{"id":10186,"date":"2022-04-04T15:19:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T15:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10186"},"modified":"2022-04-04T15:19:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T15:19:44","slug":"tony-kelly-nearly-won-his-club-a-first-clare-shc-title-before-cathal-oconnells-late-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=10186","title":{"rendered":"Tony Kelly nearly won his club a first Clare SHC title before Cathal O’Connell’s late point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clonlara 1-11
\nBallyea 1-11<\/p>\n

CLARE\u2019S YEAR OF the draw was confirmed this afternoon as for the second successive\u00a0Sunday, there would be no winner in the senior final in Cusack Park.<\/p>\n

Following in the footsteps of Cratloe and Kilmurry Ibrickane\u2019s dramatic stalemate the previous week in the football version, a replay would also be forced in the hurling decider after Cathal \u2018Tots\u2019 O\u2019Connell popped up with a last-gap 65th minute equaliser to deny Ballyea a first ever title.<\/p>\n

Trailing by five by the 40th minute, Ballyea seemed to gather momentum at the perfect time, inspired as ever by Tony Kelly who finally escaped the clutches of fellow county senior Oisin O\u2019Brien to reel in Clonlara before substitute Martin O\u2019Leary accelerated past Clonlara\u2019s last line for a levelling goal in the 53rd minute at 1-9 to 1-9.<\/p>\n

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Kelly nudged Ballyea in front for the first time in almost 30 minutes, only for O\u2019Connell to regain parity on the hour mark.<\/p>\n

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However, as tensions heightened a scrappy period eventually saw a poor Clonlara clearance fall straight to talisman Kelly to fire over from 60 metres in the 62nd minute.<\/p>\n

Clonlara refused to panic though and were given one last chance as a puck-out broke perfectly for O\u2019Connell to fire over and ensure another day out for the sides.<\/p>\n

In a low-scoring tense encounter, Gearoid O\u2019Connell operated superbly as a sweeper for Ballyea who thanks to three early Kelly frees were 0-4 to 0-2 clear by the end of the opening quarter.<\/p>\n

Cathal O\u2019Connell and Darach Honan got Clonlara back on terms as the half developed and their hopes of a first county title\u00a0in eight years\u00a0were boosted going in at half-time after Colm Galvin blocked down a clearance and was put through on goal by Oisin O\u2019Brien to billow the net and give Clonlara a 1-5 to 0-5 lead.<\/p>\n

Tony Kelly scored only eight seconds into the new half, only for John Conlon to cancel it out on the puck-out while Galvin and Honan eventually pushed Clonlara five clear by the 40th minute.<\/p>\n

Missed chances meant that they couldn\u2019t see out the game though and it almost came back to hurt them as Kelly and O\u2019Leary got Ballyea to the brink of a first senior crown.
\nIn the end though, a second bite of the cherry was merited for both sides who will be expected to lock horns once more in a fortnight\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

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Scorers for Clonlara: Cathal O\u2019Connell 0-4 (2f); Colm Galvin 1-1; John Conlon, Darach Honan 0-2 each; Nicky O\u2019Connell (1f), James Hastings 0-1 each<\/p>\n

Scorers for Ballyea: Tony Kelly 0-9 (4f, 1\u201965); Martin O\u2019Leary 1-1; Cathal Doohan 0-1<\/p>\n

Clonlara<\/p>\n

1. Ger O\u2019Connell
\n25. Paul McNamara
\n7. Domhnall O\u2019Donovan
\n27. Cillian Fennessy
\n9. Cormac O\u2019Donovan
\n5. Nicky O\u2019Connell
\n6. Neil Ryan
\n4. Oisin O\u2019Brien
\n13. James Hastings
\n19. Paraic O\u2019Loughlin
\n8. Colm Galvin
\n11. Cathal O\u2019Connell
\n14. John Conlon (Captain)
\n15. Michael O\u2019Loughlin
\n10. Darach Honan<\/p>\n

Subs:
\n22. Michael White for P. O\u2019Loughlin\u00a0(44)
\n23. David Fitzgerald for M. O\u2019Loughlin (57)
\n29. Garrett Kennedy for Ryan (60)
\n2. Shane O\u2019Brien for McNamara (64, inj)<\/p>\n

Ballyea<\/p>\n

1. Kevin Sheehan
\n7. James Murphy
\n3. Jack Browne
\n4. Brian Carrigg
\n6. Paul Flanagan
\n5. Gearoid O\u2019Connell
\n2. Joe Neylon
\n8. Tony Kelly
\n9. Stan Lineen (Captain)
\n10. Niall Deasy
\n11. Gary Brennan
\n12. Cathal Doohan
\n13. Pat Joe Connolly
\n14. Eoghan Donnellan
\n15. Pearse Lillis<\/p>\n

Subs:
\n17. Martin O\u2019Leary for Neylon (Half-Time, inj)
\n18. Damien Burke for Connolly (38)
\n19. David Egan for Donnellan (60)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Referee: Rory McGann (Newmarket-on-Fergus)<\/p>\n

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Clonlara 1-11 Ballyea 1-11 CLARE\u2019S YEAR OF the draw was confirmed this afternoon as for the second successive\u00a0Sunday, there would be no winner in the senior final in Cusack Park. Following in the footsteps of Cratloe and Kilmurry Ibrickane\u2019s dramatic stalemate the previous week in the football version, a replay would also be forced in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}