Davy Fitzgerald and Donal Óg are hurling’s manna-gerial duo from heaven

All winter we’ve waited for the man. The January competitions provided a temporary fix, but that was solely for the hopelessly addicted. This weekend it’s the real stuff, the pure drop, that hits the streets at last. The man has come around.

Two men, actually. The Clare manager and the Clare coach. The manna-gerial duo from heaven. Granted, there’s a Division 1A to be played too, but what percentage of the hurling public will be overly bothered about that while two of the biggest personalities in the sport, having pledged their mutual respect and plighted their medium-term troth, shack up together? Will that dressing room be big enough for the both of them? And who’ll be the eagle-eyed photographer who gets the money shot: Davy and Donal Óg arguing with each other on the sideline at some stage of the proceedings?

Sniff if you wish at the undeniable element of vaudeville here. But please don’t sniff too loudly or disparagingly. Hurling needs an element of vaudeville and after the 2015 championship, an exercise in the banality of banality, it’s screaming for it. It needs colour. It needs personalities. It needs the occasional silly squabble. It needs Ger Loughnane’s “nutters” fulminating on radio phone-ins. It even needs the odd moment it makes the front pages for the wrong reasons.

Ah yes, Loughnane? Oh, Loughnane... Loughnane mattered not just because of his achievements with Clare, which will echo in hurling eternity regardless, but also because of everything he said and did along the way, which grabbed the attention of the nation. The sense of mischief, the compulsion to stir it, the lack of preciousness, the obvious belief that hurling need not be joyless. Was Hamlet really mad or was he merely pretending to be?

If a few eggs were broken along the way, well, all the better for the taste of the omelette. And if the championship of 1998 is remembered for what happened off the field whereas the championships of 2007 and ’13 are remembered for what happened on it, nothing wrong with that either.

Compare and contrast with Brian Cody, who takes good care to keep his inner man firmly hidden, to swerve needless petty controversy, to avoid giving hostages to fortune. If Cody didn’t elevate playing a studiously straight bat into such an art form he’d have had every opportunity to be Jose Mourinho, and look how that’s ended up.

Death by pathological self-inflicted controversy.

Cody’s team provide endless copy but it’s the same copy, over and over again. Only they could take the field for an All Ireland final with a 29-year-old first-season corner-back, Richie Hogan injured, Eoin Larkin nursing a broken finger, Michael Fennelly’s health more opaque than the current state of play in the Pyongyang politburo, Richie Power about to see his only ten minutes of the season — and make all of the above look like an afterthought, a footnote.

It wasn’t that last summer threw up the dullest and most disappointing championship in an age. It wasn’t even that Kilkenny won it. It was more that, despite their raft of impediments, they strolled home with nary a glove laid on them. Upon which, enter Davy and Donal Óg. May the Lord make us truly thankful.

The arrangement may end in trophies and it may end in tears. Either way, it’s a story that will keep on giving, which or whether Clare win an All-Ireland, crash and burn spectacularly or something in between. Dull it will not be.

Both men deserve immense praise. Absolutely. Cusack, after talking the talk fluently and incisively as a pundit, for having the gumption to mount the horse and risk making himself look stupid; Fitzgerald for demonstrating that, contrary to the popular criticism, it’s not in fact “all about him”. It’s no longer about him. From now on, indeed, it may be more about Cusack.

If doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome really is the definition of insanity, moreover, then unsoundness of mind is one charge that cannot be levelled at Davy. Clare needed to tear up the map and plot a fresh course. They have, under a manager who wasn’t too proud to grasp the nettle.

In the long term it shouldn’t take them a lot to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals. In the short term it shouldn’t take them a lot to reach the business end of the league, and if they do so, rest assured they won’t be running a non-trier like they did in the semi-final in Limerick two years ago.

For the moment the task is straightforward. See to it that the wheel is turned a couple of inches.

The thread of narrow defeat ran through all of Clare’s big games last year. By a point to Kilkenny in both the concluding round of the league and the relegation play-off, by a point to Limerick in the first round of the championship, by three points to Cork in the qualifiers. It wouldn’t have taken them much to win any of those games. It shouldn’t take them much to turn that wheel.

A small improvement in defence would make a big difference.

A change of emphasis up front is required also. Trying to cope with Shane O’Donnell coming off the edge of the square and feeding the runners isn’t an easy challenge for any defence. It’s considerably easier to cope with if it’s the only challenge being posed, however.

Once Cork had avoided conceding a goal in the opening quarter of the qualifier they had the platform to engage in, and win, a point-scoring battle.

The closing round of the first phase of the league on March 20 sees Limerick travelling to Ennis for a potential promotion decider. The visitors will do well to arrive there with full points nonetheless, this being the second year in a row that Shannonside representation in the All-Ireland club final will have hamstrung TJ Ryan’s plans.

Limerick host Wexford in the Gaelic Grounds tomorrow night. Barring a draw, someone’s promotion hopes will be dented before they can begin to take shape.

To Division 1A, where Cork, Galway and Tipperary will be seeking to impress the new boss and Kilkenny will be seeking to impress the old boss. Galway are a few weeks behind the curve due to the Cunningham affair and the delay in appointing his replacement. Dublin have given notice of their good fettle under the other Cunningham with a convincing Walsh Cup success. That Waterford, one of the few breaths of fresh air in a fetid room last year, won’t enjoy the advantages of surprise they enjoyed 12 months ago is irrelevant in big-picture terms. The boundaries of their world have stretched.

Eventual league champions? The runners and riders look much of a muchness.

The injuries to Tony Kelly and Pat Donnellan may prevent Clare doing a Waterford. Waterford themselves need to experiment with, and formulate, a more expansive approach. Galway will take time to sort themselves out under Micheál Donoghue. Due to the absence of the Ballyhale contingent, Kilkenny wound up in a relegation play-off last season: Not so this season. Yet Dublin carry a certain appeal as a live outsider.

Bottom line, someone will make the last four and, like Waterford last year, take it from there. Eamon O’Shea would caution us against drawing firm conclusions based on a paucity of evidence. So we’ll heed him and stop now.

We have Davy and we have Donal Óg. For the moment that’s enough to be going on with.