Clare ease to victory as Cork passing game wilts
AFINAL score that left only two points between the teams is an issue of accounting rather than a symptom of drama. Clare were so clearly the better side for the entirety of this match that the ripples emanating from that fact will be felt in Cork for months to come.
The short-term facts are juicy enough in themselves. Clare have two wins from two, with Munster’s twin peaks scaled in a week.
But of course beating Tipperary and Cork doesn’t mean what it once did in the most storied provincial championship of them all.
Not only does the round-robin format change the context, but so does the power structure in hurling now. The two primal forces in Munster are Limerick and Waterford, and they await Clare over the next three weeks.
But Brian Lohan’s team are in an excellent position to make the All-Ireland series. One win should see them through, but they could even make it with two defeats, given the difficulty of seeing Cork or Tipperary match what Clare have achieved so far.
They were excellent here, using tactics that were straightforward but effective. That was particularly true in the first half, when they dominated opponents that looked, frankly, cowed.
Clare’s players hounded Cork in possession, and any ball they didn’t turn over, they invariably forced a Cork defender into clearing hastily. That left their forwards fighting for untargeted ball, which favoured the Clare defenders and meant the sliothar was quickly dispatched back into the Cork defence.
Clare’s forwards worked like dray-horses and their industry left Cork frazzled.
This was a game in which one team exemplified modern best practice, with all 15 players trying to work as one.
Two flashes of action in the 28th minute had a definitive feel. Pat Horgan, usually Cork’s salvation (and the closest they had to a reliable source of resistance in Semple Stadium yesterday), missed an easy 45-metre free, leaving his team pegged on four points. From Eibhear Quilligan’s restart, Shane O’Donnell collected the sliothar with no Cork defender in sight.
He picked off his point, Clare’s 15th, and they led by 11.
The game seemed over, and despite Cork’s blizzard of seven points in the final seven minutes of the half, compared to two for Clare, the substance of the Cork comeback had to be tested.
They were six points down at the interval, and that margin didn’t reflect Clare’s dominance.
Cork did stir themselves somewhat, but they ended up finishing as close as they did thanks to a goal in the fifth and final minute of time added on. They were not within two points of Clare based on their performance over the course of the 70 minutes.
Kieran Kingston looked restrained and considered on the sideline, but this was a game that threw up as many concerns as the opening loss to Limerick. The team again relied on a short game out of defence that just does not work. The logic of the tactic is fine, but it was undermined by Limerick’s physical supremacy in the first round.
Clare don’t boast that kind of hulking power, but they still dispossessed or disconcerted Cork time and time again.
The Cork puck-out strategy was a disaster in the first half too, and by the time they put some order on aspects of their approach, the game was gone from them.
Kingston has been taking fierce criticism, and it will only increase after this. That’s not to say it is all justified, or even reasonable, but the stark truth is that Cork are way adrift of the counties setting the standards in hurling now.
There were just three minutes gone in the second half when an unexpected route back into the game briefly appeared.
Cork sub Alan Connolly kicked in a goal to cut the margin back to five. Clare had been cruising up to then, but their discomfort could have increased when Ian Galvin was sent off.
Their response, though, was excellent, scoring the next three points and sealing the result.
Cork sub Mark Keane was sent off late on, but no more than Darragh Fitzgibbon’s late goal, it didn’t matter.
What did was the outstanding work-rate and symmetry of Clare. Tony Kelly was typically important, Shane O’Donnell showed flashes of class in a forward line where Peter Duggan was brilliant, and Cathal Malone and Ryan Taylor provided an energy Cork did not match.
They should have scored more, with some sloppy shooting at times, and conceding 2-20 in their next two matches will bring no joy. But this was a smart, tunedin example of the modern game.
They have given themselves an excellent chance of seeing hurling beyond Munster this summer.
Cork cannot get to that level, and by the time they do, it could be too late.
It probably already is. CLARE: E Quilligan; R Hayes, C Cleary, P Flanagan; D Ryan, J Conlon, D McInerney; D Fitzgerald, C Malone; R Taylor, T Kelly, S O’Donnell; R Mounsey (A Shanagher 57), P Duggan (D McMahon 69), I Galvin. SCORERS: T Kelly 0-10 (5f, 2 65s), P Duggan, D Fitzgerald and R Taylor 0-3 each, S O’Donnell, C Malone and I Galvin 0-2 each, R Mounsey, D McInerney and D Ryan 0-1 each. CORK: P Collins; N O’Leary, R Downey, S O’Donoghue; T O’Mahony, C Joyce, M Coleman; D Fitzgibbon, G Millerick (T O’Connell 59); S Harnedy (C Cahalane 56), S Kingston (M Keane 61), R O’Flynn; S Barrett (C Lehane HT), P Horgan, J O’Connor (A Connolly 26). SCORERS: P Horgan 0-10 (7f, 1 65), A Connolly 1-1, R O’Flynn 0-3, D Fitzgibbon 1-0, S Kingston and S Harnedy 0-2 each, T O’Mahony and C Lehane 0-1 each.
REFEREE: Paud O’Dwyer (Carlow).