*Clare minor captain, Graham Ball. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
REACHING a fourth successive All-Ireland minor hurling semi-final is testament to the work ongoing with development squads in the county, minor manager Ger O’Connell has said.
By Enda Treacy
An eight point win for Clare over Galway saw them set up a semi-final rematch with Cork which takes place in FBD Semple Stadium on Sunday.
In the quarter-final, Paul Rodgers finished as Clare’s top scorer with 0-11 while Liam Murphy and Rory Ralph raised green flags on a day when Dara Kennedy and Evan Crimmins excelled in defence with Clare sealing a 2-21 2-13 victory.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, O’Connell praised their strong second half showing. “It was a comprehensive second half, especially when we conceded a goal right at the start of the second half as well, you know. But I’ve been saying it all along about these boys, they’ve great character and as a group they’ve been through a lot of ups and downs this year. I said it to them in the dressing room beforehand, that we’ve every time we have responded and the second half was just that”.
There was more than the wind that led to their second half dominance, the Clonlara man said. “We knew we had the elements as well but that alone doesn’t win you games. It helps when you have Murphy and Rodgers inside; if you can get them enough ball you are going to do damage. The wind was strong in the first so we just needed to stay tipping away, get our scores. We got the goal off Rory (Ralph) and we opened it up two or three times and let a few goal chances get away as well. But look, it would have been worse if we weren’t creating them but I’m delighted with that second half. We played well, won a lot of second balls which was huge”.
1-3 from the stick of Liam Murphy saw him effectively turn out to be the match winner for Clare. “Murph is brilliant, but it’s not just his scoring. Along with Rodge and Ben (Talty), their effort off the ball is just constant and that is the energy we’re trying to bring to the group. It’s amazing, would I have taken this at the start of the year? Absolutely. To be in an All-Ireland semi-final and it gives us a nice two weeks to get ready and we’re going to give that a right go”.
Reaching four All-Ireland semi-finals in a row “at this level it is really, really hard. This is my first year and we really want to build on what has been done previously. There is such good work going on. It goes from under 14s, 15s, 16s, and the whole development piece going on in Clare and it is something we have to build on. Things are going well, but as long as we are competitive, that is the main thing”.
