ennistymon despite being a man down for 45 minutes of the game. Either way, as the saying goes….”you can only play what’s put in front of you”.
2) Our Junior A footballers won Division 4 of the league back in the sweltering heat with a resounding defeat of Michael Cusack’s with a great blend of youth and experience (that’s you Mikey Regan J). They followed this up with championship victories against Clooney-Quin, Meelick and last Saturday’s great victory over Kilmurry-Ibrickane of 1-14 to 0-5. KIB were a solid outfit only beaten by the eventual Junior A championship winners, Naomh Eoin, by a single point in last year’s championship semi-final and had hammered Meelick by a cricket score – 7-20 to 0-3 on the first day out of the championship. The Junior As are motoring nicely and a quarter final (against whom is TBD) awaits them next.
3) Our U21s recovered from an abysmal first half against Clondegad in the 1st round of the championship to beat them and resoundingly defeated KIB in the quarter finals last week. A semi-final against Naomh Eoin/O’Currys await the Townies in the semi-final.
ð With a few exceptions, our U21s are powered the same core bunch of young lads that are driving our senior and junior footballers forward.
4) Finally, our minors have recovered from an earlier defeat to beat a Shannon Gaels/Kilmihil combo convincingly recently.
This is all testament to the excellent coaching and grounding by our Éire Óg Academy where parents and current & former players toil every week to coach young boys and girls in the fundamentals of hurling and football. Huge kudos and shout-out to those coaches, without whom the success outlined above would not have been achieved! These are the ordinary every-day heroes of a club like Éire Óg.
Speaking of heroes, who will be our hero(es) on Saturday at 2 pm in Gurteen against Lissycasey? There is no doubt that this is the tie of the round. Lissycasey are not to be under estimated as we did back in 2015. Long time Townie fans will recall that the men in red & white were beaten by Cratloe in the 1st round of the championship in 2014 and faced Lissycasey in Cusack Park in the next round. The Townies responded convincingly by thrashing Lissycasey mercilessly before going to lose the county final that year to who else but….Cratloe. The following year, 2015, the Townies were beaten by a smash and grab raid by a single point by Ennistymon in the first round of the championship out in Milltown. Who was up next the following round only….Lissycasey. The Townie fans headed down to Clarecastle full confidence that the blip against Ennistymon would not be repeated and were looking for another crack at Cratloe in the later rounds. However, Lissycasey had learned from the previous year’s defeat and our earlier Ennistymon loss. Lissycasey had a clear game plan - 13 men behind the ball, frustrate Éire Óg and hit them on the break. Their plan worked, we got frustrated and they hit us on the break – Lissycasey won by 2 points in the end. They celebrated like they had just won the Jack Daly cup. While the slide for Éire Óg was complete - gone from county finalists in 2014 to relegation play-offs in 2015!
Well, you might say that was years ago and what’s it got to do with this week’s clash? It is to highlight the history between the clubs, I haven’t even mentioned the county final of 2006, the U21 semi-final epic in Milltown in 2015 or the close competition year-on-year between the clubs up through the age groups for the lads of the Dara Walsh, Conall O’Hanafin, Martin Darcy or Eimhin Courtney’s vintage. Remember, familiarity breeds contempt. There is history there and that’s what makes the GAA and club championships so compelling.
All of this history will come to fore this Saturday at 2 pm in Gurteen. Our senior footballers are on a roll at present, led by the free scoring Gavin Cooney, ably assisted by county stars, Eimhin Courtney, Conall O'Hanafin, Danny Griffin and Einne O’Connor. It is expected that Aaron Fitzgerald will be back from injury as he missed the Garry Cup final plus we can call upon the experience of Shane Daniels. But Lissycasey are not to be underestimated, they only narrowly missed out on the Cusack Cup semi-finals. Any Éire Óg fan that stayed around in Cooraclare a few weeks ago after the Garry Cup final will have seen the jump up in standard of play in the Cusack Final between KIB and Clondegad. A tight close game is expected. Like 2015, I fully expect this Lissycasey team to come out with a plan to get men behind the ball, frustrate Éire Óg and hit us on the break with forwards like Conor Finucane. Éire Óg (both team and fans) have to be patient, the lads have to stretch the packed defense, keep wide and try to break the defensive line(s) by fast movement of the ball out of defense. We have the potential scorers in Gavin Cooney and Eimhin Courtney et al but space will be at a premium. I’m sure Paul Madden and his management team aided by coach, Ger Keane, will have a plan or two. Patience from both the players and fans will be key.
As mentioned earlier, with the fine work being done in the Academy, it is imperative for a club of the size and stature of Éire Óg that we retain senior status in both hurling and football. This year, 2018, is going to be cut-throat in senior football with 5 clubs going down to intermediate, lose 2 games and you are gone. Hence there is a huge amount on the line in Saturday’s game. The pressure will be intense. Lose Saturday and effectively you are in relation playoff territory and as we know from 2015 & 2016, that is not pretty football territory. Win on Saturday and you are well on your way.
With that in mind, let’s get behind the men in red & white on Saturday, this is going to be a tight tense affair where all hands on the pump will be required. See you in Gurteen at 2 on Saturday!
Mike Brennan
