GALWAY NOT AS GOOD AS EVERYONE THINKS
TOM RYAN’S ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL VERDICT: Pages 76-77
DREAMS are not to be trusted. I had one last week where I rode a horse to a group one win in the Curragh and I can’t tell you what a bummer it was to wake up and realise that it was the pillow I was stroking affectionately rather than the nape of my winning steed.
I had another dream last week where the Clare hurlers came to Croke Park and almost torpedoed Galway’s back-to-back All-Ireland ambitions, but this time when I woke up I wasn’t so certain if I had imagined it or analysed it.
The consensus is that this evening’s All-Ireland semi-final is a done deal but it is a consensus which I have not bought into.
It is true that right now, on form and on reputation, Galway look the best team in the land but of the four teams that step out this weekend their form book is also the hardest to trust.
That is not their fault but the reality is that the Munster and Leinster Championships have operated on very different levels this year.
Galway have not been tested in ways that Cork, Limerick and Clare have and the two times — in the drawn and replayed Leinster finals against Kilkenny — they were stress-tested, they were not totally convincing.
Put it like this, if Galway truly are the team of invincibles that some would like us to believe they are, they should not have needed two attempts to get past Kilkenny.
From the moment Brian Cody’s team ducked a Dublin bullet in the opening round of the Leinster Championship, it was evident that their League form had sold us a puppy.
Not unintentionally, but while some teams were pulling hard on the reins, most notably Galway, Brian Cody had the whip out.
That is not a criticism — any team that gives its best in any competition is to be applauded — but it a reality and a disturbing one for Galway.
I could not really believe how far off the pace Kilkenny had dropped until I saw them up close against Limerick, and while that game was hailed as a classic the truth was that Limerick were 10 points a better team.
They bullied Kilkenny into the ground and but for Eoin Murphy’s heroics between the posts would also have humiliated them on the scoreboard.
It begs the obvious question that if Kilkenny have slipped that much and Galway, which again is the consensus, have surged clear of the game’s chasing pack, then why were they put the pin of their collar twice inside a week by Cody’s men?
And if you wanted additional proof of the widening chasm between Munster and Leinster, it was there for all to see when both provinces fronted off in the quarters.
While Limerick were beating Kilkenny by two going on 12 points, Clare had put Wexford to sleep inside 25 minutes.
This is where Galway are coming from and this is where Clare are coming from too.
We have a game on here tonight and if Clare can bring it all together, then even a shock result.
That said, they will have to be pitch perfect. They will have to show the sharpness that had Cork all but beaten at half-time, and not the sloppiness which saw them throw it all away.
That lack of consistency is a worry but it is rooted in individual form and that has been Clare’s biggest issue for much of this summer.
But here’s the thing, Championship campaigns are all about incremental progress rather than sustained brilliance.
How many times have we seen teams start off in blistering form and end up in a heap long before mid-summer?
Clare have taken a different and
Clare have taken a more encouraging route
more encouraging route.
They have tightened up defensively, partly due to individual form but mainly due to an increased work-rate right through the team.
It was really impressive to see how they set the tone against Wexford, their attack, led by the imperious John Conlan doing all kinds of extra work for no extra pay.
I made the point prior to that Wexford game that I felt there were huge performances coming from the likes of Tony Kelly, Podge Collins and other established players who were struggling to find their best form, because I felt that those players’ egos would be hurt by the fact that in Conlan they were perceived to be a one man team.
Kelly, in particular, delivered in spades on that prediction and when he is on his game anything is possible.
Clare are better than the good team they started out as, Galway are an even better team but we can’t be certain that they are in a better place because they have not been stress-tested as they would have liked.
That is not to say that they won’t tonight. Park that dream and if I landed in front of a bookmaker with the deeds of the farm, I know I would be putting it on the champions. My point is that this is not the done deal so many are making it out to be. If Clare accept their limitations and play to their strength, they have a real shout.
Their limitations? This Clare team have everything but, with a few notable exceptions — we find ourselves name-checking Conlan yet again — they do not possess the kind of bone-shuddering physicality needed if you want to take on Galway in a battle of physical wills.
Kilkenny, perhaps tricked into it by their recent history, were lulled into thinking that they could but were chewed up and spat out.
Clare have got to use their pace and their skill — they are full of players who possess those qualities in attack — and they must avoid an aerial battle at all costs.
To do that they have to fight hard for territory on the ground, but using the work-rate they showcased against Wexford they are well capable of that.
If they can win enough ball and move it either off the shoulder, or directly with lose-trajectory diagonal balls into the side-line, they will provide Galway with the test they have been crying out for.
My gut tells me that Galway will pass this test but in a dream of a game.