Talk of crisis never lasts long on Brian Cody’s watch
Some of those injuries looked innocuous but the pitch conditions were so dangerous some of the injuries had to be serious.
Oisin O’Brien has a suspected torn cruciate ligament. Podge Collins was hobbling around at the end. He wanted to come off but he couldn’t because Clare had used up all their subs. Tipp finished with 14 men because they had emptied their bench by the time Donagh Maher got injured. Donagh took a hit to the head but bodies were breaking down on fields that looked as slippy as skating rinks. Cormac Murphy got a deserved red card for stomping down on Cillian Buckley in Nowlan Park but serial schemozzles were an inevitable by-product of the soft surfaces.
Fellas were milling in at speed and guys were dicing with season-ending injuries.
In another sense, the battleground conditions in Nowlan Park were ideal for the type of war-zone Kilkenny were looking to create against a young Cork team. Cork went toe-to-toe for around 40 minutes before Kilkenny turned the screw around the middle third.
TJ Reid and Richie Hogan were back to the performance levels you’d expect off them. Hogan was poor in the first two games but was given the freedom to come out the field more yesterday and he clipped five points from play. TJ’s workrate was animal. Colin Fennelly’s end-product wasn’t what it needed to be but was understandable in the context of such a long injury lay-off and he still needs to be watched like a hawk.
Richie Leahy’s sniping of three points from play was in sync with what Cody expects of the young players entrusted with the jersey and this just felt more like the Kilkenny we’ve all become accustomed to. Talk of a crisis never lasts long on Cody’s beat but he will still expect, and need, his troops to step up even more next weekend against Tipperary.
I’ve always felt Round 3 was a pivotal moment in the regular campaign but Round 4 looks even more treacherous now with four teams on two points. Will Tipp experiment on Saturday night because they are safely through to the quarter-finals? Or will Michael Ryan do what Cody would have always tried to do when he was in Ryan’s position – seek to pile more misery on a team scrambling for points? Mick should be thinking, ‘They’re vulnerable, they’re coming to our backyard, let’s twist the knife into their gut even more’. If that happens, Kilkenny will go to Dublin in their last game needing to win to stay out of a relegation final.
I was listening to Clare FM during the week and I heard Gerry O’Connor reiterating a point he has repeatedly made all spring – that Clare’s sole focus throughout the league is to assemble their best team, best 20 and best squad of 26 players for the Munster semi-final against Limerick in June.
Clare are still clearly searching for new faces. Ian Galvin came on and hit three points from play; Shane McNamara made his debut. Throwing lads in at the deep end against the All-Ireland champions is a big ask but the Clare management clearly wanted to use every opportunity as a gauge for Limerick in June.
Clare started so poorly they looked like a team in the middle of a hard block of training. John Conlon and Podge took a grip on the match. Clare got back into it before Tipp eased away again. Clare may not be overly worried with just one win in the bag but experimentation always tastes better if you can coat it in the sauce of two points.
Next weekend is a big one now for Clare, Dublin and Cork. Conor Lehane and Alan Cadogan were good yesterday but the last two matches have shown how much ground a lot of the young Cork players still have to make up. Ten minutes into the second-half, Cork had zero presence in their half- forward line.
Early on, they pulled Luke Meade from the corner and into the centre and they played the ball on the outside to Cadogan. That was working but then Cork lost their shape and Kilkenny started mopping up whatever ball was going into that sector. Once Kilkenny began controlling the terms, the match was over.
It was a bad day all round for Cork. I was in the RTÉ studio with Paddy Kelly and I told him around 1pm the Clare footballers would beat Cork in Cusack Park. ‘We’re on a roll again,’ I said. ‘We’re back to the days of Seamus Clancy and Tom Morrissey.’
Paddy smiled. He thought Cork would win but they didn’t. I stuck my head into a football production meeting for ‘Sunday Sport’ around 5pm. ‘Don’t say ye weren’t told ‘ I said to Paddy.
His reaction summed up another disappointing day for all Rebels. In both codes.
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