Anthony Daly: For me, it’s time for Clare to man up and deliver
Dessie Hutchinson scores Waterford's first goal during the All-Ireland SHC quarter-final against Clare at Páirc Uí Chaoimh last year. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
On my way to Thurles for the opening day of last year’s Munster Championship, the Clare-Limerick quarter-final, I pulled into a layby in Nenagh.
The exercise was as much to take the temperature and mood of a new winter championship than to somehow try and compare it to the boiling and eternal summer Sundays that we always associated with championship.
The day was dry, but it was cold. The atmosphere was dead. The road would usually be thronged but I nearly had the motorway to myself. Borris-Ileigh was like a ghost-town. When I landed in Thurles, I took a picture of the greyhound track where a lot of the Clarecastle lads traditionally meet before a championship game, having a pint there before heading into the ground. When I think back to that day now, I almost get the shivers, more so with the surreal emotions it triggers than any real lonesomeness or longing for that magical feeling we have all missed so much.
Now, that the summer is back, that the heat is rising off the ground, that pitches are pristine again, how do we all feel? How would you expect us to feel when we’re still locked out of grounds and can’t get in to see our own people represent us?
I fully understand why there aren’t big crowds in stadiums, but I don’t understand why there can’t be more than 200 people in Thurles tomorrow, or in Nowlan Park and Páirc Tailteann this afternoon and this evening.
I’m not talking about packing out stadiums like you see out in Budapest for the Hungary Euro 2020 matches but surely there should be allowances made for more than 200 people? Sure, if you went back to Lahinch or down to Tramore tomorrow, you could have thousands of people mingling close by on just a small section of those beaches.
Even when supporters are incrementally allowed back into matches, how many will get in? Who will get the tickets? Of course, family members will, and frontline workers should, but how will the rest of the tickets be distributed?
Fair enough if it’s a lottery system for ticket distribution but, if it isn’t, I can see that only leading to more frustration for people who are just desperate to reconnect to something so intrinsically important to their lives.
For now, all we have to keep us entertained is cold speculation, with hearsay and rumours acting like kindling on a damp fire that can’t really spark. You can even feel that amongst the public. Anytime I got a chance to chat to anyone in our pub last weekend about tomorrow’s game, only around three people were giving Clare a chance. I don’t know was that more down to people being honest or people being so detached from the action that they no longer feel as invested anymore.
I’m on a WhatsApp group with John Mullane, who posted earlier in the week that Brian Lohan must feel under massive pressure to deliver a result with the injuries Waterford have reportedly sustained to some big players.
“Pressure, Mul,” I replied, “I don’t see much of that up here.”
If anything, all the pressure is on Waterford. They were in the All-Ireland final last year. They gave Limerick their toughest game of the season in the Munster final. They were well beaten in the All-Ireland final but, anytime you get to the big dance and don’t walk away with the prize, you’re expected to at least dazzle the place again with new moves the following season.
On the other hand, I personally feel there is pressure on Clare. There have been excuses made for some of these lads for long enough but all of that is gone out the window now. For me, it’s time for Clare to man up and deliver.
When the sides met in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final, the big talking point afterwards was the injury to Tony Kelly early on. Tony was nearly untouchable up until that point of the championship, but he was effectively a non-factor afterwards because he was on one leg.
Waterford will meet a totally different animal tomorrow — especially if TK is as pumped as I expect him to be after last year’s disappointment — and trying to contain him will have exercised Liam Cahill’s mind a lot this week.
Calum Lyons picked up Tony last year but it wasn’t a real test, and certainly not the one Lyons will face tomorrow if that is his brief. I’m sure it will be, but Lyons was a revelation as an attacking player during the league, scoring five points from play alone against Galway. So does Cahill want to remove that bow from Waterford’s armory? Marking Tony wouldn’t totally prevent Lyons from rambling up the pitch and taking shots, but he’ll certainly have enough on his plate to consider shooting a priority as he did for most of the league campaign. If Liam decides it’s too much of a gamble, he may decide to chain Conor Gleeson to TK.
One of the biggest subplots to this game is the amount of innuendo around injuries. Shane O’Donnell is definitely out. There is talk that Cathal Malone — who was excellent during the league — may not play. Davy McInerney has very little done. Waterford have big injury concerns around Conor Prunty and Jamie Barron. If some of those guys aren’t fit enough, especially Barron, the dynamic of the game changes completely.
Whatever team Waterford name, they will fancy their chances. They will take a lot of confidence from the manner of last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final win, especially the way in how they streaked away from Clare in the last quarter. Waterford ended with 3-27 that afternoon. Anything close to that tomorrow will be enough again.
When I think back to the 1993 Munster final, I half consoled myself with the reality that we — apart from Jamesie — were all atrocious the same afternoon. When we narrowly lost the 1999 All-Ireland semi-final to Kilkenny, I was haunted by the four points Brian McEvoy scored off me. A goal is one incident, it can happen, but a raft of scores is a personal insult, or at least it should be.
That’s how a lot of the Clare defenders need to look at that game now from last year, because some of them conceded far too much; four Waterford players scored three or more scores from play; Dessie Hutchinson bagged 2-2.
The Clare half-back line was too static that day. They kind of hold the line to protect the full-back line. Kilkenny in their pomp had that tactic perfected with Brian Hogan sitting back, but you need to be more flexible now. Clare did the same against Limerick last year and Tom Morrissey and Gearóid Hegarty were coming deep and causing wreck all afternoon.
Clare have to have a much better gameplan this time around. I’m sure that will involve Aidan McCarthy coming deep from half forward to cover back before breaking at pace. Diarmuid Ryan offers Clare real athleticism and pace at half-back but you need that and more with the speed and intent of Waterford’s runners.
Clare have a totally new half-back line from last November but that line has to be about much more than just protecting their full-back line. Hutchinson is capable of causing chaos again but Clare just have to trust that Rory Hayes can get to grips with Hutchinson tomorrow, which Hayes eventually did in the second half last year.
Clare will need a big display — for however long it lasts — from Colm Galvin, especially if Barron plays. Waterford will look to build from that platform in the middle third, especially when there looks to have been a change of emphasis to more of a hard-running game this year.
I expect Waterford to win but I also expect Clare to step up and meet that challenge head on. When I first joined the Clare panel in 1989, I remember Cyril Lyons making a speech after the league was over. Clare didn’t have a great spring, but Cyril was only focused on the upcoming Munster Championship match against Waterford.
“That’s the day I’ll be judged,” said Cyril. “That’s the day we’ll all be judged.”
That line always lived with me. A lot of these Clare players have All-Ireland senior and U21 medals. A sizeable contingent of this Waterford group have All-Ireland minor and U21 medals. Yet none of that stuff will count for anything tomorrow. Because this is Judgement Day.
