Clare have the momentum to topple champions
IT’S still only April but here we are, at the start of the championship. We’ve had the negatives of winter and all the rain and bad weather, plus so many matches condensed on top of each other, but I’m a romantic at heart when it comes to hurling, and particularly Championship hurling.
And I can’t wait for the ball to be thrown in at Ennis this afternoon where I’ll be on commentary duty with RTÉ for the big game between Clare and Limerick.
I’ve been lucky to have been involved in the county scene since 1986 when I won a minor All-Ireland with Offaly. Right through from there to the 2000 All-Ireland senior final as a player. Then with The Sunday Game and this column.
My first All-Ireland final with The Sunday Game was the ’96 one. After we lost the Leinster final to Wexford, Michael O’Carroll asked me would I come in and do a few matches. Bill Lalor was there at the time as well, and Michael Lyster.
That final left such an impression watching on. You had Larry O’Gorman and Martin Storey in full flow and the sight of an old warrior in George O’Connor on his knees at the final whistle.
Limerick lost that one but it got me thinking of the Limerick players this afternoon and the hurling rivalries that have continued on. With Clare and Limerick, you have different sets of supporters who are neighbours, friends, or are working with each other. It’s special. To be in Ennis, around the town – this is one rivalry where the supporters are so closely knit together but so far apart as well. That same year in 1996, Clare came into the All-Ireland championship having beaten us in the previous final. Who can forget Ciaran Carey’s amazing score for Limerick to knock them out?
I find it intriguing every year how teams can feed off that underdog status, how ‘no one gave us a chance’. In 1995 we were obsessed with Kilkenny. They won back-toback All-Irelands in 1992, 93. Had beaten us narrowly enough in Leinster. That year, they beat us by nine points in Thurles in a National League quarter-final.
No-one gave us a chance in Leinster. We got it into our psyche that we would show the world. I have never seen it in any walk of life since, the way we were pumped up for that one. The heart and determination and guts we showed – fuelled by the feeling that we’d been written off.
We used it in the Leinster final that day we met. When the dust settled, the scoreboard showed Offaly 2-16 Kilkenny 2-5. To think that was the last Leinster final Offaly has won, nearly 30 years ago!
And to bring it back to Clare versus Limerick, despite everything they’ve won, I think that’s where the Munster and All-Ireland champions will be going to for motivation. They’ve had a tough season in ways, between all the headlines around Kyle Hayes and a league campaign that ended with a poor showing and defeat to Kilkenny.
The talk around Limerick has all gone quiet. All the talk is around Clare, the recently-crowned Division 1 League champions. I’ve no doubt they are going to try and use that to their advantage. Set out to prove a point.
Clare have all the momentum. They won the league, for only the fifth time in their history, have so many players in form. By contrast, Limerick had only have eight or nine of their starting team on the go during the league. We know they have great players but it’s just they haven’t played a lot of hurling yet.
Limerick have named an extremely strong starting 15, albeit there will be positional changes before the throw-in. The big question is whether they can gel first time out with so many returning at the same time. Clare have named both Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly on the bench but I’ll be amazed if at least one of them doesn’t start.
It’s a really tough one to call. Ennis, and Cusack Park, will just be hopping.
Ryan Taylor was a significant absentee for the league, as was Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell and David McInerney.
Kelly has been hugely influential against Limerick in previous games. In a way, not having him has made other players step up.
At the back, Conor Cleary has been very strong, very solid. He had a weakness in his game in giving away frees. This year, he has his head up, beating his man to the ball. More in the mould of his manager Brian Lohan. Adam Hogan too. What a battle he had with Eoin Cody in the league final.
At centre-back, John Conlon is old school in how he patrols that area. Darragh Lohan, a nephew of Brian’s, has been hugely athletic as well around the middle.
I think Clare have evolved over the course of the league. The improvement up front has been significant. Mark Rodgers, David Reidy, Ian Galvin, Aidan McCarthy – they are playing unhindered hurling.
They have Limerick at home, then Cork away so it’s a huge opening to their Munster campaign.
I was looking at Clare’s record in the Munster round-robin since it was introduced. John Fogarty had it out there during the week. And Clare were ahead of Limerick on points won. They are the underdogs with the bookies but I’d have them as slight favourites.
I expect Limerick to come with this siege mentality that I talked about. In terms of game plan, they tend to do their own thing. They have let Tony Kelly roam – one day he scored eight or nine points from play. They just stick to their own system, their style of play.
If Limerick lose, it’s going to put huge pressure on them. Cork were beaten by a point in three matches last year. If Tipperary had beaten Waterford in the last round as expected, Limerick were a point or two away from being gone.
So Munster is cut-throat. It’s not a Munster final, not an All-Ireland final, but it could have a big bearing on both championships.
I do think Clare will win – but I still think Limerick will find a way to get out of Munster.