Clare give their championship a pulse, Cork's still on life support
Aidan McCarthy of Clare after the Munster SHC victory over Cork at SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
They both arrived with questions to answer. They both arrived with character to reaffirm and reputations to restore. All under a swell of crippling early summer pressure.
When the red infernos of the Blackrock End had cleared and the madness unfolding in Eibhear Quilligan’s City End goalmouth had its curtain call, both Clare and Cork stood successful of facing down the charges thrown at them coming out of Cusack and Walsh Park respectively last Sunday week.
They had taken themselves out of the dock. They had contributed in equal share to a stirring, twisting, and not-good-for-the-heart Munster thriller.
Only Clare, though, had given their season a pulse.
The Banner brought a performance and result back up through Buttevant on the smiling road home. Their season is no longer on the line.
Cork, on the other finger, were left cradling their early third-quarter uprising and late act of defiance as small and sole consolation on yet another winless afternoon for the Leesiders. The exhilaration of the second half met emptiness at James Owens’ final whistle.
Back-to-back championship defeats for 2024. A fourth consecutive championship defeat overall. The Pat Ryan era reads only one championship win in six. Include the 2022 All-Ireland quarter-final thrown away against Galway and Cork are one from seven.
The numbers never lie.
It is now a numbers game for Ryan and his regiment. Cork could win their remaining games - at home to Limerick and away to Tipp - but it will all prove a futile exercise in the desperate hunt for a top-three place if other results don’t go their way. Their season is out of their hands.
“We’re after backing ourselves into a right corner. It’s up to ourselves to get out of it,” the manager said post-match.
By the fourth minute of the second period, Cork had backed the Banner into an even tighter corner than the one Brian Lohan’s side occupied after letting slip a nine-point lead to Limerick the Sunday previous.
Having hit four on the spin between the 32nd and 34th minutes through Darragh Fitzgibbon, Declan Dalton (0-2, 0-1 free), and Ciarán Joyce to take a 0-14 to 0-12 lead into the turnaround, Cork produced a further spurt of 1-3 between the 36th and 39th minutes to establish a 1-17 to 0-13 advantage.
Patrick Horgan supplied the goal. A genius flick over the onrushing Quilligan. The first green flag in his 2-10 contribution. He answered the chorus calling for his benching.
Shane Barrett could have had a second major during this burst. Adam Hogan’s last-ditch defending saw the shot deflected out for a converted ‘65. This and the pair of green flag chances not taken by Alan Connolly and Darragh Fitzgibbon in the opening half they would seriously rue.
Cork’s subsequent drifting cannot be conveniently explained away by Seán O’Donoghue’s 51st minute sending off for a second bookable offence, seismic and all as it was.
The Banner had already reduced the gap of seven to the minimum - Mark Rodgers’ 42nd minute goal taking the largest bite out of the Cork lead - when O’Donoghue senselessly body-checked Shane O’Donnell at the same time as Patrick Collins was ferrying possession away to safety. Aidan McCarthy slotted the resultant free tied matters at 1-20 apiece.
The increasing space that O’Donnell and Rodgers had been quarrying and the growing influence Peter Duggan and David Reidy had been wielding had an amplifier put to them when the contest went 15 on 14.
On 57 minutes, Diarmuid Ryan hit upon an acre of green grass on the North Stand side. He offloaded to O’Donnell. Pirouette. Precision. Green flag.
On 63 minutes, John Conlon sent David Fitzgerald into similar open country on the South Stand side. Same outcome, same green flag raised. Clare 3-22 to 1-23 in front.
Fitzgerald, anonymous for so long, added a white flag immediately after. That the injured Tim O’Mahony lay prostrate while play continued and the Clare half-forward stitched 1-1 did not best please Pat Ryan.
“I don’t think that’s very fair. We conceded 1-1 when the lad was down injured and that was a big turning point in the game.”
If Cork’s defence again comes under the lamp for their openness and lack of cover pre-sending off, then it similarly does not reflect well on Clare that they were hanging on at the finish despite their numerical advantage.
Although managing only one point from play between the 37th and 62nd minute, Cork would not go away.
On 66 minutes, Alan Connolly won a close-range free. Clare dallied in readying themselves. Horgan didn’t dally at all. Goal. Back to a score.
Diarmuid Ryan and Rodgers edged Lohan’s men five ahead, 3-26 to 2-24, four minutes into stoppages. Surely from here they were safe. Not the least bit.
Rob Downey goaled on 76 minutes before another Cork defender, Damien Cahalane, almost smashed home the winner. Rodgers capped off his 1-6 contribution by getting his body in the way of Cahalane’s shot.
Clare have bounced back, Cork are almost overboard.
A McCarthy (0-10, 0-8 frees); M Rodgers (1-6, 0-1 sc, 0-1 free); S O’Donnell, D Fitzgerald (1-1 each); D Reidy (0-3); D Ryan, P Duggan (0-2 each); D McInerney (0-1).
P Horgan (2-10, 1-7 frees, 0-2 ‘65s); D Dalton (0-4,0-3 frees); S Harnedy (0-3); R Downey (1-0); A Connolly, D Fitzgibbon (0-2); T O’Mahony, C Joyce, S Kingston (0-1 each).
E Quilligan; R Hayes, C Cleary, A Hogan; D Ryan, J Conlon, D McInerney; C Malone, C Galvin; D Fitzgerald, D Reidy, P Duggan; S O’Donnell, A McCarthy, M Rodgers.
Subs: S Morey for Galvin (52); C Leen for McInerney (62); P Flanagan for Conlon (70); A Shanagher for McCarthy (74).
P Collins; N O’Leary, E Downey, S O’Donoghue; T O’Mahony, C Joyce, R Downey; E Twomey, D Fitzgibbon; D Dalton, S Barrett, S Harnedy; B Hayes, A Connolly, P Horgan.
Subs: G Millerick for O’Mahony (8-9 mins, temporary); M Coleman for Twomey (49); R O’Flynn for Dalton (51); L Meade for Harnedy (53); S Kingston for Hayes (59); D Cahalane for O’Mahony (64, inj).
J Owens (Wexford).
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