The final countdown

A victory by a single point in favour of Clare was the outcome of their first All-Ireland minor hurling championship action against Dublin. The result sets Clare up for their third All-Ireland final at this level.

Both teams lost their opening ties in this championship, Clare going down to the then defending Munster champions, Waterford, at Walsh Park and Dublin losing out to Kilkenny. Clare will now face the Cats in next month’s final.
Following those defeats in late April, reaching the All-Ireland semi-finals seemed a remote possibility for both sides..
Clare had little time to recover from their 1-21 to 0-16 loss to Waterford in the opening round as they had to line out again three days later against a Kerry side that ran Limerick to a goal (2-13 to 1-13) in the opening round.
The Banner outfit were made fight all the way but they emerged deserving 1-21 to 2-7 winners, a result which earned them a date with Tipperary four days later.
Tipperary had lost out to Cork in a cracking first round tie which required extra time and they were the hot favourites to bounce back and reach the Munster final.
In their third game in seven days, Clare produced their best performance so far in the championship and they emerged 0-17 to 1-13 winners.
It was a result that didn’t look likely when they were reduced to 14 men in the closing stages Tipperary struck for the game’s only goal but Clare had the final say and midfielder Tony Kelly struck the winning point.
A break followed because of exams and when the action resumed Clare were in the provincial semi-final against Limerick, a game they won by two points after a hard fought affair.
This resulted in a repeat of the first round with Waterford providing the opposition in the provincial final after they had taken two games to dispose of Cork in their semi-final. That game was played in Waterford and required extra time on the Wednesday before the final.
Five points was Clare’s winning margin in a well-contested final at Thurles and corner forward David O’Halloran was named as the man of the match.
Meanwhile, Dublin bounced back from their first round loss to Kilkenny and they beat Carlow by two points (0-22 to 2-14) and Wexford (1-16 to 1-15) to set up another crack at the Noresiders. Kilkenny’s 0-10 winning margin in the first round was extended to the 0-13 on this occasion.
As the beaten Leinster finalists, Dublin were now in a quarter final game and here their opponents were the Ulster champions, Antrim. The Dubs won this on a score of 3-13 to 1-11 while beaten Munster finalists Waterford went down to Galway who, in turn, were comprehensively beaten by the competition favourites Kilkenny.
Sunday’s semi-final appearance by the Dubs was their fourth of the decade. They lost to Cork (2-17 to 1-11) in 2000, to Limerick (0-15 to 0-12) in 2005 and to Cork (2-10 to 0-13) in 2007.
Clare’s first All-Ireland minor final appearance was in 1989 when they failed to Offaly. Davy Fitzgerald, the current Waterford senior manager, was the Clare goalkeeper on that occasion.
The county’s only All-Ireland minor success came in 1997 when, having lost the Munster final to Tipperary, they became the first team to win the title having come through the backdoor to beat Galway in the final.
Clonlara’s Ger O’Connell was the goalkeeper on that occasion and his brother Cathal is a member of the current panel.
It is interesting to note that Gerry O’Connor, joint manager of this year’s team is a native of Killanena while the team manager in 1997, Kevin Kennedy, now a member of the St Joseph’s, Doora-Barefield club, is also a Killanena native.
Following Clare’s latest outing in the minor campaign of 2010, it was back to domestic duty this week as round 4 of the senior and intermediate championships took place featuring many of the current Clare panel.
From this weekend on the focus will be on Kilkenny and the final on September 5 when Clare will wear the underdogs tag, something they have done on a number of occasions to date this season.
It’s a role that hasn’t caused them too many problems to date and all involved will be hoping that this trend will continue for at least one more game.

