The Munster Hurling Championship witnessed an exhilarating match between Clare and Cork, packed with jaw-dropping twists and frenetic action which resulted in Clare revitalising their season while Cork’s runs the risk of an early conclusion. Despite commencing the second half with a lag of seven points, Clare displayed staunch resilience and accepted the challenge of their adversaries with courage, injecting optimism into their future matches.
While it was a disheartening loss for Cork, they had shown great promise in the opening stages of the second phase of the match. They suffered a significant setback, however, when their captain, Seán O’Donoghue, received his second yellow card midway through the half and lost control of their lead during the same play.
Clare capitalised on the unbalanced situation, leveraging both the favourable wind conditions and their numerical advantage to put Cork under grave pressure in the final stage of the match. The goals skillfully netted by their spectacular trio comprising Mark Rodgers, Shane O’Donnell, and David Fitzgerald were critical in subduing their opponents.
Throughout the match, Clare were more dominating, particularly in aerial duels. Peter Duggan, lauded as the man of the match by broadcasters, was outstanding under Clare’s puck-outs. In contrast, Cork’s restarts were fraught with difficulties, compounded by often imprecise and erroneous distributions from Patrick Collins. Even in the modern, tactic-heavy game, primary possession remains paramount, and Clare outperformed on that account as well.
Despite their struggles, Cork endured, reducing Clare’s lead two times in the last 10 minutes with goal hits; one being a spectacularly executed free by Patrick Horgan and the other from Rob Downey during the dying minutes of the match. However, it was too late to salvage the situation.
In contrast to their previous encounter, Cork stepped into the match with a more aggressive approach and a distinctively livelier attitude by their management staff. While they played with the wind’s assistance in the first half, their best efforts did not yield commensurate results. They concluded the first half enjoying a slim advantage of 0-14 to 0-12, although they had been trailing by a few points for the major part of the first half.
Throughout the week, Clare was grappling with the psychological ramifications of recent events. The sudden withdrawal of Tony Kelly, who was unable to participate, likely did not aid in mitigating their mental distress. Moreover, an accumulated injury from a match against Limerick prevented Darragh Lohan from playing, leading to Ian Galvin substituting him at centrefield.
Despite these setbacks, Clare managed to start off strong, scoring quickly with three points within the first few minutes. The lack of additional support for Cork’s inner defenders led to struggles in synchronising their gameplay early into the match.
Initially, rookie player Eoin Downey was tasked with handling O’Donnell, though this plan lasted a mere six minutes. Niall O’Leary had a difficult time with Rodgers, who capped off the first half with a total of three points, including an impressive sideline cut. Similarly, Duggan successfully held his ground against Tim O’Mahony. Cork’s defence faltered yet again, allowing their opponents to score easily.
On the offensive front, despite Cork’s three goal opportunities, none were executed successfully. Clare’s determined goalkeeper, Eibhear Quilligan, impressively defended against a low strike from Darragh Fitzgibbon. Subsequent attempts from Alan Connolly and Horgan, who each had a favourable chance to strike for goal, were equally unsuccessful due to Quilligan’s resolute saves.
By the conclusion of the eventful match, Cork accumulated eight goal opportunities, of which they managed to actualise three. The score tally reflected this performance.
CORK’s team comprised of P Collins; N O’Leary, E Downey, S O’Donoghue; T O’Mahony (0-1), C Joyce (0-1), R Downey (1-0); E Twomey, D Fitzgibbon (0-2); D Dalton (0-4, 3f), S Barrett, S Harnedy (0-3); B Hayes, A Connolly (0-2), P Horgan (2-10, 1-7f, 2 65s).
Substitutions were as follows: M Coleman replaced E Twomey at 49 minutes, R O’Flynn came on for Dalton at 51 minutes, L Meade swapped with Harnedy at 54 minutes, S Kingston, who scored 0-1, played instead of Hayes at 59 minutes, and finally D Cahalane took over from O’Mahony at 65 minutes.
Turning our attention to the Clare team: E Quilligan was in the posts, while A Hogan, C Cleary and R Hayes formed the defence. D Ryan, who scored 0-2, was supported by J Conlon and D McInerney who scored 0-1. In the midfield, we had C Malone along with C Galvin. The forward line had D Fitzgerald scoring 1-1, D Reidy, and M Rodgers who ended with a total of 1-6 (including 1f and 1sl). P Duggan scored 0-2 whereas A McCarthy added 0-10 to his name with 8 being free shots. In addition, S O’Donnell managed to strike 1-1 and D Reidy put in another 0-3.
As the match progressed, there were a number of substitutions in the Clare team: S Morey replaced C Galvin at the 52 minute mark. McInerney made way for C Leen at 62 minutes into the game. P Flanagan was subbed on for Conlon at 70 minutes, and when the game crossed the regulation time, A Shanagher took over from McCarthy at extra time 4 minutes.
The man with the whistle was James Owens hailing from Wexford.