Kieran Shannon: Perhaps Clare better off without their main man — for a while

This spring – as much as it has felt more like a winter – Clare won the league without Tony Kelly. Others have stepped up and stepped in.

Tony Kelly of Clare during a training excercise before the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A match against Kilkenny. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Sometimes to win the main thing, you’re better off for a while without your main man.

Scanning through the match programme in Thurles on Saturday evening and popping in beforehand to a reception for the Clare team of 1977 and 1978 reminded us not just how rarely Clare win leagues and how regularly Kilkenny win them but how some of them were won.