*Clare’s Conor Burke. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Unfortunately Clare’s shot at a first Munster Minor Football Final in four years was over before it even got started in Quilty on Tuesday evening.
Cork 1-13
Clare 0-8
Venue: Páirc Naomh Mhuire, Quilty.
A sleepy preamble allowed a slicker Cork to punish with a blistering start of 1-5 without reply which allied to the dismissal of home centre-back Aidan Weaver for a perceived retaliation in the 21st minute ensured that the Banner’s hopes were effectively dead in the water.
And yet, trailing by nine points at the time, true to form Dermot Coughlan’s side refused to drop their heads and instead of taking a pummelling actually outscored their numerically advantaged opponents for the remaining two-thirds of the contest.
More than that, had Clare taken either of two glorious goal chances nearing the turn of the final quarter, they might have even made the Rebels sweat but first the teasing ball over the top just evaded Shane O’Connell’s reaches while Conor Burke’s shot just drifted agonisingly outside the right post.
It was ultimately a bridge too far but yet another learning experience for a frustrated Banner in what was their fifth championship outing of the campaign. After all, despite being down a man for two-thirds of the hour, the Banner won 31 frees to Cork’s 14, a stat that reveals much about Cork’s systematic fouling to stop any Clare counter-attacks. That collective cynical fouling largely went unpunished by referee Timmy McGrath as Clare received more cards than the visitors.
On an evening in which Clare needed to take every chance that came their way, three early placed balls dropped short as Cork capitalised fully at the other end. The excellent Dylan O’Neill kicked two superb points to add to Ben O’Shea’s opener, with Clare’s kick-out creaking under the pressure of a physically dominant middle third from the Rebels which led directly to the first goal.
A Clare restart was punched back into the home half for Ben O’Shea to tee up the impressive Danny Miskella to disguise his shot to the bottom right corner of the net in the ninth minute.
Further points through Harry Cogan, Sean Whelton, O’Neill and Ben Delaney sandwiched Clare’s opener through Sean Fennell at the end of the opening quarter at 1-7 to 0-1.
The game altered irrevocably in the 21st minute when Clare earned a free about 50 metres from goal, only for referee McGrath to pick out Aidan Weaver for retaliation that duly cancelled out the free and saw the Lissycasey player handed a straight red card.
Remarkably there would be no further score for the last 15 minutes of the half that included four minutes of injury-time but with time to regroup, Clare admirably did come out fighting on the re-sumption.
Persistently chipping away at the deficit through Shane O’Connell, substitute Darragh Townsend and national top-scorer Conor Burke, Clare craved a goal if they were to really put a spanner in the works but failed to work goalkeeper James O’Flaherty with either of their two glorious chanc-es.
Instead, a more laboured Cork, perhaps conserving their energy for next Monday’s Final rematch with Kerry were simply content to match whatever their hosts threw at them and play keep ball in order to try and run down the clock.
It was far from swashbuckling but Clare did outscore the visitors by 0-4 to 0-3 in that final quar-ter, all through Burke, as the tie petered out to its inevitable conclusion.
Victors Cork advance to a fourth consecutive Munster decider while for Clare, there’s still a chance at finishing the year on a high as they now prepare for a new All-Ireland Tier 2 Champion-ship, a knock-out competition involving all four provinces that commences for the Banner on Sat-urday, May 25th.
Scorers for Cork: D O’Neill 0-6 (1f); D Miskella 1-1; B Delaney (2f), S Whelton 0-2 each; B O’Shea, H Cogan 0-1 each
Scorers for Clare: C Burke 0-5 (4f); S Fennell, S O’Connell, D Townsend 0-1 each
Cork
16: James O’Flaherty (Douglas)
4: Joe Mouret (Douglas)
3: Aaron Keane (Kinsale)
18: Niall O’Shea (Urhan)
5: Cathal McCarthy (St Colum’s)
6: Cian O’Connor (Ballincollig)
2: Oisin Harrington (KIlmeen)
8: Harry Cogan (Glanmire)
22: Jack French (Ballinora)
10: Danny Miskella (Ballincollig)
9: Ben O’Shea (Mallow)
12: Sean Whelton (St James’)
13: Humphrey Canty (Newcestown)
23: Ben Delaney (Carrigaline)
15: Dylan O’Neill (Carbery Rangers)
Subs
17: Cian Cooney (Clyda Rovers) for O’Shea (38, inj)
19: Billy Ryan (Glenville) for Mouret (41)
20: Niall O’Callaghan (Castlehaven) for French (45)
11: Danny O’Donovan (Castlehaven) for Delaney (51)
7: Cian Ahern (Ballincollig) for O’Connor (61)
Clare
1: Eoin Byrne (St Breckan’s)
2: Aaron Killeen (Lissycasey)
3: Conor Hill (Lissycasey)
4: James Blunnie (Kilrush Shamrocks)
7: Stephen Murphy (St Joseph’s Miltown)
8: Aidan Weaver (Lissycasey)
5: Leo Switzer (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
6: Diarmuid Boyle (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
9: Colm Downes (Shannon Gaels)
10: Daniel Brody (Ennistymon)
14: Shane O’Connell (Cooraclare)
12: David Cahill (Clooney-Quin)
15: Conor Burke (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
11: Sean Fennell (Kilrush Shamrocks)
13: Diarmuid McMahon (Lissycasey)
Subs:
20: Darragh Townsend (Cooraclare) for Cahill (21)
17: Caleb Walsh (Banner) for Murphy (HT)
19: Liam Clune (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield) for Brody (HT)
18: Cathal Casey (Lissycasey) for Switzer (49)
21: Gabriel Fennell (Cooraclare) for Downes (62)
Referee: Timmy McGrath (Limerick)
