Colm Collin’s charges left everything on the field in Clare’s opening round of the McGrath Cup, however a late Kingdom comeback in Austin Stack Park, Tralee would prove decisive.
Clare started the brightest and raced into a 0-04 to 0-02 lead midway through the first half, enjoying a wide scoring spread with Eoin Cleary, Cathal O’Connor, Ronan Lanigan & Emmet McMahon all splitting the posts, while Tony Brosnan and Killian Spillane fired over for the All-Ireland champions.
The Kingdom were unfortunate to loose midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor at this juncture through an early leg injury, however Clare would capitalize on the situation to stretch their lead out to four thanks to efforts from Podge Collins and a further brace from Eoin Cleary.
At half-time the scoreboard read Clare 0-07 to Kerry 0-03.
The Banner men came out of the traps for the second half with the same ferocity they approached the first as Keelan Sexton, Manus Doherty and substitute Aaron Griffin all pointed to see Clare retain their four point advantage at 0-10 to 0-06 heading into the final quarter in a healthy position to push on for the win .
However Kerry corner-back Tom O’Sullivan would galvanize the defending champions in the final fifteen minutes surging up the field to kick two points from play in addition to efforts from Tony Brosnan and Ronan Buckley leaving the sides deadlocked at 0-12 apiece on sixty-eight minutes.
Substitute Darragh Roche from Glenfesk gave Kerry the lead for the first time on seventy minutes, although when Keelan Sexton responded from the next play it appeared Clare would leave Tralee with a well earned point at the least, nevertheless in the final minute of additional time Darragh Roche would complete his brace to give Kerry victory by the minimum.
As it finished in Austin Stack Park, Kerry 0-14 to Clare 0-13.
Next up for the Banner is the visit of Cork to Cooraclare next Sunday.
