Allianz Hurling League Division 1A

CLARE 2-11 LIMERICK 1-14

By Páraic McMahon at Cusack Park

Clare and Limerick served up an exciting clash in Ennis with a last minute Aaron Gillane free forcing a draw in the final round of the Allianz National Hurling League on Sunday.

Snow fell throughout the entire half but the rivalry between Clare and Limerick brought the temperature up in Cusack Park from the get go.

A Limerick goal via Gearoid Hegarty turned the game on its head with seven minutes played. He intercepted a David McInerney pass and tore through the Banner defence to strike for the opening goal of the game. This lifted his opponents with Aaron Gillane and Kyle Hayes registering their first scores soon after.

Clare were finding scores very hard to come by and relied on freetaker Peter Duggan who scored three out of his six frees in the first half. Earlier points from Shane Golden and Tony Kelly gave them a half-time tally of 0-6 but it was not enough to match Limerick’s 1-7 with Fitzgibbon Cup winner Paddy O’Loughlin and Na Piarsaigh’s Peter Casey adding scores late in the half.

Though their opening half left a lot to be desired, Clare had a lightning start to the second and were level inside the first two minutes. Shane Golden goaled in their first attack while Gary Cooney popped over a point in the subsequent one.

Four scores in succession saw Limerick power ahead, luckily for Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor their goalkeeper Donal Tuohy pulled off an excellent save to deny an Aaron Gillane penalty.

An unanswered 1-3 from Clare, Duggan with the goal gave them much needed momentum on 58 minutes. However they would cough up soft frees to the Treaty County, two such instances occurred in additional time, both of which were converted by Gillane to ensure a draw.

In their last three home games, Clare have conceded 1-25 from frees, add it Patrick Horgan’s tally of 0-15 down in Páirc Uí Rinn and the alarm bells begin to ring. Management made the tough call of substituting 2013 All Star David McInerney at half-time, they were beginning to come good but once again they let themselves down by conceding scoreable frees. No member of their inside line scored which is another concern.

Any of the 8,409 spectators could be forgiven for thinking Limerick had not yet qualified for the knockout stages such was the ferocity they brought to proceedings on and off the field. Their strength was evident plus the contributions of Peter Casey, Cian Lynch and Paddy O’Loughlin will certainly have pleased John Kiely and his management.

Scorers for Clare: Peter Duggan 1-6 (6fs), Shane Golden 1-1, Diarmuid Ryan 0-2, Tony Kelly and Gary Cooney 0-1 each.

Scorers for Limerick: Aaron Gillane 0-8 (8fs) Gearoid Hegarty 1-0, Peter Casey 0-3, Kyle Hayes, Colin Ryan (65), and Paddy O’Loughlin 0-1 each.

CLARE: Donal Tuohy; Rory Hayes, David McInerney, Jack Browne; David Fitzgerald, Conor Cleary, Patrick O’Connor ; Shane Golden, Colm Galvin; Peter Duggan, Tony Kelly, Diarmuid Ryan; Podge Collins, Niall Deasy, Ian Galvin.

Subs: Gary Cooney for I Galvin (35), Oisin O’Brien for McInerney (HT), Cathal Malone for O’Connor (51), Aidan McCarthy for Deasy (55), Aron Shanagher for Ryan (65).

LIMERICK: Nickie Quaid; Richie English, Sean Finn, Tom Condon ; Paddy O’Loughlin, Declan Hannon, Dan Morrissey; Cian Lynch, Colin Ryan; Gearoid Hegarty, Kyle Hayes, Tom Morrissey; Aaron Gillane, Seamus Flanagan, Peter Casey.

Subs: William O’Meara for Finn (6) Inj, Darragh O’Donovan for Ryan (49), Graeme Mulcahy for Flanagan (58), David Dempsey for Hegarty (62), Shane Dowling for T Morrissey (65).

REFEREE: Paud O’Dwyer (Carlow).