Laois stroll to victory over Clare

Laois 3-17   Clare 0-10

COMPETITIVE and industrious for 25 minutes, Clare were compliant and devoid of any semblance of resolve thereafter. Graham Kelly kicked the home county 0-6 to 0-2 ahead 10 minutes before half-time, leaving it looking as if Clare would compete with Laois at the very least.
The Cusack Park crowd, which remained on after the hurling qualifier between the same counties, sensed the footballers were in the throes of at least taking the game to Laois, who were pedestrian and lack-lustre up to that point.

Yet, just as John O’Loughlin’s 33rd minute goal slid into Joe Hayes’ net, Clare were beaten. The first setback floored them and exposed their brittle self-belief.

Without having extended themselves, Laois led 1-7 to 0-6 at the interval and proceeded to bury Clare thereafter.

David Tubridy (0-3), Rory Donnelly, with two points and Graham Kelly scored Clare’s first-half points, while wing-back Darren Strong, Colm Begley, Ross Munnelly, Donie Kingston and Conor Meredith added to O’Loughlin’s goal, with first-half points.

In the 39 minutes between the 25th minute of the first half and the 29th minute of the second, Laois outscored Clare 2-15 to 0-1. That’s all you need to know.

David Conway and Ross Munnelly scored the second-half goals for Laois, who took off some of their strongest players in Pádraig Clancy and Colm Begley, such was the ease of their win. Only David Tubridy and Shane Ryan scored for Clare in the second half, with the latter scoring the final point of Mick O’Dwyer’s ill-advised, 12-month tenure.

Even in the first half, when they were competitive, Clare had extreme difficulty retaining their own kick-out if it went long. Gary Brennan started at midfield but almost immediately swapped with Ger Quinlan, who lined out at full-forward in the opening minutes.

Brennan, carrying a rib injury, and Rory Donnelly had the better of the Laois full-back line in the opening half but the supply of ball was intermittent and dried up completely in the second half.

Martin McMahon was Clare’s best and most committed player but the most obvious deficit was the lack of on-field leadership when the game went against Clare. They didn’t respond and displayed no fight or interest in doing so.

Clare haven’t won an All-Ireland qualifier since beating Antrim in 2006. Their only other qualifier wins were in ’04 and ’05, when they beat Sligo and Westmeath respectively. Clare were subsequently knocked out in the next round in both years, although they ran Cork to four points (0-15 to 0-11) in ’04.

In 2010, they at least competed manfully with Offaly in Tullamore before losing in extra time, while Donegal narrowly beat Clare in the 2009 first-round qualifier in Ballybofey. Even since those days Clare have regressed. Some of the current panel are bound to question the point in remaining on board for 2014, when Clare must prioritise trying to win promotion from division. Unless that happens, these championship humiliations will continue to pile up.

Lack of managerial continuity is also an issue. Clare have had eight managers since 2000. These include Tommy Curtin, Pat Begley, John Kennedy, the combination of Donie Buckley and Michael Brennan, Páidí O’Sé, Frank Doherty, Micheál McDermott and Mick O’Dwyer.

Clare: Joe Hayes (Lissycasey); Martin McMahon (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Laurence Healy (Ennistymon), Gordon Kelly (St Joseph’s, Miltown); Declan Callinan (Kilmurry Ibrickane), John Hayes (Kilrush), Graham Kelly (St Joseph’s, Miltown); Gary Brennan (Clondegad, captain), Cathal O’Connor (Coolmeen); Alan Clohessy (Liscannor), Ian McInerney (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Shane McGrath (Thomas Davis); David Tubridy (Doonbeg), Ger Quinlan (O’Curry’s), Rory Donnelly (Cooraclare).
Subs: Chris Dunning (Wolfe Tones) for Alan Clohessy, Chris Dixon (Kilrush) for Graham Kelly, Shane Ryan (Doonbeg) for Shane McGrath (48), John Keane (Corofin) for Cathal O’Connor (59) and Podge McMahon (Clondegad) for Gary Brennan (63, inj).
Scorers: David Tubridy (0-6, 5f), Rory Donnelly (0-2), Graham Kelly and Shane Ryan (0-1 each).
Wides: 8; Frees won: 25; 45s: 1.
Yellow cards: Graham Kelly, Ger Quinlan and Martin McMahon.
Laois: Eoin Culliton; Paul Begley, Mark Timmons, Peter O’Leary; Darren Strong, Kieran Lillis, Pádraig McMahon; John O’Loughlin (captain), Pádraig Clancy; Billy Sheehan, Conor Meredith, Colm Begley; Ross Munnelly, Donie Kingston, David Conway.
Subs: Colm Kelly for Donie Kingston (45), Evan Costello for Colm Kelly (48, inj), Denis Booth for Paul Begley, Conor Boyle for Pádraig Clancy and Tom Shiels for Colm Begley (54).
Scorers: Ross Munnelly (1-4, 3f), Darren Strong (0-3), John O’Loughlin, David Conway (1-1 each), Donie Kingston (1f), Colm Begley (0-2 each), Evan Costello (f), Conor Meredith, Pádraig Clancy and Kieran Lillis (0-1 each).
Wides: 13; Frees won: 19; 45s: 0.
Yellow cards: Conor Meredith, Darren Strong and Paul Begley.
Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork).