Clinton Hennessy

Clinton Hennessy

Personal information
Irish name	Clinton Ó hAonghusa
Sport	Hurling
Position	Goalkeeper
Born	28 July 1977 (1977-07-28) (age 34) Ardmore, County Waterford
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Club(s)
Years	Club
	Ardmore
Inter-county(ies)*
Years	County	Apps (scores)
2005-2011	Waterford	29 (0-0)
Inter-county titles
Munster titles	2
All Irelands	0
NHL	1
*Inter County team apps and scores correct as of 9 August 2009.

Clinton Hennessy (born 28 July 1977 in Ardmore, County Waterford) is an Irish sportsperson. He plays hurling with his local club Ardmore, and was a member of the Waterford senior inter-county team from 2005 to 2011.

Playing career

Club

Hennessy plays his club hurling with his local Ardmore club and has enjoyed some success. He won a county intermediate championship title with the club in 2002. It was the club's first major title in hurling.

Inter-county

Hennessy made his senior championship debut in the 2005 All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork.^[1] His big break came at the expense of the regular goalkeeper, Stephen Brenner, who was dropped in controversial circumstances. Waterford were beaten on that occasion after a disappointing year in the championship.

2006 also saw Hennessy's side make an early exit from Munster, however, the team later qualified for the All-Ireland semi-final. Old rivals Cork provided the opposition on that occasion. After an exciting game Waterford were denied a draw at the death when Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack pulled down an almost certain point at the final whistle. Cork won the game by a single point - 1-16 to 1-15.

In 2007 Waterford threw down a mark of intent when they captured the National Hurling League title. It was Waterford's first league title since 1963 and Hennessy's first title with his native-county. Later in the championship Waterford finally got the better of Cork. After another thrilling game between these great two rivals Waterford were the winners by 5-15 to 3-18. This victory allowed Hennessy's side to advance to the Munster final where they played Limerick. Waterford justified their favourites tag and won the game with relative ease courtesy of a hat trick of goals by Dan Shanahan. It was Hennessy's first Munster title. Waterford later saw off Cork again after an All-Ireland quarter-final replay to set up an All-Ireland semi-final meeting with Limerick. Many expected the game to be a mere formality; however, Limerick savaged a tired Waterford team Hennessy leaving in five goals. The score line of 5-11 to 2-15 was a major shock to Waterford and to the hurling public at large who expected Hennessy's side to canter home. There was speculation afterwards that some of the older members of the Waterford team, including Tony Browne and Paul Flynn, would retire without ever lining out in an All-Ireland final.

In spite of all the retirement speculation all of the team returned to Waterford in 2008, however, there was controversy from the start. After an embarrassing defeat by Clare in the opening round of the Munster championship ‘player power’ succeeded in forcing manger Justin McCarthy to resign. Waterford went through the qualifier route with Hennessy having a steady season along the way. After five All-Ireland semi-final defeats inside ten years Waterford finally broke their penultimate stage hoodoo after a two-point defeat of Tipperary. The subsequent All-Ireland final saw Waterford take on Kilkenny in the championship decider for the first time since 1963. Much was expected from this unique encounter, however, the game was effectively over after twenty minutes when Kilkenny's Eddie Brennan fired two goals past Hennessy. The final score of 3-30 to 1-13 gave Kilkenny a third All-Ireland in-a-row and left Waterford shattered.^[2]

In September 2011, Hennessy announced his retirement from inter-county action.^[3]

Championship Appearances

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Match report
1	24 July 2005	Croke Park, Dublin	Cork	0-0	1-13 : 1-18	All-Ireland Quarter-Final	Irish Examiner
2	4 June 2006	Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork	Tipperary	0-0	1-12 : 3-14	Munster Semi-Final	RTE Sport
3	18 June 2006	Cusack Park, Mullingar	Westmeath	0-0	3-22 : 1-14	Group Stage Qualifier	Irish Independent
4	2 July 2006	Walsh Park, Waterford	Galway	0-0	1-25 : 2-20	Group Stage Qualifier	RTE Sport
5	8 July 2006	O'Moore Park, Portlaoise	Laois	0-0	2-17 : 1-13	Group Stage Qualifier	Irish Independent
6	23 July 2006	Croke Park, Dublin	Tipperary	0-0	1-22 : 3-13	All-Ireland Quarter-Final	RTE Sport
7	6 August 2006	Croke Park, Dublin	Cork	0-0	1-15 : 1-16	All-Ireland Semi-Final	RTE Sport
8	17 June 2007	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Cork	0-0	5-15 : 3-18	Munster Semi-Final	Irish Independent
9	8 July 2007	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Limerick	0-0	3-17 : 1-14	Munster Final	Irish Independent
10	29 July 2007	Croke Park, Dublin	Cork	0-0	3-16 : 3-16	All-Ireland Quarter-Final	Irish Independent
11	5 August 2007	Croke Park, Dublin	Cork	0-0	2-17 : 0-20	All-Ireland Quarter-Final Replay	Irish Independent
12	12 August 2007	Croke Park, Dublin	Limerick	0-0	2-15 : 5-11	All-Ireland Semi-Final	Irish Independent
13	1 June 2008	Gaelic Grounds, Limerick	Clare	0-0	0-23 : 2-26	Munster Quarter-Final	Irish Examiner
14	5 July 2008	Walsh Park, Waterford	Antrim	0-0	6-18 : 0-15	2nd Round Qualifier	Irish Independent
15	21 July 2008	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Offaly	0-0	2-18 : 0-18	4th Round Qualifier	Irish Independent
16	27 July 2008	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Wexford	0-0	2-19 : 3-15	All-Ireland Quarter-Final	RTE Sport
17	17 August 2008	Croke Park, Dublin	Tipperary	0-0	1-20 : 1-18	All-Ireland Semi-Final	RTE Sport
18	7 September 2008	Croke Park, Dublin	Kilkenny	0-0	1-13 : 3-30	All-Ireland Final	RTE Sport
19	14 June 2009	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Limerick	0-0	0-11 : 1-08	Munster Semi-Final	Irish Examiner
20	20 June 2009	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Limerick	0-0	0-25 : 0-17	Munster Semi-Final Replay	RTE Sport
21	12 July 2009	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Tipperary	0-0	2-16 : 4-14	Munster Final	RTE Sport
22	26 July 2009	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Galway	0-0	1-16 : 0-18	All-Ireland Quarter-final	RTE Sport
23	9 August 2009	Croke Park, Dublin	Kilkenny	0-0	3-15 : 2-23	All-Ireland Semi-final	RTE Sport
24	7 June 2010	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Clare	0-0	0-22 : 1-15	Munster Semi-final	RTE Sport
25	11 July 2010	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Cork	0-0	2-15 : 2-15	Munster Final	RTE Sport
26	17 July 2010	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Cork	0-0	1-16 : 1-13	Munster Final Replay	RTE Sport
27	15 August 2010	Croke Park, Dublin	Tipperary	0-0	1-18 : 3-19	All-Ireland Semi-final	RTE Sport
28	12 June 2011	Semple Stadium, Thurles	Limerick	0-0	3-16 : 3-15	Munster Semi-final	RTE Sport

References

1. ^ http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2005/07/25/story135496142.asp
2. ^ "Kilkenny 3-30 Waterford 1-13 matchtracker". RTÉ Sport. 2008-09-07. http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2008/0907/kilkenny_waterford_tracker.html. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 
3. ^ "Hennessy calls time on Déise career". RTE Sport. 27 September 2011. http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championship/2011/0927/waterford_hennessyc.html. Retrieved 26 September 2011. 

Teams

Persondata
Name	Hennessy, Clinton
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	28 July 1977
Place of birth	Ardmore
Date of death
Place of death