The 2013 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final, the deciding game of the 2013 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, was played on 8 September 2013 at Croke Park, Dublin. For the second straight year, the final ended in a draw, requiring a replay that was held on 28 September 2013 at Croke Park.
In the replay Clare beat Cork 5–16 to 3–16 to claim their fourth All Ireland title. The replay has been described by some as one of the greatest finals of all time.
The game between Cork and Clare was an all Munster All-Ireland for the second time ever, the first having been in 1997 between Clare and Tipperary.
The drawn final was shown live in Ireland on RTÉ2 as part of The Sunday Game live programme, presented by Michael Lyster from Croke Park, with studio analysis from Cyril Farrell, Liam Sheedy, and Eddie Brennan and pre-match comments from Tomás Mulcahy and Ger Loughnane. Match commentary was provided by Ger Canning with analysis by Michael Duignan. The replay was shown live in Ireland on RTÉ2 as part of The Saturday Game live programme, presented by Michael Lyster from Croke Park, with studio analysis from Cyril Farrell, Liam Sheedy, and Eddie Brennan. Match commentary was provided by Ger Canning with analysis by Michael Duignan.
The drawn match was preceded by the Galway against Waterford minor hurling final which started at 1.15pm and was won by Waterford, their first minor title in 65 years.
A peak Irish television audience of 1.3 million people watched RTÉ's coverage of the drawn final with an average audience of 885,000 viewers, a 64% share of the available television audience.
Background
This All-Ireland final was the 50th championship meeting of Cork and Clare; however, it was their first meeting in an All-Ireland decider. Cork held the balance of power in all previous meetings between the two, having recorded 34 championship victories to Clare's eleven. There had been four drawn games. Both sides last met in the 2013 Munster semi-final, when Cork recorded a 0–23 to 0–15 victory. It was their seventh successive championship defeat of Clare, extending the record which stretches back to the 1998 Munster semi-final when Clare last defeated Cork. In total it was the fifth meeting between the counties in 2013, with Clare having won the first three before Cork prevailed in the Munster semi-final.
Cork, who last played in the final in 2006 when they lost by three points to Kilkenny, were bidding to win the title for the first time since 2005 while Clare, who last reached the final in 2002, had won their last All-Ireland in 1997.
Route to the Final Cork
Clare
Pre-match - Drawn game
Build-up In Ennis a big screen was erected at Abbey Street car park in the town centre to screen live coverage of the final. Bookmakers made Cork slight favorites to win at 5/6 with Clare at 6/5. Before the 2013 Munster championship started Cork were priced at 16/1, and Clare at 22/1 to win the All-Ireland Final.
Hurling Stars of the 1980s Team The GAA announced on 26 August that a special Hurling Stars of the 1980s team, a specially-chosen line-up of players who were unsuccessful in winning an All-Ireland medal would be acknowledged on finals day before the senior final. The names of the players were put forward by a panel of All-Star and former All-Star selectors who covered Gaelic games for the print and broadcast media during the 1980s.
Referee Offaly based referee Brian Gavin was named as the referee for the 2013 All-Ireland final on 26 August. The Clara native took charge of his second final after having previously taken charge of the 2011 Final, and also the All-Ireland championship final at minor level in 2004 and under-21 level in 2006.
Team news Cork made one change to the team that played in the semi-final against Dublin with Brian Murphy returning from injury and being named in the wing-back position, with Tom Kenny being omitted. Murphy had been out of action since June when he suffered a collarbone injury in a club match. Clare stated the game with the same fifteen which started the semi-final win over Limerick.
Match details - Drawn game Summary Clare got the opening score of the third minute with a point from Darach Honan. and were ahead by 0–12 to 0–10 at half time. After 40 minutes Conor Lehane scored the opening goal of the game with a shot past the goalkeeper from the right and into the net to make the score 1–10 to 0–14. Cork got a second goal in the 57th minute when goalkeeper Anthony Nash hit a 20-yard free to the net after Luke O'Farrell had been fouled. With seven minutes left on the clock, Cork captain Patrick Cronin hit a shot to the top left corner of the net to level the game. Patrick Horgan looked to have won it for Cork with a point in the last minute. Added on time of two minutes was already up when Clare right-back Domhnall O'Donovan received the ball out on the left before hitting the ball over the bar just as he was tackled to tie up the match. The referee blew the final whistle after 2 minutes and 38 seconds to bring the match to a replay three weeks later.
CLARE GAA:1 Patrick Kelly2 Domhnall O'Donovan3 David McInerney4 Cian Dillon5 Brendan Bugler6 Patrick Donnellan (c)7 Patrick O'Connor8 Colm Galvin9 Conor Ryan10 John Conlon11 Tony Kelly12 Colin Ryan13 Podge Collins14 Darach Honan15 Conor McGrathSubstitutes used:23 Cathal McInerney for D. Honan21 Fergal Lynch for J. Conlon20 Nicky O'Connell for C. McGrathManager: Davy FitzgeraldCork GAA:1 Anthony Nash2 Stephen McDonnell3 Shane O'Neill4 Conor O'Sullivan5 Brian Murphy6 Christopher Joyce7 William Egan8 Lorcán McLoughlin9 Daniel Kearney10 Séamus Harnedy11 Pa Cronin (c)12 Conor Lehane13 Luke O'Farrell14 Patrick Horgan15 Jamie CoughlanSubstitutes used:24 Stephen Moylan for J. Coughlan22 Cian McCarthy for L. McLoughlin23 Cathal Naughton for C. McCarthy20 Stephen White for D. KearneyManager: Jimmy Barry-Murphy
Reaction Clare captain Pat Donnellan said that he was "delighted to have another day out, With ten or 15 seconds to go, we thought we were coming home with nothing. We're just delighted to have another day out and we'll look forward to it."
