Limerick 1-23; Clare 1-22
This high-octane clash of Titans could have, and many would say should have, gone to extra time in front of a packed 43,000 sell-out crowd at Gaelic Grounds on Sunday afternoon.
Inexplicably when Clare's Adam Hogan and Tony Kelly were both fouled in the same passage of play with time up, referee Liam Gordon chose to blow the long whistle instead of sending both sides out for another 20 minutes of extra-time play, which would have almost certainly been the case with a simple free 35 yards out in front of goal.
This was a well-meaning ref who got in the way of the game right through in my opinion and that last decision was part of an uneven overall performance where yellow cards were flashed for menial offenses and play was waved on when players from both sides were clearly being fouled on and off the ball.
That said, the result was about right over the course of the 75 minutes or so as Clare's dominance of the first half was slightly less commanding than Limerick's second-half supremacy.
Still if these two sides meet again and they could in the All-Ireland final, I'd be inclined to think there won't be more than a puck of the sliotar between them again.
And so Limerick have garnered a fifth successive Munster SH title, something only previously managed by Cork in 1901-05, 1975-79 and 1982-86.
While that makes great reading for the victors, for the vanquished, it was a sixth Munster final defeat since they last won the title 25 years ago - something that will hurt manager Brian Lohan and his troops, particularly as they played the game as first among equals from pillar almost to post.
Yet surely the manager must take some of the blame for not switching Cian Nolan off Aaron Gillane until it was too late and when he eventually did make the substitution, much of the scoring damage had been done by the time Seadna Morey came in to steady the rearguard with normal defender Conor Cleary unable to play with a shoulder injury.
The huge Banner support will also bemoan the fact that their side hit 13 wides, many from easy range and from star names such as Kelly and John Conlon who normally would put them over in their sleep. Crucially too, half a dozen times their efforts fell short and were cleared - stats which show how close they came to success on a day of what might have been for the primrose and blue colors.
Limerick manager John Kiely now has a perfect record of winning 12 finals out of 12 with this current crew under his command and with that in mind, we should have realized that it was a big ask for Lohan's lads to follow up their round-robin success in the same grounds with another victory on Sunday.
When Mark Rodgers reacted quickest of all to the sliotar from a point attempt by Kelly coming back of the right upright on the half-hour mark to give his side a goal lead at half-time at 1-11 to 0-11, it looked like that might be the break Clare needed to kick on and put a stake through the heart of their neighbors and deadly rivals.
At half-time all the talk was of a change of personnel to mark Gillane who had won and scored virtually at will when the ball came his way in the first moiety. Clare fans were baffled to see young Nolan slipping and sliding in his wake again on the changeover so that it was no surprise when the Patrickswell man escaped his clutches again and buried the ball into the back of the net. Gillane would knock over another few points before finally the Clare line made the change and introduced Seadna Morey, who kept a much tighter reins on the man who by then had 1-11 to his personal account.
At that point, it looked like Clare might throw in the towel as Limerick raced five points ahead but skipper Kelly was to the fore as his side fought back with the next five scores to level the game on the home straight.
Adam English scored with his first touch when introduced as a temporary sub and T Limerick only led by one – 1-20 to 1-19 – heading into four minutes of injury-time.
Substitutes Cathal O’Neil for Limerick and Ian Galvin for Clare hit a brace of fine scores each, either side of David Reidy’s majestic third point of the day. Kelly had a half chance of a goal but opted for a point with half a minute remaining, conscious that there would almost certainly be another chance for an equalizer.
It seemed he was spot on when first Hogan and then he himself was felled some 40 meters from goal but instead of awarding a free in, referee Gordon called a halt to proceedings with Lohan quickly in after the final whistle to let the ref know his views of not getting the chance to equalize.
Afterwards, Treaty boss Kiely told RTE that he was "thrilled and elated for the lads. They've put a huge amount of work in over these last number of years. This year has been a really tough campaign, every team has brought an unbelievable level of performance against us. Clare were the one team that beat us in the round robin and we were very determined that wasn’t going to happen today
"I don’t think anybody likes someone coming into your backyard and taking anything from them. We were always going to have to fight tooth and nail. This is a top-quality Clare side, they have shown that in terms of their resilience and determination. Hats off to them, they brought a tremendous effort. It was down to the smallest of margins. We just came off at the right side.
"We came out a much stronger and more energetic team in the second half. For the last 10 minutes of the first half we lost our energy a little bit. We struggled at that part of the game but you’re always going to have spells in a game where you’re going strong and weak. It’s a case of minimizing the damage that occurs when you are having a bad spell, and maximizing the damage that you can do when you’re having a good spell.
"I think we got the balance just right today. It was a really tough game, a fantastic Munster final and a great occasion. Clare and ourselves, we’ll meet again, I’ve no doubt. We have special battles every time we meet. This was just another chapter in that story," he stressed.
Clare boss Brian Lohan said his side’s poor conversion rate cost them and was unhappy that the ref chose too ignore a blatant free in the final seconds. "We find it very hard to get decisions. We don’t have that much power or influence or anything like that. It’s tough for our lads. Is it hard to take? Yeah. It was very even in a lot of areas but the biggest area where there was a big difference was shooting efficiency. We weren’t as efficient as we could have been or needed to be to win the game. That decided the result," he emphasized.
Limerick: N Quaid; M Casey, D Morrisey, B Nash; D Byrnes, D Hannon (capt), K Hayes; D O'Donovan (0-1), W O’Donoghue; G Hegarty (0-1), D Reidy (0-3), T Morrissey (0-3); A Gillane (1-11, 0-8fs), S Flanagan, G Mulcahy Subs: P Casey for Mulcahy (47), C Coughlan for Hannon (55), A English (0-1) for O’Donovan (temp) and Flanagan (66), R English for M Casey (58), C O’Neill (0-2) for Morrissey (58).
Clare: É Quilligan; A Hogan, C Nolan, R Hayes; D Ryan (0-1), J Conlon, D McInerney; D Fitzgerald (0-2), C Malone (0-1); P Duggan, T Kelly (capt) (0-6, 0-2fs), A McCarthy (0-4, 0-3f); R Taylor (0-1), S O'Donnell (0-2), M Rodgers (1-2) Subs: S Meehan for McCarthy (45), S Morey for Nolan (50), A Shanagher (0-1) for Duggan (58), I Galvin (0-2) for Meehan (65), Pa Flanagan for Hayes (68),
Ref: L Gordon (Galway).
Kilkenny 4-21; Galway 2-26
It may be changing-of-the-guard time in Kilkenny but you'd write them off at their peril when it comes to knowing how to win on big match occasions.
Brian Cody may be gone but his legacy of never giving up until the final whistle clearly has spilled over into the Derek Lyng era and this reaped huge dividends as sub Cillian Bucley shot a dagger to the heart of Galway with a late, late goal to snatch victory from his former teammate Henry Shefflin at Croke Park before a crowd of less than 25,000 on Sunday.
Yes, there were plenty of non-Cody aspects to the current Cats making it four-in-a-row of Leinster titles, chief of which saw them lose an eight-point advantage with 20 minutes to go to be two points in arrears with the clock in the red zone.
That 10-point swing would have been a stick to beat the team with from supporters had they lost, but in victory such shortcoming are often forgotten or at least forgotten about in the immediate aftermath of a game.
Poor Pádraic Mannion will be kicking himself for presenting Buckly with the opportunity to win the game at the death for the defender should undue haste in booting the ball away from the danger zone instead of lifting it and driving the sliotar to safety.
Shefflin almost had one hand on the Bob O'Keeffe Cup and a semi-final berth in the race for Liam MacCarthy; now he must dust himself and his squad down and get ready for another charge at the title - this time through the back door.
They will begin that process by facing off against the winners of Offaly or Tipperary in an All-Ireland quarter-final on June 24 and that will almost certainly be a joust with their neighbors from the Premier County. The sight alone of the blue and gold jersey should help him get his charges tuned in for such a quarter-final clash with the winners then facing Limerick in the semi-final.
On the other side, the winners of Carlow and Dublin will face Sunday's beaten Munster finalists, Clare and the top dog from that clash will meet Kilkenny in the other semi-final game.
These next few weeks will give derailed sides the opportunity to slowly lift their charges up again and they will have a two game advantage on their semi-final opponents. Whether that is a good thing or not only time will tell, but I doubt if either Limerick or Kilkenny would swap where they are at now just to play more games.
Lyng added Conor Fogarty and Cian Kenny as late additions to his starting line-up in the middle of the park with Paddy Deegan manning the centre-back berth and Billy Ryan returning to the attack.
