Clare digging deep into reserves as injury list mounts
STRONGER PANEL: Clare manager Brian Lohan believes he’s armed with a stronger panel than last year, and he may well need to dig deeper into those reserves for semi-final against Kilkenny.
This time around, Clare marched on with a healthy swagger, unscarred from their Munster final exertions. The shadow of a mounting injury list, however, may yet take its toll.
Brian Lohan believes he’s armed with a stronger panel than last year, and he may well need to dig deeper into those reserves by Sunday week.
An 18-point quarter-final stroll against Dublin didn’t come stress-free with John Conlon (head) and Shane O’Donnell (ankle) withdrawn early ahead of a semi-final shot at redemption against Kilkenny.
They join full-back Conor Cleary, free-taker Aidan McCarthy, and David McInerney on the sidelines, although the latter was fit enough to take some part in the warm-up.
The manager was coy about giving any injury updates, saying he’d trust the medics the make the right calls.
“Every year you go and learn,” said Lohan. “From our perspective, the Munster Championship didn’t take as much out of us this year as before.
“We are more resilient as a bunch and a bit stronger personnel-wise than we were last year.
“We had a lot of young lads on the panel last year and they’re a year older and they’re pushing hard to make the team rather than just be panel members this year.”
Lohan continued to explore his defensive options as his nephew Darragh turned in a capable corner-back performance on his first start, while there was a debut for Cian Galvin off the bench. There were also first appearances in this campaign for David Reidy, back from injury, and U20 attacker Patrick Crotty.
Ultimately, it was Tony Kelly’s first-ever Championship hat-trick that fired his side back into the All-Ireland semi-finals as they showed a much-improved performance than the nervy comeback required to surpass Wexford at this stage last year.
The Ballyea captain agreed that Munster hadn’t drained the tank as it did then, culminating in their 12-point loss to the Cats.
“We felt we were in better shape after this year’s round-robin than we were last year. The experience of last year definitely helped us prepare for this,” said Kelly.
“We were flat to the boards in every single game last year whereas this year you can manage it a bit better.”
The Banner were able to work their way through a flat opening quarter as three goals either side of half-time ended a Dublin challenge fatally wounded by Donal Burke’s early removal with a hamstring injury.
“It’s a great performance from us,” said Lohan. “In an All-Ireland quarter-final, to put up that kind of a score, it’s great for us.
“We are just delighted with the win and the way the lads played.”
Clare’s couple of performance issues were recurring ones. Their goals against count has now struck 13 and could’ve been more but for Éibhear Quilligan’s fine double save from Fergal Whitely and Alex Considine. A word of warning: Their upcoming opponents have netted 14 times in their last four games.
Their free count continues to be too high, driven by those one-on-one defensive match-ups; 40% of their scores conceded this year are from placed balls (1-51 in six games).
The same applies to their wide tally of 14, with half of those arriving in the first 15 minutes. They hit 24 against Kilkenny last year and have entered double-digit territory in each game this season.
“The wides are a bit concerning and the wides in the Munster final (12) were a bit concerning as well so we have to work on that,” said Lohan.
“We haven’t been as efficient as we’d like to be in front of goal, certainly in the Munster final and even in the first quarter that we played today.
“We needed to get into better positions and things opened up. We have a bit of quality inside and they are able to score.”
Diarmuid Ryan started at centre-back with a brief to both track Burke and make him follow Ryan’s upfield bursts. But the Championship’s top-scorer limped off as early as the eighth minute, having slipped attempting his first two shots.
By then, Dublin were already 1-2 to no score behind, Kelly rifling to the bottom corner when fastest to a breaking ball.
Cian O’Sullivan (0-11, 10 frees) showed a steady hand taking over placed balls and when he laid on a goal for Darragh Power in the 17th minute, the Dubs had edged ahead.
But they didn’t convert other openings into shots on goal as Clare capitalised on three more by the break in a 3-4 to 0-3 streak, including two goals in 94 seconds before the midway whistle.
“It was crucial,” said Lohan of that scoring burst. “It gave us that little bit of a cushion and forced them to come out a bit and attack a bit more.
“The big thing for us was that we felt we were going to play well. We thought we had a good bit of work done throughout the year.
“You are always worried that you are not going to get a performance but we felt that we were going to get a performance.
“Our lads did well, they worked hard. Maybe not a brilliant first quarter but after that they worked really well and worked really hard.“
The first pair were created by David Fitzgerald (0-4) rampaging all too easily into open country down the middle to play in Mark Rodgers and Kelly. The next was finished by O’Donnell from a Peter Duggan lay-off. 4-8 to 1-8 at half-time, with nine wides each.
Kelly had his hat-trick wrapped up by the 38th minute after racing unopposed onto another breaking ball.
From there, it was about dressing the scoreboard with Kelly racking up 3-4 and new free-taker Rodgers accounting for 1-11 (1-6 from play). The Scariff sharp-shooter missed just one free as he made his case to continue on placed balls.
Alex Considine bulleted in a goal for Dublin but even with 20 minutes to go, it offered mere consolation.
Kilkenny, as is tradition, lie in wait in the semi-final.
“You know Kilkenny, they have so many players, they have so much quality, so much power, pace,” said Lohan.
“Kilkenny are always good, always the standard.”
T Kelly (3-4); M Rodgers (1-11, 0-5 frees); S O’Donnell (1-2); D Fitzgerald (0-4); I Galvin, A Shanagher (0-2 each); D Reidy (0-1).
: C O’Sullivan (0-11, 10 frees); D Power, A Considine (1-0 each); P Crummey (0-3); D Gray, D Sutcliffe, F Whitely (0-1 each).
: É Quilligan; D Lohan, R Hayes, A Hogan; S Morey, D Ryan, J Conlon; R Taylor, C Malone; D Fitzgerald, T Kelly (capt), S O’Donnell; I Galvin, P Duggan, M Rodgers.
: P Flanagan for Conlon (24, inj), A Shanagher for O’Donnell (40, inj), D Reidy for Galvin (46), C Nolan for Hogan (58, blood), P Crotty for Duggan (63), C Galvin for Taylor (65), S Meehan for Kelly (69).
: S Brennan; E O’Donnell (capt), P Smyth, D Gray; J Madden, P Doyle, C Burke; C Boland, M Grogan; C O’Leary, D Burke, D Power; P Crummey, C O’Sullivan, D Sutcliffe.
: F Whitely for D Burke (8, inj), C Donohoe for Madden (35+1), A Considine for O’Leary (h-t), S Currie for Boland (46), D Purcell for Power (60).
: J Murphy (Limerick).
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