Home venue should help St Breckan’s

ST Breckan’s selector Francis Hawes is a proud clubman. He played at all levels for the Lisdoonvarna club and when his playing days ended, he turned his attention to serving as a mentor with a variety of club sides.
Having the opportunity to represent the county in the provincial championship is, according to Francie, a huge honour.
“It is a great day for our club. Our aim from the start of the year was to get back into senior ranks and this is a bonus. We want to represent Clare as good as we can and hopefully we can do that,” he said this week.
The North Clare side will take on their Tipperary counterparts, Kilsheelan-Kilcash, winners of their county title for the first time in 38 years last Saturday. The South Tipperary outfit are coached by former Clonmel and Tipperary footballer Frannie Kelly and they beat Rockwell Rovers in a replay, having already lost three finals in the past decade. Michael McHugh was their top scorer with 0-4 in their 0-11 to 0-9 victory last week.
Francie Hawes, Greg O’Leary, Sean Healy and Colin O’Callaghan, all former players with the North Clare club, are in charge of the team this year, while another former player with club and county, Neil Hawes, is the team trainer. O’Leary played up to last year but a back injury forced him into retirement, while Neil Hawes is another who would still be playing but for injury. He has, however, been able to play for a brief period in recent games as he continues his recovery from a serious knee injury.
The Clare champions have a number of injury problems as they face into this week’s game. Team captain Darragh Considine is a doubtful starter due to a knee injury, which has limited his training since their Clare final win over Clondegad.
His brother Raphael is ruled out due to a hand injury, while Robert Hawes, who missed the county final, is still on the injured list and his brother Mark will also be absent as he has emigrated to Australia.
Francie Hawes admitted this week, “We know little about our opponents on Sunday. We have trained for this game and we would love to progress to the next round of the championship.” The winners of Sunday’s game will play the Waterford champions in the provincial semi-final a week later.
The North Clare outfit will be looking to the experience of Denis O’Driscoll, Pat Nagle and Daniel Carey to give them the upperhand, while they will also be looking to Sean and Conor Cormican, John McDonagh, the Howley brothers, Sean Rouine and Stephen Tierney to inspire them.
Home advantage should be a help against a team that will be able to call on William Larkin, Naoise O’Cuineagain, Tommy Ryan, Adrian Walsh and John Roche.
The throw-in time is 2pm and Kerry’s Ger Lynch will be the referee.