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A tale of two championships

This article is from page 70 of the 2011-05-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 70 JPG

BY way of giving a context to the scale of the challenge that awaits Clare on the banks of the Lee this Sunday, while giving the county some hope at the same time, two game’s from the vaults of history ring out.

Games 23 years apart – the scores very much apart too, even if the results were the same as Clare ended up on the losing side on things on both occasions.

1973 and 1996 are the years – one a depressing tale the other a tale of what should have been for a Clare team that was arguably one of the best to ever represent the county in Munster – better than the 1992 Munster Championship winning team, better than the Munster final team of 1997.

The Clare team in 1973 looked good on paper too – it was blessed with some fine footballers, but what happened in the old Cork Athletic Grounds was a harsh lesson in the reality of top-flight inter-county fare.

They managed one point from play over the 80 minutes that was in vogue for championship at the time – that came from midfielder Pete Dillon. They only scored 0-3 in total, while Cork racked up 2-14 as they took another step towards winning their first All-Ireland title in 62 years. And, bear in mind it was a Cork team sans Jimmy Barry Murphy who later lit up the championship, while key defender and Munster rugby player John Coleman was missing too.

Things were a lot different 23 years later when Clare travelled to Páirc Uí Chaoimh in confidence after a last-gasp Aidan O’Keeffe free had earned them a draw against Cork in Cusack Park.

Clare produced a magnificent performance – they trailed 1-8 to 0-4 at half-time having played with the wind, but on the turnover produced a magnificent performance to reel the Rebels in.

With Padraig Conway tormenting Cork until he was taken out of it by Stephen O’Brien, Clare roared back into contention, even though they lost Brendan Rouine to a sending-off only six minutes in.

Four Francis McInerney points and Ger Keane goal saw Clare get back on terms before they took the lead with a Padraig Conway point with 11 minutes remaining. A Joe Kavanagh point brought the game to extra-time but Clare seemed to be on their way to a famous win when they led 1-16 to 1-13 early in the second half.

However, they were denied when a controversial goal from Johnny Buckley, when he walked the ball into the net brought Cork back on terms before late points from Ciaran O’Sullivan and Joe Kavanagh saw them edge home by 2-16 to 1-16.

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