Clonlara cruise into quarter-finals

*Dylan McMahon holds off Conor O’Donnell. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

CLONLARA secured top spot in Group 2 of the Clare SHC and more importantly a place in the quarter-finals while strengthening their status as one of the leading contenders for honours.

Clonlara 0-22
Crusheen 1-10
Venue: Cusack Park, Ennis

A third win in succession for Clonlara in which they completely overpowered Crusheen propelled them to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2019.

Early points were exchanged between Jathan McMahon and Breffni Horner inside the opening two minutes which indicated a tight affair may be on the cards. That was far from the case for the first half with Crusheen going an entire twenty three minutes without a score.

During this period, Clonlara tacked on nine points of their own to really flesh out a gap between the two sides.

Full forward Ian Galvin was causing problems, a sharp first touch and an ability to evade challenges helped the Clare forward on his way to clocking up two points in the opening half. He added another two points in the second half.

A strong first half showing which yielded nine unanswered points laid the foundation for Clonlara’s comfortable win over Crusheen. The victory sees Clonlara safely into the quarter finals as group winners with maximum points from their three outings to date.

Crusheen went into this game knowing that they needed victory to be certain of advancing. The victory of O’Callaghans Mills over Sixmilebridge means that three teams have finished level on one victory each leaving score difference to separate them to see who will join Clonlara in pro-gressing to the quarter finals.

In a change from previous years score difference is calculated on the head to head games be-tween the teams involved so the games that each of the three played against Clonlara do not come into this calculation. In short, what it means is that Crusheen have qualified for the quarter finals as runners up to Clonlara.

Despite being unbeaten going into this evening’s game, Clonlara weren’t guaranteed a quarter final place and from the outset they set about winning that last eight spot. They were much sharper and displayed the greater hunger for possession right from the throw in and this saw them ten points ahead at the iinterval when the score was 0-13 to 0-3.

Team captain Jathan McMahon was in sparkling form at midfield and he fired over four points from play in that first half when Crusheen struggled in most areas. Indeed but for the sharpness of Donal Tuohy in goal, they could well have found themselves further behind at the mid point.

They returned for the second half with Eoghan McMahon and Fergus Kennedy in their attack in place of Luke Ketalaar and Conor O’Donnell and Kennedy certainly did well contributing 1-2.
The goal was his side’s final score of the tie coming in the third minute of added time and it’s a score that may well prove decisive when the score difference argument is resolved.

While Crusheen did show better in the second half, their display was still below what they had produced last time out when recording a comfortable win over O’Callaghans Mills. Adding to their woes on the evening, they finished with fourteen men as midfielder Oisin O’Donnell was shown a red card in the 61st minute.

Jathan McMahon David Fitzgerald, Dylan McMahon and Ian Galvin were prominent throughout for the winners.

Scorers Clonlara: J McMahon (0-05), M O’Loughlin (0-05 3f 1’65), I Galvin (0-04), J Conlon (0-02 2f), D Fitzgerald (0-02), D McMahon (0-01), D Stritch (0-01), C O’Meara (0-01)

Scorers Crusheen: F Kennedy (1-02), R Hayes (0-03 3f), B Horner (0-03 2f), C O’Donnell (0-01), O O’Donnell (0-01).

Clonlara:
1: Séimí Gully

2: Michael Clancy
3: Ger Powell
4: Logan Ryan

7: Paraic O’Loughlin
6: Dylan McMahon
5: David Fitzgerald

9: Jathan McMahon
18: Micheál O’Loughlin

10: Aidan Moriarty
11: John Conlon
12: Colm Galvin

13: Diarmuid Stritch
14: Ian Galvin
15: Cian Moriarty

Subs:
8: Colm O’Meara for C Moriarty (47)
19: Michael Stritch for M O’Loughlin (54)
17: Daniel Moloney for D Stritch (58)
22: Bryan McLeish for A Moriarty (60)

Crusheen:
1: Donal Tuohy

2: Tadhg Dean
3: Cian Dillon
4: Luke Hayes

7: Éanna McMahon
6: Ross Hayes
5: Gavin O’Brien

8: Cilléin Mullins
9: Oisin O’Donnell

10: Luke Ketelaar
15: Breffni Horner
11: Jamie Fitzgibbon

13: Conor O’Donnell
14: Gerry O’Grady
20: Ian O’Brien

Subs:
18: Eoghan McMahon for Ketelaar (HT)
12: Fergus Kennedy for C O’Donnell (HT)
21: Diarmuid Mullins for O’Grady (40)

Referee: Chris Maguire (Wolfe Tones)