THE BLAST OF the final whistle in Ennis on Sunday sparked reactions that told you this was a championship game that carried some weight.
Clare’s Easter joy was unbridled. Pockets of family members and Banner football diehards swarmed the winning players. Gary Brennan, for so long a totemic midfield presence, was one of the first to stride onto the pitch to offer his congratulations.
Cork were an anguished bunch after coming out the wrong side of a one-point loss. Cillian Rouine’s fisted winner was not a season-ending score for them in the way that Martin Daly’s goal was for their Rebel predecessors back in 1997, but there was a similar sense of pain and perhaps critically a deep sense of uncertainty as to where they go now.
Therein lies the nub of the matter. Far from being a shot in the arm for the flagging provincial championships, this outcome was more about the wider implications. The fine margins that exist in determining whether a team will compete for the Sam Maguire Cup or the Tailteann Cup this summer. The head-scratching permutations in determining the top 16 in the country as the football community grapples with the new format for the 2023 season.
Cork finished in the top half of the Division 2 league table, while Clare were relegated. Neither team are still immune from being bracketed in the Tailteann Cup this year, at the same time neither are assured of All-Ireland qualification.
Clare faced a starker scenario on Sunday, knowing defeat would prevent a 2022 last eight side from becoming a 2023 last 16 team. That informed the element of desperation and drive that fuelled their play in a second-half that produced 18 shots on goal and saw them outscore Cork 0-9 to 0-4 from the 42nd minute on. Clare’s aim was simplified and now they are aware that a winner takes all clash with Limerick will determine their status for the season.
Cork’s situation is harder to wrap your head around. Two more lower-ranked sides reaching provincial finals will spell trouble for them. If the recent supremacy of Kerry in Munster and Dublin in Leinster suggests both will negotiate a path to a decider in May, then the focus areas would appear to be the side of the draw in Leinster featuring Offaly and Meath, along with the progress in Ulster of Cavan and Down.
It’s a tricky scenario to plan for. When Cork were knocked back in their opening league game by Meath’s rush for goals, manager John Cleary spoke afterwards in Páirc Uí Chaoimh of the severe pressure they were now placed under. He sought a response then and got it over the course of a February schedule that yielded wins over Kildare and Limerick, and a morale-boosting performance in running Dublin to two points.
“I don’t know where we are going from here until we see how the competitions pan out,” was the salient point Cleary made after Sunday’s defeat. For a manager plotting and strategising, having doubt creeping into the equation is unwelcome. It’s something Cork have to live with. Whenever, and wherever, they are in action again, there will be issues from the Clare loss that will need to be addressed.
The opening period was a tough spectacle yet Cork had the greater sense of control as the half progressed. Their management of the game saw them outscore Clare 0-7 to 0-2 between the 18th and 40th minutes. Ian Maguire and Ruairi Deane were causing problems with their incisive running, Steven Sherlock profiting through frees from the fouls drawn.
Cork scored two points in quick succession after half-time following wins on Clare kickouts. but it proved an area of the game that changed thereafter. Clare’s Stephen Ryan got shorter restarts off and found team-mates, while at the opposite end Clare devoured the Cork kickout. Darren O’Neill’s towering presence was a factor as Cork got little joy from their ploy of overloading bodies on one wing.
The difference in scoring sources was striking. Sherlock contributed 10 of Cork’s 13 points, eight of those from placed balls. Of the remaining three, only Sean Powter of the starting attack pointed, as did two defenders (Rory Maguire and Kevin O’Donovan). Clare’s greater variety was more telling, four points apiece for inside forwards Eoin Cleary and Keelan Sexton, a pair registered by centre-forward Emmett McMahon. Clare were wasteful in front of the posts but the spread of scoring threats meant momentum shifted in their favour in the final quarter.
The game was a triumph for Clare’s switch in thinking since the league meeting between the teams five weeks previously. An eight-point defeat morphed into a one-point win. Goals were Cork’s calling card all spring, they hit three in Ennis in early March. They finished the league as joint highest goalscorers across the four divisions, with Westmeath and Laois.
Clare’s success in keeping a clean sheet on Sunday went a long way torwards them achieving victory. Brian O’Driscoll’s first-half thunderbolt against the bar was Cork’s only clearcut opening. The success in halting the runs of Mattie Taylor, Colm O’Callaghan and Powter – a trio responsible for half of Cork’s goal total in the league – was telling, Pearse Lillis and Podge Collins covering intelligently. As the match wore on, the raids of Jamie Malone and Ciaran Russell became more crucial in prising Cork’s defence apart.
For all of Clare’s progress under the watch of Colm Collins, the lack of a Munster final place since 2012 has annoyed their group. Tipperary (twice) and Limerick have both broken the Kerry-Cork stranglehold of decider appearances in that time frame. All the praise Clare have received will be music to the ears of a Limerick team that knocked them out in Munster last April. The challenge of regaining focus steeling themselves for that semi-final in the Gaelic Grounds was a message the Clare camp despatched from various quarters after Sunday’s game.
Still though back to the fine margins. A game settled by a 74th minute point makes sense in one way when the competitors are two teams well accustomed to Division 2 league meetings. Clare won three games on the spin between the counties 2017-19, Cork won the meetings in ’21 and ’23, while they shared the spoils last year. It was a match that went to the wire before being settled, yet there is a vast gap between the subsequent emotions for both.
Clare’s summer pathway to the All-Ireland race is now open before them. They have a shot at correcting their Munster final appearance record on Saturday week. Cork’s race is not ran either, but the waiting game is now theirs to play as the rest of the provincial action unfolds.
In the new Gaelic football world, the stakes are high. Clare and Cork represent that.
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