Anthony Daly: Outrageously, the snipers in Clare are already lining up Davy Fitzgerald

Davy Fitzgerald is already unfairly under pressure as Clare manager, writes Anthony Daly.

In the last few years, Dublin have suffered some desperate defeats at the hands of Kilkenny: Last year’s Leinster final, the 2011 Leinster final, the 2010 provincial semi-final, and the capitulation at the same stage in Portlaoise in 2012, when Kilkenny were Panzer-like in their demolition of the Dubs.

Yet, what is conveniently forgotten among all that debris, are the handful of good results Dublin have mined: The 2011 league final, the 2013 drawn and replayed Leinster semi-finals, the 2009 Leinster final, when the Dubs had them really rattled. You also have last year’s league win in Parnell Park, the 10-goal epic in Nowlan Park in 2012, which we lost on the line, and some Kilkenny lad jumped the wire, hopped on my back afterwards and hit me a dunt.

Dublin and Ger Cunningham won’t be getting carried away with yesterday’s victory in Nowlan Park, but the manner of it didn’t surprise me. Dublin have a lot of respect for Kilkenny but they have regularly put it up to the All-Ireland champions. Some of the older lads might have some baggage, but the younger generation certainly don’t. Most of those guys have beaten them at underage and don’t have the hang-ups other counties have with the black and amber jersey.

In all honesty, Ger and the lads would probably have targeted yesterday’s game as winnable, given the team Kilkenny had out, and the broad range of options Dublin have. They don’t really have anyone involved in the Fitzgibbon semi-finals at the weekend, and they don’t have the raft of injuries that has blighted other teams. Ger and his backroom team might be heavily experimenting with the structure of the side, but they have the strongest squad in the league at the moment and they look ideally set up to win the competition. Dublin don’t win too much and I think they have a great opportunity now that they should just go for.

Kilkenny never like to lose, but when Brian Cody looks back on this match, he will take a lot of positives from it. With two men sent off and a potential hiding staring them in the face, Kilkenny did what Kilkenny do; they dug in and ground out something, which could yet be the difference, given how tightly balanced this league is and how critical scoring difference may be.

Joe Lyng could have no complaints with his red card, but Cody is right to feel aggrieved with John Joe Farrell’s sending off. Incidents like that cause so much controversy in hurling when you see the inconsistency in how the rules are applied. Look at the bullet Patrick Horgan dodged on Saturday night?

The snipers are already lining up Davy Fitzgerald in Clare after their successive defeats. Some of the reaction on social media over the weekend was outrageous and way too personal. When Clare won the All-Ireland in 1997, nobody mentioned that we were relegated in the league that year. Clare have had a poor start, but it’s ridiculous how some people are getting carried away.

If they lose to Tipp in two weeks, they probably will be facing a relegation final, especially with their scoring difference. I’d expect the guts of 10,000 in Cusack Park and a big response from Clare to go with it. In my opinion, it’s the perfect opportunity to ignite their season. A win there, another win against Dublin in their next match and suddenly they’re going to Kilkenny in their last game looking to secure a quarter-final. It might sound optimistic, at the moment but look at how Tipp turned their season around last year with just one result against Dublin in their final regular league match.

The one concern about Saturday night for Clare was how much the Cork goal seemed to deflate them. David McInerney is a huge loss in that defence, with his pace, but they still look vulnerable at the moment at the back. Getting the balance right in the full-back line will be Davy’s immediate priority.

A week, though, is a long time in spring. You saw that yesterday in the demeanour and body language alone of Eamon O’Shea and his players. They were more pumped and far more animated than they were in Parnell Park last weekend. They meant business and they got the job done, but Galway will still take a huge amount of heart from the character and resilience they showed when the Tipp avalanche began to roll down the hill.

The inexperience in the full-back line told, but John Hanbury and Padraig Mannion still did a lot of good hurling and they will have learned a fair share. The one concern Galway will have, though, is how, for the second week in a row, they played better against the breeze than with it.

They played really deep in the first half against the storm and were only three points down. Yet, they struggled to alter their shape and structure when they needed to attack the game more and it was only when they went back to a more orthodox attacking formation late on that they got more joy. That was really evident with Joseph Cooney at full-forward. I’m sure Anthony Cunningham will have noted as much.

What’s certain is the importance of round three in two weeks. We’ll know for sure then who is looking good... and who is looking over their shoulder.