Minogue bidding to raise bruised Banner spirits
Clare boss John Minogue accepts that plenty supporters will be looking to his charges to resurrect the county’s hurling fortunes after the senior side were emphatically dumped out of the championship by Galway.
“Those supporters leaving Cusack Park last Saturday were very unhappy, both result-wise and weather-wise. They’ll be looking forward to a lift from this game.”
Twelve months ago, Clare came desperately close to lifting a historic first Munster U21 crown before losing to Tipperary by a point. Tipperary’s match-winning score was highly controversial when they were awarded a ‘65 after Clare goalkeeper Donal Tuohy was adjudged to have stepped outside of his square when taking a puckout. The incident sparked scenes of outrage afterwards but Minogue is determined not to revisit the past.
“Last year is over and done with and there’s no point thinking about it. We’ve got to move on. We have eight of last year’s team but we’re missing some big defenders. The full-back Conor Cooney is gone, along with our complete half-back line of Gary O’Connell, Aidan Quilligan and James McInerney. They’re all difficult to replace.”
Minogue is predicting a tough battle from Limerick.
“There’s never anything between the counties at underage and there’s never much at senior level either. Around South-East Clare there’s a big rivalry between the counties. A lot of these players would have been in school together in Ard Scoil Rís and would now be in college together in UL and LIT. So they’ll know each other well.”
Clare’s cause is boosted by the availability of the O’Donovan twins, Cormac and Donal, and Enda Barrett. That trio spent last summer in America but their return will be a considerable help to Clare’s fortunes, with the O’Donovan’s having been central figures in Clonlara’s historic county senior triumph last year.
Elsewhere there is vast potential in their attack. Colin Ryan has graduated impressively to the senior stage this season and his freetaking is a potent weapon. John Conlon showed great flashes of ability when introduced in the last two senior matches while Caimin Morey and Darach Honan are two dangerous inside forwards.
Limerick’s hopes of success have been badly hampered by the loss of captain Brian O’Sullivan with a thigh injury. O’Sullivan will start on the bench but the UCC Fitzgibbon Cup winner is a big loss. In his absence Limerick’s other senior panellists have big roles to play with Phillip O’Loughlin at left half-back while Paul Browne and Graeme Mulcahy fill the wing-forward spots. Bobby O’Brien and Seanie Tobin are other key operators, but it’s hard to look past Clare given their home advantage and the retaining of some of last year’s stars.
In tonight’s other U21 semi-final Waterford are aiming to atone for last Sunday’s Munster senior final loss when they face Tipperary in Fraher Field, Dungarvan (7.30pm). Waterford field eight senior panellists but boss Shane Ahearne is hopeful that they can shake off the hangover of the defeat.
“We’d a get together on Monday night and the lads were not too down. Noel Connors was the only one who started while Maurice Shanahan came on. But they’ve been doing a lot of training at senior level, and I know they’re desperate to get stuck in. We’ve had very good cooperation with Davy all year and it hasn’t been an issue having lads on the senior panel.”
Last Sunday did provide a serious boost to Waterford hurling with their minors attaining provincial success for the first time in 17 years. The U21s will hope to feed off that victory and have a direct link to the team, with minor centre-back Phillip Mahony playing at right half-back tonight.
“That was a big boost to everyone in Waterford that the minors did so well on Sunday. They applied themselves brilliantly and produced a great quality of hurling. We’re up against a very good Tipperary side. They won the minor All-Ireland three years ago and have plenty of senior players but we won’t be lying down tamely.”
Waterford have an excellent netminder in Adrian Power, while senior star Noel Connors will front their defensive efforts. In attack, the scoring onus will lie with Shanahan, Shane Casey and Tomás Ryan.
But Tipperary enter this game with the considerable advantage of having already triumphed in the quarter-final tie against Cork.
They will parade senior stars Padraic Maher, Seamus Callanan and Noel McGrath, and along with the input of Thomas Stapleton and Pa Bourke, Tipperary can prevail here.
CLARE: D Tuohy; J Gunning, E Glynn, C O’Doherty; D O’Donovan, C Duggan, E Barrett; N O’Connell, L Markham; J Conlon, S Collins, C O’Donovan; D Honan, C Morey, C Ryan.
LIMERICK: B Hennessy; B Moloney, D Lynch, J Riordan; B Quinn, P Begley, P O’Loughlin; N Quaid, J Mann; G Mulcahy, B O’Brien, P Browne; T O’Brien, S Tobin, S O’Donnell.
WATERFORD: A Power; J Maher, S Fives, N Connors; P Mahony, S Daniels, D O’Sullivan; J Gorman, S O’Hare; T Connors, P Murray, M Shanahan; B O’Sullivan, S Casey, T Ryan.
TIPPERARY: B McCormack; D Maher, Padraic Maher, M Cahill; B Maher, T Stapleton, K Maher; S Hennessy, G Ryan; N McGrath, S Callanan, Patrick Maher; P Bourke, J O’Neill, S Burke.
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