Clare Senior Hurling Championship 2nd Round - Sunday 14th August 2022

Eire Og Inis 4-16 Scariff 2-16

The Eire Og senior hurlers secured their 1st win of the 2022 championship season with a hard-fought victory over the East Clare outfit, Scariff, down in the Sixmilebridge today. The match was played in muggy conditions with thunder-showers threatened by the met office.

Scariff opened the scoring through their inter-county star, Mark Rodgers but from then on, Eire Og just took over with both David Reidy and Shane O’Donnell in imperious form. The men in green from Scariff just had no answer for either Shane or David. In fact, the tackling on Shane would be worthy of the All-Blacks rather than the current GAA rule book. Danny Russell duly obliged with the resulting frees to put distance between the sides. All this pressure from the Townies was bound to tell with Shane hauled to the ground for a penalty which David Reidy duly dispatched. This was followed immediately by a goal from Mikey Moloney, resplendent with middle-eastern tan, at the end of a flowing passing move involving Gavin Cooney, David Reidy and Shane O’Donnell. Danny Russell then added a 3rd goal that would grace any highlight reel.

At this stage of the game, the question seemed to be how big a score would Eire Og prevail by. Inexplicably, the Townies took their foot off the gas and Scariff piled on a few scores to leave the men in red leading 3-7 to 0-9 at halftime.

With the resumption, David Reidy added a point while Shane Donnell tore through the Scariff like a hot knife through butter to add a 4th goal. Game over, right….but no, a Mark Rodgers goal and a deflected free to the net that left Philly Walsh stranded with only 3 points between the teams. Suddenly the Scariff crowd started to believe there might be something in this game for them. But a realignment in defense and the Eire Og backs took command again. This provided the platform for the Townies to storm forward and add the last few scores with excellent points from play from both David McNamara and young Oran Cahill. Game over 4-16 to 2-16 and 2 points on the board - the senior hurlers are up and running.

In the other group game today, Clooney-Quin had a big victory over Kilmaley to leave them top of the group with 4 points. Clooney-Quin are up next for the Eire Og senior hurlers in 2 weeks time.