Munster U-21 Hurling Final

DJ Dodgy

Clare U 21 hurlers are playing Waterford in the Munster Final in Waterford tonight. This will be the 13th Final for Clare to contest at this grade with no wins so far.

They contested the final in Ennis last year against a classy Tipp side and unexpectedly held them level until injury time. Following a puck out play moved towards the Tipp goal with a Clare forward pulled to the ground for a free on the 21. A linesman called the ref back to the Clare goal to tell him the Clare keeper had stepped over the line during the puck out. The ref reversed the free and gave Tip a 65 instead which they scored and won the game. The trouble as linesman and ref left the pitch made the national front pages.

One year on are we finally going to exorcise the ghosts of under 21 final past?

premierstone

Yes I think Clare shoulfd win this infact I think they will win the AI this year, they have 12 of last years team that as you say were very unlucky not to be Munster champions plus I believe they have one or two guys who have returned from America who would have been on the team last year, they have a particularily strong looking full forward line who scored sokmething like 4-13 between them in the semi-final, the only concern would be that hte game is in Dungarvan, which should be an advantage to Waterford but not enough imo to affect the result.

shockframe

i'll go for clare aswell.they wil be well fired up after last year.

DJ Dodgy

That was supposed to be a pretty classy Tipp team Waterford beat. Did they have many of last years panel on the team (Tipp that is)?

premierstone

DJ Dodgy wrote: »

That was supposed to be a pretty classy Tipp team Waterford beat. Did they have many of last years panel on the team (Tipp that is)?

It was indeeed supposed to be a superstar Tipp team alright, I think I added it up and they over 30 minor AI medals between them but things were not right all year, and word in Tipp would lead to believe that the guys who were on the senior panel who had won the munster final three days before the Waterford game had done a little bit too much celebrating and it had even carried on to the Monday also Declan Carrs abilites as a mangager leave alot to be desired (nearly as good as he's brother it would appear). All that said Im not taking anything from Waterford they were very good on the night and have a fine team but I just think Clares hunger and experience will see them through.

KevIRL

Should eb a very interesting game. Two very talented teams. Amazingly Clare are bidding for their first ever provincial under 21 hurling title. They agonisingly lost last years final to Tipp. Waterford have home advantage and will be looking to add the under 21 to the munster minor title and ensure a hat trick of All Ireland semi final appearances this year.

As a side note, the Munster Council and both County Boards should be ashamed for letting this go ahead in Dungarvan tonight. Fraher field has only been cleared to allow an attendance of 6700 and the game is all ticket. This game would have gotten 12000-15000 if it had been held in somewhere like Semple

DJ Dodgy

premierstone wrote: »

All that said Im not taking anything from Waterford they were very good on the night and have a fine team but I just think Clares hunger and experience will see them through.

Thanks, hope your proved right. Can't make it down in time, it's 150miles 3 hr 30 minutes on the route planner from here and I don't finish work in time. So it will be TnaG for me I'm afraid. It would be a seriously big monkey to get off the back after a shockin' poor year for Clare hurling.

Daysha

Waterford team:

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Adrian Power
Noel Connors

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Shane Fives

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Jerome Maher
David O'Sullivan---Stephen Daniels----Philip Mahony

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Shane Walsh----Karl Duggan
Maurice Shanahan--Paul Murray----Thomas Connors
Brian O'Sullivan----Shane Casey

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Thomas Ryan

Power and Mahony are the players to watch tonight. Hopefully Power will be able to show just why he's so highly regarded by Davy Fitz, and assuming he continues in the same form he'll be Waterfords no1 next summer. Mahony is some player though. Only 18 years old and was joint captain of DLS college with Noel Connors when they won the All-Ireland colleges. And even though he's named on the wing, expect him to move to his natural position in the centre.

Looking forward to what should be a cracking game.

bricky10

I hope Waterford beat them

Evil_Clown

Clare unchanged
29 July 2009

Clare manager John Minogue has named an unchanged line-up for tonight's Bord Gais Energy Munster U21 HC final against Waterford in Dungarvan.

Beaten by Tipperary in controversial circumstances last year, the Banner have kept faith with the same starting XV which hammered Limerick by 15 points in the semi-final as they go in search of their first ever provincial success in the grade.

