Why the delay on new penalty rule?
It was animal stuff. US Navy Seals would hardly have been able for the torture. When Tipperary hammered us in the league semi-final a week later, that accusation of flogging the players was levelled at us in the aftermath.
There’s no doubt that it had an effect, but we were still way off the pace. Waterford have probably been the outstanding team this spring but the other results over this weekend shows that playing at that lower level slows down the process.
Some teams have made up the ground in the past. Cork, Dublin and Limerick won provincial titles out of 1B in the last two seasons, but has it cost them later on in the year? You could say it has because none of them have won an All-Ireland.
Limerick would have targeted their game on Saturday against Dublin but you cannot just target games at such short notice. Clare and Limerick are meeting in the first big game of the summer on May 24th and they have had that date fixed in their sights since the Munster Championship draw last October.
Limerick have eight weeks now to try and make up the ground they lost but I’d still rather be ahead in the chase — as Clare appear to be after yesterday’s display at Nowlan Park. Clare may have been relegated, but they finished the league on a huge positive with the quality of their performance.
I fancied a big display from Clare. Without sounding condescending, most supporters do not realise what goes on in the sporting mind, and the process which guides the mindset in that environment.
Kilkenny were always going to look more intimidating yesterday but anyone who thought Clare would just roll over because Kilkenny were rolling out their big guns does not fully understand the mentality which governs so much at this level.
Deep down, Clare probably thought Galway wouldn’t do them any favours last week and they were gearing themselves up for yesterday. That was the day they had to be ready for. And they were.
These Clare players have huge pedigree and belief but yesterday’s display was also defined by a fierce display of unity. Their whole demeanour and body language was top class. The way they used the ball and repeatedly picked out Shane O’Donnell was straight from the training ground.
There was far more method to their play than in Nowlan Park last week but part of that extends back to the mentality which they carried into the game eight days ago.
That increased energy was visible from the difference in Davy Fitzgerald’s demeanour on the line both days. In a positive way, he was the most animated he has been all season yesterday.
There was far more cohesion to Clare’s play than Kilkenny’s but you still have to give Cody’s side credit for digging out the result. They are still the great survivors.
Mindset is absolutely huge. Limerick will be getting stick now for the paucity of their display against the Dubs but TJ Ryan and his players have to keep believing in themselves.
Back when Dublin got hammered by Tipp in 2013, we were still playing ‘constipated hurling’ — as Ger Loughnane termed it — when we met Wexford in the championship seven weeks later. We just kept going, kept believing in ourselves, kept adhering to the process before eventually getting there.
You can still see how some Dublin players are working their way through that staged process. The Schutte brothers, Mark and Paul, are taking their game to a new level. Mark is a real stallion.
When he gets the ball in his hand, the pace and power he has is phenomenal. Other players are also really bedding down in the new set-up. Cian O’Callaghan, Chris Crummy and Niall McMorrow look primed to make the step up to now to becoming starters.
Meanwhile, Waterford have been outstanding all season. Wexford will take a lot from yesterday against Cork. So will Offaly from their second half display against Tipp.
Yet it’s also funny too how little things, often outside your control, can dictate part of your direction. When Clare got a penalty yesterday and Tony Kelly went for goal, the GAA’s decision-making last week possibly cost Clare their 1A status.
The new one-on-one rule was brought in at Congress in February but it was recently decided to push its implementation out to early April. They said they wanted to give teams more times to adjust.
Bloody hell, what more time does anyone need to get their head around that it’s the striker against the goalkeeper? Why is it in for the semi-finals and not the quarter-finals? Are we saying now that the league semi-finals are more important than the relegation final?
To me it was a complete fudge. And a major mistake.
