End of road for Tipperary minor footballers with 15 points defeat to Clare

Electric Ireland Munster Minor Football Championship Phase 1

TIPPERARY 0-6 CLARE 3-12

Tipperary minor footballers’ year came to a crashing end this evening at Páirc na nGael in Limerick with hugely disappointing loss to Clare in the final of Phase 1 of the new-format competition.

With the Darrel Darcy Cup on offer for the winners, plus a place in Phase 2 against Kerry and Cork, Tipperary were hoping to overturn a seven points loss to Clare three weeks ago. However, it was ‘The Banner’ who clearly learned most from that game in Ennis and on this occasion they left absolutely no doubt as to who were the better team.

After sharing a point a piece in the opening minutes (Kyle Shelly for Tipp), Clare scored their first goal in the sixth minute when Diarmuid Fahy got in behind the Tipp rearguard to slide home the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

They were 1-3 to 0-2 ahead before their second goal arrived in the 24th minute, finished superbly by Dara Nagle with a looping shot into the top corner beyond the reach of James Griffin in the Tipp goal. Tipp’s second point had come in the 13th minute from Ben Comerford.

Three further points late in the opening half from Jamie Stack (2, one a free) and the impressive wing-back Cillian McGroary had the Clare under 17’s heading to the break with an unassailable 10 points advantage at 2-6 to 0-2.

Tipp tried a double substitution at the break, to add to their two first-half changes, in an effort to revive their fortunes. However, despite a point from the hard-working Ben Comerford inside 30 seconds of the re-start, there was to be no fairytale comeback for Matt O’Doherty’s minors. Clare kept the scoreboard ticking over and had stretched their lead to 2-10 to 0-5 (Tipp with a pair of frees by Liam McCormack) by the 52nd minute. Then in a decisive move through the middle man-of-the-match Shane Meehan combined with Cillian McGroary to set up midfielder Brendan Rouine for a simple third goal. The passage of play that led to the goal clearly indicated that Tipp looked out of their depth on the night.

In the dying minutes Conor Shanahan had a deserved point for Tipp before McGroary and Tomas Meenaghan finished with a point each for Clare to wrap up a truly forgettable night for the Tipp minors.

It was hard to credit looking at this evening’s encounter that just three short weeks ago at Cusack Park, the Tipperary minors looked the better side for long periods of the game, and indeed led by three points as half-time approached. On this occasion, it seemed as if Dermot Coughlan’s side had their homework well done and had improved significantly. In every line they looked the better side. Their pace and passing and the directness of their attacks had Tipp struggling all through. It will be interesting to now see how they will fare against Cork next week, and then Kerry the week after.

For Tipp their four-game campaign has come to a disappointing finale and they never seemed to get going against Clare. But in fairness they never threw in the towel and in the second half they tried to take the game to their opponents despite the huge half-time deficit.

No one will be more hurt than the players but there were still some decent performances even in defeat. Tadhg Condon, Donagh Hickey, Conor Shanahan, Ben Comerford, and substitutes Liam McCormack and Liam King all kept going to the end.

TIPPERARY

James Griffin (Upperchurch/Drombane), Christy McDonagh (Cahir), Tadhg Condon (Clonmel Commercials), Emmet Butler (Kilsheelan/Kilcash), James Armstrong (Thurles Sarsfields), Donagh Hickey (Arravale Rovers), Conor Shanahan (Inane Rovers, 0-1), Paddy Creedon (Thurles Sarsfields), Tom Tobin (Rosegreen, Luke Seacy (Inane Rovers, 0-1), Rory Collins (Moyle Rovers), Ben Comerford (Grangemockler/Ballyneale 0-2), Eoin McCarthy (Clonmel Commercials),  Kyle Shelly (Capt., Moycarkey/Borris, 0-1), Jamie Holloway (Carrick Swans)

Subs: Liam King (Ballinahinch) for McCarthy (24th minute); Liam McCormack (Durlas Og, 0-2F) for Holloway (25th); James Corcoran (JK Brackens) and Jack Lillis (Drom/Inch) for Armstrong and Tobin (both half-time); Darragh McCarthy (Loughmore/Castleiney) for Butler (inj., 37); Conor Cadell (JK Brackens) for Collins (45).

CLARE

Oisin O’Loughlin, Tadgh Lillis, Micheál Geary, Ciaran McMahon, Cillian McGroary (0-2), Alan Killeen, Fionn Elliher, Eoin Rouine, Brendan Rouine (1-1), Conor Hassett (0-1), Diarmuid Fahy (1-0), Dara Nagle (1-0), Eoin Talty, Shane Meehan (0-5, 0-2F), Jamie Stack (0-2, 0-1F).

Subs: Liam Murphy for Talty (53rd minute); Shane Browne for Meehan (54); Tomás Meenaghan (0-1) for Fahy (56); Keith Crowley for Kelliher (59); Eoin Walshe for Hassett (60+2).

Referee: Sean Joy (Kerry).