Clare (U21 HC v Waterford): D Tuohy; J Gunning, E Glynn, C O'Doherty; D O'Donovan, C Duggan, E Barrett; N O'Connell, L Markham; J Conlon, S Collins, C O'Donovan; D Honan, C Morey, C Ryan.

Looking forward to this game, it's great to have Clare v Waterford in a Munster final. Live on TG4 tonight afaik.
It is a pity it's not in Thurles prob would have travelled down from the pale if it was, lots of people are goin to miss out on this match because of the small capacity of Fraher. The Clare full forward line is the area to look out for from a Banner point of view, all 3 are quality hurlers and Ryan scored 3-9 against Limerick.

Glory Clare!!

cruiserweight

Munster U-21 hurling final threads merged and re-named to avoid confusion

Pride Fighter

Clare should win this. They were robbed last year, they will use that to their advantage.

Cake Man

Tough one to call for this evening, Clare will obviously be well motivated from last year but we have home advantage so I'm expecting a decent game. Disappointed I couldn't get a ticket myself, really should of put it in Thurles and draw a bigger crowd but at least it's on TG4.
Best of luck to the Deise boys.

Flan45

Lets just hope it's a cracking game decided by the players and not the referee and his umpires.

deise48

write off the deise at your peril we seem to have a lot of up and coming players

DJ Dodgy

deise48write off the deise at your peril we seem to have a lot of up and coming players

yeah I thought ye were the form team coming into it. I thought that might be a one off night last year for the Clare team at home in Ennis. That was why it hurt so much to have it robbed. The home town will make the blue and white favourites.

deisedude

Heading off to Dungarvan now. Think the battle between the Clare full forward line and Waterford full backs could be the decisive factor in who wins. C'mon the Deise!:D

soccymonster

Cmon the banner!

Daysha

soccymonster wrote: »

Cmon the banner!

You've changed your tune :P

Waterford 2 up after 3 mins.

Daysha

3 all after 11 minutes. Good game so far, but we've missed 2-3 great goal opportunities.

You can ignore the team I posted above though, doesn't look 100% correct.

Edit: Goal! Wat 1-3 Clare 0-3

soccymonster

About time he scored a goal. I was wondering how many times casey was gonna attempt a goal before he actually got one..
Cmon clare, ye arent out of it by a long shot
EDIT: sorry, it was ryan that scored the goal.

Limestone1

Is there much of a wind - Clare puck outs seem to be travelling a lot further ?

Kev80

Common the Deise! Clare are looking good but hopefully the Deise can turn it around in the 2nd half!

soccymonster

Not looking too good for the deise so far

Kev80

Clare 1-12 Wat 1-8 after 37 mins

Daysha

Clare have been far the better side to be fair, but we're gradually making our way back into it.

By the way, how long was Adrian Powers point just there?! :eek:

Kev80

Goal for Waterford! Clare 1-14 Wat 2-10 after 46 mins

soccymonster

Great point by john conlon. Cmon lads!

Kev80

Daysha wrote: »

Clare have been far the better side to be fair, but we're gradually making our way back into it.

By the way, how long was Adrian Powers point just there?! :eek:

Adrian Power looks a very good keeper. What a catch there!

soccymonster

Cmon the banner! Woo! Wata goal

cruiserweight

soccymonster wrote: »

Cmon the banner! Woo! Wata goal

What is the score now? Some problem viewing the game on TG4 here

dreamer_ire

Clare seem much hungrier for the ball... there seems to be an extra Clare man at the breaking ball almost every time.

dreamer_ire

cruiserweight wrote: »

What is the score now? Some problem viewing the game on TG4 here

Clare 2-17 Wat 2-12

soccymonster

Up the banner!
De-lighted!

Kev80

Congratulations to Clare. In fairness the better team won.

Pride Fighter

Great standard of hurling I thought, some beautiful goals and great points. With a strong Clare, Waterford, Dublin at underage Kilkenny will have some serious competition in a few years. Also Wexford are coming good and Tipp and Cork are always strong there. Hurling looks as if it has a healthy future.

Orizio

Only saw the last 20 minutes as I completely forgot it was on, but from what I saw Clare looked a little stronger, particuly in midfield and their center forward line.

Orizio

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Great standard of hurling I thought, some beautiful goals and great points. With a strong Clare, Waterford, Dublin at underage Kilkenny will have some serious competition in a few years. Also Wexford are coming good and Tipp and Cork are always strong there. Hurling looks as if it has a healthy future.

