{"id":610217,"date":"2026-08-31T14:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/610217\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:06:11","slug":"eire-og-manager-eoin-fehily-praises-clydas-strength-after-difficult-time-off-the-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/610217\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9ire \u00d3g manager Eoin Fehily praises Clyda’s strength after difficult time off the pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c9ire \u00d3g manager Eoin Fehily said Sunday\u2019s McCarthy Insurance Group SAFC Group 3 Round 2 win over Clyda Rovers would be remembered for far more than football.<\/p>\n

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

Se\u00e1n O\u2019Connor, who was a key figure in the club, passed away suddenly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose the win was the most important thing from a football aspect,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9ire\u00c9ire \u00d3g manager Eoin Fehily. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n

\u201cBut everything that\u2019s going on off the pitch reminds you that the most important thing in life is life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was incredible to see and it will definitely stay with me for a long time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once the game settled, \u00c9ire \u00d3g 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult as a dual club now with four championship weekends in a row, but again we got an extra week of prep and that\u2019s the most important thing with that lack of time that we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone, even the lads that came on, added and improved us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something we definitely wanted, not to showcase, but for ourselves we need to be building every single game.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9ire\u00c9ire \u00d3g goalkeeper Chris Kelly makes a save against Clyda Rovers. Picture: Noel Sweeney<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lads that came on today that didn\u2019t look out of place, and we have more that didn\u2019t get a run.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both \u00c9ire \u00d3g and Kilshannig are already through to the knockout stages, but Fehily dismissed any notion that the final round in two weeks\u2019 time would be a dead rubber.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said to the lads, we don\u2019t focus on permutations,\u201d he states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSince coming in, what we\u2019ve always been trying to do is just prepare for what\u2019s in front of our face and don\u2019t look past the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next one is Kilshannig \u2014 that\u2019s all we\u2019re looking at. There are too many permutations in life to look past it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is we want to win everything in front of our face, and that\u2019s Kilshannig next for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fehily was also asked to compare Sunday\u2019s display to their one-point opening-round win over Bishopstown, where \u00c9ire \u00d3g had been far less fluent. There was a stark improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest message we had after Bishopstown is that we had something to build on, but we wanted to see more football.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows the first round of the championship \u2014 you\u2019re that bit nervous, tense and everything else. I wanted the shackles off today and the lads did it.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe teams battle for a high ball. Picture: Noel Sweeney<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to go off script. Going off script would have just absolutely done away with eight months of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The most important thing is being brave \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been great in second halves this year \u2014 I can\u2019t lie about that. So to keep it going and keep going for the second half was fundamentally important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The return of key players made a difference, especially around the middle, including Cork footballer Darragh Clifford.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarragh\u2019s fielding was absolutely exceptional,\u201d Fehily said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone around the middle was exceptional. We were very dominant on our kick-outs and that\u2019s something we always want to be good at.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attention now turns to hurling, with a crucial tie against Bishopstown next Sunday in Blarney in the Co-Op SuperStores PIHC \u2014 effectively a relegation play-off semi-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened last weekend with the defeat in hurling to Ballincollig \u2014 they got to distract themselves with going into football preparation this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a club man first, taking football away, we\u2019ll be doing absolutely everything within the club to galvanise everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese lads, how many dual players going back into the cauldron next week against Bishopstown \u2014 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\u2019s the next job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00c9ire \u00d3g manager Eoin Fehily said Sunday\u2019s McCarthy Insurance Group SAFC Group 3 Round 2 win over Clyda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-610217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}