O'Connor goal sees Limerick snatch victory at the death

Limerick are through to another All-Ireland Hurling Championship final after a late goal from Aidan O'Connor saw them edge out Clare in a suffocating encounter at Croke Park.

For a long time, it looked like the final that nobody expected - Clare v Galway - was going to happen.

Clare, who had entered the game on foot of an underwhelming Munster campaign, had thundered into the first half, Tony Kelly and Peter Duggan both in scintillating form as they led 0-16 to 0-11 at the break.

The scoring rate dipped in the third quarter but Kelly's penalty with 14 minutes remaining had pushed their lead back out to six points. Debate will continue to rage as to whether Nickie Quaid should have been black carded for his foul on Peter Duggan in conceding the penalty. A yellow card was eventually dispensed to a deafening chorus of boos.

Thomas Walsh had evidently already decided to award the penalty before noticing that Barry Nash had accidently shanked the ball into the net on the ground. Kelly lashed home the penalty in any case.

Clare led 1-19 to 0-16 at that stage but they failed to score for the rest of the game. They continued to concede a steady stream of frees at the other end, allowing Limerick to slowly whittle the margin down to two points.

The match's decisive moment came on the cusp of injury-time. Cian Lynch, withdrawn from the starting line-up before the off, caught a puckout and somehow managed through a swarm of tacklers.

A couple of handpasses saw the ball worked to Adam English, who turned down the shot in favour of a diagonal ball to O'Connor. The centre-forward, only an established starter since the start of this year, caught the ball, wheeled towards goal and coolly slipped the shot to Eibhear Quilligan's left.

Crucially, they nudged their lead out to two, with another free, leaving Clare with the impression that they needed to rustle up a goal on the next play.

They almost did - Duggan rattling a shot from the 21m line amid heavy traffic which Quaid had to be alert to save at his feet.

The O'Connor goal and the final save sent Limerick back to the decider for the first time in three years, where Galway await in a fortnight's time.

The backdrop to the game had been Limerick's return to form after an off-year in 2025 and their destruction of Clare in their Munster SHC game in Ennis last May.

Clare had also shipped a double-digit loss to Cork in the final game in Munster and there was some uncertainty around their form.

Former Hurler of the Year Shane O'Donnell had declared that this was to be his last - or preferably second last - game for Clare a couple of days out from the match. While this raised eyebrows, it seemed to inspire Clare in a last crusade sort of way.

There were a couple of changes before the off - Cian Lynch being withdrawn for Adam English, while John Conlon was thrown into the Clare side. Kelly, while wearing No. 8, went into the full-forward line.

He beat Dan Morrissey to the first ball down the right wing, and swung over Clare's opener. After points from play from Peter Casey and Shane O'Brien nudged Limerick 0-03 to 0-01 ahead, Clare found a higher gear.

Taylor and Kelly floated over points, the latter punching the air. Cathal O'Neill was turned over on the 45, the ball being tossed to Duggan, who shot on the swivel from way downtown, the ball travelling all the way over.

Clare's shooting efficiency remained exceptional for the rest of the half. The biggest roar yet came on 17 minutes.

Darragh Lohan, exceptional in the first half, flicked the ball deftly away from Adam English just as the midfielder was about to pull the trigger. Clare launched the ball downfield.

O'Donnell picked the ball ahead of Morrissey, pirouetting away from the attempted challenge of O'Donovan and whipping a point over his shoulder to raise the roof off.

Walsh was applying the same refereeing philosophy he had applied to great acclaim in last year's Munster final. Clare had been physically overawed in a similarly permissive environment in Ennis but there was no question of that occurring this time.

They got the benefit of this when Duggan was allowed to grab Morrissey around the neck as they contested a low ball, the Clare attacker rifling over the score amid a hail of Limerick boos.

There was doubt about Duggan's third of the half - the full-forward deftly controlling a long puckout, shaking off a tackler and swinging over the score from near the sideline.

By comparison, Limerick's shooting was wayward. Gillane, whose form suggests hasn't returned since his recovery from injury, did stroke over a point early but followed it with a poor wide. He was eventually whipped off after 51 minutes.

Clare pushed their lead out to seven (0-16 to 0-09) with scores from Kelly's fourth of the half plus a pair of Mark Rodgers' frees.

Crucially, Limerick did land the final two points of the half, through Adam English and O'Neill to keep them somewhat in touch.

The scoring rate dropped heavily in the second half, while the free count crept steadily upwards. Clare failed to register a score until the 47th minute as Limerick gradually reeled them in.

Points from O'Neill and an inspirational effort from Byrnes, alongside frees from O'Connor and Byrnes made it a one-point game.

Hegarty, who had struggled to cope with the adhesive - perhaps too much so - marking of Conor Cleary in the first half, began to exert more influence under the puckout.

Cleary had been penalised for holding off the ball in the first half. After the interval, he was booked for dragging back Hegarty once more.

After the third foul on Hegarty on 46 minutes, the Limerick half-forward banged his hurley off the ground in demonstrative frustration. Cleary was warned that all his lives were gone after the next one. Brian Lohan didn't wait for that to happen and replaced him with Cian Galvin.

A Rodgers free and another fine score from play from Kelly - their only one of the second half - gave Clare some badly needed breathing room.

The sides traded points before the game's most controversial moment. A long ball was pumped into Duggan, who was isolated on Morrissey. The full-back missed and Duggan was in behind.

He ingeniously scooped the ball over the onrushing Quaid and was taken out. Nash, in trying to boot the ball out for a '65, sent it skittering into the net but Walsh had already decided on a penalty.

Quaid was spared a black card on the basis that Duggan was not in possession of the ball. Another bizarre and quirky loophole in the black card rule.

Still, Clare led by six after Kelly's perfectly struck penalty. But they failed to score after that.

Limerick didn't need a point from play, but the regular flow of frees allowed them to edge back within touching distance before O'Connor's decisive strike.

Late in injury-time and two behind, Clare possibly panicked, opting to try to create a goal off a free when there was possibly time for another play.

The game ended with Kelly and O'Brien shoving and squaring up to one another - as Lynch tried to play peacemaker.

Agony for Clare who over-performed expectations - Limerick progress to the final against Galway, the same opponents they met at the start of this run back in 2018.

Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Sean Finn, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash (0-01); Diarmaid Byrnes (0-03, 2f), Will O'Donoghue, Kyle Hayes (0-01); Adam English (0-01), Darragh O'Donovan; Gearóid Hegarty, Aidan O'Connor (1-09, 9f), Cathal O'Neill (0-02); Aaron Gillane (0-01), Shane O'Brien (0-01), Peter Casey (0-02).

Subs: Tom Morrissey for Hegarty (34, temp), David Reidy for O'Donovan (48), Tom Morrissey for Gillane (51), Cian Lynch for O'Neill (57), Mike Casey for Dan Morrissey (62), Fintan Fitzgerald for Peter Casey (74)

Clare: Eibhear Quilligan; Adam Hogan, Conor Cleary, Darragh Lohan; Diarmuid Ryan, David McInerney, Niall O'Farrell; John Conlon, Ryan Taylor (0-02); Cathal Malone (0-01), Mark Rodgers (0-06, 5f), Séan Rynne; Tony Kelly (1-05, 1-00pen), Peter Duggan (0-04), Shane O'Donnell (0-01).

Subs: Cian Galvin for Cleary (46), Diarmuid Stritch for Conlon (48), Ian Galvin for Rodgers (61), David Fitzgerald for Rynne (63), David Reidy for Stritch (68)