Tony Kelly stars as Clare beat Cork in dramatic All-Ireland hurling final

All-Ireland SHC semi-final

Clare 3-29 Cork 1-34 (after extra-time)

SOME players, in whatever team sport you’re talking about, are piano movers while others are piano players. Some are there to do the grunt work, to keep things tight, to build the foundations. That lets the others, the artists, the maestros do their thing. Brush strokes and crescendos, moments of magic, the stuff that makes your jaw drop.

For the first half of yesterday’s All-Ireland final at Croke Park, Clare captain Tony Kelly, in just his third start of the season after undergoing ankle surgery at the end of last year, worked diligently around midfield and his own half-back line. He got off a couple of long-range shots, the closest of which hit a Cork post, but was the only one of Clare’s starting forwards not to get on the scoresheet. But he was in the game, moving pianos.

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That’s all well and good but the Ballyea man had endured a quiet Munster final against Limerick too, while in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Kilkenny it took until the home straight before he burst into life with a couple of points.

Yesterday it didn’t take him quite so long and, when he did, he did it in ways that left the 80,000-plus crowd at Croke Park teetering on the edge of their own belief in what they were seeing.

His 52nd-minute goal, when he sold Sean O’Donoghue a dummy that sent the Cork captain halfway back down the road to Inniscarra, was a mesmerising piece of pace and stickwork. That moved Clare into 3-15 to 1-18 lead, but it wasn’t a winning one – yet. Even his injury-time point, swiveling on the 45-metre line and firing over his shoulder to raise a white flag, wasn’t enough.

In the end it was his 88th minute point, that involved more astonishing dexterity to control the sliotar, flick it away from Cork opponents then fire over the bar, that put the Bannermen into the lead for good. The score was 3-27 to 1-32. Aidan McCarthy and Shane Meehan tacked on another couple of points that proved necessary in the end as Patrick Horgan’s two injury-time scores got Cork to within one.

They managed to get final shot off as Robbie O’Flynn grabbed a long free from goalkeeper Patrick Collins, but he skewed his effort wide, just after Conor Leen had relinquished a fistful of his shirt. It was as clear a free as Cork could have desperately hoped for. But referee Johnny Murphy, who had a good game overall, missed it.

After the guts of a hundred minutes of remarkable drama a draw probably would have been a fair result. But over the piece the better team won. Clare got past a shaky start when Cork’s half-forwards had the run of Croke Park to secure lines of possession from short puckouts and stop the ball coming in to a full-back line that was under pressure with two first-half yellow cards for Adam Hogan and Conor Cleary. A Cork half-back also had a free run early on as Robert Downey claimed an Eibhear Quilligan puckout before galloping from his own 65 before smashing past the Clare goalkeeper.

That gave Cork a 1-7 to 0-4 lead and Clare were reeling. But they didn’t panic, and five minutes in which McCarthy and Mark Coleman swapped points were enough for Brian Lohan’s side to regain their composure.

But they still needed something to show for it and got it when Shane O’Donnell showed immense strength to brush off Ciaran Joyce before feeding McCarthy to fire to the net. O’Donnell – the hat-trick hero when Clare beat Cork in the All-Ireland final 11 years ago - hit the next two points himself with David Fitzgerald scoring another to get the deficit down to two from seven in the space of five minutes.

Clare survived a close call when Patrick Horgan hit the side netting, while Diarmuid Ryan saw a goalbound effort blocked out for a 65 in the 30th minute. McCarthy converted that to start a run of four Clare points approaching the half-time that gave them the lead for the first time.

Darragh Fitzgibbon levelled to make it 1-12 apiece and leave the teams deadlocked at the first of three breaks. They’d be level again at every turnaround on a febrile afternoon.

Cork edged ahead with three of the first five second-half scores before Rodgers ghosted in from the right-hand side, getting away from O’Donoghue before cutting inside Coleman to goal. Brian Hayes, so destructive against Cork but marshalled superbly yesterday by Cleary on his yellow card tightrope, got one back from Cork, who got another from a generally quiet Darragh Fitzgibbon to level again.

Kelly’s brilliant goal should have given Clare the impetus to push on, but Cork kept plugging away and had wiped out Kelly’s goal by the 58th minute.

Scores came in bunches as that hat-trick from Cork was answered by the same from Clare, who were on their nerves when David McInerney dragged down O’Flynn as he headed towards a loose ball outside just outside the Clare 13-metre line. Just a free rather than a penalty for denying a goal-scoring opportunity, and Horgan converted to get Cork to within two. Those two came from Coleman and another Horgan placed ball before Kelly’s pirouette put Clare 3-21 to 1-26 ahead. But two rash fouls from substitute Aron Shanagher, one deep in Cork territory, the other in Horgan territory, gave Cork their equaliser and forced extra-time.

Cork pushed ahead in the extra period with lively sub Shane Kingston on target twice, but two points from Kelly had nothing between the sides for the umpteenth time at the break. He almost had a goal when Collins stopped his shot, but his superb ball across the square from the rebound didn’t get the reward it deserved when Joyce brilliantly blocked Fitzgerald.

Robbie O’Flynn opened the scoring for Cork in the final 10 minutes and probably shot too early when running in on goal to give Quilligan more chance than he should have five minutes later.

Clare’s response to the let-off won them the game, with Kelly’s outrageous point was followed by scores from McCarthy and Meehan. But still they were hanging on after Horgan’s late brace, literally in the case of Leen and O’Flynn’s jersey. But in the end the only hands that mattered were Kelly’s - grasping the Liam MacCarthy cup again after calling the tune on an unforgettable afternoon of hurling.

Cork: P Collins; N O’Leary, E Downey (0-1), S O’Donoghue; C Joyce (0-1), R Downey 1-0), M Coleman (0-3); T O’Mahony (0-3), D Fitzgibbon (0-2), D Dalton, S Barrett (0-2), S Harnedy (0-4), P Horgan (0-10, 0-7 frees), B Hayes (0-2).

Subs: J O’Connor for Hayes (64), C Lehane for Dalton (48), S Kingston (0-2) for Barrett (66), R O’Flynn (0-1) for Harnedy (68), T O’Connell for R Downey (70+5), G Mellerick for O’Donoghue (79), D Cahalane (h-t, e-t) L Meade for O’Mahony (85).

Blood subs: Kingston for Hayes (43-47).

Clare: E Quilligan; A Hogan, C Cleary, C Leen; D Ryan (0-3), J Conlon, D McInerney; D Fitzgerald (0-3), C Malone; T Kelly (1-5), M Rodgers (1-3), P Duggan (0-2, 0-1 sideline); A McCarthy (1-6, 0-3 frees, 0-1 65), S O’Donnell (0-2), D Reidy.

Subs: R Taylor (0-1) for McCarthy (55), I Galvin (0-1) for Reidy (59), A Shanagher for Duggan (66), D Lohan for Cleary (70+1), R Mounsey for Rodgers (70+3). McCarthy for Mounsey (e-t), C Galvin for Ryan (80), S Meehan (0-1) for O’Donnell (80), S Morey for Malone (87),

Blood subs: Lohan for Malone (37-38).

Referee: J Murphy (Limerick)