Clonlara 3-18 Crusheen 2-16
Current All-Star nominee John Conlon is the only Clonlara player to hold two Clare Senior Hurling Championship medals after leading his side to a fairytale first title in 15 years in Cusack Park.
In front of an attendance of 5,048, the sole survivor of Clonlara's breakthrough 2008 success was understandably emotional, especially having been made to suffer three county final and six semi-final reverses in the intervening period.
"That medal is so, so sweet to everyone in this club," said the 2013 All-Ireland winner with Clare afterwards.
"In our 150-year existence, we’ve only ever won it three times so it’s great to say that we’re champions again."
And deservedly so after completing a perfect six-match winning run that saw them beat Crusheen twice along the way.
Despite being a first final experience for two-thirds of this new-look Clonlara side, they played like veterans of this lofty stage as following Micheál O’Loughlin’s opportunist goal in the 18th minute, there only really like being one winner.
While a profligate Crusheen didn’t reach the standard of their previous knock-out stage performances thanks to 11 first half wides, they were resilient as they managed to prevent Clonlara trio Jathan McMahon, Colm O’Meara and Ian Galvin from scoring a goal in the first quarter.
The breakthrough seemed inevitable though and finally arrived entering the second quarter when Aidan Moriarty’s pinpoint pass picked out Ian Galvin to unselfishly offload to O’Loughlin to fire an unstoppable shot to the top right corner of Donal Tuohy’s goal at 1-04 to 0-04.
It seemed a release as O’Loughlin converted two more points before the boost of a second major, again stemming from Moriarty who bore down on goal before teeing up 2013 All-Ireland winner Colm Galvin to flick to the net on Clonlara’s way to a 2-07 to 0-06 interval cushion.
True to form, there was a Crusheen backlash on the restart, mainly through the excellent Oisin O’Donnell who scored two and directly set-up two further points before raiding for a lifeline goal at the turn of the final quarter at 2-12 to 1-12.
Despite heightening the intensity levels, it would be a shirt-lived reprieve as only seven minutes later, Micheál O’Loughlin plucked a Colm Galvin delivery out of the sky before finally finding the net at the second attempt at 3-13 to 1-13.
O’Loughlin arrowed over three more points to ensure a nine point cushion entering four additional minutes of injury-time, enough to be able to withstand a rousing late Crusheen surge highlighted by Breffni Horner’s solo goal in the 61st minute.
There was no denying Clonlara though who fully merited their third ever Clare crown and become the first team in 11 years outside of Ballyea and Sixmilebridge to lift the Canon Hamilton trophy.
Clonlara: Seimi Gully; Logan Ryan, Ger Powell, Michael Clancy; Paraic O’Loughlin, Dylan McMahon (0-01), David Fitzgerald; Aidan Moriarty (0-01), Jathan McMahon (0-01); Colm Galvin (1-00), John Conlon (0-02), Colm O’Meara (0-01); Micheál O’Loughlin (2-09, 0-07f), Ian Galvin (0-02), Diarmuid Stritch (0-01)
Subs: Cian Moriarty for Stritch (50), Micheál Stritch for D. Stritch (58), Daniel Moloney for J. McMahon (60, inj), Conor Bourke for A. Moriarty (62, inj)
Crusheen: Donal Tuohy; Luke Hayes, Cian Dillon, Eanna McMahon; Diarmuid Mullins (0-01), Ross Hayes (0-03, 0-03f), Tadhg Dean; Eoghan McMahon, Jamie Fitzgibbon (0-01); Gerry O’Grady, Conor O’Donnell (0-02), Cilléin Mullins; Oisin O’Donnell (1-04), Fergus Kennedy (0-02), Breffni Horner (1-03, 0-02f)
Subs: Ian O’Brien for McMahon (40), Luke Ketelaar for C. Mullins (51), Gavin O’Brien for O’Grady (63), Mark Perrill for Kennedy (63)
Referee: Niall Malone (Éire Óg)
