Clare v Cork - GAA Hurling All Ireland Senior Championship 2013 Final - Replay

Probably?

I said Cork the last day so i’ll stick with that and go with Clare by 3.

Yes.

:smiley:

Can confirm Kid Chocs tale of woe re tickets earlier anyways. Apparently clubs been left v short in Cork as well…whereever the fck the tickets are gone who knows.

all you have to do is look at Sportsfile the day after the finals and you’ll see loads of irish ‘celebs’ pictured…its now cool to be spotted in croker apparently …its like being seen courtside at the LA Lakers games…

:rolleyes:

The Eircom Fan pic from the football matches is a great yoke.

Are ye sure lads? I couldn’t get rid of 2 Hogan stand tickets that I had so I ended up giving them to an American lad at work who wanted to go to a Hurling game-he’s bringing the wife I think.

The Eircom Fan pic from the football matches is a great yoke.[/quote]
Bit of An invasion of privacy for lads conducting clandestine affairs

Similar tale. There’s lads in work here who can’t move tickets at all. Hopefully they don’t go to waste.

just got a beauty, hogan stand half way line

The banks have ensured that their corporate boxes are greyed out in it.

[SIZE=6]Clare to pop champagne Cork[/SIZE]
15:56, 27 Sep 2013http://eircomsports.eircom.net/Images/news/exclusive-lrg.jpg
Shane Stapleton

[LIST]
[*]http://eircomsports.eircom.net/Media/Thumbnails/1377c956-f5d8-4f8e-83fe-3a35b9f0ebf6_640x360.jpg
[/LIST]

There is something dependable in how Clare play that makes us tip them to beat Cork.

They always create chances, have many different scoring options, have become the tactical game-changers and are exceptional at winning their share of contested ball. Cork have some of those qualities but there have been asterisks about so much of what they have achieved this season.

The Munster semi-final win over Clare was aided by the loss of John Conlon early on, and the usual poor shooting from the Banner men; the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Kilkenny was in part due to the harsh dismissal of an admittedly unfit Henry Shefflin; while the Dublin victory had much to do with another harsh red card to Ryan O’Dwyer.

That’s not to arraign them on charges of being imposters in an All-Ireland final, it’s simply pointing out that they have sometimes been soldiers of fortune this season. Of course, the counter-argument is how the Munster final loss to Limerick hinged on a very harsh red card decision that went against Patrick Horgan. Before that, a wasteful Cork had been outplaying the Treaty County. But since the win over Clare in the provincial semi-final, you could argue that the Rebels have relied on factors outside their control.

We would argue that the drawn final was out of their control for long spells and nothing backs that up more than the creation of just 29 shots to the Banner’s 43. Clare had been particularly poor with their own puckouts in the semi-final win over Limerick, winning just 28% (8/29) but Cork had no joy down this route as Davy Fitzgerald’s side retained possession on 64% (14/22) restarts. At the same time, Clare won 48% of the Rebels puckouts (15/31), which was not too dissimilar to the 52% (13/25) they claimed off Limerick. As Cork found out: what’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is my own.

The Rebels stayed in the game because they found moments of inspiration. Momentum-changing goals is what they should have been but Clare always found a response. Each Rebel goal was greeted with a point from the Banner at the other end and this is the sort of dependability that makes Davy Fitz’s men worth backing. Since they managed just 0-15 against Cork in that Munster semi-final, Clare have averaged 0-30 in the four games that have taken them the long way back to September. Yes, Laois were cannon fodder and Wexford imploded during extra time, but those other wins against Galway and Limerick, and the draw with the current opposition, were all tough propositions.

Or so they should have been. The Tribe never looked likely winners in that quarter-final and were summarily dismissed by a team that knew precisely how to deal with what Anthony Cunningham’s disjointed side brought to the table. We’ve previously pointed out that winning the tactical battle against John Allen’s Limerick was somewhat overstated because there is no chance in hell that Clare planned to give up 1-6’s worth of chances in the opening 10 minutes and knew that would be at the concession of just a point. No, the Banner took their time to settle into and then take over that game – they held their nerve when their neighbours couldn’t. Ultimately, there was little doubt of a collapse.

Could the drawn final be considered as such? That would be incredibly harsh considering the saffron and blue side drew last blood but the chances were there to seal the game. The biggest turning point being when Cathal McInerney took a shot that came up short but Anthony Nash spilled his effort to Podge Collins, who went to boot it home. The Cratloe man was denied, the ball was cleared, and it eventually broke for Stephen Moylan who set up Pa Cronin to nail in a game-levelling goal with six minutes remaining.

Speaking of goalkeeper Nash, the decision to have him go for goal on three separate occasions from placed balls was a notable departure from earlier this year. In the relegation play-off match during the league, Cork were in control in the second half and had a 20-metre free which Nash might have fancied burying. Instead, Patrick Horgan tapped it over and so the Banner stayed in the game, which they won in extra time.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy clearly wants to remedy the goalscoring situation and it’s somewhat worrying that their goalkeeper is the most obvious route. Cronin benefitted from Moylan getting a lucky break and forcing another when upending a Clare defender as he offloaded, while Conor Lehane’s first ever championship goal speaks for itself: it’s a rarity. If Nash gets another opening, we expect him to go for it because there are not too many obvious predators.

The beauty for Cork is that they know they have more to improve for this game and, again looking at Nash, he may need to hit a couple of short puckouts just to keep Clare honest. Cian McCarthy comes into the team and he needs to win the sort of primary possession that was badly lacking in the drawn game. Cronin didn’t look right in the first game and his aerial danger might make sense on the edge of the square, while possible forcing Brendan Bugler out of his position of dominance into the full-back line. Either way, JBM needs to think of some tactic to unsettle the opposition.

Clare will continue to create opportunities but their 58% return on shooting (0-25 from 43 efforts) has something to do with having arguably their two most inaccurate forwards closest to goal, in Darach Honan and Conor McGrath. If they can fashion one goal, or maybe even two, it’s hard to imagine the Rebels keeping on their coattails. The points will come and chip away, but green flags lay claim to titles.

Everyone has been telling the Banner for three weeks that this is their game to win. That’s not how it works in the GAA and it’s only three months since Cork dismissed them at the Gaelic Grounds. Things change quickly and anything can happen come 5pm on Saturday, September 28. Still, Clare just seem more dependable right now.

Ya no shortage up here.

God I hope Clare stuff them, really stick it to Donal OGrady, Thomad Mulchay and JBM and their fucking mindgames

Horgan is easily put off, Clare should soften himself and Lehane up, that will be the winning of it

Cork can put Murphy and Oneill wherever they want, the real issue is that their other 4 defenders arent worth a fiddlers fuck. If they somehow do manage to win they will have done so with the worst AI winning HB line in memory

FFS this is only being shown in one pub in Singapore and its being delayed by an hour for rugby. :mad:

Sidney really destroyed that idiot kevin there

Get the fuck out of Singapore then …you’ve still time