All-Ireland SHC quarter-final: Clare 0-29 Dublin 0-16
For the second time in a matter of weeks Clare’s season has been resuscitated in Thurles. The pattern of boom-and-bust performances that has defined their championship so far continued on a balmy night when ultimately they had too much of everything for Dublin.
There was a period of faintness, either side of half-time, when Dublin scored seven points without reply and Clare were strangely passive. But the brain fog soon cleared, and the game was over as a contest after an hour.
It ended on a troubling note, however, when the Clare substitute David Reidy had to be stretchered from the field after he was floored by a shoulder to the head. Reidy was treated on the pitch for the guts of 10 minutes by medical personnel from both teams and by local medics and was later taken to hospital. Brendan Kenny was shown a straight red card for the challenge.
Only about four minutes of normal time remained when the incident occurred and by then Clare were 10 points ahead. When the match resumed nobody had much stomach for it.
It was the second time this summer that a Clare player was forced to leave the field with a head injury, five weeks after Mark Rodgers was replaced before half-time against Tipperary. He returned to the team on Saturday night.
“Yeah, Mark coming back from a head injury as well,” said Clare manager Brian Lohan afterwards. “It’s an area that I think the GAA has to look at. Over the last couple of years, it was accepted that anything around the head was a straight red, but that seems to have slipped this year, and certainly we have suffered a number of injuries around the area of concussion. So it is something that the GAA are going to have to look at and the referees are going to have to look at.”
For Dublin, it was a numbing end to a season that, until a fortnight ago, had promised so much. Having been blitzed in the Leinster final they came with a defensive set-up that kept them in the game for 40 minutes, but when Clare surged in the third quarter Dublin didn’t have a response. Dublin only scored three points in the last half an hour, though that number was queered by repeated attempts to force a goal.
Clare were clearly revived by the four-week break since they folded against Cork and at times they played with terrific fluency. Shane O’Donnell had his best game of the year, and even though he only scored two points, he made an assist for five others. Seán Rynne returned to the electric form he had shown against Tipperary, and Niall O’Farrell was impressive again in his breakthrough season.
But it is hard to tell what Clare achieved here. Dublin’s attack was under-resourced and yet they forced seven saves from Éibhear Quilligan, who was RTÉ’s player of the match. For much of the first half Dublin isolated Ronan Hayes with the last Clare defender, but when Conal Ó Riain got closer to him Dublin created some chances.
Coming into the game Dublin had been the joint highest goalscorers in the championship – alongside Galway – and they had clearly budgeted for goals here.
“That game could have looked very different if we had taken two, three, or four of those opportunities,” said Dublin boss Niall Ó Ceallacháin. “Suddenly you are in a very different spot. We created seven opportunities and on most days you’ll score a couple of goals, but fair play to Quilligan there.”
Apart from the stricken Reidy, Clare also suffered injuries to Conor Cleary and David McInerney. Clare’s defence has been rocky all season and they will need everyone in Croke Park in a fortnight.
For Dublin, it was a familiar story. In the Leinster final they coughed up 4-15 on turnovers and here they conceded 0-18 from that source. They often lined up with four in their full-back line for puck-outs and gambled on working the ball out from there. The problem they faced was finding a safe house for possession in the Clare half.
During Dublin’s period of dominance, the needle moved on puck-outs. Dublin were happy to offer Clare both of their corner backs for short puck-outs, but Clare increasingly went long with their restarts late in the first half and Dublin cleaned up under the dropping ball. Donal Burke stormed into the game in the middle third and Dublin forced a succession of frees.
By half-time Clare’s lead had been reduced to three points, 0-14 to 0-11, and Dublin started the second half as they had finished the first, rattling off two points in quick succession.
Clare’s response, though, was measured and emphatic. In an 11-minute spell they outscored Dublin by 0-8 to 0-1 and any suggestion of a second Dublin surge was smothered.
CLARE: E Quilligan; A Hogan, C Cleary, D Lohan; D Ryan, D McInerney, N O’Farrell (0-1); S Rynne (0-5), R Taylor; C Malone (0-2), T Kelly (0-7, 3f), P Duggan, (0-3, 1sl); S Meehan (0-2), M Rodgers (0-5, 5f), S O’Donnell (0-2).
Subs: C Leen for Cleary (35 mins, inj); I Galvin for Rodgers (53); D Stritch (0-1) for Malone (54); C Galvin for O’Farrell (60); D Reidy for Taylor, J Conlon for McInerney (both 65); D Fitzgerald (0-1) for Reidy (70+7).
DUBLIN: E Gibbons; C McHugh, P Smyth, J Bellew; E O’Donnell, P Doyle, C Burke; B Hayes, C Groake (0-1); D Burke (0-12, 9f), C Crummey, S Currie (0-1); R Hayes (0-1), C Ó Riain (0-1), F Whitley.
Subs: J Hetherton for O’Donnell (45 mins); C Donohoe for Groake (54); C O’Sullivan for Currie (58); B Kenny for Whitely (62); D Ó Dúlaing for R Hayes (65).
Referee: J Owens (Wexford).