Shefflin too was happy to bring back the injury ridden Cathal Mannion to midfield with Jack Grealish returning to the inner defense and Brian Concannon slotting into the attack.Galway started the better and were five points up before Kilkenny goaled through Martin Keoghan, who then had to succumb to his injury and was replaced by big Walter Walsh, who within seven minutes collected a high ball, turned and galloped through the Tribesmen defense before unleashing a rocket to the back of the net.
That meant the sides were level at 1-12 to 2-09 at the break, the Galway goal coming early from man of the match Conor Whelan.
Although Galway pushed in front on the resumption, it was Kilkenny who sharpened their knives to cut swathes through the maroon backline with a 40th minute goal by Mickey Butler seeing them surge ahead by 3-17 to 2-15 after 15 minutes of the second half.
Then it was Galway's turn to see what they were made of, and boy did they come thundering back into the game with sub Jason Flynn galvanizing them with a 51st minute goal.
Whelan put on a virtuoso show for that last 20 minute segment and he combined with Kevin Cooney to spray over 0-4 as all the while Evan Niland, who finished with 0-12 overall, continued to punish any black and amber indiscipline with unerring accuracy from dead ball situations.
Further points by Cooney, Niland and Brian Concannon pushed the Westerners lead out to two points - the deadliest lead in hurling and that was proven yet again when Buckely stepped up to become the Kilkenny hero of the hour with his final strike to win the game for his side.
Kilkenny: E Murphy; M Butler (1-0), H Lawlor, T Walsh; D Blanchfield (0-1), P Deegan, D Corcoran; C Fogarty, C Kenny (0-2); T Phelan, J Donnelly (0-2), TJ Reid (0-9, 0-6fs); B Ryan, E Cody (0-3), M Keoghan (1-0) Subs: W Walsh (1-2) for Keoghan (18), P Walsh (0-1) for Fogarty (52), C Buckley (1-0) for Corcoran (58), T Clifford for Phelan (61), B Drennan (0-1) for Ryan (68).
Galway: E Murphy; J Grealish, P Mannion, D Morrissey; G McInerney, D Burke, F Burke; C Mannion (0-1), J Cooney (0-1); T Monaghan, E Niland (0-12, 0-8fs), C Whelan (1-6); B Concannon (0-3), C Cooney, K Cooney (0-3) Subs: J Flynn (1-0) for Monaghan (47), S Linnane for C Cooney (60), TJ Brennan for Morrissey (64).
Ref: S Stack (Dublin).
Brave New York run out of steam
New York threw down the gauntlet to their hosts Carlow and actually led at half time but ultimately the long lay off since their Connacht semi-final defeat caught up with them at the end at Dr Cullen Park on Saturday evening last.
And so it was Carlow who advanced to the Tailteann Cup quarter-final proper following a much improved second half showing but it should be remembered they had three games in this competition before facing the men from the Big Apple who were competitively idle for seven weeks.
With that disparity in mind, it is hats off to Johnny McGeeney and his men for putting up such a good performance in their inaugural showing in this competition.
See Frank Brady's report here.
GAA Results
Leinster SH final
Kilkenny 4-21; Galway 2-26
Munster SH final
Limerick 1-23; Clare 1-22
Tailteann Cup Preliminary quarter-finals
Wexford 1-22; Offaly 2-14
Carlow 0-15; New York 0-10
Laois 1-11; Fermanagh 1-9
Down 1-20; Longford 1-12
Teddy McCarthy, pictured in 2012, had a unique distinction in the GAA's history. [Inpho/Lorraine O'Sullivan]
Dual legend Teddy
laid to rest in Cork
The Sam Maguire and the Liam MacCarthy cups were present as Cork said goodbye to its dual jewel Teddy McCarthy, who won both versions of the senior All Ireland with the Rebels in 1990.
Those two wins within a fortnight of each other meant Teddy, 57, was the only player to win both Celtic Crosses in the one year, a fact that was repeated at his funeral mass in Glanmire, Co Cork last week.
Teddy died suddenly last Tuesday week, a month before his 58th birthday.
His sons Cian and Niall were among those who shouldered his coffin and a huge number of people gathered along the route to clap the cortege as it travelled from the funeral home to St Joseph's Church for his Requiem Mass.
His coffin was shouldered into the church by former teammates and Cork stars from other generations such as Larry Tompkins, Jimmy Barry Murphy, Billy Morgan, Tomás Mulcahy, Niall Cahalane and the legendary Dr Con Murphy.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís.
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