Kildare champs Clane steamroll into Leinster Junior Hurling Final with a huge win over Clonad

Clane 2-22

Clonad 1-6

Kildare Senior 'B' champions Clane powered into the Leinster JHC Final with a commanding win over Laois Intermediate champs Clonad. The visitors were missing two of their best in PJ Daly and John Onions through travel and sickness respectively.

Clane made their mark on this game early and Hugh Muldoon had them in the lead after a little over a minute with a fine effort from range.

That advantage was doubled by the undoubted star of the opening half, Shane Henry, who finished it with 1-4 to his name.

Cormac Vizzard, who himself had a superb game, then fetched possession and knocked over Clane’s third.

Clonad opened their account a minute later with a ‘65 which was knocked over by Barry Cormack.

Clane did not take kindly to their first concession and rattled off three points in as many minutes to give themselves an 0-7 to 0-1 lead in the 12th minute. Vizzard’s second was followed by firsts for Caolan Smith and Simon Healy.

The minutes that followed were all about Shane Henry who hit 1-3 uninterrupted in a dazzling spell.

The first point came after a sharp flick up off the deck before an excellent goal where Henry drifted past two and fired into the far corner of the net. Henry then nailed a fine point from a tight angle before the final point in the sequence was set up for the Clane corner-forward by Caolan Smith.

Paddy McKenna was the man to break Henry’s streak when he put Clane 1-11 to 0-1 ahead with a ‘65.

Clonad then grabbed a goal of their own against the run of play when Fionn Holland broke free of a, to that point, diligent Clane defence and fired low into the net.

The home side finished the half strongest however and wiped out the margin closed by that green flag with three late points, first from Dan Colbert before Simon Healy grabbed his second and Seán Christianseen his first.

After a dominant opening half an hour, Clane carried a 1-14 to 1-1 lead in at the break.

It was an electric opening half from the Kildare men but the intensity they brought did significantly reduce after the restart.

Clonad’s Barry Cormack got the game’s next two scores. His double was followed by one from Sean Shanahan and those three points left this game at 1-15 to 0-3 after 40 minutes of play.

It was tit for tat in the next 10 minutes too as Clane’s points from Shane Henry and Paddy McKenna were matched at the other end by Barry Cormack and goal-scorer Fionn Holland.

It was the final five minutes when Clane began to add some gloss to their tally in this Leinster Semi-Final.

A Paddy McKenna free preceded Clane’s second goal, which was all of scorer Caolan Smith’s making. The full-forward fetched a high ball into him before spinning his man and driving at goal where he coolly batted the ball past the advancing Clonad goalkeeper James Farrell.

Clonad’s last point came, as five of their six did, from Barry Cormack.

As they had in the first, Clane hit the final three points of the half to leave them 19 points clear at full-time.

Scores from play from Caolan Smith and Sean Shanahan were split by a long-range free from goalkeeper Mark Doyle to leave Clane 2-22 to 1-6 ahead at the blow of the referee’s final whistle. 

Clane, Shane Henry 1-5, Caolan Smith 1-3, Paddy McKenna 0-4 (1 free, 1x65), Cormac Vizzard 0-2, Simon Healy 0-2, Sean Shanahan 0-2, Hugh Muldoon 0-1, Dan Colbert 0-1, Seán Christianseen 0-1, Mark Doyle 0-1 (1 free).

Clonad, Barry Cormack 0-5 (2 frees, 2x65), Fionn Holland 1-1.

CLANE: Mark Doyle; Aidan Mooney, Cian Shanahan, Tom Malone; Dan Colbert, Sean Malone, Aaron Connolly; Sean Shanahan, Cormac Vizzard; Simon Healy, Seán Christianseen, Hugh Muldoon; Paddy McKenna, Caolan Smith, Shane Henry. Subs: Paddy Connolly for Aaron Connolly (Half-time), Daniel Malone for Sean Malone (35 minutes), Ger D'Arcy for Simon Healy (47 minutes), Riann O'Neill for Shane Henry (58 minutes).

CLONAD: James Farrell; Gareth O'Brien, Jack Ahern, Liam Whelan; Charlie Hand, David O'Brien, Cillian Duff; Barry Cormack, James Whelan; Patrick O'Callaghan, Fionn Holland, Jimmy Norton; Colin Delaney, Dan O'Sullivan, Ross Holmes. Subs: John Noonan for Dan O'Sullivan (21 minutes), Jim Holland for Colin Delaney (35 minutes), Ray Killeen for Jimmy Norton (46 minutes), Ciaran Donohue for Jack Ahern (48 minutes).

Referee: Richard Holland (Kilkenny)

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