2022 Clare Senior Football Championship Final – Éire Óg Ennis 0-9 Ennistymon 0-6

Éire Óg Ennis defeated Ennistymon by 0-9 to 0-6 in the Clare Senior Football Championship Final on Sunday October 30th at Cusack Park Ennis.

Captain Cooney steers Éire Óg to defence of Clare title

Report by Joe Ó Muircheartaigh for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Clare SFC Final: Éire Óg 0-9 Ennistymon 0-6

It will be another winter of content for Éire Óg’s footballers as they became the first team from the county capital to successfully defend the senior title for nearly 75 years by easing to a three-point win before 4,608 at Clare headquarters.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective as the champions showed much more ambition than their opponents to put the disappointment of losing last week’s hurling final behind them with a controlled performance that showed their experience at this level.

After building up an interval lead of 0-3 to 0-1 they opened up in the second half to kill off a contest in which Ennistymon didn’t show enough urgency going forward to make a real contest of it.

Captain Gavin Cooney showed the way throughout, with his haul of 0-6 crowning a stellar year that saw him top the championship scoring charts as well as lifting the coveted Jack Daly trophy for the second time.

He opened the scoring after two minutes with a point after calling a mark, while he also added a free after Ikem Ugwueru had a good point from play after 11 minutes. That Ennistymon’s only shot at goal in the first half was a free put over in the 20th minute by Brendy Rouine told its own story.

They did improve on the turnover, but couldn’t narrow the gap as two more Cooney points and another from Mark McInnerney helped the champions move 0-7 to 0-3 clear by the three-quarter stage.

Sean Rynne and Seán Rouine did get good scores inside the last ten minutes, but by then it was too late as Éire Óg kept them at arm’s length thanks to good points by Aidan McGrath and Cooney to ensure a deserved success.

Scorers for Éire Óg: G Cooney (0-6, 4f, 2m), I Ugwueru (0-1), M Mc Inerney (0-1m), A McGrath (0-1).

Scorers for Ennistymon: B Rouine (0-2f), C Rouine (0-2, 1m), S Rynne (0-1), S Roiuine (0-1).

Éire Óg: S Daniels; M Doherty, A Fitzgerald, R Lanigan; C Russell, A McGrath, É O’Connor; D McNamara, D O’Neill; N McMahon, I Ugweuru, O Cahill; G Cooney (Capt), M McInerney, P Talty
Subs: J Collins for Talty (44), C O’Halloran for McMahon (55), D Griffin for Cahill (63).

Ennistymon: N Sexton; C McMahon, A Ralph (Capt), J Rouine; L Cotter, C O’Reilly, J Guyler; D McNamara, B Rouine; C Rouine, E Rouine, T Hogan; S Rouine, D Fitzgerald, S Rynne
Subs: B McNamara for Hogan (Half-Time), D Fahy for Cotter (41), L Healy for Guyler (48), R Barry for E Rouine (53).

Referee: C Maguire