Tactical change works well as Bannermen get Cork’s measure

Clare 2-15 Cork 3-9

That was the end of the home hospitality however, as Clare, after a shaky opening half, continued their winning run in this year’s League by beating a weakened Cork side. Before a ball was struck, the visitors lost the services of three of their selected forwards through injury - Niall McCarthy, Joe Deane and Neil Ronan - but in a first-half of exceptional hurling, Cork made light of those losses and looked every inch All-Ireland champions. They were 2-5 to 1-4 ahead in the 26th minute thanks to good goals from Ben O’Connor and Tom Kenny.

Both came after intelligent puck-outs by Donal Óg Cusack into the stiff wind, a tactic which caused Clare immense problems in the opening half. The tactic didn’t always work out, with Clare’s first goal coming after wing-back Gerry Quinn caught one such Cork puck-out. His clearance was gathered by corner-forward Andrew Quinn, who goaled.

A Clare point came from a throw-in awarded when referee Seamus Roche penalised Cusack for deliberately delaying the game, every puck-out involving a lot of elaborate dummy-running by most of the Cork outfield players.

Clare finished the half strongly, with full-forward Niall Gilligan scoring 1-2, his goal coming after Diarmuid O’Sullivan was forced to pull up injured, his last act in this game.

“Diarmuid has had a stomach illness since Friday, probably shouldn’t have started at all,” Cork coach John Allen revealed afterwards, “but our backs were to the wall.”

It was 2-7 to 2-6 to the home team at the break. “They were making eejits of us,” said manager Anthony Daly, “two and three of us running around like fools, diving into tackles, fellas just popping the ball over their head. Cork are playing this game, it’s there for everyone to see, but this isn’t rocket science, and when every man took his own man, used their head, things changed.”

Things changed alright. Last week against Kilkenny Cork failed to score for the first 25 minutes; in the second half yesterday it was 27 fruitless minutes, ten wides against a defence in which old stagers Brian Lohan, Seanie McMahon and Brian Quinn were outstanding. During that period Clare tacked on seven class points from six different marksmen. “I don’t know what happened to Cork at half-time, maybe John Allen told them to pull up a bit or something,” said Daly, “They seemed to be a different team after the break. But we were a different team too, in fairness.”

At 2-14 to 2-6 in favour of Clare it should have been game over. When Tom Kenny opened Cork’s second half account it was greeted with a derisory cheer by the home fans. However, those same fans were soon living on their nerves, as Cork came fighting back. Driven on by the majestic John Gardiner, Cork dominated the final ten minutes. A goal from substitute Garvan McCarthy, after Davy Fitz had saved superbly from Jerry O’Connor, brought the deficit back to four points; that was down to two with three minutes of injury-time still to play after a long-range free from Gardiner and a flying point from Ben O’Connor, and suddenly this game was turned on its head. A fine strike under pressure from Tony Carmody steadied the ship for Clare, but Cork were immediately back on the attack. A lobbed free into the Clare goalmouth was caught by keeper Fitzgerald, and that was it, game over.

“We won, but we won’t be getting carried away with this,” said Daly, “That was almost Cork’s reserve team, you can’t read too much into it. We should be home and hosed for the league final, by right, but instead of going on and winning this by eight or nine points, we almost let it slip.”

Cork manager Allen wasn’t getting carried away either. “The positives I take from the game, we got two goals in the first-half, two very good goals. We went out with three men gone from our selected first 15, three forwards, but played very well in the first-half. Because of circumstances, we were forced into looking at players we hadn’t picked (Erin’s Own’s Kieran Murphy one of those, and he certainly impressed). Overall, I’m quite pleased. Obviously I’d rather have won the game, but given the odds stacked against us, apart from that scoreless 25-minute period I was happy with the performance.”

Scorers: Clare: N. Gilligan 1-4 (0-2 frees); A. Quinn 1-1; B. Nugent 0-3; S. McMahon 0-3 (frees); T. Carmody 0-2; C. Plunkett, D. McMahon, 0-1 each. Cork: T. Kenny 1-3; B. O’Connor 1-1; G. McCarthy 1-0; K. Murphy (Erin’s Own) 0-2; J. O’Callaghan, J. O’Connor, J. Gardiner (free), 0-1 each.

CLARE: D. Fitzgerald; B. Quinn, B. Lohan, G. O’Grady; A. Markham, S. McMahon, G. Quinn; C. Lynch, B. O’Connell; C. Plunkett, D. McMahon, B. Nugent; A. Quinn, N. Gilligan, T. Carmody. Subs: D. O’Connell (Plunkett 57); D. Clancy (B. O’Connell 62); J. Clancy (D. McMahon 62); K. Kennedy (Nugent 66); C. Forde (S. McMahon yellow 72).

CORK: D. Og Cusack; B. Murphy, D. O’Sullivan, C. O’Connor; G. Callinan, J. Gardiner, S. Og O hAilpin; T. Kenny, J. O’Connor; J. O’Callaghan, P. Mulcahy, K. Murphy (Erin’s Own); B. O’Connor, B. Corcoran, K. Murphy (Sars). Subs: P. Kelly (O’Sullivan inj. 30); G. McCarthy (Mulcahy inj. 35); K. Hartnett (O’Callaghan 49); R. Curran (Callinan 59); S. O’Sullivan (Murphy Sars, 61).

Referee: S. Roche (Tipperary).