*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLONLARA have claimed the Canon Hamilton producing a superior performance to hold off Crusheen.
Clonlara 3-18
Crusheen 2-16
Venue: Cusack Park, Ennis
A first title since 2008 is the reward for a classy Clonlara outfit who were the top team in this year’s championship and duly finish it off by lifting the Canon Hamilton.
Following near-misses in previous campaigns, the success is all the sweeter for Clonlara who contested finals in 2009, 2015 and 2016 before reaching the promised land with a merited five point win over Crusheen.
They dominated but they didn’t have it the easy way against a Crusheen side who they defeated by nine points in the third round.
It was that defeat that prompted Crusheen to turn their season around with knockout wins over Newmarket-on-Fergus and Scariff, their victories there made possible by lightning starts but such electricity didn’t pack such powerful voltage this time round.
Eleven first half-wides didn’t help the Crusheen cause even though they were level on three time occasions in the opening half.
Micheál O’Loughlin’s first goal on eighteen minutes put some distance between the teams for the first time and they were in a very healthy position by half-time thanks to a Colm Galvin goal.
Oisin O’Donnell opened the scoring inside thirty three seconds, Tadhg Dean turned over possession in defence before the Clare U20 made no mistake when given the opportunity.
Clonlara’s most experienced player John Conlon helped to settle them with scores either side of a Conor O’Donnell white flag to level the sides on two occasions.
Pressure was beginning to mount on the Crusheen defence. First, Luke Hayes made an exceptional hook when Jathan McMahon was bearing down on goal and then on five minutes Donal Tuohy produced a remarkable save to deny Colm O’Meara a major.
Conlon’s second equaliser was followed by points from O’Meara and McMahon to give Clonlara the lead for the first time and from here they never let Crusheen go ahead for the remainder of the game.
Fergus Kennedy and Oisin O’Donnell did equalise for the underdogs but their momentum was stalled when O’Loughlin struck for that goal on eighteen minutes. His brother Páraic won possession in the air, he found Aidan Moriarty who gave a low delivery to Ian Galvin, the Clare attacker controlled it and expertly offloaded to Micheál and his shot went low and past Tuohy.
O’Loughlin added the next two scores before Ross Hayes ended a six minute wait for a Crusheen score.
Goal number two arrived on twenty four minutes for Clonlara. Wing forward Colm O’Meara burst through the opposing defence and popped to Colm Galvin who made no mistake in finding the target.
Breffni Horner pulled one back with a free but the final score of the half fell to Diarmuid Stritch to leave Clonlara 2-7 0-6 ahead at half-time.
Dylan McMahon landed an inspirational score on the restart to give Clonlara further momentum, it was matched by a long-range effort by Diarmuid Mullins before Aidan Moriarty and Oisin O’Donnell traded efforts.
O’Donnell’s score was the first of three without reply for Crusheen to narrow the gap to five points with thirty four minutes on the clock.
Ian Galvin and Micheál O’Loughlin at one end had scores while Ross Hayes and Breffni Horner did so shooting into the Aldi end.
Horner won possession and supplied the on-rushing O’Donnell with the sliotar before he hit low to the bottom left corner of Séimí Gully’s net to make it a one-score game on forty four minutes.
With the game now in the melting pot, Crusheen needed to kick on, they conceded another Ian Galvin point which was cancelled out by Jamie Fitzgibbon but then Clonlara tacked on 1-3 without reply, all via O’Loughlin to effectively end the contest.
Colm Galvin supplied the long-ball to O’Loughlin which he won by fending off Éanna McMahon, even another Luke Hayes hook couldn’t stop him as when the sliotar fell to the ground he somehow managed to get it over the line and with that put Clonlara on their way.
In additional time, Crusheen struck for 1-2, the goal from Breffni Horner but while it did put a dent in the scoreboard it didn’t undo the damage and was insufficient in their quest to taste success.
