O’Meara blames the sucker punches shipped by 'Bridge

So often in the last hectic couple of months, first in their run to a first Clare title in 11 years, then again in their win over Midleton in the Munster semi-final last week, Sixmilebridge have got their tactics spot on.

They got them right again yesterday, Páidí Fitzpatrick doing an even better man-marking job on the dangerous Kevin Downes than he had done on Midleton and Cork’s Conor Lehane last week, team captain Aidan Quilligan limiting Na Piarsaigh’s other Limerick forward star Shane Dowling whenever their paths happened to cross.

And yet, and yet; against a side of Na Piarsaigh’s quality, said Sixmilebridge manager John O’Meara, ‘there is only so much damage limitation you can do’. Dowling was instrumental in setting up two goals, one of those by Downes within 30 seconds of the start, and several others then stepped into the breach, not least corner-forwards Kevin Ryan (1-3) and Adrain Breen (1-2).