Moments after the Tipperary-Waterford game eight days ago, I was quietly delighted with how the narrative around Tipperary was already being shaped in the lead-up to yesterday, much of which had already begun to percolate through to our own county in Clare.
Throughout the week, numerous people were talking Tipp up in the bar, the gist of which could be distilled into a collective sense that, having pushed Waterford so hard in Walsh Park that they’d be hard to beat, especially in Thurles.
Every inter-county camp is firewalled from the outside threats that public opinion can insidiously influence. The mood around the county would have had no impact on the approach the management and players would have taken towards yesterday, but you can’t just stick your head in the sand either. And I just felt that all the talk about Tipp was just what Brian Lohan needed to put the players fully on guard and have them absolutely tuned in.
It’s always easy for players to focus on the battle in those circumstances, and Clare won the battle hands down, both on the pitch and in their heads. Clare had all the damage done at half-time. Tipp were always going to come with a surge in the second half, especially with the breeze, but Clare controlled the match from the first minute.
Tipp were poor but, considering Clare were the last of the 11 teams in the Liam MacCarthy to enter the championship, you’d have to be impressed by how they were right at the pitch of the game from the word go. If a stranger who knew nothing about hurling walked into Semple Stadium, they’d have thought that it was Tipp who hadn’t played a serious game in four weeks.
You’d have to feel sorry for Brian Hogan, who made two brilliant saves from Peter Duggan and John Conlon, but there was no sign of a Tipp defender anywhere near him afterwards as Ian Galvin and Duggy pounced on the rebounds to stroke the sliotar past a stranded Hogan.
Structurally, Tipp were all over the shop at the back. If Clare were more tuned in, they could have had six goals in the first half. Duggy was on his own in acres of space at one stage but Cathal Malone never spotted him and he went for the point, which went wide.
Diarmuid Ryan was free in front of goal at another stage just before the break but the pass never came. Shane O’Donnell just took his point when if Clare really needed to raise a green flag, you’d have fancied O’Donnell to go hunting for it.
Injuries to John McGrath and James Quigley weren’t a help but Tipp still had no answers. You felt Duggy was going to be causing trouble for Quigley straight away, which he did, but Tipp were leaking so much water that the ship was going down after the second goal.
Clare seemed to be able to create space up front whenever they wanted, which may have been down in part to how overly focussed Tipp seemed to be on Tony Kelly. Seamus Kennedy did a fine job on TK, but it opened up all those other channels for the Clare forwards to profit in.
Clare did ride their luck early on, especially when Tipp had a couple of goal chances which may have altered the tone of the match. But would green flags at that stage have changed the complexion and pattern of the game? No.
Tipp’s second goal was a goalkeeping error but that couldn’t even give them a sufficient platform to build from with some momentum and the breeze behind them at that stage. Eibhear Quilligan made up for his mistake with a couple of decent saves, but Clare were also able to do what you’d have expected from them when Tipp made that late charge by tapping on a string of points.
Clare showed great maturity but you can’t underestimate the importance of having O’Donnell and Duggan back, with Duggy not having played since 2019 and with Shane missing last year’s championship with a horrendous concussion.
They’re both still young men who are in great shape. Both were full of running and full of power under the dropping ball, the kind of stuff that very few players can consistently give you in the modern game.
Their presence was all the more important again considering Clare are missing Aidan McCarthy, David Reidy and Mark Rodgers, three forwards who featured in the championship last summer. For the younger lads in the dressing room who would have seen how well Shane and Peter played in the 2018 championship, it’s a massive boost to have that quality around them now.
Despite the hype around the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening, yesterday’s game was the biggest match of the weekend. The stakes were huge because the losers were always going to be in huge trouble. And Tipp certainly find themselves in that space now.
Some of their defending, shot selection and shooting was horror-show stuff, but you just wondered too beforehand how much of a gauge last Sunday’s performance was. And, despite such a gripping display against Limerick on Saturday evening, there is that suspicion now that Waterford have been slightly over-hyped.
At their best, Waterford are a joy to watch. They’re flamboyant and free-flowing and loaded with quality players. They kept going and kept fighting on Saturday when the game was going away from them, but I still felt that the two late goals camouflaged the true reality of the evening – that Limerick are still a good bit ahead of them.
When they drill down into the minutiae, Waterford will accept as much. Apart from losing Kyle Hayes and Cian Lynch, and being down Seamie Flanagan and Peter Casey, you’d also have to say that Limerick are still probably a bit behind Waterford in terms of overall fitness.
Limerick fellas were flagging late on, which was understandable six days after playing Cork, whereas Waterford were still going strong. Yet where does that advantage lie in the long term? When Limerick get more load and game-time into their legs, they’re only going to get stronger and fitter, which will give them even more scope again to increase their advantage on their main pursuers.
John Kiely is in the perfect position now, having such a healthy score difference and a home game against Tipp to wrap up a Munster final spot. Along with giving Hayes, Lynch, Flanagan and Casey more time to rehab their injuries, Kiely also has the chance now to rest some of his main warriors and blood even more players in their final game against Clare.
Waterford tried everything to upset the champions but they could never really knock or hustle them out of their stride after such an impressive start. The host of match-ups they tried in their defence didn’t really work, especially Conor Prunty on Gearóid Hegarty. Aaron Gillane scorched anyone who came near him.
Waterford will take a lot from the game but they still have a lot to do - Clare certainly won’t fear them coming to Ennis in their final match, which could be a straight shoot-out to see who goes through into the top three.
I just haven’t been as impressed with Waterford as I thought I would be. They named a dummy team, they didn’t hold anything back, but it still wasn’t enough. On the other hand, Limerick’s credentials and status as All-Ireland favourites has been bumped up even more over the weekend.
From a long way-off, I felt Dublin could go to Wexford Park and win on Saturday, but I backed off from that hunch after the Dubs struggled so much against Laois the previous weekend. Dublin were impressive but, bar Rory O’Connor, Wexford’s forward line completely malfunctioned. Mark Fanning and the six defenders scored ten points out of 0-23. Lee Chin had nowhere near the impact either that he’d had off the bench against Galway.
As well as the plethora of wides, Fanning had a penalty saved, while Conor McDonald also blew a glorious chance of a goal in the first half. You can’t afford to be missing those opportunities in a game that was always likely to be so tight, which it absolutely was.
Wexford look like a team caught in no mans land between Davy Fitzgerald’s sweeper system and what Darragh Egan is trying to do. No matter what happens for the rest of this championship, I really think Darragh needs to change their style of play going forward, and put his own stamp on the team more.
It was another gripping weekend but one of the downsides of the round-robin is the potential it creates for destruction, which was evident in the massacres Galway and Kilkenny inflicted on Westmeath and Laois on Saturday.
The precedent set in Leinster in 2019 has added to that potential when Galway went out of the championship on scoring difference after not beating Carlow by enough. No team will make that mistake this year when they have their boot on the opposition’s throat.
There is no mercy in this championship. Anywhere.
