GAELIC GAMES/All-Ireland SHC Qualifiers Round One, Group B: Clare 2-21, Limerick 0-10 Even the weather deserted the hurling season yesterday in Ennis. A week after Wexford and Offaly had done their best to dim the summer's afternoon in Kilkenny, the rain came pelting down on this Guinness All-Ireland hurling qualifier.
Pathetic fallacy or not, the bleak conditions were totally in keeping with another dispiriting day for the championship.
This was supposed to be the top box-office draw of Group B, the titanic struggle to determine who would top the group and get a superior All-Ireland quarter-final draw. It fell sadly short of its advance publicity with an abject performance from Limerick ensuring that the match as a contest barely lasted beyond the first quarter.
Last night, manager Joe McKenna handed in his resignation to Limerick County Board chairman Denis Holmes. He was followed by coach Ger Cunningham, while trainer Dave Mahedy is considering his position.
"Obviously, Joe, like the rest of us, was disappointed with the level of performance against Clare and felt there was no more he could have done," said Holmes. "We understand his position. We have convened an executive meeting for 6.30pm on Monday and will take it from there.
"We have two qualifying games left, against Offaly and Dublin, and believe we can still progress to the last eight.We would like to thank Joe and Ger Cunningham for the effort they put in."
McKenna took over from his fellow county man Pad Joe Whelahan in April last year.
Limerick started yesterday's game by making so many changes that only three players started in the position in which they were listed in the programme. McKenna referred to the need to shake things up after the poor display against Tipperary in the championship, but the team ended up looking even more confused.
Brian Geary switched 40s with Stephen Lucey in an attempt to put physical pressure on the Clare half backs, but the experiment blew up more or less as soon as the laboratory opened. Geary was an early substitution and looked pretty disgruntled not to have been given the opportunity to move back into the more familiar surroundings of the defence.
Lucey had a reasonable afternoon and limited the contribution of Tony Carmody, who was eventually replaced, but the half forwards suffered in Lucey's absence, their ball winning capacity virtually non-existent.
The all-new centrefield combination of Conor Fitzgerald and Ollie Moran were in trouble against a revitalised Colin Lynch and Jonathan Clancy, who copper fastened the fine impression he'd made as a replacement against Cork with a fast-moving, hard-working display that yielded three points from play.
So the very area from which Limerick needed improvement, centrefield and the half forwards, yielded nothing but a platform for Clare whose venerable campaigners responded with authoritative performances.
Brian Lohan ensured there would be no repeat of the NHL semi-final difficulties he had suffered on Brian Begley and comfortably stopped the big full forward from gaining any sort of a foothold.
In front of him, McMahon commanded the centre of the defence and so limited was Limerick's scoring threat that it wasn't until the 65th minute that they managed to score from play.
Conversely, Clare looked threatening up front. Alan Markham had an excellent match, using his pace and tactical awareness to spook Kieran Breen, the debutant full back who replaced the injured TJ Ryan before the start.
Markham's peformance opened up space in the full forward line and he combined well with Tony Griffin to do significant damage in the period when the match was still open.
Griffin's switch to corner forward from centrefield, where he started the last game, paid dividends. He got on top of Mark O'Riordan early on and even if he was out of the picture for a phase during the second half, he still ended the match on 1-5 from play.
The goal was the first incision in Limerick's rearguard. Carmody hit the ball into the corner, Griffin fetched and peeled off his marker to run unchallenged at goal and finish to the net. By the 16th minute the score was 1-3 to 0-1 and, although Clare went through a fallow period for a while, Limerick could add only one further point from a Barry Foley free.
The match was pronounced dead in the 29th minute. A super move from the back started with Frank Lohan clearing to Colin Lynch whose high ball into attack was broken by Markham who then flicked it into Declan O'Rourke for a clear chance that was polished off for a 2-4 to 0-2 lead. O'Rourke added a point within seconds.
Limerick changed goalkeepers at half-time, a tactical decision as it was confirmed afterwards that Brian Murray hadn't been injured. It seemed a harsh judgement.
Limerick managed a sequence of frees at the start of the second half, but four points in three minutes from Clare squashed even the fantasy of a comeback. From there on it was like a challenge match, Clare firing over scores almost at will and Limerick recording only a point from play by a starting player, Mike O'Brien.
David Fitzgerald was sharp when required and comfortably negotiated his record fifth successive clean sheet in intercounty championship hurling.
Nice to have achieved that, but this wasn't an afternoon when it mattered.
CLARE: 1 D Fitzgerald; 2 G O'Grady, 3 B Lohan, 4 F Lohan; 5 B O'Connell (0-1), 6 S McMahon (capt), 7 G Quinn; 17 J Clancy (0-3), 9 C Lynch; 27 D O'Rourke (1-3), 11 T Carmody, 10 D McMahon; 15 N Gilligan (0-4, one free), 14 A Markham (0-1), 8 T Griffin (1-5). Subs: 12 F Lynch (0-1) for Carmody (45 mins), 29 D Quinn (0-1, a free) for Gilligan (48 mins), 13 B Nugent (0-2) for D McMahon (54 mins), 22 D Hoey for Quinn (63 mins), 26 D O'Connell for Markham (67 mins). Yellow cards: C Lynch (19 mins), B O'Connell (41 mins), F Lynch (64 mins).
LIMERICK: 1 B Murray; 7 M O'Riordan, 17 K Breen, 2 D Reale; 8 S Hickey, 11 S Lucey, 4 M Foley (0-1, a 65); 5 O Moran, 10 C Fitzgerald; 9 M O'Brien (0-1), 6 B Geary, 15 B Foley (0-2, both frees); 13 A O'Shaughnessy, 14 B Begley, 12 D Ryan. Subs: 18 M Keane (0-4, all frees) for Geary (25 mins), 16 T Houlihan for Murray (half-time), 22 N Moran (0-1) for B Foley (half-time), 20 P O'Grady for Fitzgerald (48 mins), 21 D O'Grady for O'Shaughnessy (56 mins). Temporary blood sub: 19 W Walsh (0-1) for D Ryan (64-66 mins). Yellow cards: Geary (6 mins), B Foley (19 mins), M Foley (56 mins), O'Brien (57 mins), D Ryan (67 mins).
Attendance: 12,408.
Referee: S Roche (Tipperary).
