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powers of recovery

'It's pretty amazing. As cruciate ligament recuperations go it's incredible'

Aron Shanagher scored a vital goal yesterday on his comeback from a cruciate injury.

CLARE JOINT BOSS Donal Moloney heaped praise on young forward Aron Shanagher, who bagged a goal on his return from a cruciate injury in Clare’s All-Ireland semi-final draw with Galway.

Aron Shanagher celebrates scoring a goal Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO

The 21-year-old tore his ACL in training last November and was initially expected to miss the entire 2018 season.

But Shanagher was a surprise addition to the Clare bench for yesterday’s thriller and replaced Shane O’Donnell in the 67th minute.

At the beginning of the second-half of extra-time, Shanagher collected a long ball into the area and smashed in an unstoppable bullet past James Skehill.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said a relieved Moloney afterwards. “As cruciate ligament recuperations go it’s incredible.

“That was one of his trademarks in terms of that catch and turn and bang. He’s a very, very driven young man.

“Two points up is a big momentum shift but Galway are magnificent. Johnny Glynn, the leadership he showed driving them back into the game. Johnny Coen as well. You’re not going to beat Galway until you’re actually well down the road. We really respect the way they came back at us.”

It was Shanagher’s first appearance of the year and his goal arrived at a critical juncture.

Clare had hit seven wides in the opening period of extra-time and looked to be going back to their old ways of inaccurate shooting from out the field before the intervention of the Wolfe Tones ace.

Galway fought back and were leading in the 94th minute when another Clare sub, Jason McCarthy, sent the game to a replay.

“It probably had shades of Domhnall O’Donovan in 2013,” continued Moloney. “They were about the only calm heads in the stadium those four boys at that stage in terms of how they built it out from one pass over the head onto the next guy and onto the next guy. Jason doesn’t miss those.”

Full-forward John Conlon, who finished with 0-4 after an entertaining battle with Daithi Burke, also drew comparisons to O’Donovan’s equaliser five years ago.

“We never gave up, but neither did Galway,” Conlon said. “Look, it was fantastic stuff, it was exhilarating. At the end, James Skehill and myself were in around the square with a minute to go and we just said no one deserves to lose this.

“Thankfully Jason got that great score at the end. It had similarities to Domhnall’s score. Lads were working it up the field, it just shows the subs who came on, I think David Fitzgerald was involved as well.

“Just to have that composure and leadership from them to go on and do that in the last puck of the ball meant a lot to us. Hopefully it will give us a big push for next week.”

Shanagher and McCarthy were both 16 when O’Donovan hit that famous point to send that All-Ireland final with Cork to a replay. The replay victory over the Rebels was Clare’s last trip to headquarters and to seal another visit to Jones’ Road this year, they’ll have to beat Galway in Thurles.

Jason McCarthy celebrates scoring the equalising point James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Even a replay looked extremely unlikely when Clare trailed by nine points after the first quarter. It looked as though they were set for another disappointing championship exit, but Clare made some key switches with Colm Galvin dropping back as a sweeper and Tony Kelly moving to midfield.

Those changes had a major impact on the game while Peter Duggan starting dominating the airwaves at wing-forward and Conlon found his shooting touch inside.

“In the first quarter of an hour Galway had terrific momentum,” Moloney stated. “They obviously did that to Kilkenny in the Leinster final replay and we had planned for that and thought about it but executing it is different.

“Galway were in full flow during that period. We had never had any real doubt we were going to bring this thing back though, we never had any doubt about our boys.

“Colm got on a lot of ball. He’s a very, very intelligent hurler and he uses it very well. He showed great leadership, as did many, many others on the field from both sides. Both sides were magnificent today.”

Conlon concurred with his manager. “Things didn’t look good,” the Clonara man said. “We had said during the week that that could happen. Galway are that good. They blew us off the field for the first 15, 20 minutes.

“But we said mistakes might occur. I think we were a bit sloppy. Maybe we were a bit nervous or anxious about bring in Croke Park. But look we got composed. Tony moved to midfield and he made a big difference around the middle. He drew them out and he got a few great scores when we needed them.”

Paul Killeen with Peter Duggan Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Moloney gave a wry smile when he was quizzed about Clare’s lengthy half-time break. They left Galway waiting for a good five minutes before returning to the field. The Banner were roundly booed by Galway supporters on their return to the field. It had the desired effect and Clare posted five of the first seven scores after the restart.

“To be honest when you go nine points down to Galway at half-time you have a lot of stuff to fix and the players wanted to discuss things and trash things out,” explained Moloney.

“You only get one shot at this and look if we caused anyone any offence we are sorry but we’ve had it both ways. We have been waiting on the field and we have had other teams waiting for us as well. To be honest we lost track of time but we were trying to sort a lot of stuff.”

Donal Moloney Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

They face a short turnaround before the replay, but the round-robin format in Munster means it’s not unfamiliar territory.

Moloney said: “It is the round robin has prepped teams very well and that was a magnificent competition but it fairly tested logistics and recovery and so on and so forth so the guys know the routine at this point.

“Both teams have character. Galway, Clare, Limerick, Cork these are professional athletes in every way and maybe ahead of professionals in some ways.

“I’m sure Galway will have huge belief as well. They actually hung in there when momentum shifted against them.

“Our boys have taken a lot of criticism over the years which we have always deemed very unfair, even in Davy’s time they have taken huge criticism because they are the most professional group of young men I have ever seen it is a privilege to be associated with them.”

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