February 15, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By John Markey
TIPPERARY 4-10, CLARE 3-12 Clare were left bewildered at the final whistle in this senior hurling semifinal contest Sunday at Gaelic Park. Dominating for long periods and holding a 12-point advantage at one stage, they seemed destined to dethrone current holders Tipperary as they sought to capture the trophy named in honor of their great clubman Brendan Keane. But it wasn’t to be. A sterling second-half performance by Tipperary proved to be enough to carry them to a second successive final.
When you consider that they registered only two points in the opening 30 minutes, it reveals the character of their second-half performance. They were at sixes and sevens in the opening quarter and looked anything but defending champions. Their failure to even field 13 at this stage of the competition was baffling, but when they did get their house in order, they were impressive.
Mick Fitzgerald had two goals in Clare’s opening two attacks. Peter Clerkin added a point and a barrage of unanswered scores from John Kennedy left them sitting pretty at the interval.
The second half resumed with the referee overruling his umpire to award Shane Cummerford and Tipperary a point. How important this score was to be. It was followed by Kevin Madden and Shane Ryan goals and with only minutes gone Tipperary were right back in the fray. Clare, however, did respond, and a Barney Green goal with 12 minutes left looked to be enough. But up stepped Ryan to add his second goal of the afternoon, which was quickly followed by a Declan O’Meara strike to level the proceedings. In an exciting climax ,it was Tipperary which displayed more resolve and earned their place in yet another final.
Donal Cummins, Owen Cummins, Shane Ryan, Tony O’Brien and Kevin Madden were Tipperary’s best. John Kennedy, Tony Burns, Donal Moore and Barney Green tried hard for Clare.
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K. Madden (1-3), S. Ryan (2-0), D. O’Meara (1-0), S. Cummerford (0-2), D. Minnogue, O. Cummins, A. Slattery, T. O’Brien and M. Kennedy all (0-1).
Clare: M. Fitzgerald (2-0), B. Breen (1-1), J. Kennedy (0-4), B. McNamara (0-3), P. Clerkin, B. Adams, G. Moore and D. Moore all (0-1).