Anxious moments before victory
Clare  0-20   Dublin  2-13
THERE were some anxious moments for Clare in Sunday’s All-Ireland minor hurling semi-final clash with Dublin at Croke Park but, at the end of the day, they emerged as deserving winners.
The margin may have been too close for comfort but Clare, who led throughout, were the better side and fully deserved to qualify for a final date with Kilkenny on September 5.
Dublin almost stole this one though and there was relief amongst Clare supporters when Robert Hardy’s effort went over the bar via the upright in the second minute of injury time. It was a powerful effort from the Dublin captain who was introduced for the final quarter and had it been a foot lower, Clare could well now be bemoaning their failure to put their opponents away earlier.
That said, there are areas, going on Sunday’s display, in which Clare will have to improve before they take on Kilkenny. Missed chances and the concession of two goals could have proved very costly on Sunday but, on the credit side, Clare hit back each time Dublin drew close and they picked off some excellent points.
They started impressively and Colm Galvin had an early opportunity but a timely tackle resulted in the ball going wide of the target. David O’Halloran opened Clare’s account in the third minute and like scores quickly followed from Niall Arthur (free) and excellent midfielder Tony Kelly before Dara Keane opened his account to put Clare 0-4 to 0-0 in front by the end of the first quarter.
Dublin opened their scoring with a Dean Flood converted free at the start of the second quarter but Clare had four points in the next three minutes through Tony Kelly, Niall Arthur (2) and Dara Keane to go 0-8 to 0-1 ahead.
It should have been greater as Keane’s point in the 18th minute should have been a goal. A great run by Paudge Collins created the opportunity and the Cratloe lads pass to Keane who, somehow, shot over the bar with only the Dublin goalie to beat.
At this stage, everything pointed to a runaway Clare victory but Dublin enjoyed their best spell from here to the break, outscoring Clare 0-6 to 0-1 to trail by just two at half-time, 0-9 to 0-7. During that period of dominance, the Dubs caused a lot of problems for Clare with centre -forward Ciarán Kilkenny leading the charge.
The winners had the better of the early second-half exchanges and had points from Arthur (2) and Cathal Malone to open a five-point margin by the fifth minute of the half. They should have scored more in that time but both Cathal Malone and Arthur were guilty of misses in this spell.
Dublin struck for their first goal in the sixth minute of the half when Ronan Taaffe failed to hold a line ball delivery from Cormac Costello and full-forward Emmet O Conghaile pounced to shoot to the net.
To their credit, Clare hit back with points from Colm Galvin and Niall Arthur (free) to go four clear again.
At the turn of the final quarter, Clare brought in Aaron Cunningham and the Wolfe Tones player quickly made his mark. With the margin down to two points, he struck twice in the space of a minute to leave Clare, 0-17 to 1-10 in front with 10 minutes remaining.
The outcome was back in the melting pot three minutes later when Cormac Costelloe wrong-footed Ronan Taaffe to score in the corner and leave the minimum between the teams.
Clare’s response was most impressive as they hit for three points from Dara Keane, Paudge Collins and Niall Arthur in as many minutes to open a four-point margin with five minutes to go.
Dublin piled on the pressure from here to the finish and they had the lead down to two points in the final minute of normal time. Given that Clare had conceded two soft goals, Banner County followers were clearly concerned that they would concede a third in the closing minutes.
It almost came in the second minute of injury time when Robert Hardy’s effort beat the defence but the ball struck the upright and went over the bar. Seconds later, it was all over and Clare were through to the All-Ireland final where Kilkenny will provide the opposition.
Seadna Morey, Stephen O’Halloran and Enda Boyce stood out in a Clare defence which experienced a number of anxious moments in the course of this game. Midfielders Colm Galvin and Tony Kelly got through some excellent work and at the end of play, Kelly was named as the man-of-the-match.
In a forward line, which wasted a number of good scoring opportunities, Niall Arthur was always prominent while Jamie Shanahan caused a lot of problems for the Dublin defence.
Ciarán Kilkenny, Ben Quinn, Danny Sutcliffe and Fergal Heavey got through a lot of work for the Dublin side.

Clare: Ronan Taaffe (Tubber); Haulie Vaughan (Inagh-Kilnamona), Paul Flanagan (Ballyea) captain, Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge); Enda Boyce (Cratloe), Kevin Lynch (Sixmilebridge), Stephen O’Halloran (Clarecastle); Colm Galvin (Cratloe), Tony Kelly (Ballyea); Cathal Malone (Ennistymon), Paudge Collins (Cratloe), Jamie Shanahan (Sixmilebridge); Dara Keane (Kilmaley), Niall Arthur (Inagh-Kilnamona), David O’Halloran (Éire Óg).
Subs: Aaron Cunningham (Wolfe Tones) for Malone (45 minutes); Alan Mulready (Sixmilebridge) for D O’Halloran (54 minutes).
Scorers: Niall Arthur (0-8, 4f); Dara Keane (0-3), Tony Kelly, Aaron Cunningham (0-2 each), David O’Halloran, Colm Galvin, Jamie Shanahan, Cathal Malone, Paudge Collins (0-1) each.
Frees for: 10; wides:14.
Dublin: Eamonn Dillon; Conor Murphy, Emmet McKenna, Seán McClelland; Cillian Moffat, Danny Sutcliffe, Ben Quinn; Darren Kelly, Brian McCarthy; Fergal Heavey, Ciarán Kilkenny, Glen Whelan; Cormac Costello, Emmet O’Conghaile, Dean Flood.
Subs: Naoise Maguire for Kelly (28 minutes); John Hetherton for Whelan (37 minutes); Robert Hardy for McCarthy (43 minutes); Niall Ryan for Flood (57 minutes).
Scorers: Emmet O Conghaile, Cormac Costello (1-1) each; Dean Flood (0-4, all frees); Ciarán Kilkenny (0-3); John Hetherton (0-2, 1 f); Glen Whelan, Robert Hardy (0-1 each).
Frees for: 8; wides: 3.
Referee: Eamonn Hassen, Derry.