*Clare’s minor hurlers. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CONCEDING two goals in the space of seven minutes “took the wind” out of Clare’s sails as they came up short in their bid to win successive Munster minor hurling titles.
Tipperary ended Clare’s reign as Munster minor hurling champions on Monday when James Woodlock’s outfit recorded a 2-17 0-16 win.
Level eight times in the game, Tipperary scored 1-2 without reply in a four minute spell in the third quarter to really hurt Clare. “When you’re chasing a game everything goes out of it the whole shape and pattern, you end up trying to force a couple of things that aren’t really on, at times that can look really poor. The most pleasing thing from the defeat is the fact they died with their boots on, they tried until the bitter end and forced stuff but even in that tried to force goals, you could see the character was there in trying to break lines, stay in the tackle and win the breaking ball, that is the pleasing aspect is the character they showed, I’ve known and we’ve known from the get-go that this is a characteristic that this team has, we’re proud of them but we’re really disappointed,” manager Brian O’Connell reflected.
Tipperary raced into a 0-3 0-1 lead by the third minute but at half-time Clare were level with Liam Murphy getting the equaliser. “In all the other games if you go ahead or go behind we know that we can just get out and see out rough patches, in hurling you will have the opposition getting on top at times, tonight was the first couple of minutes but we weathered the storm and the goal crippled us in the second half, after that we were chasing and left ourselves wide open when we were chasing and we tried to force stuff that wasn’t on.
“We’re disappointed but we have to dust ourselves off because we’re out in two weeks again, we need to see if we can build ourselves up again, I’ve often said that losing a game you find out an awful lot about yourself so we’ll have a look at that again and see what we can learn from it, it is a good stepping stone in the lads development to experience this and see if they can put it right in two weeks,” O’Connell said.
Prior to the Munster final, Matthew Crotty had kept a clean sheet in Clare’s four championship ties but the Scariff man was picking the sliotar out of the net for the first time in the final. “It is just disappointing. We’ve been so solid in the back and had conceded the least amount during the round robin of the championship so to concede two goals and the timing of them as well doubled down on Tipp’s momentum, it took the wind out of us, it is what it is and we’ve to get on with it,” BOC outlined.
When Clare and Tipperary met in the fourth round at the beginning of May, Clare raided for four goals in Thurles but the chances didn’t hit the net in the final. “The chances weren’t as clear cut as they were the first day round, obviously Tipp were very wary of that with the goal threat we had the first night, they sat with a couple of defenders a bit deep, we got a lot of men behind the ball, those opportunities weren’t really there until we forced them in the second half, Tipp had their homework done and tried to nullify that inside threat a little bit, fair dues to them and we’ll have to do the same if we’re to learn from this,” the Shannon native said.
BOC continued, “They were forcing it a bit but in reality the Tipp goalkeeper had to pull off two saves, I had thought it was a goal scoring opportunity when Tadhg (Lohan) was dragged down and that he might have put the hands out for a penalty on that, even though they were forced and there was lots of Tipp bodies they fought to the bitter end”.
Given that the sides were so close, the former Clare captain was certain that a green flag was going to decide the game in normal time, it duly arrived but via the hurley of Cillian Minogue and not a Clare forward. “We were the ones who had been scoring all the goals all the way through, we were hoping those opportunities would open up for us but Tipp took them, the timing of them in the middle of the second half in quick succession took a little bit of the wind out of our sails and you’re fighting for the game then after that, you’re really forcing it and there’s a lot of bodies then up their end of the field which really suits them to the ground because there’s acres of space at the other end of the ground which they were able to pick off points from then to keep their scoreboard at arm’s reach”.
He added, “the manner of the goals, straight through the middle running at you is not something that has been happening us, teams have had very little joy going down the middle at us this year, that caught the boys by surprise on the field as much as anything else, Tipp had a good cushion that they could build on, scores weren’t coming free flowing for us especially when you’re playing into a stiff breeze and pushing lads further up the field, they snuffed us out for a finish”.
While Clare possessed a wide range of scorers, Tipperary had two chief scoring threats in Euan Murray and Stefan Tobin, young hurlers who caused a lot of damage. “They both had brilliant games tonight and are a real handful. Euan was a real handful from the start, we tried our best on him, when we got the ball to ground I thought we were at the break for it but when he won primary possession in the air he was a real danger and obviously when they got through and set up that goal it was a real hammer blow”.
Those four goals at the beginning of May helped Clare to a four point win over Tipp but O’Connell didn’t feel that cracks were papered over in that meeting. “I had been saying that Tipp left a lot behind them, they had a lot of wides, they played very well but at the same time I think we were full merit for the four goals we got there was real quality ball that went in, we could have got other ones on the night, they changed their goalkeeper since but I don’t think it papered over the cracks, we deserved to get those goals. We scored 0-16 tonight and that’s not going to win too many matches, I think that was down to the fact that we were really solid at the back”.
There’s a two week break now for the Clare minors before they take to the field in the All-Ireland series. “It’s not the end of the road here tonight. I know it is a Munster final but when you lose you learn a lot more about yourself, we’ve to look at ourselves tonight and see what is going wrong, we’ll have the advantage of looking at the two games next weekend and finding out who we are playing and knuckle down to prepare for that and see if we get to play Tipperary again”.
