Limerick earn narrow win over Clare to claim historic fifth Munster title in a row

Munster SHC final: Limerick 1-23 Clare 1-22

It ended in knots. First a pitch invasion that jumped the gun, and then one last chaotic Clare attack during which Tony Kelly and Adam Hogan were both plainly fouled within easy range of the posts. Perversely, no free was awarded. As Hogan lay on the ground on the Limerick 45-metre line, Liam Gordon blew the final whistle, signalling an end to nothing but the match: the heated talk had barely started.

For Limerick it was their fifth Munster title in a row, equalling the all-time record, and extending Limerick’s extraordinary sequence of never having lost a major final under John Kiely’s leadership: 12 now, and counting. Without ever reaching the levels of virtuosity and wildness that characterised last year’s final, this game was tense and close and hard and relentless and engrossing. They couldn’t let each other go.

Limerick made a terrific surge in the third quarter that ultimately shaped the outcome. Having trailed by three points at the break, they out-scored Clare by 1-8 to 0-3 in the opening 20 minutes of the second half to go five points clear. Limerick’s front-running has not been convincing lately and they were scrambling at the end, just as they had been in every other Munster championship game this year, but in yet another one-score game they had the score that counted.

Clare will reflect bitterly on their missed chances. Their wides tally was just two more than Limerick’s, 12-10, but they dropped six other shots short when Limerick weren’t guilty of dropping any shot into Eibhear Quilligan’s hand. More than that, some of Clare’s misses came from inviting positions.

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The cluster of misses before half-time were the most harmful. Having hit Limerick for a goal and a point in quick succession, they missed three other ripe scoring chances in the minutes that followed, including a carefully worked goal chance. It is out of character for Limerick to be as faint and vulnerable as they were in that five- or six-minute spell, but that was Clare’s chance to establish some scoreboard dominance and they failed to take it.

Tony Kelly kept putting himself in the thick of the play and in scoring positions, but his finishing was erratic. He landed four points in the second half, but squandered another five opportunities, including two blocks in open play when he attempted to drive the ball over the bar with a piercing trajectory, only for the shots to meet a raised hurley.

In the end, they scored a point more than they had managed in 70 minutes against Limerick in last year’s Munster final, but were still a point short. Between these two teams the tiny margins are crucifying.

In two deviations from Limerick’s published team, David Reidy and Graeme Mulcahy started in place of Peter Casey and Cathal O’Neill, but the most significant change was on the Clare team, where Conor Cleary wasn’t fit to take his place. In the absence of a ready-made replacement Cian Nolan started at full-back, having not played a minute in this year’s championship so far.

Nolan was game and physical, but he was living on his wits too, and his tenuous early grip on Aaron Gillane had vanished before half-time. He wasn’t replaced though until 15 minutes in the second half, by which time Gillane was rampant and had racked up 1-3 from play.

Clare had made the strategic choice to push up on Limerick in their own half, just as they had done in the round-robin game. The trade-off was to leave space in front of their inside defenders. John Conlon was terrific in a deep-lying role, but Clare’s approach depended on choking Limerick’s supply lines in the other two-thirds of the field, and when Limerick started to beat that pressure after half-time the dynamic of the game changed.

Limerick are not playing with the kind of authority or dominance that was a hallmark of other seasons, but they haven’t lost any of their resilience or street smarts. After half-time they raised the volume of everything. Their tackling improved, there was a spike in turnovers, their puck-out numbers picked up, they minded the ball a bit better: all of their familiar fundamentals.

Clare led for most of the first half, though there was an element of luck about their goal, five minutes before the break. Kelly’s long-range shot rebounded off an upright and Mark Rodgers was first to react.

Directly from the puck-out Clare stretched their lead to four points with Aidan McCarthy’s first score from play, but in the next two or three minutes they butchered chances to streak further ahead. Ryan Taylor missed a handy point, before making a goal chance for Rodgers; his low shot bounced in front of Nickie Quaid before it was scrambled clear. Diarmuid Ryan missed a long shot too and Limerick dodged a bullet.

The mood changed after the break. Limerick closed up many of the spaces that Clare had exploited in the first half, and Reidy burst into the game, as a play maker and scorer. Over the years he has often made a telling contribution off the bench, but they pitched him in from the start yesterday, and after a quiet first half, the gambit paid off.

Just like in their other games this summer, though, Limerick were unable to put the game to bed. The All-Ireland champions plough on: vulnerable and winning.

LIMERICK: Nickie Quaid; Mike Casey, Dan Morrisey, Barry Nash; Diarmaid Byrnes, Declan Hannon (capt), Kyle Hayes (0-1); Darragh O’Donovan (0-1), Will O’Donoghue; Gearóid Hegarty (0-1), David Reidy (0-3), Tom Morrissey (0-3); Graeme Mulcahy, Aaron Gillane (1-11, 0-8f), Séamus Flanagan. Subs: Colin Coughlan for Hannon (55 mins), Richie English for M Casey (58 mins), Cathal O’Neill (0-2) for T Morrissey (58 mins), Adam English (0-1) for Flanagan (65 mins)

CLARE: Éibhear Quilligan; Adam Hogan, Cian Nolan, Rory Hayes; Diarmuid Ryan (0-1), John Conlon, David McInerney; Ryan Taylor (0-1), Cathal Malone (0-1); David Fitzgerald (0-2), Aidan McCarthy (0-4, 0-3f), Shane O’Donnell (0-2); Peter Duggan, Tony Kelly (0-6, 0-2f), Mark Rodgers (1-2). Subs: Shane Meehan for McCarthy (45 mins), Seadna Morey for Nolan (50 mins), Aron Shanagher (0-1) for Duggan (57 mins), Ian Galvin (0-2) for Meehan (65 mins), Paul Flanagan for Hayes (68 mins).

Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway).