This article is from page 88 of the 2009-08-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 88 JPG
IN the early throes of the champi- onship weekend, some supporters in Cusack Park were debating their accumulator bets. Meticululously sifting through the games, there was much parley over several of the third round matches but all reached com- mon ground that Clonlara were the ‘banker’. In truth, their certainty was not without merit either as the south east Clare side. The current double champions had built up a 17 match unbeaten run along the way over the past year and after two opening vic- tories in this year’s campaign, were odds-on favourites to ease into their second successive quarter-final.
That remarkable run was based on a never-say-die attitude that meant they could never be written off, regardless of the scoreline. But on Saturday, O’Callaghan’s Mills out-Clonlaraed Clonlara at their own game, full of raw desire and determination while the champions appeared to have tem- porarily lost their appetite.
The reason for this turnaround? Well, there is no doubt that the Mills had a point to prove. A young side, it was always going to take time to mature as a squad but after coming so close last year against Clarecastle and Kilmaley and leaking soft goals against Scariff at the beginning of this year’s campaign, they would have felt that they hadn’t done them- selves justice in the top tier. That pent up determination to succeed began to SJeVDaleam Gav KOLer¢d0mBbO MOS (oib am orcIROUDOTcMmelechyy with Tulla last time out but on Satur- day, it finally came to the surface and for once, the defending champions had no answer to the challenge.
It appeared to be all going to plan for Clonlara for the first 35 minutes of this tie, having weathered the early Mills storm to push five points clear after the break, albeit that they were now facing into a stiff breeze. How- ever, uncharacteristically they were only to score one more point until the finish as the Mills added a massive 13 points to their tally and Clonlara went into total meltdown.
In hindsight, there were signs even in the opening half that Clonlara were not at full tilt. A hand injury kept John Conlon out of the starting line-up but while they were always in front in the early stages, the strong wind in their favour should have al- lowed them to tally up a significant lead at the break. However, repeated- ly indiscipline cost them that luxury as Adrian Flaherty kept the Mills in touch with placed balls, pulling level by the 23rd minute. Indeed, the Mills should have been ahead at this stage only for some poor wides and a full length Ger O’Connell save from Brian Donnellan that kept Clonlara ticking over. The Mills did finally breach O’Connell’s goal-line in the 25th minute when Declan Donovan’s low effort broke kindly for James McMahon to pull to the net and give his side a 1-6 to 0-6 lead.
Clonlara didn’t panic and after Donal Madden and Nicky O’Connell had pointed, Darach Honan popped up with yet another stroke of bril-
liance to instinctively seize on a break to pull to the right corner of the net. Another Madden free right on the stroke of half-time resumed their control at 1-9 to 1-6 and another brace from the full-forward on the restart handed Clonlara a healthy five point advantage.
Effectively, that was to prove the end of Clonlara’s afternoon however, as the Mills shuffled the pack, bring- ing Brian Donnellan back to wing back to tighten up the defence and it worked wonders as Donnellan, along with Adrian Healy and Niall Dono- van were not to let the ball pass them
for the next fifteen minutes. Aided by midfielders Diarmuid Hehir and Patrick Donnellan, the Mulls shut up shop and with a constant supply of ball now going into their forward line, Clonlara simply wilted under the pressure.
Adrian Flaherty (3), James Mc-
Mahon, Diarmuid Hehir and Alan Duggan all pointed to overturn the advantage and while Clonlara did attempt to change things around by moving Darach Honan to centre-for- ward and introducing John Conlon on the wing, it couldn’t halt the Mills onslaught.
Growing in confidence with every score, the Mills punished the in- creasingly ragged Clonlara with Fla- herty (2), Fergus Donovan (2), Alan Duggan (2) and Declan Donovan all pointing with ease, and with no ex- pected kick from the champions, the Mills easily ran out seven point vic- tors.
Still, they cannot get carried away with the win as they still need some- thing out of their final game against Inagh/Kilnamona if they are to make this result count. For Clonlara, this was realistically a blip and like the Crusheen group game last year, could be the catalyst they need to re- gain their championship hunger. And as for the accumulators, they are long since resigned to the bin.