National Hurling League, Division 1A: Clare 0-23 Cork 6-20
Every meaningful league game requires mutual consent, but none of that can be agreed in advance. Cork came to Ennis with motive and opportunity and proceeded with the murder that was on their minds. Clare weren’t braced for that kind of fight. Not yet.
Even in the league, ego plays a part. Cork’s defeat in the All-Ireland final extended their worst run of championship defeats against Clare and even though they couldn’t do anything to arrest that here, they were clearly sick to their stomachs of losing. They hadn’t won a league game in Ennis since 2009 but that footnote was obliterated too.
On a day of summary justice in the two high-profile hurling games, there were three straight reds and 10 yellows in Ennis. The suggestion will be that the breakdown in officiating last weekend had led to an over-correction. But there was a needle in this game from start to finish, with off the ball flare-ups all over the field.
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Clare were already six goals down when Peter Duggan was dismissed on a straight red 16 minutes into the second half, having only come on as a half-time substitute. Duggan caught the Cork goalkeeper Brion Saunderson with a clothes-line tackle that probably would have resulted in a yellow card last weekend, rightly or wrongly.
Cormac O’Brien and David Fitzgerald were both sent off in stoppage time for a tangle that involved striking with the hurley. By then there were just five goals between the teams.
“Liam Gordon is a fantastic referee,” said Pat Ryan. “He’s brilliant to deal with, brilliant to communicate with you and he gives you great information. I wouldn’t fault Liam in any of that side of it. Realistically the two boys themselves shouldn’t be getting involved in a pulling-and-dragging match two minutes into injury time when one team is up by 16 or 17 points. They’ll both regret that and myself and Brian [Lohan] will probably be giving out to both fellas about it. There was no need for it.”
“But, look, it’s a really fast game we’re playing and we don’t want to take the physicality out of it, but we don’t want anything malicious. There are incidents that happen that are malicious but there are also incidents that are just about players getting carried away with the passion that’s in the game.”
Ryan had been frustrated with Cork’s inefficiency in front of goal in recent weeks, but they were ruthlessly clinical here; they created seven goal chances and failed with just one.
Shane Barrett slalomed through the last line of Clare’s defence to bury the first goal after eight minutes and Deccie Dalton got the first of his pair six minutes later after the rampant Brian Hayes had put him through. Hayes started his hat-trick eight minutes before the break and finished it 13 minutes into the second half. He finished the game with 3-1 which made him Cork’s top scorer from play alongside the resurgent Dalton who racked up 2-6, all but two points of it from play.
“Very disappointed in the performance,” said Brian Lohan. “Very disappointed in the result and the nature of the result as well. Look, I have to give credit to Cork but that’s maybe a bit too easy to say. When you concede as many goals as that, it’s just very tough on all concerned. Conceding those goals was obviously massive and maybe not fronting up to the attitude that Cork came with as well, that’s disappointing too.”
Despite playing with the breeze in the first half Clare trailed by 3-9 to 0-9 at the break and were lucky to be only nine points behind. The All-Ireland champions were slaughtered in the middle third where they couldn’t cope with the power of Cork’s running and their smart interplay. In the backwash, Clare’s defence was torn apart.
Cork clearly targeted John Conlon, David McInerney and Conor Cleary, the three pillars of the Clare defence, and ran through them. For Cleary, it was his first appearance since last year’s All-Ireland final, and McInerney was making his return from a hamstring injury picked up on the opening day of the league; all of them were off the pace and utterly marginalised. McInerney was replaced at half-time and Cleary was called ashore eight minutes into the second half.
A huge problem for Clare was that, until Peter Duggan’s impactful 16-minute cameo at full forward, very little was sticking at the other end of the field and not one of the Clare forwards was winning his duel.
From that platform Cork could do what they liked. Ethan Twomey was the most influential player at centrefield, linking the play artfully from back to front, and Barrett picked up the thread of his brilliant second half against Kilkenny with another scorching performance. By half-time he had scored 1-3 and added another point after the break.
What all this will mean in six weeks’ time, when they meet in the opening round of the Munster championship, is impossible to tell. If you have other plans for Easter Sunday, though, cancel them.
Clare: E Quilligan, A Hogan, C Cleary, C Leen, D Lohan, J Conlon, David McInerney, C Malone, R Taylor (0-1), D Fitzgerald (0-1), T Kelly (0-2), S Rynne (0-2), A McCarthy (0-12, 0-11 frees, 0-1 65), M Rogers (0-1), J O’Neill (0-1). Subs: P Duggan for McInerney, h-t; R Hayes for Cleary, 43 mins; A Shanagher (0-1) for Rynne; R Mounsey (0-1) for O’Neill, 55 mins; S Meehan (0-1) for Rogers, 66 mins.
Cork: B Saunderson, N O’Leary, E Downey, S O’Donoghue (0-1), T O’Connell, R Downey, C O’Brien, T O’Mahony, E Twomey (0-3), S Barrett (1-4), D Fitzgibbon, B Roche (0-2), B Hayes (3-1), D Dalton (2-6, 0-2 frees), P Horgan (0-3, frees). Subs: M Mullins for O’Connell, h-t; D Cahalane for E Downey, 47 mins; J Cahalane for Barrett, 54 mins; J O’Connor for Hayes, 54 mins; D Hogan for Roche, 63 mins.
Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway).
