Sean O’Sullivan: Clare right to be positive

SIX points clear. Quarter of an hour to go. Clare in the driving seat, theirs to lose.

Enda Smith’s goal, temporarily at least, changed all that. For the first time in the game Clare were on the back foot. How they responded to it would define their summer. The victories over Laois and Sligo would quickly be forgotten if they didn’t dig out a victory here.

Progress is reaching Croke Park. Progress is an All Ireland quarter-final. Falling at the final hurdle, with victory in sight would undo all that work. It would set back Colm Collins’ project in a meaningful and tangible way, make no mistake about that.

By responding as they did, however, with confidence and with resolve, Clare came of age on the inter-county stage. Last Saturday wasn’t just a win to see them into an All Ireland quarter-final, it was a first victory over Division 1 opposition.

In the space of fifteen second half minutes Clare moved into the big leagues. It’s all but certain to be a baptism of fire for them, as it always is for those teams attempting to make the step up from one level to the next.

Kerry are no longer the yardstick by which teams judge themselves – that honour has passed to Dublin – but they remain the next best thing. Clare will get nothing easy from the Kingdom that’s for sure.

It’s equally true that Kerry will get nothing easy from Clare. In the month and a half since they last did battle Clare have improved by an not inconsiderable margin. Can the same be said of Kerry?

We’ve no evidence to suggest that they have. We’ve no evidence to suggest that they haven’t either mind you. Eamonn Fitzmaurice has had to manage one of those interminable gaps between championship fixtures, four weeks this time.

His Clare counterpart, meanwhile, has had the luxury of watching his team evolve and grow and learn naturally from week to week and game to game. Cliché though it may be a championship fixture is worth any number of training sessions.

The Banner had the look of a well-oiled machine in the first half on Saturday afternoon in Salthill. They were full of energy, their passing was brilliant, their running off the shoulder equally so. Granted the Roscommon defence was a bit of a rabble, but Clare were expert in their exploitation of it.

It’s easy, very easy in fact, to imagine a situation where they cause the Kerry rearguard all sorts of problems. We don’t even need to imagine it, we saw it for ourselves on June 12 in Fitzgerald Stadium. Clare cut Kerry open on numerous occasions, enough to score seventeen points and create a handful of goal-scoring chances.

If Clare get on the front foot then they will, no question, score and score well. Kerry’s priority must be to ensure that they don’t ever get on the front foot for a sustained period of time.

The best way to do that is to dominate the possession stakes much as they did in the Munster championship semi-final. On that occasion Kerry won each and every won of their own first half kick-outs, eleven from eleven and ten from fourteen in the second half.

Overall Kerry took 63% of the primary possession and before you ask the vast majority of that was won contested. For all the talk of how impressive Clare’s midfield is that’s worth bearing in mind.

What Kerry should fear about Clare’s midfield is their mobility. Does Kerry’s Munster championship midfield – Kieran Donaghy and Bryan Sheehan – have the legs to stay with and track guys like Gary Brennan? Do they have the ability to go with and screen their back six from runners from deep like Cian O’Dea and Gordon Kelly?

The evidence of the opening two games suggests not and Croke Park is much more likely to expose a player in that regard as Fitzgerald Stadium. It would be no surprise to us to see the axis of Anthony Maher and David Moran returned to the starting fifteen for this game. They remain Kerry’s strongest pairing and more importantly than that they complement each other so well.

Maher drops a little deeper and provides great cover to the halfback line, cover which seems to have been lacking since his injury. Moran is a little flashier – which is not to say that Maher is anything other than a hugely talented footballer with a great football brain – with more license to roam.

It would undoubtedly be harsh on Sheehan and Donaghy, in particular, to miss out given how well they did at various times in the Munster championship. Eamonn Fitzmaurice isn’t a man prone to sentimental team selections, however.

Just as it is for Clare this is the big time for Kerry too. No more safety net, it’s sick or swim to mix our metaphors ever so slightly. For all that it’s a game Kerry should be winning, just as long as they approach it the right way, just as long as the management get the team selection right.

The ace in the hole for Clare is all that momentum they’ve been picking up as Kerry have lain in a semi dormant state. They need to hit the ground running and hope that Kerry – as can be their wont in All Ireland quarter-finals – take a little while to warm to the task.

Our advice to Clare would be to do what they’ve been doing, be bold, take the game to Kerry, put them on the back foot. For sure take precautions to ensure you don’t concede two goals sloppily in the opening exchanges for the second time this summer, but don’t let fear

paralyse. Verdict: Kerry