Highlights of the final were shown on The Sunday Game programme which aired at 9:30pm that night on RTÉ Two and was presented by Des Cahill with analysis from Donal Óg Cusack, Ger Loughnane, and Ollie Moran. Also in that programme, Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy and captain Pa Cronin were interviewed by Michael Lyster from the Cork team hotel, the DT hotel in Dublin. Marty Morrissey who was at the Clare team hotel, the Clyde Court Hotel, interviewed Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald and captain Pat Donnellan.
Pre-match - Replay Build-up The replay match was fixed for Saturday 28th rather than a traditional Sunday because the ladies Gaelic football finals are scheduled for the following Sunday, the 29th and are not going to be moved to another date which happened in 2012. The GAA have predicted that the replay will be a sell-out even with the 5pm throw-in time and it will be the first senior final to be played under floodlights. The GAA confirmed that there will be ticket reductions for the replay similar to the 2012 replay with stand tickets priced at €50 (down from €80) and terrace tickets at €25 (down from €40).
Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy commented on the replay saying “It’s more of a game now than it is a final." The replay will be the sixth time that the sides have played each other in 2013. Clare selector Louis Mulqueen thinks that if Clare seize moment in the replay they can kickstart a golden era for the county saying "I still think if they could win the All-Ireland on Saturday we'd be talking about the golden era. But they still have to make the breakthrough and the quicker they make that breakthrough the better." Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald is concerned about the number of games the team has played in 2013 saying ""Since the start of February we've been flat out because we played the league campaign at a championship pace, So, I'd be saying to myself: 'Will these games catch up on them?' That's the only concern, but it doesn't seem to have. They seem to be good. I think the only really flat game we had was that Tipperary league game."
Referee James McGrath was named as the referee for the replay on 18 September. It will be McGrath's second final after he was in charge of the 2012 Replay final between Kilkenny and Galway.
Team news The Cork team for the replay was named on 25 September with Cian McCarthy being named in place of Jamie Coughlan in the half forward line. Clare named an unchanged team for the replay and also for the third game in succession. There had been speculation that Darach Honan could be replaced before throw-in after he failed to make an impact in the drawn game. A couple of hours before the start of the match, Shane O'Donnell was told that he would be starting the match in place of Darach Honan.
Match details - Replay Summary John Conlon got the opening score of the game, a point in the second minute. A hat-trick of goals in the 6th, 14th and 19th minutes at the hill 16 end from late call-up Shane O'Donnell put Clare on the way to a four-point lead of 3–9 to 1–11 at half time. Anthony Nash had blasted a 20-metre free past 12 Clare players on the line for a goal that brought Cork back to within three points in the 16th minute. Clare then led by eight points but Cork had drawn level, 1–16 to 3–10, by the 52nd minute. With 18 minutes left the scores were level at 1–16 to 3-10 and they were level again with ten minutes left when Séamus Harnedy scored with a low shot to the net to make the score 2–16 to 3–13. In the 61st minute, Clare's Conor McGrath ran at goals and fired the ball high to the left corner of the net for Clare's fourth goal. Darach Honan, who came on as a second-half substitute, got Clare's fifth goal in the 71st minute after he received the ball on the right and managed to get as far as the Cork goals before pushing the ball past the goalkeeper with the ball rolling over the line.
CLARE GAA:1 Patrick Kelly2 Domhnall O'Donovan3 David McInerney4 Cian Dillon5 Brendan Bugler6 Patrick Donnellan (c)7 Patrick O'Connor8 Colm Galvin9 Conor Ryan10 John Conlon11 Tony Kelly12 Colin Ryan13 Podge Collins22 Shane O'Donnell15 Conor McGrathSubstitutes used:23 Cathal McInerney for C.Galvin (52 mins)20 Nicky O'Connell for P.Collins (59 mins)14 Darach Honan for S. O'Donnell (66 mins)18 Séadna Morey for T. Kelly (71 mins)Manager: Davy FitzgeraldCork GAA:1 Anthony Nash2 Stephen McDonnell3 Shane O'Neill4 Conor O'Sullivan5 Brian Murphy6 Christopher Joyce7 William Egan8 Lorcán McLoughlin9 Daniel Kearney10 Séamus Harnedy11 Cian McCarthy12 Pa Cronin (c)13 Luke O'Farrell14 Patrick Horgan15 Conor LehaneSubstitutes used:20 Stephen White for W. Egan (23 mins)24 Stephen Moylan for L O’Farrell (half time)19 Tom Kenny for D. Kearney (39 mins)23 Cathal Naughton for C. McCarthy (55 mins)17 Kilian Murphy for S. McDonnell (67 mins)Manager: Jimmy Barry-Murphy
Trophy presentation Clare captain Patrick Donnellan accepted the Liam MacCarthy Cup from GAA president Liam O'Neill in the Hogan Stand and gave a speech in which he thanked the Clare panel, selectors, and back room team for their work throughout the year. The Clare team then embarked on a lap of honor around Croke Park.
Reaction Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald felt Clare were the better team over the two games saying " In my opinion over the two days we were the better team, I think Cork are a fantastic hurling team, but I really believe that we were the better team over the two days, We’re 2013 All-Ireland champions and it feels so good. I’m so proud of them young boys. They did it and fair play to them.” Fitzgerald speaking the morning after the game said “I suppose it still has not sunk in, but it is one of immense satisfaction. I am still the same. I am still so thrilled for the lads."