Clare and Waterford playing game of risk and reward over injuries

Before the 1995 National League final against Kilkenny, my back was in bits. I wanted to play. I convinced management I was fit to play. I thought we would win. I wanted to lift the cup. 

Yet less than an hour before the match, I was above on a physio table with Colum Flynn flexing and manipulating my frame like a contortionist. I wasn’t getting any respite. I knew I was in big trouble.

I was. Adrian Ronan cleaned me out. I wouldn’t take anything away from Ronnie.He was that good and clever that he could clean you any day he played for Kilkenny. He was the type of small, nippy player I always struggled with.

Ronnie gave me a fair and square roasting but taking the field injured that day was one of my few regrets in hurling.

A week later, Ger Loughnane and Tony Considine had a right go at me. They told me never to play injured again. Not only was I not doing myself justice, they said, I was letting down my team-mates and codding management as well.

Loughnane knew I wasn’t right. He could see me grimacing above on the physio table beforehand. He didn’t make the call to pull me but I think Davy Fitzgerald and Derek McGrath have some massive calls to make tomorrow regarding some of their players.

Thurles will be like a furnace. The pace will be electric. A fit man might struggle to stay the pace. An unfit player, a guy not as sharp as he looks or thinks, could ultimately decide the outcome in a reverse way.

John Conlon, Maurice Shanahan and Pauric Mahoney are huge players. All three have had their injury concerns. The word is that at least two of the three will start.

Conlon is only back in full training over a week. He played a full internal training game in Cusack Park last Saturday. I wouldn’t doubt John for a second but, if he does start, it’s hard to see him lasting anywhere near the 70 minutes. There might be only 35 or 40 minutes in him but maybe Clare are willing to stack their chips on Conlon doing the business in that time. If he plays, much of Clare’s gameplan will revolve around him. If he cracks in an early goal, like he did in the league quarter and semi-finals against Tipp and Kilkenny, will that be his job done? It could be if it teases Waterford out of their shell.

Mahoney apparently played well in a recent challenge game against Limerick while Waterford were on a training camp in Fota Island. That’s another big call for Derek with Mahoney not having played a big game in over a year. Yet has he been saving the Ballygunner man all year for today?

Clare have been dogged with injuries all year. They are without three big players today — David McInerney, Conor Ryan and Aaron Cunningham. They are huge losses but the biggest plus about the league campaign — apart from the obvious of winning it — was that it allowed, and forced, Clare to try new players. David Fitzgerald was a huge find. Oisín O’Brien did really well. So did Aaron Shanagher, who has reportedly been on fire in training in the last two weeks.

It’s hard to ignore that kind of form. Two weeks before Dublin played Cork in the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final, I took the squad out to Carton House one Friday. We played a full match on a carpet of a pitch and Mark Schutte destroyed Peter Kelly, taking him for 2-2.

I went up to PK afterwards. I said: “Look, there are four forwards fighting for two positions here, I don’t need you doing an off-night so one guy can have an advantage over another fella.” PK turned around looked me square in the eye and said: “Dalo, you try marking Mark Schutte at the moment. He is on fire.”

Mark was a weapon for us that year. We probably should have started him against Cork but we decided to hold him in reserve before bringing him in to do damage late on. We didn’t get the chance when reduced to 14 men.

Sometimes, all the best plans in the world don’t work out for one reason or another. I’m sure Davy and Derek have contingency plans for every eventuality today but do you just go with form ahead of a big name who has done it?

Tom Devine caused Clare big problems at stages of both league finals. He could have had at least two goals. He is also reportedly tearing up the place in training. He gave some Clare backs enough of it in the replay but will Derek be saying now: “Patrick Curran is the man for Patrick O’Connor with the way he rounded him and stuck the ball in the net early in the replay.” The replay was far more open than everyone expected but I expect to see a similar level of attrition today to what we saw in the drawn game. You can’t plan for a league final. You only know who you are facing two weeks out. It was a dour tactical battle. Everyone was bound to cut loose a bit more the following week because they all knew a bigger day was coming.

By God, since the end of last October, the 5th of June was the only day really etched in the minds of all these players and the management teams.

If an early score like Curran’s goal in the replay does come again, we could be in for another ripper. But if it doesn’t, and there isn’t any goal scored in the first half, it will be very hard for both both teams to throw off the shackles and break away from what they believe in. The stakes are just too high.

Clare will have taken great confidence from how they won that replay but I’m sure Waterford will have looked closely at the reasons why, and how, they surrendered the initiative and momentum they had. It was surprising to see Waterford cough up a six-point lead. You wouldn’t think that was possible with the system they play but maybe they’re not used to being in that position, and they didn’t handle it was well as they should have.

While Clare were celebrating a title not won in 38 years on the pitch, Waterford were licking their wounds in another corner. I’m sure that feeling is still raw. That fuel has been stored in their tank over the last month but there are ways and means to ensure it drives you and doesn’t risk flooding the engine.

Despite what everyone else thought afterwards, I always believed we channeled our frustration properly for the 1998 Munster final replay against Waterford. Yet we thought the world and its mother was against us afterwards and we got distracted. Distractions can kill you. The only motivation you need is to do your job properly.

I expect today to be very physical and confrontational, both on field and on the line. You saw Davy Fitz use the phrase earlier in the week about this being ‘wolf on wolf’. It will be. Packs will be roaming everywhere, hunting the ball and anything that moves like savages.

Given everything that has gone into this game, especially with the history from the two league finals, the stakes are really ramped up now. There is nothing between these two teams. There is so little that an interpretation of a rule from James Owens could decide the match.

The margin will probably be that tight. Waterford will seriously fancy their chances but if Conlon is fit, and ready to start, he could do enough in 35 minutes to get Clare in a position to force Waterford to chase the match. If he does, I think Clare will win.