Tag Archives: 2018

SINCE the new millennium dawned, Clare have beaten Cork once in 11 championship games. Clare’s only win? The 2013 All-Ireland replay. If you were going to pick one of those games to win, that would be the one. The statistics also make it clear that, generally speaking, Cork beat Clare very regularly. They have won 38 of the 50 Munster championship games played between the two counties. Cork have won the Munster championship 53 times to Clare’s mere six. Clare are fifth in that particular table, three short of Waterford’s nine provincial titles. Why this sudden interest in numbers? It underscores the significance of Sunday. This Clare panel need a Munster championship and the county senses that they are on the cusp of delivering. There is a clear sense that the Clare hurling team have the county behind them again. Three Munster round-robin wins, in nifty succession, has that effect. Until Clare’s semi-final win over Limerick in 2017, they had …

Having spent a few years patrolling the sidelines, with both Cork and Dublin, former Rebels All-Star Ger Cunningham is revelling in the armchair role he has now taken up. He talks to Gerry McInerney about Sunday’s prospects Momentum is key and former Cork player and selector Ger Cunningham believes Clare’s new-found confidence can be traced to a seminal moment in Thurles a few weeks ago. Jake Morris’ late strike rebounded back into play off the butt of Donal Tuohy’s post and, in a sweeping counter-attack, Clare opened up the Tipperary rearguard for Ian Galvin to strike the killer goal. From hanging on to Tipperary’s coat-tails for virtually the duration of the match, Clare kicked on and Peter Duggan delivered the coup de grace with an audacious point from the sideline. Clare got the result, if not the performance but it was the break the team craved and maybe, just maybe, the spark required to ignite their season. That view was …