MUNSTER SHC FIRST ROUND/WATERFORD v CLARE: THERE WAS no soft landing for Waterford in Limerick yesterday, as Clare ruthlessly ran the under-strength champions ragged to record only the county's second championship win this decade. For all the trepidation about Waterford's formidable injury list, few anticipated the meltdown that unfolded in the second half.
Any team would struggle without players like Ken McGrath, Eoin Murphy and Eoin Kelly as well as the unavailability of an experienced campaigner like Paul Flynn, but the performance of the team was flat and with a few notable exceptions well below what has become the norm for the side in championship hurling.
Of course any team that has been on the road as long as the Munster champions - and without the necessary stimulus of winning or even reaching an All-Ireland final - is going to find eventually that the bucket comes back empty, but the scale of the defeat casts a shadow on the prospects of recovery in the qualifiers, even with the missing players on board.
The shock of Waterford's tumble should not deflect attention from Michael McNamara's feat in assembling a team that did not feature many new faces and sending them out bristling with fitness and drive.
He was rewarded with fine performances all around the field. Diarmuid McMahon and Tony Griffin were outstanding at times and there was enough penetration on the inside line to build a formidable total.
To score 2-26 is a great achievement in any match but McNamara and his players will recognise they got a lot of space and were under little pressure from opponents whose lassitude was completely at odds the high-tempo game they usually bring to the championship.
There were exceptions. Clinton Hennessy in goal was assured and brought off a terrific save from Tony Carmody in the 67th minute. John Mullane had his best day since helping himself to three goals in the Munster final five years ago, but unfortunately for him he was ploughing a lone furrow. Although he forced Clare into their only tactical engagement and saw off three markers, his scores, for all their admirable execution, were simply dewdrops on a bonfire.
Clare were well served at centrefield, where the veteran Colin Lynch powered around in the heat and took two points and the captain Brian O'Connell got through a heap of work. Dave Bennett showed great acumen from frees - pointing every one of the nine Dickie Murphy awarded the team (Clare for their part, did not miss a dead ball either) - but struggled to exert influence in play.
Brick Walsh similarly laboured and was not the dynamic presence that made him the top centrefielder in the land last year.
Completing the county's woe was the depressed form of Dan Shanahan and Stephen Molumphy, both All Stars, the former Hurler of the Year. Both were replaced, Shanahan pointedly dodging his manager's attempt at a consoling pat on the back.
Strangely, in retrospect, Waterford led by three after seven minutes but were reeled back and in the 16th minute Mark Flaherty, who on his championship debut maintained the prolific form of his NHL campaign, pounced for a goal after a long delivery from wing back Pat Donnellan for a double-score advantage to Clare, 1-5 to 0-4.
Waterford's one sustained phase of superiority came in the second quarter and yielded a straight run of six points without reply to regain the lead. The points came from a variety of sources - Bennett, Gary Hurney, Eoin McGrath, a lively presence throughout, and Molumphy - and for a while the modest crowd of 17,365 looked set for a thriller.
Clare rallied, with Diarmuid McMahon rattling over three points in three minutes and exerting heavy pressure on McGrath's replacement, Brian Phelan, as his team put together a six-point run of their own.
At the interval, having played with the wind, Waterford were three behind, 0-12 to 1-12, and a major improvement was going to be needed but where would the scores be produced? Mullane's points from play - one of which could have been sacrificed in pursuit of a goal - and Bennett's free -taking were insufficient to keep up with the revolving digits on Clare's scoreboard total. No other player managed more than one.
Waterford stayed in touch without making inroads on the deficit in the third quarter.
Clare's defence wasn't buckling, with Conor Plunkett holding it together tightly - and in real Seán McMahon style adding three points from long-range frees.
The full-back line dealt capably with the main thrust of Waterford's attacks, high ball into the debutant Gary Hurney and an out-of-sorts Séamus Prendergast, even if the Mullane menace raged out of control.
The game became even looser but Clare began to score more fluently after Niall Gilligan finished an emblematic move that started from the breakdown of an attack at the other end and swept the length of the field, by gliding past his marker and crashing home the second goal.
Within seconds Molumphy had a goal chance of his own but Philip Brennan - the epitome of calm assurance in Clare's goal - saved and Hurney put the rebound wide, and with that the match was gone.
Clare accelerated and built on the six-point lead, 2-16 to 0-16, by outscoring Waterford by another three, 0-10 to 0-7, in the final 20 minutes.
If there was one moment that summed it up, it came in the 65th minute. Donnellan surged out of defence and was scampering down the left sideline, casting anxious glances as he went to identify any opponent tracking back.
His concern summed up Clare's urgency and the absence of any cause summed up Waterford's limitations on the day.
CLARE: 1 P Brennan; 2 G O'Grady, 3 F Lohan, 4 D Clancy; 5 B Bugler (0-1), 6 C Plunkett (0-3, all frees), 7 P Donnellan; 8 B O'Connell (capt.), 9 C Lynch (0-2); 14 T Carmody (0-2), 10 D McMahon (0-3), 12 J Clancy; 11 T Griffin (0-5), 13 N Gilligan (1-2), 15 M Flaherty (1-7, two points 65s and three frees). Subs: 17 T Keogh for O'Grady (half-time), 18 F Lynch for McMahon (64 mins), 19 P Vaughan (0-1) for C Lynch (67 mins), 23 D Barrett for Clancy (71 mins).
WATERFORD: 1 C Hennessy; 4 A Kearney, 3 K Moran, 6 D Prendergast; 5 T Browne, 2 B Phelan, 7 J Kennedy; 9 D Bennett (0-10, nine frees), 8 M Walsh; 10 D Shanahan, 14 S Prendergast (0-1), 12 S Molumphy (0-1); 13 J Mullane (0-8), 11 G Hurney (0-1), 15 E McGrath (0-1). Subs: 18 D Coffey (0-1) for Moran (55 mins), 19 S O'Sullivan for Molumphy (60 mins), 21 S Walsh for Shanahan (62 mins), 20 R Foley for Phelan (63 mins), 17 T Feeney for D Prendergast (64).
Referee: D Murphy (Wexford).
