Cork finish with a flourish to secure third Munster title in four years

Powered by the sharp-shooting of Ben Cunningham (0-9), son of ex-Cork goalie Ger, and captained by goal-scorer Michael Mullins, son of former Rebel forward Mickey, they advance to an All-Ireland final against either Offaly or Wexford.

Ben O’Connor’s charges reeled off six of the final seven points, with Cunningham slotting three and setting up another for Tadhg O’Connell after a sublime pick-up in front of 5,402 fans.

Clare had the edge in the opening minutes but once Cork began to stream through the middle, they found themselves in trouble.

Cunningham sent a goal chance wide when half-hooked by Oisín Clune and would later force a save from Aaron Shanahan from a close-range free.

In the 13th minute, Mullins picked up the ball on the sideline and his dummy handpass opened up the space before stitching the sliotar to the roof of the net.

Clare stayed in touch through the free-taking of Keith Smyth (0-11) and the rescue work of corner-back Ian MacNamara, who made the first of three goal-saving interventions.

It was 1-11 to 0-10 at half-time but Clare blitzed the Rebels by 1-8 to 0-3 in the third quarter.

When their first sight of goal arrived, Clare were clinical. Smyth grabbed the break and fed Seán Rynne to finish.

By the 46th minute, they were four ahead, 1-19 to 1-15.

Cork stuck to their task and slowly began to pull them back, although Clare’s last-ditch defending was holding them out, with MacNamara coming up trumps twice more as well as blocks from Shanahan and Oisín O’Donnell.

But Cork were eating up the opposition puck-out and Clare couldn’t hold out, with Cunningham’s 64th-minute free the insurance score.

SCORERS – Cork: B Cunningham 0-9 (6f, 1 65); M Mullins 1-0; T O’Connell, D Healy 0-3 each; W Buckley, C Walsh, R O’Sullivan 0-2 each; A O’Sullivan, J Leahy 0-1 each.Clare: K Smyth 0-11 (9f); S Rynne 1-1; O O’Donnell 0-3; J O’Neill, P Crotty 0-2 each; K Hartigan, N O’Farrell 0-1 each.

CORK – B Saunderson; S Daly, S Kingston, D O’Sullivan; J Dwyer, B O’Connor, M Howell; T O’Connell, M Mullins; W Buckley, B Cunningham, C Walsh; D Cremin, D Healy, R O’Sullivan. Subs: T Wilk for Daly (h-t), A O’Sullivan for Cremin (32 inj), J Leahy for Walsh (37).

CLARE –A Shanahan; O Clune, J Conneally, I MacNamara; K Hartigan, D Lohan, O Cahill; S Rynne, J O’Neill; O O’Donnell, P Crotty, K Smyth; D Kennedy, S Dunford, G Sheedy. Subs: N O’Farrell for Sheedy (h-t), C Cleary for Kennedy (40), D Stritch for Dunford (54), J Collins for Clune (59), C Whelan for O’Donnell (60).

Ref –M Kennedy (Tipperary).