Paul Madden’s charges turned the screw in emphatic fashion in the second half of the Munster Senior Football Championship Quarter Final against The Nire.
Despite a slow start in Cusack Park which saw the respective Waterford and Clare county champions contributing just two points a piece in the opening period, the Townies threw off the shackles in the second half to advance to the penultimate stage of the provincial competition in no uncertain terms.
Gavin Cooney and Mark McInerney were on target for the Ennis outfit in the first half while Kyle Cuddy and Dermot Ryan scored for The Nire leaving the sides deadlocked at 0-2 apiece.
On the restart however, a different animal emerged from the Eire Óg dressing room and in a blitzing third quarter the townies raided for 3-05 without reply all courtesy of the deadly duo in the Eire Óg full-forward line of McInerny and Cooney.
Midfielder Darren O’Neill was instrumental in the Eire Óg attack, fielding the opposition kick out on several occasions before picking out the perfect attacking option, while at the opposite end , the combined defensive efforts of Manus Doherty, Ronan Lanigan, Ciarán Russell and Aaron Fitzgerald offered little change for The Nire ensuring Shane Daniel’s goal remained intact.
Dermot Ryan tagged on two more placed balls for the Waterford men to bring his personal tally for the day to 0-03 before the introduction of Philip Talty on fifty-five minutes further boosted Eire Óg’s attacking impetus as he kicked two points in quick succession.
Gavin Cooney rounded off his contributions for the day with a fourteen-metre free in the second minute of additional time, leaving the captain with a personal haul of 2-04 before fittingly Darren O’Neill kicked a richly deserved score of his own on the stroke of the final whistle.
As it finished in Cusack Park on a score line of Eire Óg 3-11 to The Nire 0-05.
The reward for the Townies is a Munster Semi-Final showdown away to Kerry club champion’s Kerrin’s O’Rahilly’s in two weeks time.