Costly win for Clare as injuries take toll
Clare's Conor Leen with referee James Owens as David Reidy receives medical treatment for a serious head injury. Pic: INPHO/Tom O'Hanlon
A costly quarter-final outing for Clare. Gaping holes have presented themselves at the worst possible time. A weakened and reworked hard will line out opposite Limerick (check aganst later games today)
Conor Cleary had to be linked off by two members of the Clare medical team in the 35th minute. David McInerney was linked off by the same duo on 65 minutes. David Reidy was stretchered off on 77 minutes.
Cleary sat stricken on the ground for 90 seconds before his unsteady removal. McInerney was two minutes being tended to before his aided hobble in the direction of the Banner dugout. Reidy was a full 10 minutes surrounded by medical personnel before carried down the tunnel and into an ambulance.
The wellbeing of each individual supersedes everything. Indeed, such was the initial alarm surrounding Reidy that it seemed insignificant and almost disrespectful to bore into match details as Thurles emptied of its massively underwhelming 13,279-crowd on Saturday.
But focus must eventually come back to the collective, to the consequences of this most costly quarter-final win.
Cleary was a late inclusion in the Clare line-up. It represented his first start since the hammering at home to Limerick on May 3. He was primed for John Hetherton. But when Hetherton was a late withdrawal from the Dublin line-up, Cleary stood beside Ronan Hayes. Not for very long, mind.
With Dublin seeking to employ Hayes in isolated one-on-one contests inside, and exploit Cleary in the process, the Banner sideline switched Darragh Lohan onto the blue tower. Lohan struggled in the switch. The second and third of Éibhear Quilligan's seven saves, on the run into half-time, were to deny Hayes.
Cleary’s withdrawal owed to an accidental head injury. Conor Leen was his replacement. With the former having to be taken to hospital, it may well be that this is again a forced switch in two weeks’ time.
In front of that full-back line, David McInerney was preferred to John Conlon at centre-back. But the way in which the 33-year-old went over on his ankle and his crawling pace behind the goal once departed suggests uncertainty again hangs over the Clare No.6 shirt.
As championship moves up the road to Croke Park, does Lohan turn back to 36-year-old Conlon? Niall O’Farrell is the other from the three-strong group to occupy the centre-back berth in this championship. Is he brought in from the wing? Is there a fourth defender that could be parachuted into the absolutely pivotal role?
Such doubt surrounding the centre-back gig fills nobody with confidence. “These games are robust, they're tough and it's an attritional game, so yeah, it'll test the panel,” Lohan said of expected semi-final rejigging.
The other Clare quandary is their form. It continues to fluctuate, fascinate, and frustrate. It remains unpredictable.
From one Clare forward having found the target from open play in the first-half against Cork, five of the front six on the mark within 12 minutes of the Thurles throw-in. Peter Duggan and Shane O’Donnell could not be handled. The pair won frees and threw over points.
Seán Rynne, on the left wing, took Eoghan O’Donnell for three first-half points. Mark Rodgers showed flashes of sharpness on his return.
Bursts of three-in-a-row, four-in-a-row, and a second three-in-a-row propelled Lohan’s charges 0-13 to 0-5 in front on 26 minutes. They then vanished from view. No explanation, just a puzzling act of disappearance.
No Clare score for 19 minutes. Their opponents reeled off seven without reply to achieve separation of just a solitary point. There’d have been no separation at all had it not been for Quilligan’s three first-half saves and fourth early upon the change of ends.
Duggan’s redeployment out to the half-forward line was an important second-half switch in Clare’s rejoining of the contest. He claimed desperately craved primary possession, cut over a sideline, and swelled his personal tally from play. Shane O’Donnell won more frees. Quilligan made more saves.
In the end, it was comfortable maintenance of their perfect All-Ireland quarter-final record against Leinster opposition since 2018. Five meetings, five wins.
“Patchy enough performance,” surmised Lohan. “Played well initially. For the second quarter, didn’t play so well and they came back into it.
“We struggled very badly in that second quarter on our own puck-out and they got a good amount of scores from that. That is an area we have to work on, obviously.”
Dublin’s performance was not again a complete letdown. The same cannot be said for how their season has petered out. The promise offered by the round-robin victories over Galway and Kilkenny has amounted to nothing. Or rather, it has amounted to an eighth championship defeat at Thurles since 2009.
The most prolific goalscorers in this championship went zero from seven on the evening of greatest need. They finished with three points in the closing half hour and 14 men.
The same as Clare's current form, they remain utterly unreliable.
T Kelly (0-7, 0-3 frees); M Rodgers (0-5 frees), S Rynne (0-5 each); P Duggan (0-3, 0-1 sc); C Malone, S Meehan, S O’Donnell (0-2 each); N O’Farrell, D Stritch, D Fitzgerald (0-1 each).
D Burke (0-12, 0-9 frees); S Currie, R Hayes, C Ó Riain, C Groarke (0-1 each).
: E Quilligan; A Hogan, C Cleary, D Lohan; D Ryan, D McInerney, N O’Farrell; R Taylor, T Kelly; C Malone, M Rodgers, S Rynne; S O’Donnell, P Duggan, S Meehan.
: C Leen for Cleary (35, inj); D Reidy for Meehan (46-49, temporary); I Galvin for Rodgers (53); D Stritch for Malone (55); C Galvin for O’Farrell (60); D Reidy for Taylor (65); J Conlon for McInerney (65, inj); D Fitzgerald for Reidy (77, inj).
: E Gibbons; J Bellew, P Smyth, C McHugh; E O’Donnell, P Doyle, C Burke; B Hayes, C Groarke; F Whitely, C Crummey, D Burke; C Ó Riain, R Hayes, S Currie.
: J Hetherton for O’Donnell (44); C Donohoe for Groarke (54); C O’Sullivan for Currie (59); B Kenny for Whitely (62); D Ó Dulaing for R Hayes (65).
: J Owens (Wexford).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
