‘Exiles’ help Clare to McGrath Cup final

Clare  1-10

Waterford  0-10

ON what was an historic day for Clare football, the county senior side got back to winning ways againstWaterford when deservedly accounting for the Déise outfit in the semi-final of the McGrath Cup. Clare now face Kerry in the final on Saturday.

Having been granted permission on Friday last to include players, one or both of whose parents come from the county, Clare headed for Waterford with three of those players in their squad.
Niall Browne, who plays his club football with Twomilehouse in Kildare, was in the starting line-up at wing-forward and he scored Clare’s opening point. David O’Connor from the St Bridget’s club in Dublin was introduced at half-time and he scored the game’s only goal, a crucial score in the hard fought tie. Adrian Cahill from the Cellbridge club in Kildare was included among the substitutes but wasn’t called into action on this occasion.
The game was played on an excellent pitch at Ardmore, having been transferred there from Bushy Park, Dungarvan, early on Sunday morning. Clare went into the tie as underdogs, having lost to Waterford in league and championship clashes in the past year.
They showed a number of changes from the side that beat Cork IT a week earlier, with Barry Duggan, Conor Ryan, David Tubridy and Browne in from the start in place of Niall White, Gary Brennan (injured), Shane McNeilis and David O’Brien.
The exchanges in the early stages suggested that Waterford were about to maintain their winning run over Clare as they took a two-point lead and had chances to have been further ahead, before Niall Browne opened Clare’s account after 13 minutes. Three more Clare points followed in as many minutes from Alan Clohessy, Rory Donnelly and Cathal O’Connor as the visitors put some excellent moves together.
However, they failed to maintain this scoring rate and only added one more point in the half, from an Alan Clohessy free. Clare won plenty of possession in this period of the game but far too often they took the wrong option, which proved costly, while referee Derek O’Mahoney made a few particularly harsh calls against the visitors.
Shortly before the break, Clare introduced Ger Fannin in defence in place of Graham Kelly and the St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield man went on to make a tremendous contribution, kicking an excellent point in the final quarter. When the half-time whistle sounded, Waterford led on a scoreline of 0-6 to 0-5.
David O’Connor was in the Clare side for the second half in place of Conor Ryan and the resultant shake-up saw Timmy Ryan move from full-forward to midfield.
Three minutes after the resumption of play, the teams were level for the third time when Alan Clohessy converted a 20m free. Five minutes later, the crucial score was recorded and it came at the end of an excellent move. It started with goalkeeper, Joe Hayes and involved Ger Fannin, Niall Browne, Diarmuid Daly, and David Tubridy before O’Connor, who had missed two point opportunities prior to this, had the simple task of shooting to an empty net.
Both sides added a brace of points before the end of the third quarter, with both of Clare’s scores being particularly impressive. David Tubridy drilled over a great score with his left foot, before defender Fannin came up field and kicked a wonderful point.
In the final quarter, the home side tried hard to get back into contention but a powerful Clare defence, in which the full-back trio of Lawrence Healy, Barry Duggan and Martin McMahon excelled, kept them at bay. That said, it must be acknowledged that the home side had a couple of excellent chances from frees but Michael Donnelly failed to find the target.
In addition to the full-back trio, Gordon Kelly again inspired from centre-back, while John Hayes, Niall Browne, Alan Clohessy and David Tubridy worked hard throughout.
For Waterford, Thomas O’Gorman, Eamonn Walsh, Shane Briggs and substitute Sean Fleming did best.

Clare: Joe Hayes; Lawrence Healy, Barry Duggan, Martin McMahon; Graham Kelly, Gordon Kelly, John Hayes; Conor Ryan, Cathal O’Connor; Diarmuid Daly, David Tubridy, Niall Browne; Rory Donnelly, Timmy Ryan, Alan Clohessy.
Subs: Ger Fannin for Graham Kelly (32 minutes), David O’Connor for C Ryan (half-time), David O’Brien for T Ryan (65 minutes) and Darren O’Neill for Browne (68 minutes).
Scorers: David Tubridy (0-3, 1f), Alan Clohessy (0-3, 2f), David O’Connor (1-0), Niall Browne, Cathal O’Connor, Rory Donnelly and Ger Fannin (0-1) each.
Frees for: 17; Wides: 6
Bookings: Graham Kelly (25 minutes), Timmy Ryan (39 minutes), Rory Donnelly (55 minutes), Niall Browne (57 minutes) and David O’Brien (66 minutes).
Waterford: Tom Wall; John Hurney, Thomas O’Gorman, Kieran Connery; Eamonn Walsh, Shane Briggs, John Phelan; Brian Phelan, Tommy Prendergast; Michael Donnelly, Kevin Power, Brian Wall; JJ Hutchinson, Patrick Hurney, Paul White.
Subs: Sean Fleming for Hutchinson (half-time), Mick Ahern for Power (half-time), Michael O’Gorman for Prendergast (52 minutes), Wayne Hennessy for White (56 minutes) and Joe Veale for Donnelly (66 minutes).
Scorers: Michael Donnelly (0-3f), Patrick Hurney (0-3, 1f), Sean Fleming (0-2), Paul White (1f) and Kevin Power (0-1) each.
Frees for: 33; Wides: 12; 45s: 2
Bookings: JJ Hutchinson (10 minutes), Michael Donnelly (40 minutes) and Mick Ahern (57 minutes).
Referee: Derek O’Mahoney, Tipperary.