Allianz National Hurling League Division One final:
Clare 0-22 Waterford 0-22 (after extra-time)
"LET'S go again", was the defiant message from Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald following Sunday's Allianz National Hurling League Division One final stalemate with Championship opponents Waterford.
The two sides will meet again next weekend to decide league honours - just four weeks before they clash in a Munster semi-final. But a bullish Fitzgerald was satisfied with a draw at the end of a tactical war of attrition at Semple Stadium.
Bearing in mind he lined out without injured key players John Conlon, Conor Ryan and David McInerney, Fitzgerald had good reason to be pleased and he believes he got to grips with the Waterford system.
It was a game pockmarked by a massive total of 39 wides, Waterford finishing with 20 of those. Goal chances were at a premium throughout, but the best of them fell to Waterford sub Tom Devine - and was spurned.
Ultimately, Maurice Shanahan's 92nd minute point levelled matters for the 12th and final time, ensuring that Waterford held onto their crown, while Clare were denied their first top-flight title since 1978, for the time being at least.
Both teams adopted sweeper systems right from the start and a big factor in the huge number of wides was the fact that shooters were forced to take on high-risk efforts from distance, with the middle-third of the field massively congested.
Fitzgerald had warned during the week this might not be the "prettiest" of games and so it proved - until it warmed up considerably in extra-time. A deadlock was guaranteed when Clare's leading marksman Conor McGrath, with 73 minutes and 33 seconds on the watch, fired over the equalising score from the 20m line, tight on the left touchline.
In the first minute of stoppage-time, Waterford's rising young star Shane Bennett had popped over his seventh point of the game, and third from play, to hand the Deise a lead that looked like a winning one before McGrath's intervention.
Extra-time saw Waterford surge three points clear before Clare levelled at 0-18 apiece at the midway point. And in the second period of extra-time, they were level four times, a fitting end to a nip-and-tuck contest. Clare sub Colin Ryan thought he'd won it in the 90th minute, but there was still time for Shanahan to boom over a levelling free.
In front of 19,498 spectators, it was predictably tight and tense from the start, with both sides putting over just four points from play between them - three of those for Clare - in the first-half. Waterford also racked up a massive tally of 12 wides in that opening half, five of them from Austin Gleeson.
Waterford were struggling badly on placed balls, Patrick Curran missing three and Gleeson two, before Shane Bennett assumed free-taking responsibilities before half-time and landed two successful efforts.
A cagey atmosphere pervaded throughout the first-half and there was just the merest whiff of a goal chance when Curran caught a Gleeson delivery close to goal, but was bottled up by the massed Clare ranks. Clare went in a point up, 0-7 to 0-6, with McGrath's fifth point of the half and fourth free, handing the Banner county a slim advantage.
There was barely a whiff of cordite in the air until Tony Kelly careered into Colin Dunford with a head-high challenge in the 29th minute, referee Brian Gavin opting for a yellow card. There was also a touchline flare-up involving both benches shortly afterwards as the temperature gauge went up a notch, but linesman Cathal McAllister intervened to help ensure there was no physical contact between the respective backroom teams as the verbals flew.
After half-time, Bennett missed a few early frees as the second-half picked up where the first had left off. Clare led by three points, 0-11 to 0-8, but Waterford reeled them in with a trio of Bennett points, two from play.
Gleeson's free then handed Waterford the lead for the first time in the game, but the sides were level on three further occasions in a dramatic final 10 minutes, plus stoppage-time, before extra-time ensued.
Waterford selector Dan Shanahan hailed the nerve shown by his younger brother Maurice to convert that late, late free and hinted that he had Clare voices in his ears as he stood over the effort: "He [Maurice] got a lot of heckling now, to be honest with you. A small bit," Dan said.
"I'm talking from the Clare bench now, lads. From the crowd and stuff like that. That's just the way it is, I suppose. That's sport."
Clare supremo Fitzgerald isn't concerned that he will have to face Waterford again before their Championship tussle: "I can't wait for the next two, I just can't wait to go again, I'm really looking forward to it. Great battles between two great teams and I really seriously can't wait for it," he said.
"That's what hurling is all about. It was a man's game out there, toe-to-toe and that's what it was today. We're delighted. Fair play to Waterford, they were the same thing, we had to stand up at the end of normal time and Conor McGrath put over a free that was absolutely incredible and I'm so proud of him and what he did. Everything was on the line for us and he did it.
"And fair play to Maurice Shanahan at the end, he did it when he had to do it. That shows you what hurlers are about and, even from a hurling man, I just feel it was a savage game of men-to-men, toe-to-toe.
"That's the way I see it, maybe ye see it different, but that's how I saw it."
MATCH STATS
Clare: P Kelly; O'Brien, C Dillon, P O'Connor; B Bugler, C Cleary, D Fitzgerald; D Reidy (0-1), C Galvin (0-2); P Duggan (0-1), T Kelly (0-3), A Cunningham; P Collins (0-1), D Honan, C McGrath (0-13, 0-10 frees); Subs: S O'Donnell for Duggan (45), C O'Connell (Clonlara) for Honan (49), C Ryan (0-1) for Cunningham (54), A Shanagher for Galvin (62), J Browne for Cleary (77), C Galvin for Collins (80+2), S Morey for Bugler (85).
Waterford: S O'Keeffe; N Connors, B Coughlan, D Fives; T de Burca, S Fives, Philip Mahony (0-1); A Gleeson (0-2 frees), J Barron (0-1); M Walsh, S Bennett (0-9, 0-6 frees), K Moran; P Curran (0-4, 0-2 frees), C Dunford (0-1), J Dillon; Subs: T Devine for Dunford (45), M Shanahan (0-1f) for Dillon (57), B O'Halloran (0-1) for A Gleeson (63), C Gleeson for S Fives (66), T Ryan (0-2) for Curran (67), C Dunford for Bennett (87), Pauric Mahony for Walsh (88).
Referee: B Gavin (Offaly).
