Munster club SHC semi-final: Éire Óg (Clare) 2-20 Loughmore-Castleiney (Tipperary) 1-16 (after extra-time)
Maybe you weren’t paying attention. In a parallel universe, shortly before Troy Parrott completed his work of wonders in Budapest, Éire Óg’s Danny Russell landed a free from more than 60 metres, near the sideline, into a scalding wind, to bring the teams level for the 10th time and plunge this compelling Munster semi-final into extra-time. In sport, brinkmanship is a many-headed beast.
The margin at the end was a distortion of nearly everything that had gone before. In normal time the Clare champions led for just two short spells, and even though the scoreboard was moving slowly, Éire Óg were doing most of the chasing.
In extra-time, though, they cut loose. David Reidy exploded into the game around the middle of the field and Russell continued in imperious fashion, scoring 14 times from 16 attempts over the course of the game. On a winter’s day when scoring was a trial for everyone it was a monumental feat of marksmanship.
Loughmore-Castleiney are an ageing team whose legs gave up on them in the end. They trailed by just a point turning to play with the wind in the second half of extra-time but shipped 1-3 and failed to score. Their footballers won a game in the Munster championship last year, but their hurlers have not done so since 2007, and for this extraordinary group of players their dream of a Munster title is ebbing away.
RM Block
For Éire Óg the magic carpet ride continues. Their footballers will play a Munster semi-final against St Finbarr’s next weekend, and a week later their hurlers will contest the Munster final for the first time since 1990. There are 12 players common to both panels, eight of whom are usually starters. After such a gruelling game, fatigue is their next opponent.
Éire Óg ground out the verdict with huge physicality and unblinking tenacity. They trailed by a point at half-time in normal time having played with the aid of a significant wind and the odds didn’t look good then. Neither goalkeeper was able to land a puck-out beyond the opposite 65, and a few puck-outs didn’t get beyond the near 65.
Liam McGrath’s goal just before half-time gave Loughmore a slender lead that was a fair reflection of their edge in the first half. But with the wind at their backs they struggled to assert themselves after the break. They shot five wides in six minutes and didn’t carry any threat close to goal.
Instead, the outstanding John McGrath kept the scoreboard ticking over. The Hurler of the Year finished the game with 12 points, and it looked like he had sealed the game in the second minute of stoppage time with his fifth point from play. In extra-time, though, Loughmore couldn’t get him into the game, and his brother Noel couldn’t maintain the influence he had exerted for most of normal time too.
It was a day of unexpected twists. At a couple of hours notice the match was switched from Cusack Park in Ennis to Sixmilebridge. The pitch was perfectly playable after Storm Claudia but a broken water mains in the town meant there were no shower or toilet facilities in the ground.
Sixmilebridge had been host to a Munster Junior C camogie match in the morning and as soon as that game was over a troop of local volunteers spent an hour a half tending to the surface with pitch forks and touching up the lines with a fresh coat of paint. The sponsor’s advertising hoardings were shipped in and erected and Seán Stack, the former Clare hurler and All Star, sat in a tractor cab, slowly pulling a roller up and down the pitch.
It harked back to the days when provincial matches were often played at intimate club venues and the way the claustrophobic nature of the exchanges was a throwback too.
Scores were scarce in the first half as Loughmore went in at the break leading by a point, 1-4 to 0-6. The Clare champions improved in the second half, even if they struggled to reflect that on the scoreboard.
Shane O’Donnell, who had been peripheral in the opening half, was moved closer to goal and from there his impact shaped the game. He scored Éire Óg’s opening two points of the second half and then set up Russell for their first goal after a towering catch and level-headed pass.
That put them 1-9 to 1-6 in front after 40 minutes, but not in control. Loughmore surged again and regained the lead within 10 minutes.
From there until late in the second half of extra-time it was nip and tuck. Darren Moroney’s brilliant goal with three minutes left ended the mystery.
ÉIRE ÓG: D Stack; F Treacy, C Russell, J Collins; R Loftus, A Fitzgerald, L Corry; O Cahill, D Moroney (1-0); S O’Donnell (0-2), D Reidy, D McNamara; D O’Brien, D Russell (1-14, 12f, 1 65), M Cleary (0-2).
Subs: T Kavanagh (0-1) for O’Brien (h-t); J O’Dwyer for Moroney (52 mins); R Mulcahy (0-1, f) for McNamara (55); A McGrath for Collins (58); E O’Regan for Cahill (60+3); Moroney for McGrath (70); O Cahill for O’Regan (ht et).
LOUGHMORE-CASTLEINEY: A McGrath; L Egan, W Eviston, E Meagher; J Ryan (0-1), B McGrath (0-1), E O’Connell; N McGrath (0-1), C Connolly; T McGrath, J McGrath (0-12, 5f, 2 65s), C McCormack; L McGrath (1-0, E Connolly (0-1), T Maher
Subs: C McGrath for McCormack (40 mins); L Treacy for Maher, N McMahon for Connolly (both 60+3); C McCormack for T McGrath (75).
Referee: N O’Toole (Waterford).
