In the Munster senior football final, Kerry once again demonstrated their dominance by securing a seven-point victory over Clare in Ennis – their fourth consecutive Munster title. Throughout the afternoon at the sun-drenched Cusack Park, Kerry stayed in the lead, marking their 13th senior provincial victory in a span of fifteen years and their impressive total of 85 championships.
Despite the persistent fight from Clare, Kerry maintained their lead with a half-time score of 0-11 to 0-7 and by the second half, had boosted the gap to nine points. At the 63rd minute, Ikem Ugweru of Clare gave the home crowd of 12,059 a glimpse of hope by generating a goal. This occurred after being given a free-kick, followed by another powerful run from the Clare defender, which peeked the anticipation of a potential upset by reducing the lead to just five points.
Yet, hopes for an upset fell short. Clare desperately required another goal after Ugweru’s strike, but instead, it was Kerry’s David Clifford who displayed exceptional skills by maneuvering through Clare’s defence and earning a foul. This led to Sean O’Shea scoring from the awarded free-kick. Subsequently, O’Shea scored another goal, reducing any momentum from Clare’s goal.
In the closing period of the game, an attempt at goal by Barry Dan O’Sullivan got deflected off Clare’s crossbar. However, the final result remained unchanged.
This was an improvement for Clare, considering they were at the receiving end of a 5-14 to 0-15 result in the previous year’s final. They departed from this match not only with the consolation of a clean sheet but also the confidence from their robust, competitive performance. This effort was notable especially given the significant change in their line-up since the previous Munster final, with only seven from their first team remaining.
In the contends of the match, strategies like moving Ugweru to the centre to mark Paudie Clifford and assigning Manus Doherty to man-mark David Clifford, alongside Cillian Brennan’s watch on O’Shea, proved to be a commendable effort from Clare.
The game’s scoring was initiated by O’Shea’s converted free, with Clare getting their first chance for an attack inside the Kerry 20-metre line in the ninth minute, a sequence which ended with Emmet McMahon scoring a free. The Clare kick-outs saw Stephen Ryan, their goalkeeper, launching each of his initial restarts far, although the home team lost three of their first four.
The stats on kick-outs weren’t favourable for Clare as throughout the match they lost only one, whereas Kerry retained all of Shane Murphy’s second-half kicks. Kerry was adept at quickly executing their kick-outs whereas Clare’s attempts were considerably more strained, enabling their rivals to establish their positions.
In the second half Clare decided to go far with their first four kick-outs, retaining possession with just one. Kerry, however, would be worried by Clare’s capability to create goal opportunities. Dermot Coughlan’s shot was deftly saved by Murphy before the break and Brian McNamara’s commendable effort right after the restart saw Murphy making another impressive save.
David Clifford, Tony Brosnan, Tom O’Sullivan and Jason Foley managed to score points in the early second half, which vanquished Clare’s hopes of catching up to Kerry. Still, Clare displayed resilience and their late-game goal was evidence of their tenacity.
Clare is set to square off with Cork in the All-Ireland series’ first round, while Kerry gets to host Monaghan in their inaugural group match.
Playing for Clare: Goalkeeper Stephen Ryan along with Ronan Lanigan, Cillian Brennan, Manus Doherty, Alan Sweeney, Ikem Ugweru, Cillian Rouine, Darragh Bohannon, Brian McNamara, Gavin Murray, Dermot Coughlan, Daniel Walsh, Aaron Griffin, Emmet McMahon and Ciarán Downes. The substitutes included Joe McGann, Micheál Garry, Cormac Murray, Mark McInerney and Darren Nagle.
In the lineup for Kerry, we saw Shane Murphy, followed by Paul Murphy, and Jason Foley who scored 0-1. Tom O’Sullivan also marked a score of 0-1. In the next Defense position, Brian Ó Beaglaoich made a remarkable 0-1 score. Then, we had Tadhg Morley and Gavin White. Later, the team saw Diarmuid O’Connor, joined by Joe O’Connor. Tony Brosnan marked a solid 0-3 on the field, followed by Paudie Clifford scoring 0-2. We also observed notable gameplay by Cillian Burke. Then came David Clifford with an impressive 0-4 score, incorporating 1f and 1m, followed by high scorer Seán O’Shea with 0-9, including 5f and 1 45. Lastly, Dara Moynihan made a notable contribution with a score of 0-1.
Substitutes were called at various critical moments in the game: Mike Breen replaced White after the 50-minute mark. Not long after, the 57th minute saw Paul Geaney score 0-1 as he replaced Moynihan, and Stephen O’Brien took over from Burke. By the 59th minute, Barry Dan O’Sullivan came in for J O’Connor. Subsequently, at the 62-minute mark, Dylan Casey stepped in for Ó Beaglaoich, and Killian Spillane took over from Brosnan at the 67th minute.
All actions were overseen by the referee Fergal Kelly from Longford.