Munster SHC: Limerick 0-24 Clare 3-20
Brian Lohan felt it was important to sign off a luckless All-Ireland defence with a victory as Ryan Taylor’s second-half goals saw Clare past Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds.
Mark Rodgers’ 1-8 inside 46 minutes put the Banner in a winning position before Taylor raced forward to net a brace in front of 32,133 fans.
Regardless of their flat performance in this dead-rubber contest, the Treatymen will host Cork in the Munster final on Saturday week while Clare must lick their wounds and wait for next year.
They were hampered by injuries from the outset of their title defence. Hurler of the Year Shane O’Donnell made a long-awaited first start of 2025 and was fouled for five of Rodgers’ pointed frees.
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Diarmuid Ryan had his first appearance of the year off the bench. His first touch was to release Taylor for his second goal.
Free-taker Aidan McCarthy departed the set-up earlier this month, and when asked about his absence, Lohan replied: “He’s not on the panel. We’ve loads of guys on the panel, and that’s who we’re going to talk about. Aidan’s not on the panel.”
Lohan continued: “I don’t think hunger is an issue. We were unlucky with injuries, and that’s just the way it is.
“We were okay in our approach, but we did miss crucial guys at crucial periods of time. Broken bones, they take 14 weeks, 16 weeks, and we’d three guys with broken metatarsals.
“We never had a broken metatarsal for the last five or six years. This year, we had three guys went down.
“The Munster Championship started maybe two or three weeks early for us.
“We got some of our guys back on the field and got a good performance and a good result, which was important.”
Limerick manager John Kiely opted for eight changes as Declan Hannon made his first appearance of the season, and Shane Dowling lined out for his first championship game since the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny.
Kiely was left agitated on the sideline by his team’s mistakes.
“We just didn’t come out of the blocks in the second half,” said Kiely. “It was one of our weakest quarters of the game. We lacked intensity, a bit of energy, and accuracy in what we were doing.
“We made too many mistakes and ultimately, across the 70 minutes, on analysis it will be shown that we made quite an inordinate number of errors. Just missed pickups, dropped balls, misplaced passes, unforced errors, if you like.”
Lohan’s three late switches included a change of goalkeeper, with Eamon Foudy taking over between the sticks.
Clare began with a strong wind at their backs, but Limerick landed the first three points through Diarmaid Byrnes, Séamus Flanagan, and Gearóid Hegarty.
Clare responded with a pair of four-point streaks as they enjoyed success off the Treaty puck-out. Tony Kelly slotted one from under the Mackey Stand while falling, Peter Duggan arrowed over his first of two sidelines and Cathal Malone also picked off a brace.
They led 0-8 to 0-5 as Byrnes missed three early frees. But the Shannonsiders came back to level for a third time with three in a row from Hegarty, Peter Casey, and a free from Byrnes.
Clare outscored them 1-4 to 0-1 from there to the break, beginning with Rodgers’ goal in the 26th minute. He capitalised after Foudy’s long puck-out was knocked down by Duggan and into the Scariff man’s path.
As the rain lashed down, Rory Hayes thundered out of defence to point after a brilliant turnover and Clare took shelter 1-13 to 0-10 ahead at half-time.
They built on that lead to move eight ahead with three points from Rodgers and David Reidy’s second after the break.
Tom Morrissey clipped three in response, but Clare moved ahead by 10 with Taylor’s opening goal. Malone secured the sliotar and Rodgers played the final pass for the midfielder to jink on to his left and fire to the roof of the net. Kelly’s third point made it 2-19 to 0-14.
However, Limerick fans sensed a comeback as they reeled off the next six points. Substitutes Adam English and Barry Nash got off the mark. Cathal O’Neill tagged on his first of three second-half points. Morrissey’s tally reached 0-7 (five frees).
Aidan O’Connor was also supplied a goal chance by Byrnes but dropped the sliotar and whipped wide.
With five minutes remaining, Taylor put a pin in their hopes with his second goal after being fed by Ryan for a 3-19 to 0-20 lead.
Limerick ended with four replacements registering as O’Connor and Donnacha Ó Dálaigh raised white flags.
LIMERICK: S Dowling; M Casey, D Morrissey, B Murphy; D Byrnes (0-4, 2f), D Hannon, C Coughlan; D O’Donovan, W O’Donoghue; G Hegarty (0-2), C O’Neill (0-3), T Morrissey (0-7, 5f); S Flanagan (0-2), S O’Brien, P Casey (0-2).
Subs: B Nash for M Casey (32-34 mins, temp), A English (0-1) for O’Donovan (44), B Nash (0-1) for Murphy (50), A O’Connor (0-1) for O’Brien (53), D Reidy for Byrnes (59), D Ó Dálaigh (0-1) for Flanagan (61), P O’Donovan for P Casey (66).
CLARE: E Foudy; R Hayes (0-1), A Hogan, Darragh Lohan; D McInerney, J Conlon, C Galvin; R Taylor (2-1), C Malone (0-2); T Kelly (0-3), D Reidy (0-2), J O’Neill; S O’Donnell, P Duggan (0-2, 2sc), M Rodgers (1-8, 7f).
Subs: Daithí Lohan for Darragh Lohan (14 mins, inj), I Galvin for Reidy (60), D Ryan for McInerney (65), S Meehan (0-1) for O’Donnell (66), A Shanagher for Duggan (67).
Referee: T Walsh (Waterford).
