Banner won it on the line as well as on the field
In stark comparison to what was happening across the Shannon, there was no hype in Clare, with a lid kept on all the expectation. That doesn’t mean there isn’t expectation, because there is. People are beginning to realise there’s the makings of an exceptional side here. As I said on Saturday, youth is a reason to hope not an excuse for failure and that showed again. The Clare youngsters absolutely blossomed in Croke Park yesterday.
I was in Limerick and the hype was unbelievable. I’m not talking about the players. But the supporters were even writing songs about winning the Liam MacCarthy Cup. What use is that to your team? Do you really think you’re doing your own players a favour by carrying on like that?
Limerick won the Munster title, and fair dues to them, but we know now if we didn’t know it before that the provincial title, either in Munster or Leinster, doesn’t mean a damned thing anymore.
A back-door team is going to win the All-Ireland title this year, a back-door team won last year, a back-door team won in 2010. That’s three in the last four years.
It now brings into question the whole system. You win a Munster or Leinster title, the team and county is on a high but you have to wait five weeks for the All-Ireland semi-final. In the meantime the side you’re going to meet has been quietly building up a head of steam. They have been playing and winning on a regular basis. Looked at objectively, everything is stacked in their favour.
This is not to take anything from Clare. That was an outstanding performance yesterday. But Limerick were never in this game. They were first out on the pitch, got a good cheer from the tens of thousands who had travelled not just in hope but in the belief that this was going to be their day.
Looking at them in the warm-up, I felt they were flat, but then Clare came out and you were nearly expecting them all to head straight down to the goals and have a belt off the crossbar. They were absolutely bouncing.
They were ready and that goes back again to what I said at the start. There was a structure about Clare yesterday, just as there was in their quarter-final win over Galway. For that, you must give huge credit to Davy and to those he has put around him.
What was wrong with Limerick? They had seen what Clare did against Galway, knew Patrick Donnellan was going to be an extra man at the back but it looked like they didn’t plan for that. They had Tom Condon as their own sweeper and what a waste of a very good man-marker he was. Why didn’t they push a man forward on Donnellan and play an extra attacker?
Also, how many frees did Declan Hannon miss before they switched free-takers? I don’t blame Declan. Any man can have a bad day. I blame the Limerick management. When a free-taker is having an off day you’re not helping him by leaving him. That’s only destroying his confidence which is going to affect his general play as well . That’s what happened. John Allen and his selectors did Declan no favours yesterday. I’ve said many times before, the sideline is no place for loyalty. Anyone can tell you afterwards what you should have done, the manager has to do it there and then. Limerick failed on that front yesterday.
Clare didn’t show loyalty, and a perfect example of that was the replacement of John Conlon by Fergal Lynch. Limerick had made a change at half-time, brought Paudie O’Brien to midfield to improve that sector and had Donal O’Grady at wing-back where he was starting to dominate. Off came Conlon, in came Lynch. That’s what you do on the sideline. You don’t delay. You can’t delay. You make the hard decisions and you make them at the time.
Limerick lost this on the line yesterday but they also lost it on the field. Their attack was especially poor. Clare won it on the line and they won it on the field also. They defended in droves.
David McInerney was my man of the match, a real Tulla terrier, and he reminded me of a man who used to wear a red helmet, Brian Lohan (I’m sure there are more comparisons going to be made in the coming weeks), from the team of the ’90s.
They also defended up front in droves. Three of the starting five forwards didn’t score a point but by God did they all contribute. Then again why would you need scoring forwards when you have a midfielder like Tony Kelly who notches four from play?
Clare are now in an All-Ireland final and it will be outstanding for the county. The job that was done in keeping the hype down for the semi-final but that effort must now be doubled.
The supporters especially. Just enjoy these days and these weeks, leave everything else to the management.
