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Munster SHC: Clare knock Tipperary out of the Championship

Tipperary v Clare - Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4

Tipperary v Clare - Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4

Munster Senior Hurling Championship

CLARE 1-23 TIPPERARY 1-21

By John Harrington at Semple Stadium

Tipperary are out of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, and they’ll surely feel their exit was caused by the width of a post.

Leading by 1-19 to 0-18 with 65 minutes on the clock they fashioned a goal chance that surely would have buried Clare once and for all.

Jake Morris’ shot was well struck but bounced back off the upright, and Clare went straight back down the field to score a goal of their own through Ian Galvin that gave them the surge of impetus they so badly needed to win the match.

There was still plenty of drama thereafter, most notably the two match-winning points from Peter Duggan, but there’s no doubt that Galvin’s goal was the key moment of the match.

Perhaps Tipperary, playing their fourth match in 21 days, also ran out of the legs in the final 15 minutes of the match when they were outscored by 1-6 to 0-2.

Before then they’d been the better team for long stretches of the match, producing their best performance of the Championship thus far by some margin.

For the very start there was a method and energy to their play that had been marked absent in previous matches.

Their forwards worked ferociously hard when they didn’t have the ball, and time and again Clare defenders were blocked, hooked, or forced to turn backwards and clear under pressure.

This had a domino effect throughout the field as Clare were unable to supply their dangerous inside-forwards with well delivered ball because they didn’t have enough time to get their heads up and pick a pass.

Tipperary v Clare - Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4

Tipperary v Clare - Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4

The Tipperary half-backs and midfield were getting on top of their men, and as the half wore on more and more of the play was flowing towards Clare’s goals.

Three points from Jason Forde, one of them from play, and a brilliant Roan Maher score from the sideline already had Tipperary three points to the good when they struck for the first goal of the match.

A Brian Hogan puck-out was broken by Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher into the path of Billy McCarthy who showed a clean pair of hells to David Fitzgerald before driving a brilliant shot to the right-hand corner of the Clare net past Donal Tuohy.

The Tipperary supporters erupted, finally their team were playing with the sort of flair and authority they have come to expect from them in recent years.

Further points Forde (2) and Cathal Barrett gave Tipperary further momentum as they opened up a seven point lead, and by now Clare were struggling badly.

Even when they did manage to create clear scoring opportunities, their finishing was letting them down.

The normally ultra-reliable Tony Kelly wasn’t even immune to this malaise, as he hit three wides in a row despite shooting under little direct pressure from a Tipperary marker.

The mood of the match suddenly changed though in the final 15 minutes of the half.

Now it was the Clare half-backs who were getting on top, and the Clare forwards who were forcing the Tipperary defence into errors by applying pressure.

Tipp began conceding lots of frees, and Peter Duggan punished them to the hilt, scoring six in the first half alone.

And when Tony Kelly began finding his range, scoring two points from play in as many minutes, there was now some real wind in Clare’s sails.

By the time the half-time whistle came Tipperary were beginning to look like a tired team, but they still held a four-point lead, 1-10 to 0-9.

They built on it at the start of the second half, as three points from Forde and an inspirational score from Paudie Maher moved them 1-14 to 0-10 ahead.

They could never quite shake off Clare though thanks to the metronomic accuracy of Duggan from frees, and when substitute Podge Collins started getting onto the ball the Banner County were given a new surge of momentum.

Tipperary were still doing just about enough to keep them at arms length, with points from Bonner Maher, John McGrath, Forde, and Seamus Callanan nudging them into a 1-19 to 0-17 lead by the 60th minute.

Then came that pivotal moment when Morris hit the post and Clare raced down the field to score a brilliantly worked goal.

Duggan won a hard ball and laid it off to Collins who got his head up and picked out the perfect pass to Ian Galvin.

The Clare sub showed great footwork to step back instead and then unleashed an unstoppable shot to the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

In that passage of play Tipperary also sustained the considerable blow of losing Brendan Maher to what looked like a serious knee injury, but it looked like they still might hold out when Callanan scored another point and then Jason Forde’s persistence forced David McInerney into conceding a point for over-carrying.

Tipperary v Clare - Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4

Tipperary v Clare - Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4

Forde hadn’t missed from a placed ball all day, but he mishit his shot and Tipperary’s advantage remained at two points.

Clare levelled the match two minutes into the five of allotted injury-time with a point from John Conlon and another Duggan free, but once more Tipp got their noses in front again thanks to Noel McGrath.

The Banner County simply refused to be denied though, and in the final two minutes of injury-time they scored three quick-fire points through Collins and the irrepressible Duggan (2).

This was a huge win for Clare hurling, their first over Tipperary in the Championship in 15 years and their first time to beat them in Semple Stadium in 90 years.

The character they showed to grind it out bodes well for the summer ahead.

Scorers for Clare: Peter Duggan 0-15 (13f), Ian Galvin 1-0, Podge Collins 0-3, John Conlon 0-2, Tony Kelly 0-2, Jack Browne 0-1.

Scorers for Tipperary: Jason Forde 0-10 (8f, 1 ’65), Billy McCarthy 1-0, John McGrath 0-3, John McGrath 0-2, Seamus Callanan 0-2, Ronan Maher 0-1, Cathal Barrett 0-1, Padraic Maher 0-1, Patrick Maher 0-1.

**TIPPERARY: **Brian Hogan; Sean O’Brien, Seamus Kennedy, Donagh Maher; Joe O’Dwyer, Padraic Maher, Brendan Maher; Ronan Maher, Cathal Barrett; Dan McCormack, Patrick Maher, Billy McCarthy; Seamus Callanan, Jason Forde, John McGrath. Subs: Noel McGrath for Dan McCormack (9), Jake Morris for Patrick Bonner (60), Alan Flynn for Joe O’Dwyer (60), Willie Connors for Brendan Maher (67), John O’Dwyer for Billy McCarthy (70)

CLARE: Donal Tuohy; Patrick O’Connor, David McInerney, Jack Browne; David Fitzgerald, Conor Cleary, Jamie Shanahan; Colm Galvin, Cathal Malone; Peter Duggan, Tony Kelly, David Reidy; Conor McGrath, John Conlon, Shane O’Donnell. Subs: Podge Collins for Conor McGrath (38), Seadna Morey for David Fitzgerald (47), Ian Galvin for David Reidy (59), Jason McCarthy for Cathal Malone (62), Darragh Corry for Colm Galvin (64)

Ref: Paud O’Dwyer (Carlow)