The coming weekend could be defined as the biggest of the year for St Josephs Miltown at senior and Junior A level. Both are in championship defining action on Sunday evening in Ennistymon. The Seniors face Kilmurry Ibrickane at 5:15pm with the Junior A game versus Ennistymon to follow at 6:45. The permutations due to the new scoring difference systme introduced this year are too complicated to go into here, safe to say the best chance of progressing to 1/4 final action are to win both games.
The week is off to a positive start with the minor side recording a 4-14 to 1-3 victory over the North Clare amalgamation of Liscannor/Michael Cusacks/Tubber/Kilfenora. There is a now a break unfortunately until after the All Ireland minor final which is making the campaign very disjointed.
The Junior A side will hope to progress to the 1/4 final but will face a tough challenge against Ennistymon who could be still alive provided Naomh Eoin beat Meelick on the Saturday.
The Senior game does not need any hyping-up save to say, a massive challenge awaits against this years All Ireland club finalists. The following is the preview of the game from this week's Clare Champion. Best of luck to both teams on Sunday!
Before Miltown beat Doonbeg in the semi-final of the Cusack Cup and subsequently won it, they wouldn’t have been given any chance of defeating Kilmurry-Ibrickane in their final championship group game. The landscape has changed significantly in recent weeks however, and the Clare and Munster champions will prepare for their neighbourly Group 4 battle knowing that if they are not ready, Miltown have what it takes to beat them in Ennistymon at 6.15pm on Sunday evening.
What might soften Kilmurry’s approach is their knowledge that, unless they are hammered, they will still make the quarter-finals. Miltown know that they must win to remain in control of their own destiny.
So far, Kilmurry have won both their group games against Kilkee and Liscannor, while Miltown lost to Liscannor but impressively defeated Kilkee last time out.
If Miltown lose, they need Kilkee to defeat Liscannor and hope that scoring averages help the Cusack Cup holders into the last eight and a meeting with a team from Group 1, which includes Cratloe, Doora-Barefield and Ennistymon.
Michael Barry played outstanding football against Kilkee two weeks ago, while Miltown also had excellent displays from John Meade, Gary Egan and Eoin Curtin. Conor O’Loughlin is having a great year in goals, while Graham and Gordon Kelly added real steel to the Miltown rearguard.
Under Martin Keavey, Martin Cahill and now Seán Dempsey, Kilmurry are still the team to beat in Clare. Beaten in the March 17 All-Ireland club final, Kilmurry are chasing three in a row, something that the club has never achieved. Although they didn’t exactly torment the umpires with a succession of scores against Liscannor a fortnight ago, Kilmurry still won and all but secured their place in the quarter-final with a match to spare.
Players such as Declan Callinan, the O’Dwyer’s, the Hickeys, Stephen Moloney and Enda Coughlan know that they are now just six weeks away from county final day on October 3. If they can build up some steady momentum, they will be very difficult to stop.
First though they wouldn’t mind calling a halt to Miltown’s recent gallop and in the process help to end their championship season. As long as Kilmurry are focused and ready for a big battle, they should see off Miltown.
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