Banner delight in Tubridy’s late late show

Where were you when Colm Clancy stuck the ball in the Kerry net in 1992? Remember that? The Banner mounting the Munster football pedestal, the last team outside the big two to do it?

On Saturday night in the Gaelic Grounds they set up a 20-year reunion with that momentous day in GAA history in the most dramatic of fashions. Taking a 10-point lead in the second half, they looked in complete control but Limerick started to tackle, broke down Clare’s midfield and kicked point after point until they were winning by a score.

Out on their feet, somehow David Tubridy hit two scores. Now the county is building up to its first Munster final since 2000 with memories of 1992 foremost in everyone’s thoughts.

“It’s good to be mentioned in a positive light,” said Clare manager Michael McDermott.

“All week long we weren’t given a chance and rightly so but in the dressing room beforehand we said that, in all the lead up to this game, it was all talk of Limerick and let’s just make our own little bit of headlines on Monday morning, and that’s what we’ve done.

“We’ll be the talk of the headlines for the next week but listen, a Munster final is not an occasion, it’s about trying to win it and we know we’ve a huge, huge task but we’ll be going in there and giving it everything we can.”

It could have been so different though. Instead of building up to a Munster final, they could have been facing the qualifiers, after blowing a lead no other side has managed to do in this championship campaign.

When Shane McGrath kicked the opening score of the second half, they led 1-10 to 0-3 with 34 minutes to play. With two minutes plus injury time left, Limerick were leading by a point and dominating everywhere. Ian Ryan had kicked eight points and everyone of the Clare full-back line had tried and failed to quieten the St Senan’s corner forward.

“You wouldn’t want to have high blood pressure in a game like that,” said McDermott.

“The pressure of that last 10 minutes was phenomenal, every sort of feeling is going through your body. Are we going to lose it? Are we going to get back for another day and draw it? Thank God we came out with the win but it was hard work on the sideline.

“With four or five minutes, I thought it would end up a draw, I never thought it was gone. The right people in the right places got the ball for us, that could handle pressure and get some crucial scores.”

The right man indeed. Cue the Tubridy show. The first when no one else would take on the responsibility and the second after a Limerick hand touched it leaving his boot. That bit of luck when they needed it most.

“That’s why he stood out in the inter-provincials this year. He’s a class act,” said McDermott.

“Over the last three years we’ve come up short on a lot of occasions and people would have said we ran out of luck on other days but today the luck was with us and thank God, someone must have been looking down on us today and got us that victory.”

They caught Limerick out in the first half. Creating space for the runners from midfield, Limerick’s typically teak tough defence was laid bare. Gary Brennan gave an exhibition in midfield and within 10 minutes they led by five points.

“Our plan was to run at them, just to attack them. When we watched them against Waterford, Waterford did the same but just didn’t take their opportunities.”

But there was still no hint of an upset, just another slow start by Limerick. When Ryan and Ger Collins pointed, after Seamus O’Carroll hit the crossbar, they looked poised to reel in Clare. Once again though their defence opened up and Gordan Kelly stole in and, with the help of a deflection, buried to the net. By half-time it was 1-9 to 0-3 and Clare were full value for it.

But Brennan’s influence waned in the second half as James O’Meara and Thomas Lee’s grew. Ryan hit a streak that deserved a win. Anything sent his way resulted in a white flag as Clare looked like completely surrendering until those final, magic minutes.

“Limerick are a top quality side, they pushed Cork and Kerry very hard in championship and we knew, even though we’d a big score up at half-time, that they were going to come back out and throw everything at us and that’s what they did. It was a case of hanging in, there’s no doubt.

“They dominated breaking ball, they got crucial scores, their full-forward line, that we knew about, were really on form in the second half but we hung in and battled and got scores at crucial times and we sneaked a victory!”

Scorers for Limerick: I Ryan (4fs) 0-10, G Collins 0-2, S Kelly, S O’Carroll, E O’Connor 0-1 each.

Scorers for Clare: D Tubridy (1f, 1 45) 0-5, R Donnelly (1f) 0-3, G Kelly 1-0, S McGrath 0-2, G Brennan, G Quinlan, A Clohessy 0-1 each.

Subs for Limerick: J O’Meara for Kinnerk (24), E O’Connor for Kelly (52), J Cooke for Corbett (55), J Donovan for O’Carroll (61), G O’Connell for Buckley (69).

Subs for Clare: S Brennan for Quinlan (57), N Browne for Coughlan (62), D Russell for McGrath (64), B Hartnett for McNeilis (65).

Referee: D Fahy (Longford)

Attendance: 4446