A good day for McIntyre as Tribe get back to basics

THE Galway management took my advice about the elaborate warm-up they had in Tullamore on the night they lost against Dublin.

In Offaly, they had more cones than you’d see on a major roadworks but in Salthill on Saturday evening they went back to basics and did more hurling in their warm-up than they had in 70 minutes in their Leinster semi-final defeat.

In the game itself they also went back to basics, to good old-fashioned hurling, and to good old-fashioned team selection by picking the best players in their proven best positions.

I’m talking particularly about Shane Kavanagh at full-back and Tony Óg Regan at centre-back, moves which shored up the middle. We had Fergal Moore back at corner-back, his best position, and while I feel David Collins is better suited to the wing, he did very well in the corner.

Up front we had Ger Farragher and Iarla Tannian back from injury, both were picked, and both made good impressions. Also, and very noticeably, John McIntyre kept a low profile in the last few weeks. He handled the Dublin loss very well and got his team right. From a manager’s point of view, that’s the most important job of all. I know he’s a media man by trade but you can’t be all things to all people. There was a change of attitude in how Galway approached this game, a change of mind in the team selection, a change of tactics. All worked to their advantage and now that they’re back on track, they are again a formidable force. No one will fancy meeting them from here on.

I want to talk now about the team that facilitated that massive turnaround — Clare. My biggest worry for Ger O’Loughlin’s team heading for Salthill — and I also said this on Saturday — was their defence. And two days after the game I’m still completely baffled. When the Clare team was announced I was flabbergasted to see that there was no change from the side that had conceded four easy goals to Tipperary a few weeks ago. I was hoping it was a ruse, that there would be some switches before the throw-in but there weren’t. It took until half-time before a change was made when Brendan Bugler was introduced while 63 minutes had elapsed before Gerry Quinn was sprung from the bench.

I wouldn’t mind if the defence was good but it was obvious even to those strolling the promenade in Salthill two miles away that this Clare defence was in trouble.

What coaching is going on there? Second to the ball, ball-watching, no man-marking against dangerous forwards — these are all basic errors. The first thing you do when you take over a team is try to build a strong defence, and this applies at any level.

This management team has been in place for two years and I can’t understand how they haven’t found either a full-back or a centre-back.

Are we gone back to the bad old days in Clare of being beaten by three goals by Tipperary and feeling good about ourselves, a 17-point hammering by Galway being acceptable?

Because I don’t accept it. A team in as much trouble as Clare were in — before a ball was ever pucked — should have been changed. Had Galway really been on song they could have finished with eight goals. Not good enough.

You have to feel sorry for the forwards. If someone said beforehand Clare would score 20 points, you would have felt they had a chance of winning the game. But when you’re conceding what that defence is conceding, no attack is going to get you out of trouble.

I might be accused here of painting a very gloomy picture of Clare. It’s the real picture.

Whoever is in charge of Clare for the next few years, this has now got to be the number one thing, the priority — get a solid properly coached defence in place and build from there.

No matter how good your forwards are, if you’re not good at the back you’re not going to win.

But a good day for Galway hurling. What John McIntyre has to do now is ensure victory doesn’t go to their heads.