You would be right if the current standard of hurling at senior inter-county wasn't so pathetically poor.

Undeniably, underage isthe way to go for the most exciting hurling.

soccymonster

"words cant explain what this means to the clare people... So i wont explain it". Haha
Oh god, I never thought Id be so happy at clare winning something. :P
Fair play to waterford. You can see how they bate tipp now.

romah

Well done Clare

great hurling to win a tough match

got stuck in early and played the game at a fast pace ...some fantastic scores and got the goals at the right times

great full back line ..clear an amount of ball in the second half

makes up for last year ..and a few other years before that as well..:rolleyes:

Spiritoftheseventies

Yes they ran Clare close tonight but Honan's two goals clinched in the end. Probably good to see Clare winning an under age title. they could do with a boost the way things have been going recently.

waryeye

Cracking game from both sides and congratulations to Clare for a tremendous win. Wasn't easy going down to Dungarvan and grinding it out. Waterford will rue early goal chances they missed. But Clare took some beautiful scores from out the field through Ryan, Morey etc and O'Connell hit some phenomenal frees in first half. Honan took his goals expertly. Final scoreline doesn't lie. Banner were better balanced though Deise have a lot of quality too to build on.
Good to see the two counties in an underage Munster decider, and as previously noted, great to see Clare finally lay their Munste u-21 bogey.:)
Deise still have a minor title to celebrate . . . not forgetting the seniors' date with destiny at Croker too.:rolleyes:

Daysha

Yup, Clare totally deserved to win that one. Some of their forwards really impressed me and in the end they just took their chances better.

Spiritoftheseventies

Yes seemed as if Waterford were looking to score goals all the time. Clare took some very good scores tonight even if Honan went a bit overboard with celebration for second goal.

Keano

There's been a missing person in Clare...That person has been found alive and well... :pac:

Really thought Waterford were going to blow us away in the first 15 mins. The corner forward - Stephen Ryan? has pace to burn and one for the near future.

Clare just dug deep and Honan really took his goals well.

May only be an under 21 title but it does mean a lot.

Come on the banner

Keano

bayviewclose wrote: »

Yes seemed as if Waterford were looking to score goals all the time. Clare took some very good scores tonight even if Honan went a bit overboard with celebration for second goal.

Do you think? Possibly watched John Mullane most matches and decided it was payback. I thought he just got a bit excited but then played it clever by making sure no quick puck out.

grenache

Congrats to Clare. Hopefully they can build on this and go on to defend their title next year. A lot of these guys will no doubt graduate to the senior ranks, Morey, O'Connell, Honan are certs. They have to keep their feet on the ground though, and not get carried away, letting the silverware go their heads. Success at underage level does not always translate into success at senior. Just ask Galway and Limerick.

roashter

Good win for Clare and deserved as they were the better team over the 60 minutes.
Waterford could also have won this had they taken their goal chances earlier on, but Clare seemed that bit hungrier and got some fantastic scores from out the field and got their goals at the right time.
Congrats to the Banner

Spiritoftheseventies

Keano A Legend wrote: »

Do you think? Possibly watched John Mullane most matches and decided it was payback. I thought he just got a bit excited but then played it clever by making sure no quick puck out.

Mullane does that to get crowd behind him. Honan was a bit in face of the keeper. But sure might as enjoy the moment. Not everyday it happens.

soccymonster

bayviewclose wrote: »

Yes seemed as if Waterford were looking to score goals all the time. Clare took some very good scores tonight even if Honan went a bit overboard with celebration for second goal.

Sure, can ya blame him.
You could kinda tell it was over by then.
He scored 2 goals. Fair Play .
I'll never hear the end of this from the neighbours though...:cool:

RodVelvet

Fair play to Clare, over the sixty minutes they were probably the better team but it could have all been different if the goal chances had been converted in the second half. It's strange none of the Clare lads are on the senior team as they seemed to possess better striking and catching skills than some of the Waterford seniors.

One decision that puzzled me in the first half was when they moved Maurice Shanahan into full forward, couldn't see the reasoning behind this at all. Also the injury suffered by Maher was unfortunate as the full back line had been solid till he got injured. I think the Clare full forward was booked but didn't see the incedent myself. The exploits against Galway seemed to catch up with Shane Casey as the match went on.

Overall it was a good exciting match and both counties seem to have a few new faces to look forward to in the coming years.