No separating Limerick and Clare in chilly Ennis gripper
Cusak Park
Donal Moloney has seen a lot of hurling in his time, but yesterday in Cusack Park represented something of a first for him.
“I’ve never seen players shivering at half time [before],” the Clare joint-manager would remark afterwards. “We had to a full-scale warm-up at half time. Because they were actually shaking from the cold.”
There’s nowhere else to start with this one but the conditions. While the terrific state of the Cusack Park surface meant the Clare venue was the one pitch in Division 1A yesterday that was able to withstand the rain, it meant everyone else had to endure the freezing cold. This one was for the die-hards only, the real hard-core.
But then when you win an All-Ireland in September and there’s nothing better for your neighbours than trying to put one over you on their own protected turf, the die-hards can amount to a hearty 8,409.
And as a contented Moloney would point out, “the crowd got value for money in terms of excitement”. While he was pushing it a bit when claiming that he hadn’t seen “so much passion in a championship match”, it was certainly a more physical and combative encounter than when his charges saw off John Kiely’s by 11 points in the sun in the championship last June.
Even though Limerick, like on that occasion, had already won through to the quarter-final stages of a national competition, they did not relent yesterday, possibly because they were mindful and irked that they had pulled up somewhat lamely on their last visit here.
If anything, the snow and the sleet made both players all the more determined to throw everything into it; it was as if they’d decided: ‘Right, while we’re out here, we might as well as keep warm by thundering into that other crowd’.
And so every ball and every ruck — and even with a pitch as good as this, there were a lot of rucks — was ferociously contested. These sides didn’t just brave the elements — with all but two of Limerick’s starting outfield team opting to play in short sleeves (and only six Clare outfield starters availing of long-sleeve attire) — they battled them. As Kiely would point out afterwards, the quality of striking and handling was considerably affected by the cold. Standing in the press box behind us, Niall Gilligan, a freetaker of some repute himself, attributed an early Aaron Gillane wide from a deadball to the 23-year-old’s freezing hands. But such a lack of quality was more than compensated for by the sheer intensity.
Clare opened up brightly, Tony Kelly booming one over for the first score of the afternoon before laying a ball off for Shane Golden to help get him off the mark. But then a defensive mixup between the otherwise impressive duo of full-back David McInerney and rookie Rory Hayes allowed Gearoid Hegarty to bear down on goal and fire past Donal Tuohy.
From there on, Limerick led and controlled the half. Despite that early Gillane mishap, he was having a better day on the frees than Peter Duggan who, by the 45th-minute mark, had scoffed four deadballs.
The first half was particularly a stop-start affair, with Paud O’Dwyer choosing not to allow for the conditions; the home crowd was particularly irritated when he blew for a Limerick free out when the lively Diarmuid Ryan was about to be through in acres of space after a hip-to-hip jostle with his equally impressive marker and newcomer, Paddy O’Loughlin.
Ryan and O’Loughlin would still get enough scope to score a point apiece from play before half time in one most exciting duels of the afternoon.
Limerick were up 1-7 to 0-6 at the break, but it was obvious from Clare’s start upon the resumption that the message in their dressing room had been to be more direct. A minute in, Shane Golden drove through, much like Hegarty had at the same end in the first half, and then batted past Nickie Quaid. A minute later another newcomer, Gary Cooney, pointed to level matters.
However, Cooney’s score would be the only one from play by the Clare inside forward line; none of their three starters from that sector would raise a flag.
Limerick would respond by reeling off the next four points again. While Jack Browne was hugely unfortunate not to win an All Star last year, he was lucky enough here not be carded earlier, repeatedly fouling Aaron Gillane both within and outside sight of the officials. As a collective, the Clare fullback line coughed up too many frees for Gillane to tip over.
Clare though would surge again, replying with the next four scores — the last crucially being a goal — following good build-up work from Podge Collins and the excellent Golden, Peter Duggan would atone for his mixed day on the frees with an excellent finish to the net to push Clare 2-10 to 1-11 ahead.
Limerick, though, would not relent. Cian Lynch was immense throughout in midfield, and when Seamus Dowling became their sixth sub off the bench, he instantly made an impact, forcing Donal Tuohy into a fine save, and then drifting out to midfield and doubling on a ball which found Peter Casey in the corner, triggering the unsettled Clare fullback line to foul again for Gillane to point the equaliser.
Moloney wasn’t upset afterwards. “We’d like to have won in terms of our second-half performance, but Limerick are worthy All-Ireland champions and got a couple of points there near the end to pull it back. And for us, having been four or five points down at one stage ourselves, we have to be quite happy with it [the result] as well.”
P Duggan (1-6, 0-6 frees), S Golden (1-1), D Ryan (0-2), G Cooney and T Kelly (0-1 each).
A Gillane (0-8, all frees), G Hegarty (1-0), P Casey (0-3), K Hayes, C Ryan (‘65) and P O’Loughlin (0-1 each).
CLARE:
D Tuohy; R Hayes, D McInerney, J Browne; D Fitzgerald, C Cleary, P O’Connor; S Golden, C Galvin; P Duggan, T Kelly, D Ryan; I Galvin, N Deasy, P Collins.
G Cooney for I Galvin (35), O O’Brien for McInerney (half-time, injured), C Malone for O’Connor (52), A McCarthy for Deasy (56), A Shanagher for Ryan (65).
LIMERICK:
N Quaid; R English, S Finn, T Condon; P O’Loughlin, D Hannon, D Morrissey; C Lynch, C Ryan; G Hegarty, K Hayes, T Morrissey; A Gillane, S Flanagan, P Casey.
W O’Meara for Finn (7, inj), D O’Donovan for Ryan (50), G Mulcahy for Flanagan (59), D Dempsey for Hegarty (62), S Dowling for T Morrissey (65).
P O’Dwyer (Carlow).
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