Greatly hindered by their first half inefficiency in front of goal, Crusheen will feel they should have been much closer to their opponents when they retreated to the dressing room at half-time. At times they seemed pedestrian and coughed up way too much space to a lively Clonlara outfit, their half-back line were guilty of being caught in no-man’s land, they didn’t provide sufficient protection to their full-back line while they gifted too much space and time on the ball to Clonlara’s half-forward line. At midfield Crusheen were also blitzed, this evident by the fact a totally new pairing lined up for the throw-in of the second half.
Michael Browne’s men consciously tried to avoid Clonlara’s strong half-back line and while successful in navigating the long-ball past them, Fergus Kennedy didn’t have enough support to clean up the breaks and it is here that Dylan McMahon experienced great joy. Assessing the year as a whole, Crusheen will have more positives than negatives given it was their first county final appearance in nine years. Oisin O’Donnell was their best player by a nice distance with Éanna McMahon, Diarmuid Mullins and Luke Hayes doing reasonably well in patches.
To have reached the promised land brings immense satisfaction and relief to Clonlara who since their breakthrough in 2008 have had a panel capable of winning the championship. This season according to those involved, their unity and workrate was the difference. Aided by a finely balanced attack with all six capable of winning a game on their own, they prevailed in each and every outing in this year’s championship to rightfully take the crown.
By crowding the middle third, their superior reactions saw them hoover up possession which served as an ideal launch-pad in finding the aforementioned dangerous attack.
Donal Madden who was their freetaker in 2008 and was manager of the 2023 champions has to take great credit for the manner in which he has united the panel and removed any ‘attitude problems’ that may have previously existed. Best for the champions were Dylan McMahon, Micheál O’Loughlin, Ian Galvin, Páraic O’Loughlin, Colm O’Meara and Colm Galvin.
Following the game, Clare GAA Chairman Kieran Keating presented the Canon Hamilton to victorious captain Jathan McMahon. Freetaker O’Loughlin was awarded man of the match while Scariff’s Mark Rodgers accepted the MD MyClubShop.ie / The Clare Echo top scorer award from Christy Ryan.
Scorers Clonlara: Micheál O’Loughlin (2-9 7f), C Galvin (1-0), J Conlon (0-2), I Galvin (0-2), C O’Meara (0-1), J McMahon (0-1), D Stritch (0-1), D McMahon (0-1), A Moriarty (0-1).
Scorers Crusheen: O O’Donnell (1-4), B Horner (1-3 2f), R Hayes (0-3 3f), C O’Donnell (0-2), F Kennedy (0-2), D Mullins (0-1), J Fitzgibbon (0-1).
Clonlara:
1: Séimí Gully
4: Logan Ryan
3: Ger Powell
2: Michael Clancy
7: Páraic O’Loughlin
6: Dylan McMahon
5: David Fitzgerald
8: Aidan Moriarty
9: Jathan McMahon
12: Colm Galvin
11: John Conlon
10: Colm O’Meara
15: Micheál O’Loughlin
14: Ian Galvin
13: Diarmuid Stritch
Subs:
17: Cian Moriarty for O’Meara (52)
20: Micheal Stritch for Stritch (58)
21: Daniel Moloney for J McMahon (60)
22: Conor Bourke for Moriarty (62)
Crusheen:
1: Donal Tuohy
4: Luke Hayes
3: Cian Dillon
2: Éanna McMahon
5: Diarmuid Mullins
6: Ross Hayes
7: Tadhg Dean
8: Eoghan McMahon
9: Jamie Fitzgibbon
10: Gerry O’Grady
11: Conor O’Donnell
12: Cilléin Mullins
13: Oisin O’Donnell
14: Fergus Kennedy
15: Breffni Horner
Subs:
20: Ian O’Brien for Eoghan McMahon (40)
18: Luke Ketelaar for C Mullins (50)
21: Gavin O’Brien for O’Grady (63)
17: Mark Perill for Kennedy (63)
Referee: Niall Malone (Éire Óg)
