All-Ireland SHC semi-final: Limerick comeback shatters Clare

All-Ireland SHC semi-final

LIMERICK 1-21 CLARE 1-19

By John Harrington at Croke Park

For good or for bad, both sets of players will remember this match long after they have hung up their boots.

The memory of it will bring a smile to the faces of Limerick’s hurlers, a scowl to Clare’s.

Brian Lohan’s team got so much right but still ended up on the wrong side of the result.

When Tony Kelly lanced a penalty to the back of the Limerick net with 57 minutes on the clock they led by 1-19 to 0-16 and it really looked like what was a monumental effort from the underdogs would end with the ultimate glory.

But there’s serious character in this Limerick team and when it was needed it came to the fore.

Clare didn’t score again after the penalty, whereas Limerick mined 1-5 from there until the final whistle and that was ultimately the winning and losing of the game.

It was a grind for the most part as Aidan O’Connor and Diarmuid Byrnes pointed four frees between one another, but then came a decisive moment of quality when Adam English angled in a delivery to the danger-area that O’Connor won above David McInerney before turning towards goal and firing to the back of the net.

Limerick’s defence came up with some big plays to keep Clare at bay and another O’Connor free pushed the gap to two. Credit to Clare they managed to create one last chance right at the death, but Peter Duggan’s snap-shot was saved by Nickie Quaid.

When the final whistle blew Clare men fell to the floor lie swatted flies all over the pitch. They’d given everything they had, but it wasn’t quite enough.

So many of them won their individual battles, and until Limerick came with their late charge it seemed as though the extent to which Clare got their match-ups right would dominate the post-match narrative.

When they announced John Conlon as a late replacement for Shane Meehan you figured Clare were going to play the veteran as a sweeper, but Brian Lohan had a much more ambitious plan up his sleeve.

Conlon was detailed to go toe to toe with another physically abrasive warrior in the middle of the field, Darragh O’Donovan, and that was just one of a number of novel match-ups that Clare initiated and got largely positive results from.

We’re used to seeing Conor Cleary man-mark Aaron Gillane, but instead David McInerney got that task with Cleary instead moving out to the half-back line to pick up Gearóid Hegarty.

In attack too, Clare set the agenda with their positioning as Peter Duggan came out to centre forward to go mano a mano with William O’Donoghue and Tony Kelly was situated on the edge of the Limerick square against Dan Morrissey.

This switch in particular paid immediate dividends as the electric Kelly scored two points in the first 11 minutes. If the speed, first-touch, and unerring accuracy he showed for those scores didn’t tell you the Clare legend was very much in the zone then the bullishness with which he celebrated them did.

All of his team-mates were producing a similar level of intensity and as the half progressed they won more and more small battles for possession that tilted the balance of power in their favour.

A big turn-over in defence that resulted with Peter Duggan driving the ball over the Limerick bar from well inside his own half testified to the combination of heart and skill that Clare were playing with.

No-one typified this more than Duggan himself who was hugely influential. Eibhear Quilligan hit most of his puck-outs down on top of the powerful Clooney-Quin man and if he didn’t win them cleanly he usually managed to use his long levers to hold off Limerick defenders under the dropping ball and flick the ball down to a Clare team-mate.

Clare were mixing some good short-passing stuff with that more direct approach, and a classy move that started in their own half and which ended with the industrious Ryan Taylor lancing the ball over the bar after 14 minutes pushed them 0-5 to 0-4 ahead.

Cathal Malone hit another a minute later and then Kelly scored his best point yet as he showed ridiculous skill to kill a ball on his hurley while running towards it at full pelt before driving it over the bar from around 60 yards out near the left sideline.

When Shane O’Donnell then thundered into the contest with Clare’s eight point of the day to move them four ahead, the roar from the Clare supporters told you they now believed in their team as much as their team clearly did in themselves.

Limerick steadied the ship for a period as Kyle Hayes and Barry Nash scored a couple of nice points, but the bigger moments kept coming from Clare, especially Duggan.

He slung over two great points after out-muscling Dan Morrissey and then Darragh O’Donovan, and set Tony Kelly up for another score when showing great strength under yet another high-ball hit in his direction.

Two frees by Mark Rodgers pushed Clare seven points into the lead but Limerick, critically, got a toe-hold in the game again when Adam English and Cathal O’Neill clipped over a point each in the final minute of the half to reduce the deficit to five, 0-16 to 0-11

The Shannonsiders really needed their big men to step up in the second-half, and none answered the call with as much gusto as Gearóid Hegarty.

He’d gotten little change out of Conor Cleary in the first half, but totally dominated him in the first 10 minutes of the second-half as he won two frees that O’Connor pointed and set up Diarmuid Byrnes for another point.

Cleary, now on a yellow-card, was hooked on 46 minutes, by which time Limerick had closed the gap to a single-point, 0-16 to 0-15.

Clare got some badly needed oxygen when a Mark Rodgers free was followed by a Tony Kelly point, but Limerick struck back when Hegarty set up Peter Casey after another great catch.

It looked like Clare had survived the best that Limerick could throw at them when a Mark Rodgers free was followed by Tony Kelly’s penalty, won by the indefatigable Duggan who was floored by Nickie Quaid after flicking the ball over the Limerick goalkeeper’s head.

But in those final 13 minutes of normal time and five of injury-time, Limerick showed great guts to take the glory as men like Hegarty, O’Donoghue, English, and O’Connor stood up to be counted.

They march on to an All-Ireland Final date with Galway with plenty of room for improvement, but you wouldn't bet against them finding it.

Scorers for Limerick: Aidan O’Connor 1-9 (9f), Diarmaid Byrnes 0-3 (2f), Cathal O’Neill, Peter Casey, both 0-2, Barry Nash, Kyle Hayes, Darragh Odonovan, Aaron Gillane, and Shane O’Brien all 0-1

Scorers for Clare: Tony Kelly 1-5 (goal pen), Mark Rodgers 0-7 (6f), Peter Duggan 0-3, Ryan Taylor 0-2, Cathal Malone, Shane O’Donnell both 0-1

Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Seán Finn, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash; Diarmaid Byrnes, William O'Donoghue, Kyle Hayes; Adam English, Darragh O'Donovan; Gearóid Hegarty, Aidan O'Connor, Cathal O'Neill; Aaron Gillane, Shane O'Brien, Peter Casey.

Subs: David Reidy for Darragh O’Donovan (48), Tom Morrissey for Aaron Gillane (52), Cian Lynch for Cathal O’Neill (57), Mike Casey for Dan Morrissey (63), Fintan Fitzgerald for Peter Casey (75

Clare: Eibhear Quilligan; Adam Hogan, David McInerney, Darragh Lohan; Diarmuid Ryan, Conor Cleary, John Conlon, Niall O'Farrell; John Conlon, Ryan Taylor; Cathal Malone, Peter Duggan, Seán Rynne; Mark Rodgers, Tony Kelly, Shane O'Donnell.

Subs: Cian Galvin for Conor Cleary (46), Diarmuid Stritch for John Conlon (48), Ian Galvin for Mark Rodgers (62), David Fitzgerald for Sean Rynne (63), David Reidy for Diarmuid Stritch (69(

Ref: Thomas Walsh (Waterford)