Unique pairing for Cusack Cup final

GOING into last Sunday’s Cusack Cup (Division 1 football league) semi-finals, Miltown St Joseph’s and Shannon Gaels had no shortage of incentive. Neither were given much chance against hot favourites Doonbeg and Kilmurry-Ibrickane, so they had nothing to lose.

While both results will go down as shocks, there is no doubting the merit of either side’s win. Both Miltown and the Gaels were hugely impressive in beating Doonbeg and Kilmurry-Ibrickane and their form was such that expectations are now high that they will deliver a great final.
It’s 15 years since the Cusack Cup last rested on the sideboard of Miltown GAA and on that occasion, Michael Nealon had the honour of accepting the cup as the team captain.
He is now in his first year as team manager. That victory marked the club’s sixth success in this competition, the other wins having come in 1942, 1949, 1950, 1960 and 1963.
Nealon’s fellow selectors, Martin Flynn and John O’Malley were also part of the 1995 title-winning squad.
Shannon Gaels won the last of their three titles 34 years ago in 1976. They beat Doonbeg in the final, a feat they also achieved a year earlier, while their first success in this competition was in 1971, also against Doonbeg.
They, like their opponents, have a management team that is in its first season. Peter O’Connell is the manager, with Michael Crehan and Michael Madigan as his selectors. O’Connell served as a selector in 2007 and 2008 when Aidan Moloney from Kilmurry-Ibrickane was in charge.
The season didn’t start well for the Gaels as they lost their opening game in the competition to Clondegad, who had eight points to spare (1-13 to 0-8). They won their next five games, beating Miltown, Liscannor, Cooraclare, St Senan’s and Éire Óg, by which stage they had secured a place in the semi-final.
They lost their last two games to Doonbeg and Kilmurry-Ibrickane but two weeks after suffering a 12-point loss to Kilmurry (0-6 to 1-15), they beat them by five points in Sunday’s semi-final.
Miltown lost their opening two games in the league to Éire Óg and to Sunday’s final opponents but they got a great lift when they defeated All-Ireland club finalists Kilmurry-Ibrickane in early April, becoming the first Clare side to beat the Kilmurry men in quite a while.
After a win over Liscannor, they lost to Kilkee and Cooraclare and looked to be drifting away from a place in the play-offs but a win over Clondegad kept their hopes alive.
Heading into their final outing against Doonbeg, they were in the position that defeat could see them relegated but they came out on top and finished up in the semi-final. They confirmed their superiority over the Magpies in Sunday’s semi-final.
“Miltown played excellent football against Doonbeg and what was most impressive was the way they finished. They were five points down with about 10 minutes left and it looked over but they scored 1-3, without reply, to win it. That shows their level of fitness and self-belief,” according to Gaels manager, Peter O’Connell.
“The fact that they have beaten Doonbeg in successive games underlines the progress that Miltown have made. They play a nice brand of open football but they defend, tackle and track with serious intensity.
“Players like Eoin Curtin, Michael Barry and the Kellys played great stuff against Doonbeg,” he added.
The Gaels boss agreed that “beating Kilmurry was definitely good for our confidence and hopefully we can bring that forward to Sunday. If either ourselves or Miltown had qualified for the final that would have been surprising enough but for both of us to qualify is definitely a bit of a shock. I think both of us are going into it on an even keel, given that neither of us have been there for a good while. It’ll be a great boost for whoever wins it,” he added.
“We have knocked on the door for a couple of years and this is a bit of progress in the right direction,” said Miltown manager Nealon.
“Our targets were more focussed on the championship and we seemed to be going a bit astray during the cup campaign.
“We re-focussed very much in the last few weeks. The eight-week gap in the championship could have gone any way and we are lucky to have made the best use of it,” he added.
He is under no illusions about the task his charges face on Sunday evening.
“The Gaels beat us by eight points in the league. We conceded three goals and they played us off the field in our own patch. We found it hard to cope with them, especially at midfield and also with their forward play. They closed the game out very well and we made no inroads whatsoever,” he said.
“We will have our hands full to turn that result around. It was the heaviest defeat we suffered in the league. They will have great confidence after beating Kilmurry. The pace of that game was very good. The Gaels played very well and we certainly have our hands full but we aim to compete,” Nealon said.
He will again have to plan without the likes of Desi Mollohan, Shane Curtin and Kevin Burke.
“We have never had a full, injury-free squad but we got on with it and the players got on with it,” the Miltown manager added.
This season, the form shown by Shannon Gaels has been that bit more consistent but Miltown have been improving with each outing in recent weeks.
In the Kelly brothers, Gordon and Graham, team captain Eoin Curtin, Enda Malone, Joe Curtin and Conor O’Loughlin, they have some excellent players who are sure to cause problems for any opposition.
John Paul O’Neill, Tomás Madigan, Michael Coughlan, Keith Ryan and Barry Toner all have key roles to play for Shannon Gaels.
It has the ingredients of a cracking tie, at the end of which there should be little between the sides.
Opinions seem to be divided as to who will be lifting The Clare Champion sponsored competition on Sunday evening but on the evidence to date and their impressive win over Kilmurry-Ibrickane, the nod goes to Shannon Gaels to bridge that 34-year gap.