Without resorting to wikigoogle I was thinking of our avalanche of championship exits to Clare.
I’m thinking of my lifetime (1981 onwards) so I don’t know if we lost to them before that.
I can think of:
2002 - comfortably beaten in Portlaoise after Wexford played very well in the Leinster Final & lost narrowly to Kilkenny. Can’t remember the format back then so don’t know if this was a quarter final or a round before that.
Mid 2000s x2 - I’ve vague memories of losing tamely to Clare in back-to-back quarter finals in Croke Park under Maggot Murphy. Maybe 2005 & 2006? Lads like Tony Griffin & Tony Carmody having the run of the place.
Anything else between then & 2013?
2013 - Clare coasting to victory in a qualifier game in Thurles, emptied the bench, Wexford chipped away & then Jack Guiney scored a goal with the last play to dramatically send the game to extra time. Clare kicked on & won easily. They went on to win the AIF & that was the year Podge Collins had great success playing kinda in between the half & full forward lines, constantly on the move & linking the play. I can still hear the crack in my mind when Bobby Kenny smacked him off the ball to slow him down.
2014 - redemption of sorts in extra time after a replay.
2018 - a lunchtime quarter final defeat on a Saturday in Cork where Wexford never raised a gallop. Would Davy even stay on for a third year?
2020 - a grim November Covid era qualifier defeat in Portlaoise in front of a two men, one Romer & a dog. Clare played with a gale & built up a huge first half lead. I went out to the kitchen to have a bite to eat, got sidetracked & got back to the game after around 50 minutes & they’d extended the lead further.
2021 - quarter final defeat in Thurles in splendid sunshine. Clare were around 8-1 up after 10/15 minutes. Wexford pegged it back & made a game of it but Clare scored a late goal to seal it.
2022 - quarter final defeat in Thurles. Wexford with the big early lead this time & Clare maybe nursing a post Munster final defeat. Was it after a replay? Wexford lost Rory O’Connor & a couple of others to injury in game & didn’t have depth off the bench. Clare clicked into gear & Shane O’Donnell dragged them to victory.
I remember Clare losing to cork on a Saturday I’m almost certain with Brian Lohan playing. We just got on the boat at Rosslare and everyone was giving out they’d lose signal.
I’m almost certain on the same holiday cork beat Waterford in thurles with a young Cathal naughton scoring 1-1 with the point coming from out on the side line.
Yeah, maybe. You’d have to use him right. He was some player when he was young. Was over with Forest for the soccer as well but don’t think he was interested, just a natch really. He’ll always have the Newton All Ireland and that Waterford game.
2002 was a ‘qualifier’ as we beat Galway with a late Colin Lynch point in the quarter-final. There’s some footage of it on Youtube which the GaaGo camera work critics could do with watching
I watched that Clare v Wexford match in the Parnell Mooney after an Alan Brogan and Ray Cosgrove inspired Dublin had beaten Kildare in front of a sell out crowd of 78,000.
There was a lad in the jacks who insisted on engaging me in random conversation about Australian snakes. “Awww man the fookin’ snakes dee have in Australia are fookin’ mental, real aggressive and all, the fookin’ Tiger snakes, they attack ya and kill ya”.
I was mildly perturbed by somebody unexpectedly foisting a conversation about snakes on me in a pub toilet.
Yeah a different format back then. Reaching a provincial final didn’t ensure a safe passage through to a quarter-final. As Waterford also learned to their detriment in 2003 and Offaly in 2004.
That was a qualifier I’m fairly sure. Think Clare lost to Cork in a quarter-final later in the championship.
