Clonlara cruise past Feakle to reach first Clare SHC final in seven years

Clonlara will now face a Crusheen side that they beat by nine points in the group stages of the championship.

CLONLARA CRUISE: Clonlara's David Fitzgerald and Feakle's Oisin Donnellan in action during the Clare senior hurling semi final. Picture: Eamon Ward

Clare SHC femi-final

Clonlara 0-23 Feakle 0-15

The new spirit sweeping through Clonlara hurling was much in evidence on Sunday afternoon as the south-east Clare side that flattered to deceive so often in Senior A competition powered their way into a first county final in six years.

The mix of old and new did for Clonlara in a dominant display, with scintillating scoring of young guns like Aidan Moriarty, Colm O’Meara and Michael O’Loughlin dove-tailing perfectly with the spine of experience provided by All-Ireland winners John Conlon and Colm Galvin, as well as Ian Galvin, as the Dónal Madden-managed side cruised home to an eight-point win.

A competitive hour seemed in store when the sides were level on four occasions inside the first ten minutes, with Óisin Donnellan and Raymond Bane landing to inspirational points for Feakle along the way, while Moriarty and O'Meara started as they went on for the entire 60 minutes.

However, after the sides were deadlocked at 0-4 apiece Clonlara really got into their stride with Moriarty, Ian Galvin and O’Loughlin (2) giving them a double-scores lead of 0-8 to 0-4 by the end of the first quarter.

Clonlara's Cian Moriarty and Feakle's Killian Bane in action.

From here they held firm, as they responded to good Feakle points from Stephen Conway and Bane in the closing stages of the half with rousing scores by O’Meara and Colm Galvin for a 0-12 to 0-8 interval lead.

After that it was never in doubt, with an excellent Clonlara defence marshalled brilliantly by centre-back Dylan McMahon being utterly dominant in clearing their lines time and time again, while Moriarty and O’Loughlin continued to rack up the scores as they moved 0-18 to 0-10 clear by the three-quarter stage.

Feakle did bring it back to a six-point game with ten minutes remaining as Shane McGrath carried the biggest scoring threat, but Clonlara remained unruffled with Moriarty, O’Meara and Ian Galvin all adding to their total before the end as they teed up a final against a Crusheen side that they beat by nine points in the group stages of the championship.

Scorers for Clonlara: M O’Loughlin (0-8, 7f), A Moriarty (0-5), C Galvin (0-3), C O’Meara (0-3), I Galvin (0-3), C Moriarty (0-1).

Scorers for Feakle: S McGrath (0-7, 4f), S Conway (0-2), O Donnellan (0-2), R Bane (0-2), E Tuohy (0-2, 1f).

CLONLARA: S Gully; M Clancy, G Powell, L Ryan; D Fitzgerald, D McMahon, P O’Loughlin; A Moriarty, J McMahon; C O’Meara, J Conlon, C Galvin; D Stritch, I Galvin, M O’Loughlin.

Subs: C Moriarty for Stritch (48), M Stritch for C Galvin (57), C Bourke for O’Meara (59), T Walshe for P O’Loughlin (64).

FEAKLE: E Quilligan; K Bane, E McMahon, O Clune; A Hogan, C Smyth, R O’Connor; S McGrath, E Tuohy; O Donnellan, E Noonan, M Daly; S Conway, R Bane, O O’Connor.

Subs: G Guilfoyle for O O’Connor (23), E Madden for Noonan (53), F Donnellan for R Bane (57), O McGuinness for K Bane (61), J Nelson for Daly (62).

Referee: Jim Hickey (Cratloe).