Barry Murphy gets stark message

BAD day all round for Cork's hurlers: the starkest message from yesterday may be that they will have to winter in the second division next season, but it's likely that relegation won't weigh as heavily on the minds of Jimmy Barry Murphy and his selectors as the awfulness of the performance and its graphic delineation of the task ahead.

Defeat in this concluding fixture of the National Hurling League, sponsored by Church & General, by All Ireland champions Clare wasn't of itself a cause for concern. But in the team's failure to compete, and shortage of initiative, it must have been a harrowing afternoon's viewing for the Cork management.

Clare's now customary large following helped swell the numbers present to 6,474, but apart from this massive deviation from the norms of League attendance at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, there was little else remarkable about the day's events.

Within the first 30 seconds, Ger "Sparrow" O'Loughlin was booked, but that was about the last setback suffered by Clare all afternoon. A minute later, the incident that set the tone for the match occurred.

Clare full forward Barry Murphy gave notice of his lively intentions by bearing in from the left on a startled John O'Driscoll and placing the ball across the face of the goal, where the chance firstly appeared to have gone to waste when O'Loughlin missed it. PJ O'Connell, however, was homing in from the right and crashed the ball to the net.

O'Driscoll became the focus of further problems for Cork as the match progressed. This wasn't altogether surprising, as he was making a comeback after months of suspension. From this perspective, his display didn't seem too bad. The bulk of his errors looked the natural consequence of the long lay off.

Deftness of touch wasn't widely on display anyway because of the state of the pitch. It was passed by a 10.0 am inspection, but no sooner did the hurling start than the surface was exposed as being about as firm as icing on a cake. Every slip and slide registered a doleful scar, and at one stage Cork corner forward Joe Deane actually left footprints after a dash on goal.

Too many areas were in crisis for Cork to sustain anything of a challenge. Sean Og O hAilpin played solidly at left corner back, but elsewhere the team struggled - if that's not too urgent a description.

Jim Cashman at centre back had difficulty coping with Conor Clancy, Brian Corcoran was quietly ineffective and Alan Browne, apart from a few game flurries, didn't make anything like the nuisance of himself that can be remembered from last year's Munster semi final. In the end he was switched with Ger Manley, whose four points marked him out as Cork's mainprovider.

Teddy McCarthy played the old war horse role quite willingly when moved to midfield, but Cork needed more radical assistance than such demonstration's of physical resilience as he displayed in a bruising battle with Ronan O'Hara, and the old familiar wild eyed solos.

Clare will be quite happy with themselves. A league that so nearly went seriously wrong has been restored to equilibrium.

Defeat and relegation would have threatened their new found self confidence, but now they are in an ideal position. They now have time to prepare for the summer, but have concluded their campaign on a positive note - and only one of the teams left in the league can emulate that.

There were encouraging signs of a return to top form by wing back Liam Doyle and also a sound performance by corner back Michael O'Halloran, returned from his club exploits with Sixmilebridge.

In general, the All Ireland champions looked in good shape and played with purpose and commitment. The match was well sewn up by the time they started to unleash a blizzard of wides towards the end of the hour.

A string of points from Fergal Hegarty and two apiece by Sean McMahon and Jamesie O'Connor pushed the match from a semblance of balance to irretrievable one sidedness. At half time, Clare led 1-6 to 0-2. The second half passed uneventfully but for an exuberantly pointed, 100 metre free from Clare goalkeeper David Fitzgerald.

Both counties now repair to championship preparation, and may repeat last year's meeting in the Munster semi final. Over those 12 months there's been some, tilt in the perceptions and expectations that govern relations between Cork and Clare.