Paul Madden’s Men have retained the Clare Senior Football Championships for the first time in Eire Óg’s history with the town club last achieving the accolade under the banner of ‘Ennis Faughs’ in 1948.
Captain Gavin Cooney opened the scoring for the Townies inside the opening two minutes after a precision pass from Philip Talty found his captain on the twenty-metre line who made no mistake converting from the resulting mark.
Both sides employed the use of a blanket defensive throughout the contest which resulted in scores coming few and far between , with Ikem Ugwerru’s effort for the champions on eleven minutes providing the only score from open play in the first half.
Indeed the contest was twenty minutes old before Ennistymon issued their first score of the day with Brendan Rouine converting from his second placed ball.
A Gavin Cooney free on twenty-three minutes rounded off the first half shootout as the sides departed at 0-03 to 0-01 at the interval.
The contest gradually raised its intensity and in stark contrast to the opening period, spectators were treated to three points in five minutes on the restart with Gavin Cooney converting from placed balls either side of a terrific mark kicked by Sean Rouine for Ennistymon.
The North Clare magpies had an opportunity to level the tie shortly afterwards ,when newly honoured hurling All-Star David Fitzgerald teed up Joey Rouine however Shane Daniels in the Town goal showed all his experience to stand strong and force the effort out for a forty-five.
The sides then traded scores in contrasting fashion with Cillian Rouine and Seán Rynne kicking sublime scores from open play ten minutes apart for Ennistymon while Gavin Cooney and Mark McInerney replied for the Townies from frees in the intervening moments.
Cooney’s final score of the day additionally ensured the Eire Óg captain claimed the individual prize of top scorer for Championship 2022 with an incredible overhaul haul of 3-33 to his credit.
Centre-Back Aidan McGrath kicked the final Eire Óg score of the day and just their second from play in the final moment of regulation time before Sean Rouine responded in kind for Ennistymon.
Brendan Rouine opted to take his point with the final shot in anger of the day in the sixty-third minute in the hopes the North Clare men might get one more opportunity to rectify matters on the scoreboard.
However referee Chris Maguire blew his full time whistle from Shane Daniel’s kick out ensuring the Jack Daly crown will reside safely in Ennis for the second year in a row as it finished in Cusack Park, Eire Óg 0-9 to Ennistymon 0-06.