Éire Óg manager Eoin Fehily praises Clyda's strength after difficult time off the pitch

Éire Óg manager Eoin Fehily said Sunday’s McCarthy Insurance Group SAFC Group 3 Round 2 win over Clyda Rovers would be remembered for far more than football.

Before speaking about the 2-22 to 1-3 result in Grenagh, he reflected on the circumstances surrounding the fixture, which had been postponed two weeks earlier following a bereavement in the Clyda club.

Seán O’Connor, who was a key figure in the club, passed away suddenly.

“I suppose the win was the most important thing from a football aspect,” he said. 

“But going into today as well you have the important reminder that we all get caught up in championship and everything being the most important thing.

“But everything that’s going on off the pitch reminds you that the most important thing in life is life. 

"Fair play and commiserations obviously to Clyda, but an absolute massive show of appreciation and congratulations to the army and the warriors that came out here today for them. 

"It was incredible to see and it will definitely stay with me for a long time.” 

Once the game settled, Éire Óg delivered their most complete football performance of the campaign. Fehily said the extra week created by the postponement had been invaluable for a dual club navigating four consecutive championship weekends.

“Definitely,” he says. 

“It’s difficult as a dual club now with four championship weekends in a row, but again we got an extra week of prep and that’s the most important thing with that lack of time that we have.

“Everyone, even the lads that came on, added and improved us.

“That’s something we definitely wanted, not to showcase, but for ourselves we need to be building every single game.

“There were lads that came on today that didn’t look out of place, and we have more that didn’t get a run.” 

Both Éire Óg and Kilshannig are already through to the knockout stages, but Fehily dismissed any notion that the final round in two weeks’ time would be a dead rubber.

“As I said to the lads, we don’t focus on permutations,” he states. 

“Since coming in, what we’ve always been trying to do is just prepare for what’s in front of our face and don’t look past the moment.

“The next one is Kilshannig — that’s all we’re looking at. There are too many permutations in life to look past it.

“The most important thing is we want to win everything in front of our face, and that’s Kilshannig next for us.” 

Fehily was also asked to compare Sunday’s display to their opening round win over Bishopstown, where Éire Óg had been far less fluent. There was a stark improvement.

“The biggest message we had after Bishopstown is that we had something to build on, but we wanted to see more football.

“Everyone knows the first round of the championship — you’re that bit nervous, tense and everything else. I wanted the shackles off today and the lads did it.

“We didn’t want to go off script. Going off script would have just absolutely done away with eight months of work. 

"The most important thing is being brave — brave in possession, out of possession, demanding the ball, and when you have it you play the pass that you see. I thought the football that was played today after the first quarter was excellent.

“We haven’t been great in second halves this year — I can’t lie about that. So to keep it going and keep going for the second half was fundamentally important.” 

The return of key players made a difference, especially around the middle, including Cork footballer Darragh Clifford.

“Darragh’s fielding was absolutely exceptional,” Fehily said. 

“Everyone around the middle was exceptional. We were very dominant on our kick-outs and that’s something we always want to be good at.” 

Attention now turns to hurling, with a crucial tie against Bishopstown next Sunday in Blarney in the Co-Op SuperStores PIHC — effectively a relegation play-off semi-final.

“What happened last weekend with the defeat in hurling to Ballincollig — they got to distract themselves with going into football preparation this week.

“As a club man first, taking football away, we’ll be doing absolutely everything within the club to galvanise everyone.

“These lads, how many dual players going back into the cauldron next week against Bishopstown — I can guarantee all roads lead to Blarney in the club. We want to make a statement there and protect our status in the hurling. That’s the next job.”