*Clare’s David Reidy. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
WATERFORD’s fifth win in the Munster SHC since 2020 has come at the expense of Clare’s senior hurlers.
Waterford 2-23
Clare 0-21
Venue: Walsh Park,
A battling opening half from Clare was not sustained with a poor finish in Walsh Park seeing them fall to an eight point loss at the hands of Waterford who started with twelve of the fifteen that lost out to the Banner 4-21 2-26 in last year’s championship. It is the first time since the 2016 provincial championship and the 2020 All-Ireland quarter final that Waterford have beaten Clare.
Minus the services of Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell, Conor Cleary and Diarmuid Ryan, Clare were on the backfoot but they gave every last ounce drop for three quarters of the contest but never recovered from Stephen Bennett’s second goal on fifty six minutes.
Bennett’s first appeared to be a very soft penalty awarded by referee Chris Mooney. Although he hesitated with his strike, the Ballysaggart man still hit the target to keep Waterford in the driving seat.
Tony Kelly’s absence through illness meant he was not in Walsh Park let alone on the field of play for Clare. This paved the way for David Reidy, Cathal Malone, Peter Duggan and Ryan Taylor to step up on the leadership front and they kept going till the very end, while also contributing 0-16 between them.
Waterford went behind on forty four seconds but once they took the lead on five minutes they remained ahead for the duration of the contest and were deserving winners. The closest gap between the sides was one point on five minutes while after this the margin fell to three points on a further three occasions up until Bennett’s second major.
Comeback qualities were to the fore from Clare in the opening half. Having trailed 0-10 0-3 by the eighteenth minute, they were within three points, a single score by the sounding of the half-time whistle.
Waterford powered ahead towards the end of the first quarter with a rally of five points without reply, two each from midfielder Darragh Lyons and freetaker Stephen Bennett with Jamie Barron opening his account. Aidan McCarthy missed two scoreable frees during this spell to further dampen Banner spirits.
Prior to this, Clare had registered on the scoreboard with two white flags from the tireless Cathal Malone on forty four seconds and seven minutes, the second arising after Conor Leen turned over possession in defence and fed John Conlon to provide the delivery.
Mark Rodgers had Clare’s third point on nine minutes, David Reidy working hard to get a hook with Conlon again providing the delivery to tee up the score.
A loose period from Clare in the middle third coupled with the ball emerging from Waterford’s defence with far too ease allowed Peter Queally’s side to then tap over their five points on the bounce.
Ending Waterford’s free-flowing period was a sideline cut from Peter Duggan who was continuing to have a growing influence on the game, particularly through his fielding in the air and chasing back on seemingly lost causes. Reidy narrowed the gap to five on twenty minutes.
Barron and Shane Meehan traded scores before Waterford goalkeeper Billy Nolan capitalsied on a dropped shot from Malone to solo up field and fire over from distance.
This excellent score from Nolan didn’t inspire his colleagues to kick on and instead Clare hit back with the next three scores, all from the Clooney/Quin contingent of Ryan Taylor and Duggan, two of the three from Taylor. Once more Barron and Meehan exchanged efforts to leave the distance of three points between the teams as Chris Mooney blew for half-time.
Dessie Hutchinson and Shane Meehans swapped scores on the restart before Bennett dispatched his penalty to the net on forty three minutes. Clare hit four points in a row via Taylor, Duggan and two from Reidy to reduce the deficit to three points.
Barron and Duggan swapped scores before Bennett pounced on a dropping shot from Patrick Fitzgerald which the Clare defence assumed was drifting wide and the Déise danger man was on hand to tuck the sliotar beyond Eibhear Quilligan.
Bennett had three of the next five scores, Taylor and Reidy splitting the posts at the other end. Patrick Fitzgerald, Dessie Hutchinson, Bennett and Michael Kiely extended the gap to eleven points on sixty nine minutes before Clare finished with points from Reidy on the double and one from Shane Meehan.
Despite the absentees and not managing to get in front, this was still a game that Clare could have won. The impact off the bench was felt last weekend to force a draw against Cork but it didn’t materialise this time round and the lack of changes made by management when the game was totally slipping from Clare’s grasp brings into question how much faith they have in their non-established players.
Billy Nolan made excellent saves from Peter Duggan and Ian Galvin in the second half but Clare didn’t threaten a major in the opening half, a pity considering their return of three goals versus Cork was central to picking up a share of the spoils.
As disappointing as the finish was the stream of Clare supporters who left Walsh Park early. An attendance of 12,078 was recorded for the match, for those that made the trek to Waterford, they were entitled to be downbeat with how things were panning out but their exit was visible to see and compounded the pain of the championship loss.
Pressure is gone up a notch now on Clare, they face Tipperary on May 10th and will be counting their blessings to have some more players back in the mix but they have to address a second game in a row where they fell significantly adrift while holes in defence need to be filled.
Scorers Waterford: St Bennett (2-8 4f 1’Pen), J Barron (0-4), D Lyons (0-3), D Hutchinson (0-2), P Curran (0-2), M Fitzgerald (0-1), B Nolan (0-1), M Kiely (0-1), P Fitzgerald (0-1).
Scorers Clare: D Reidy (0-6 2f), P Duggan (0-4 1’SC), R Taylor (0-4), S Meehan (0-4), M Rodgers (0-1)
Waterford:
1: Billy Nolan (Roanmore)
2: Ian Kenny (Ballygunner)
3: Conor Prunty (Abbeyside Ballinacourty)
4: Iarlaith Daly (Lismore)
5: Mark Fitzgerald (Passage)
6: Tadhg de Búrca (Clashmore Kinsalebeg)
7: Paddy Leavy (Ballygunner)
8: Darragh Lyons (Dungarvan)
9: Kieran Bennett (Ballysaggart)
12: Jack Prendergast (Lismore)
11: Jamie Barron (Fourmilewater)
13: Kevin Mahony (Ballygunner)
15: Patrick Curran (Dungarvan)
10: Stephen Bennett (Ballysaggart)
14: Dessie Hutchinson (Ballygunner)
Subs:
19: Michael Kiely (Abbeyside Ballinacourty) for K Bennett (HT)
20: Patrick Fitzgerald (Ballygunner) for Curran (52)
22: Shane Bennett (Ballysaggart) for Mahony (56)
23: Sean Walsh (Fourmilewater) for Lyons (70)
21: Austin Gleeson (Mount Sion) for Prendergast (72)
Clare:
1: Eibhear Quilligan (Feakle)
2: Adam Hogan (Feakle)
3: Darragh Lohan (Wolfe Tones)
4: Conor Leen (Corofin)
5: Cian Galvin (Clarecastle)
6: John Conlon (Clonlara)
7: David McInerney (Tulla)
9: Cathal Malone (Sixmilebridge)
13: Ryan Taylor (Clooney/Quin)
15: David Reidy (Éire Óg)
8: David Fitzgerald (Inagh/Kilnamona)
12: Peter Duggan (Clooney/Quin)
22: Shane Meehan (Banner)
11: Mark Rodgers (Scariff)
14: Aidan McCarthy (Inagh/Kilnamona)
Subs:
21: Aron Shangher (Wolfe Tones) for Fitzgerald (46)
24: Ian Galvin (Clonlara) for McCarthy (46)
19: Rory Hayes (Wolfe Tones) for Leen (64)
Referee: Chris Mooney (Dublin)
