Anthony Daly: On form you’d fancy Tipp, but on trust you’d give the nod to Clare
OLD RIVALS: Shane O'Donnell of Clare is tackled by Conor Stakelum of Tipperary during the 2022 Munster Championship. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
I got a text from my great buddy John Mullane during the week, where you could nearly detect the excitement through John’s words, characters and emojis.
Even though his own county are playing the All-Ireland champions in Thurles on Sunday, Mullane was licking his lips at the prospect of coming to Ennis to do co-commentary on Clare-Tipperary. “Got the call,” he said. “I can’t wait.”
He didn’t say it but the bould John was also probably issuing a slight dig that he would be in Ennis and I wouldn’t. I’m on The Sunday Game Live but the broadcast is coming from Dr Hyde Park so I’ll be watching the game from a TV monitor above in Roscommon.
It comes with the job. I’ve been there before. I remember one time covering a Clare game from Castlebar with Henry Shefflin. I was trying to be discreet afterwards and stay for a few minutes of the football, but Henry just got up and walked straight out.
If I had my way, and the money, I’d nearly hire a helicopter to get me from Roscommon to Clare for the second half because it’s tough to be missing the one game I loved most as a player. Maybe part of that was down to the intense rivalry we had with Tipperary at the time, and how much of an event Clare-Tipp was back then, because it was absolutely electric to be part of.
Clare-Tipp is always a big game for Clare anyway but I’m not sure if it has the same allure any more, especially in Tipp. From what I’m hearing, I don’t think the ticket uptake has been massive in Tipp. There were still plenty of terrace tickets available earlier in the week but there has still been a good buzz around the place in Clare.
A good deal of the excitement stems from intrigue and not really knowing what to expect from our boys. We’re hopeful and confident but the intrigue is still loaded with concern because we’re really trusting the boys on what they did last year as opposed to this season.
We just don’t know how Clare are going. You hear nothing coming out of any camp. Clare played Galway in a challenge game recently, which was, by all accounts, fairly hairy, with as much fighting as hurling. Aidan McCarthy got a late goal to win the game but how could you make any assessment of where Clare are at – or even Galway – from hearsay and second-hand info that may, or may not, be true?
Shane O’Donnell is reportedly going well, despite not playing a single minute in the league, while Clare supporters are hoping that some of the team’s key players that had no great form in the league, especially Diarmuid Ryan, Peter Duggan and Cathal Malone, have rediscovered it now.
I didn’t find much joy in the league overall, and less from a Clare perspective. Any time I went to Clare games, I came away disillusioned, almost asking myself why I even bothered because Clare seemed either disinterested or just not at the races, full stop.
That’s fine. I was a manager myself and you have to prioritise what you feel is necessary. Obviously Brian Lohan and his management feel that, similar to last year, the league almost had to be sacrificed for Clare to try and reach the levels they found during last year’s Munster Championship.
Clare didn’t have a good league last year either but there seemed to be far less of a threat from Tipp in Clare’s opening game in 2022 than there is from Tipp now. Even though Limerick chastised them in the league semi-final, it took all Limerick’s time to put manners on them after Tipp had really got into their faces in the first half. Cork were the only team to beat Limerick in the league but that was on the opening night and you’d still have to say that Tipp pushed Limerick harder than anyone else.
On form, you’d have to fancy Tipp, but on trust, you’d still be giving the nod to Clare. We also have a great record in the round robin but Tipp have been very aggressive and they will come to Ennis locked and loaded and ready for war. On the other hand, forewarned is forearmed and Clare will be fully ready for the battle. Can Liam Cahill have made this much of an impact on Tipp after just six or seven months in the job? He will feel he has but I’m not so sure if that jump Tipp had on every team in terms of fitness and staying power will be as obvious now. I fancy Clare to shade it.
Looking ahead to Limerick-Waterford, one of the most fascinating subplots is what Waterford and Davy Fitz will come up with to try and halt this green machine. John Kiely even hinted at as much this week by openly stating that Limerick are fully aware that the mother of all curveballs is probably going to be tossed in their direction.
John is right but a lot of those balls have been fired at Limerick in the past and they’ve done more than just return them – they’ve knocked them straight back out of the park.
What can Waterford really do anyway? They can’t get too radical when the only place they may have been able to try something was on a training camp when they were basing it off internal games, when every player knew what was happening. Furthermore, the tactical flexibility required for something radical has been seriously curtailed when Waterford don’t have Austin Gleeson.
For me, the only thing that can take down Limerick is their own complacency. We may have been guilty of hyping up the machine on our own Irish Examiner podcast by talking about Limerick potentially winning six in a row. Gearóid Hegarty referred to the crazy talk around that subject this week too so Limerick are fully aware how dangerous that chatter can be.
In any case, Limerick don’t do complacency. There is less of a chance for that insidious disease to set in too when the competition for places has never been more ferocious. They don’t have any fresh injury concerns. Limerick look primed. I fancy the All-Ireland champions here with a few points to spare.
If Galway are really serious about making a right push in this championship, they need to make a big statement in Pearse Stadium on Saturday afternoon. It’s hard to know where both teams are at but Wexford seemed to take a right hiding in that recent challenge game against Tipp that got headlines for all the wrong reasons over the disgraceful and disgusting racial abuse directed towards Lee Chin.
If Wexford have all their best players available, they are a decent match-up for Galway. If they haven’t, they’re not. Wexford seem to have a full hand but I think it would be a huge stretch here for them to get anything out of this match.
Kilkenny will take care of business against Westmeath but the real banana skin game of the weekend is the opening match in Corrigan Park between Antrim and Dublin. Antrim will smell the opportunity here big time but sometimes that can go against teams in that position unless they are mentally pitch perfect. Dublin are fully aware too of the threat this game poses and the lethal implications defeat might have in their bid to get into that top three in Leinster.
The big advantage Dublin possess is having Micheál Donoghue in their corner, especially with his experience. Despite losing so much experience over the last year, Dublin also have enough hardened campaigners to get the job done.
It’s an intriguing match to kick off a championship we’ve all been waiting so long for. Especially John Mullane.
