Anthony Daly: The buzz in Clare is akin to All-Ireland final week
Up for grabs: Clare Captain Tony Kelly and Limerick Captain Declan Hannon with the Mick Mackey Cup on the River Shannon separating Clare and Limerick ahead of the launch of the Mick Mackey Cup.
I got a delivery off DJ Daly’s in Pallinskenry during the week, flags and bunting, all Clare of course. The Daly family have been making hurleys and selling merchandise for years. It was great to make that call again because I hadn’t dealt with The Daly’s since our sports-shop closed down in 2011.
My priority after the delivery was trying to get flag poles for the flags because I wanted the pub decked out in as much saffron and blue colours as I could get away with. Yet I was also just keeping in synch with the rhythm and mood of the county because the place is nearly gone as mad as All-Ireland final week in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2013.
I was at a meeting of the 1995-1997 players group in the Temple Gate hotel on Tuesday night and it was a brilliant experience to drive up Abbey street and along O’Connell street and through the technicoloured hues that this Munster final has inspired.
Even the old traditional colour hot-spots from the 1990s, along Clon road and out the Tulla road, were flowing with saffron and blue and all the good vibes that come with those images. We had a taste of that stuff back in 2018 when we reached an All-Ireland semi-final but the mood is broadly similar again to what it was like before the 2013 All-Ireland final. And it is just pure magic around the county.
It’s amazing how everything can flip so quickly. It wasn’t so long ago when the core narrative around Clare hurling was defined by constant negativity, but that has now been replaced by huge positivity.
The draw for the ‘Win a house in Lahinch’ competition took place on Monday evening and it pulled in over one million euros, the majority of which will go towards the completion of the Centre-of-Excellence in Caherlohan.
Throughout last week, I was trying to promote on social media the drive to sell as many tickets as possible before May 31st. A year ago, I’m not sure I’d have been that inclined towards anything to do with the county board. But the whole mood and dynamic has completely changed under Kieran Keating’s leadership.
During the week, the 1995 and 1997 Clare squads were given the option to buy two tickets for tomorrow’s game from the board. We had never had such a gesture till 2022.
There is a feeling now that you’d do anything for the current squad and board. Even at the ‘Club Clare’ recent golf classics in Lahinch and Doonbeg, the feelgood factor around those events was incredible. When you think back to last summer when our minors were beaten by Cork by 40 points, there’s no way you could have imagined the mood would turn so quickly, and the county would be suffused with such hype, hope and anticipation so quickly again.
This game has gripped the imagination of both counties, not just because the rivalry is so intense but because Clare and Limerick currently look like the two best teams in the country. The build-up has been manic; 11,000 terrace tickets sold out in 11 minutes; Ianróid Eireann having to put on extra trains; busses packed to capacity. Madness, but great madness.
Limerick are well used to all of this by now but the green army is even more intent on powering on the green machine with Clare in the other corner. Conversely, Clare supporters would give anything to derail the juggernaut when it looks unstoppable.
In Clare, there is something about this team at the moment that we are all buying into. They’re hurling with a real freedom, where hard work is their baseline requirement, but they’re free in everything else they do. There are no restrictions on shooting or trying to make that extra pass in defence. Everything is flowing as fluently as anyone could have expected it would at the outset of the championship.
Limerick though, will provide the ultimate test of where this is all headed because there is no better crowd to erect a dam and drown out hype and hope. Clare can just aspire to be the best they can be because they can’t afford to get too caught up in what Limerick might do. Clare just have to stick to their own strengths because they won’t lack belief in what they’re capable off.
Limerick are not 1-4 favourites for nothing but if Clare can retain their focus, they’re in with a brilliant chance. The build-up may not have been as wild as it was back in our day but it has still been fairly seismic, which makes it all the harder again for players to insulate themselves from all the madness.
They’re just lucky to have Brian Lohan as their manager because, as a player, Lohan was always a master at keeping the outside out. Clare will probably need something a little bit special, like Peter Duggan netting a couple of goals, or Shane O’Donnell bagging 1-2 and being fouled for a sack of frees. That’s a tall ask but it’s in the locker of these guys.
Tony Kelly will need to be almost untouchable again. Limerick probably had a plan for him three weeks ago but it made zero difference and it’s difficult to know how Limerick can really shut Tony down with their system.
They want to smother space with deep-lying half-forwards and midfielders but you need something a little extra to stop Tony finding those pockets, and then thriving in them. Having had the luxury of being able to sit Tony out against Waterford should have him even more primed now to cut loose. Again.
The battle between the Clare half-back line and the Limerick half-forward line will be fascinating again because it will be another intriguing game of cat-and-mouse. Limerick want to create that space in front of their full-forward line but that carries risks when you have guys like Diarmuid Ryan and David McInerney so capable of punishing them on the scoreboard at the other end.
You need to be able to hurt Limerick when you press them down the field but the luxury Clare have in pushing their defenders up the field is the pace they have in the full-back line. Rory Hayes and Paul Flanagan have been playing super stuff while Conor Cleary has cemented his status as one of Clare’s great defensive warriors, and someone who won’t give up scores easily to this Limerick attack, This is still Limerick’s to lose. They have all the big-match experience and they will handle the occasion. Everyone knows that they’re capable of blowing any opposition away. If Limerick can find that kind of mojo, they’ll be very hard to stop. They will expect to perform and if they hit the heights of last years all Ireland final could anyone beat them but as the song goes
THE dynamic is totally different in Croke Park this evening but it would still be wrong to underestimate just how much is at stake for Kilkenny anytime they play Galway in a Leinster final. I saw that myself first hand as Dublin manager in 2013 when Brian Cody said in our dressing room after we beat them in that year’s Leinster semi-final replay that it was to their shame that they let Bob O’Keeffe out of the province and across the Shannon the previous year.
The famous, or infamous, handshake aside, Henry Shefflin’s presence as Galway manager has surely added to that absolute desire to halt Galway’s quest to pilfer a trophy that Cody feels they have no real right to claim.
That might sound outlandish considering how much Galway’s presence has added to the Leinster championship over the last decade. But that’s not the way Cody thinks. It’s just one of the many reasons Cody gripped Henry’s hand so tightly and fixed him with that stare after they met in Salthill.
Galway have been very consistent, while you’d have to be concerned with how Wexford turned over Kilkenny in Wexford Park, especially when that defeat could have ended Kilkenny’s summer. The injury to Huw Lawlor was shown up through the performance of Conor McDonald and Lawlor is a massive loss again here.
You can never underestimate Cody and Kilkenny in a Leinster final but Galway also look to be a different team under Henry. Yet until Galway come out and win another All-Ireland, you’ll still associate that bit of fragility with them.
From talking to a lot of Galway supporters, they’re still worried. But why would you be worried if you’re a serious All-Ireland contender? You could ask that same question of Kilkenny. Will this match show us that there is a serious contender to challenge the Munster powerbase? I’m not so sure. I expect Galway to shade a tight contest but I wouldn’t be surprised if the stripey men walk away with Bob O’Keeffe again.
The curtain raiser this evening is another massive match with so much at stake. The thought of losing a third Joe McDonagh final in-a-row is unthinkable for Kerry and they look primed to make sure that doesn't happen. With Stephen Molumphy’s background in the army, the team look fitter, stronger and better conditioned than they ever have been before.
Kerry will be more ready for Croke Park than ever but you still feel that Antrim are the better team. Antrim have been very inconsistent in this competition but if they are at their best, you’d fancy them to get it done again and secure a second Joe McDonagh in three years.
