Sixmilebridge the team of decade as fairytale ends for Clooney-Quin

Sixmilebridge 1-20 Clooney-Quin 1-14: Twelve minutes into the second half of yesterday’s Clare senior hurling final, Clooney-Quin’s James Corry popped over what seemed a tidy but unremarkable point out — only there was something remarkable about it.

It was the first score from play by a Clooney-Quin forward all day. By then Sixmilebridge’s front six had already racked up 1-9 from play over the preceding 42 minutes. Although the scoreboard was saying that Corry’s point had brought his team back to within two goals of the lead, that other tale of the tape was saying the Bridge’s dominance was more like a four-goal lead, not two. Only sheer doggedness and Peter Duggan’s deadball prowess was saving Clooney-Quin from a hiding.

To their credit, the underdogs would continue to hang in there, and finally reel off a series of scores from play; in fact, when a wonder point from Duggan on the turn was quickly followed by another point from Corry’s brother Martin with 10 minutes to go, they had reduced the lead to five and the hope of a first county title in 75 years still flickered. A couple of consecutive wides, though, extinguished it and whatever momentum they had before, the Bridge powered on again.