After losses to Tipperary and Limerick left them with little margin for error, Clare played with urgency from the throw-in. By the end of the first quarter, in what was a repeat of last year\u2019s All-Ireland final at this grade,\u00a0they had surged 0-8 to 0-1 ahead, feeding off their dominance around the middle.<\/p>\n
Donnacha McKenna clipped a fine effort from a tight angle near the sideline, while captain Colm Daly struck a monstrous point from distance.<\/p>\n
Up front, James O\u2019Donnell kept the scoreboard moving and had four points registered by the interval, as Clare went in leading 0-12 to 0-6.<\/p>\n
Waterford needed a response and, for a spell after the restart, they found one. Nikki Belenko\u2019s goal looked like putting Clare out of sight, but Donncha Flannery struck back almost immediately and later added a second to keep the D\u00e9ise in the hunt.<\/p>\n
Dylan Murphy was a constant outlet for the visitors, finishing with eight points, and a couple of late placed balls which he was instructed to tap over the bar, trimmed the gap further \u2014 a reminder of how valuable scoring difference could yet become.<\/p>\n
The final act summed up their evening. With the last puck, Waterford were awarded a penalty, but goalkeeper Patrick Murphy stood tall to make the save, igniting a huge cheer from the home crowd and sealing a result Clare simply had to get.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Clare: B Talty (0-6, 5f), J O\u2019Donnell (0-4), N Belenko (1-0), O Duignan (0-3), C Daly (0-2), D McKenna (0-2), P Murphy (0-1, 1f), G Madden (0-1), C Mullins (0-1)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Waterford: D Murphy (0-8, 4f, 1 \u201865), D Flannery (2-1), C Delaney (0-2), M Moloney (0-1)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n CLARE: P Murphy (Tulla); O Perrill (Crusheen), C Maxted (Clooney-Quin), M Fitzpatrick (Clooney-Quin); P Murphy (Corofin), C Daly (St Joseph\u2019s Doora-Barefield), S Connellan (Kilmaley); O Duignan (Banner), I Hassett (Clooney-Quin); J O\u2019Donnell (Broadford), G Madden (Scariff), C Mullins (Sixmilebridge); D McKenna (Scariff), N Belenko (Tulla), B Talty (St Joseph\u2019s Doora-Barefield)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Subs: C Coffey (Banner) for McKenna (53), D Seery (Inagh-Kilnamona) for Maxted (56, inj), R Mahony (\u00c9ire \u00d3g Inis) for Duignan (61)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n WATERFORD: M Ware (Geraldines); L Fitzgerald (Passage), D Murphy (St Mary\u2019s East), C Crowley (Ballygunner); J Walsh (Mount Sion), A Power (Ballygunner), E Walsh (Stradbally); S Coffey (Sliabh Gcua\/St Mary\u2019s), A Cummins (Lismore); C Delaney (Butlerstown), D Flannery (Mount Sion), M Moloney (Ballygunner); J Mullally (De La Salle), D Murphy (Roanmore), L Mac Fhlannchadha (An Rinn)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Subs: F Geoghegan (St Mollerans) for Mac Fhlannchadha (HT), R Molumphy (Ballyduff Upper) for S Coffey (36), J O\u2019Sullivan (Ballygunner) for Mullally (46), C Qualter (An Rinn) for Delaney (57)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After losses to Tipperary and Limerick left them with little margin for error, Clare played with urgency from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[30041,1965,72371,7026,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-416453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-clare-gaa","tag-hurling","tag-munster-gaa","tag-waterford-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}