Clare 1-23 Waterford 2-19
In time to come this Allianz Hurling League final replay may become a textbook illustration of the things teams can do without actually winning a match. Clare led for only seconds out of the 70 minutes of play. At the very end the outstanding Tony Kelly pushed them ahead for only the second time with the game’s last shot.
Kelly, who only completed his first full match in the drawn encounter, was an unanimous Man of the Match, his constant movement and threat delivering 1-6, all but a point from play. Even the dead ball was dramatic. His manager Davy Fitzgerald said that he took the decision for Kelly to take what was the equalising free.
His shooting from distance was characteristically phenomenal and is such a huge asset to a team in the thickets of modern hurling systems. There were a couple of wides but set that against 1-5 from play. He needs little time or space to do damage.
In the 61st minute Waterford replacement Brian O’Halloran went up under a puck-out, tapped the sliotar down to bring it under control but his touch slightly lacked precision whereupon Kelly nipped in, took possession and fired over from around 65 metres.
There was significant controversy before the equaliser. Waterford’s Jamie Barron was certainly fouled but referee Diarmuid Kirwan waved play on and shortly afterwards awarded a foul for a challenge on Kelly that was law-abiding compared to the one let go.
The Waterford mentors were pretty Zen about the turnaround in fortunes but it will be filed away for future use with the counties’ championship meeting in four weeks now the main focus.
Sensational start
The winners had trailed for virtually the whole match after Patrick Curran’s smash-and-grab goal within the first 17 seconds had given Waterford a sensational start and the holders maintained a lead of varying dimensions for all but the final few dozen seconds.
This was an excellent contest even if the crowd was disappointingly small at 14,210. In contrast to the cautious protocols of the previous week this hummed along with more attacking intent. Waterford manager Derek McGrath said that he felt the early goal had kick-started a more open match and certainly the scoreboard turned over more quickly and there were less than half the number of wides.
Once again Waterford simply didn’t make their superiority count whereas Clare never lost their composure and picked off the scores that would prove critical, including the last four, which overhauled a three-point deficit, 1-19 to 2-19.
They played more considered ball when attacking and cut out the more speculative long deliveries that Waterford had largely gobbled up in the drawn match.
There were also personnel changes and switches. Tadhg de Búrca did more sweeping this time for Waterford and was excellent apart from a couple of errors at the end of the first half. Shane Bennett wasn’t as forceful but Patrick Curran was more so and the levels of accuracy were much better.
Tom Devine replaced Colin Dunford and made a nuisance of himself even if the latter’s hard running was missed until he appeared in the 46th minute as a replacement.
Austin Gleeson played centre forward and scored three points, demonstrating sharp movement and good shooting. His wide towards the end of the match was significant but he played well on a very competitive David Fitzgerald.
Two goals
Clare won’t be pleased to have conceded two goals. Patrick O’Connor will be particularly keen to put them behind him, as he had a role in both: getting skinned by Curran for the first and playing a loose pass, which was intercepted by the same player who drew the cover and flipped the ball into Jake Dillon, and he did the rest.
By half-time there were three points in it, 2-9 to 0-12, and a run of scoring from the 41st to the 47th minutes ensued – Curran with two dead balls, Gleeson and Jamie Barron, who gave another energetic performance, capped with two points.
Clare’s path back into the match came from Kelly, who was put into space by Conor McGrath – who notched a productive eight points in the first half, three from play, and again kept his team afloat – and galloped towards the goal before shooting to the net.
Waterford still kept their distance on the scoreboard.d Clare got more out of their other forwards this time. Darach Honan chipped in two important second-half points and Colin Ryan came off the bench in the 43rd minute, shot a long-range free plus a point from play.
Once Kelly had put them level Clare showed the killer touch. Fitzgerald caught the puck-out from the equaliser, passed to Jack Browne, a late starter instead of Oisín O’Brien, and he supplied Kelly on the right wing. And that’s about all you need to do.
CLARE: P Kelly; C Cleary, C Dillon, P O'Connor (0-1); J Browne, D Fitzgerald (0-1), B Bugler; D Reidy (0-1), C Galvin; C McGrath (0-8, five frees), T Kelly (1-6, one point a free), P Collins (0-1); D Honan (0-2), A Cunningham (0-1), S O'Donnell.
Subs: C Ryan (0-2, one free) for Galvin (43 mins), C O'Connell for Collins (55 mins), A Shanagher for O'Donnell (65 mins).
WATERFORD: S O'Keeffe; B Coughlan, N Connors, S Fives; D Fives (0-1), P Mahony, K Moran (0-1); J Barron (0-2), T de Búrca; M Walsh, A Gleeson (0-3), J Dillon (1-0); S Bennett (0-2), P Curran (1-9, six points frees and one 65), T Devine.
Subs: C Dunford for Devine (46 mins), B O'Halloran (0-1) for Dillon (57 mins), M Shanahan for Bennett (67 mins),
Referee: D Kirwan (Cork).
