It’s disappointing for the Clare under-20s that, for the second week in a row, they let a winning position slip against a team they wouldn’t have been fancied to beat.
Cathal O’Neill was the man who broke Banner hearts last week when, having led by three points deep into injury time, the Limerick forward turned them over with 1-1 in the 64th minute of the game. It was the same story one week on.
Clare did most of the hurling in Sixmilebridge on Wednesday night but Cork won the game and so, despite leading by four points in the 59th minute, the home side were knocked out of the championship. Terence Fahy’s team had nothing more to give, and Cork scored the last six points of the game to win by two.
Ethan and Kevin Lyons, Eoin O’Leary and Daniel Hogan were the match-winners for the All-Ireland champions but once again and above all others, it was Clare’s Shane Meehan who stole the show.
As a prodigiously talented dual player, the Banner Ennis forward has been talked about for a long time in Clare but even at just 20 years of age, he’s already made a mark for the senior hurling team this year. The fleet-footed forward showed his class in the National League against Limerick when he scored one of the points league campaign on Barry Nash.
It's not about how tall you are it's about how high you can jump 👊pic.twitter.com/jBrK3LMHty
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 7, 2022
Meehan is athletic, he’s direct and he’s a serious prospect for Clare, as he showed on Wednesday night when he burned a trail of Cork defenders before finishing off a tremendous goal. In this kind of form, and in a Munster senior hurling championship that Clare will need everything they have to get out of, a man like Meehan is a weapon that they will need every step of the way.
You know a lad's good when, even when he could take the ball into his hands, he just doesn't bother.
Shane Meehan of @BannerGAAEnnis 🙌pic.twitter.com/HYOTGsdqbA
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) April 14, 2022
Elsewhere, on the other side of the draw, Tipperary enjoyed a four point win over Waterford on a scoreline of 2-21 to 1-20 with Peter McGarry and Kyle Shelley raising green flags for the Premier.
