Hurling is the game that just keeps on giving
Whatever happens that day will almost be irrelevant in the context of this wager.
Yesterday showed that these teams might meet again in August or September.
That’s the standard they are at now. This bet could stay rolling for a years yet.
This was an enthralling match. The people who really missed out were the 5,000 from last week who opted not to show yesterday.
They probably expected more of the same lukewarm dish served up in the first half last week and the GAA could surely have reduced the entrance fee but no two games are ever the same and this match simmered all afternoon before really coming to the boil at the death.
Hurling is the game that just keeps on giving.
From the very start, there was way less tension in and around the ground compared to last week, which probably contributed to a more open match. The match was very tactical but some of the shooting and score-taking was out of the highest drawer.
It proved too that hurling can deliver a game of this standard even when both teams set up with a sweeper. Hitting the last four scores underlines how much Clare deserved to win but it also showed how important belief and momentum are in big games like these. Nobody embodied that belief more than Tony Kelly. He hadn’t hit a free all day. Davy Fitzgerald said on the radio afterwards that he’d have been shot if Tony missed that equalising free because he told him to take it. He nailed it.
Then TK was suddenly over the far side of the pitch for the puckout before doing what TK does in those situations.
Waterford are entitled to feel aggrieved. Jamie Barron appeared to be fouled before Tony was. Derek McGrath and Dan Shanahan were apoplectic when the free wasn’t awarded. With the way Patrick Curran was hitting the frees into the breeze, he would surely have put Waterford two points up and over the line.
The Waterford management weren’t impressed either when Kelly’s free was waved over because they were convinced it was wide. Whether it was or not, this goes back to my point last week about HawkEye. It was trialled eight days ago. I don’t know if the system was in place again yesterday but it will be rolled out in two weeks time for Cork and Tipp. What would be wrong with having a live trial set up for yesterday? A national title was at stake.
When the game goes to the wire, everything that happens in the last five minutes get magnified by how much some of those decisions or incidents dictate the outcome. Aaron Cunningham looked to have been fouled by Noel Connors earlier in the match and a free out was given to Waterford.
Jake Dillon looked to have been fouled at another stage when in a good attacking position. Numerous other similar incidents were lost in the fluid instability of the match because they didn’t happen down the home straight.
Winning a National league for the first time in 38 years is a massive boost but I don’t think this will give Clare any massive advantage in the same way that the defeat won’t leave any psychological scars for Waterford. If anything, it could leave them more pumped up for June 5th. I heard Patrick Curran interviewed by Pat McAuliffe on radio afterwards and he was very level-headed. Brendan Bugler was also very measured and balanced in his radio interview. That’s the kind of leadership Clare need now in the next four weeks.
fter the game, I saw John Conlon walking off the pitch in one of those protective boots. That’s not ideal a month out from the championship match because Conlon’s importance to the team was glaringly obvious again. Tadgh de Burca hit the world of ball. It was difficult for Shane O’Donnell to win possession with that wall in front of him but a fit John Conlon and a healthy David McInerney for June 5th would really hand Clare a massive boost.
It was huge for Clare to be able to win without those two totems but, equally, Waterford should definitely have Pauric Mahoney and Maurice Shanahan to call on in a month. Mahoney’s injury is clearly taking longer to heal than expected. Maybe Derek was holding something back yesterday with Maurice but there is nothing between these teams. It just goes to show Division 1B is no disadvantage to winning the league outright.
Clare just got that break yesterday. Maybe Patricia Mulqueen, mother of Clare selector Louis, who died Saturday, flashed that sliver of good fortune from heaven.
The ending was certainly, from a Clare perspective, straight out of heaven.
