Clare were taken to the cleaners and made foot the bill.
Former Waterford star Ken McGrath said Clare were ‘leaderless and clueless’ against Tipperary, and that was not the worst of it. After they fell apart in the second half of their Munster Senior Hurling Championship Round 3 encounter, Jackie Tyrrell went through the Banner County for a short-cut.
Tyrrell, winner of nine All-Irelands with Kilkenny, was on punditry duty for RTE at Cusack Park and he, like the rest of us, would have been hoping for two cracking games.
First up, down in Walsh Park, Waterford completely succumbed to Limerick and ended up losing by 20 points.
Clare versus Tipperary was supposed to be a closer contest and it was still in the mixer come half-time. The Premier County led 1-14 to 0-11 at the break but they put the hammer down in the second half.
Clare scored first then Tipp responded with 2-2 in 10 minutes and Bonner Maher’s goal essentially decided the contest with 25 minutes to go. Liam Sheedy’s side ended up beating Clare by 3-21 to 0-17.
Following the game, Tyrrell and McGrath were ruthless in their analysis of the game. Tyrrell declared:
“Tipp were totally ruthless in the second half and Clare [were] just at sixes and sevens. Totally out of their depth.
“It was like a good senior team against a bad junior team, if I’m being honest. It was that bad from Clare.
“After the goal in the second half, it was over with. Clare never raised a gallop, they never put any fight up, no leaders stepped up. It’s just a really bad day for Clare.”
'A good senior team against a bad junior team' – Jackie Tyrrell gives his assessment of Tipperary's win over Clare at Ennis #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/h2FeJrlA1T
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 2, 2019
Clare co-manager Donal Moloney was happy with his side’s efforts ‘playing into a storm’ in the first half. He believes Seamus Callanan’s goal, scored on the rebound, killed his side off.
“We didn’t have the platform in the middle third,” he lamented before Damien O’Meara asked him about the comments from McGrath and Tyrrell.
“People are entitled to their opinions,” he replied. “We know these guys very, very well and they have shown a tremendous character and leadership for Clare over the years. It’s very easy to pass high level remarks like that, and they are entitled to do so, but we know the character of these lads.”
