Clare patriarch Fr Harry Bohan praying luck holds against Galway

By Michael Moynihan

As everyone knows, Clare are back in Croke Park this Saturday after a five-year absence.

A man whose links to the Banner hurlers goes back 50 years is looking forward to seeing his county men take the field in Jones’s Road.

“It’s quiet enough around the county at the moment,” says Fr Harry Bohan.

“It’s been coming for a long time, since 2013. At the time we were saying the team would go on, and it didn’t happen that way.

“You’d have to say that Clare were lucky enough in the round-robin system, but you always need luck to win a game. They were lucky against Waterford in that Waterford had a lot of injuries at that stage — Clare should have been out of sight at half-time but they weren’t, and they held on.

“The same with Tipperary, they had some luck then with the late goal, and Limerick didn’t turn up for the match in Cusack Park at all.

“The other day I was talking to a man with a few All-Ireland medals and when I asked what he thought, he felt there’d be nothing in the game on Saturday, that it’d be very close. I’m hoping he’s right.”

The manager when Clare contested back-to-back Munster finals in the 70s, he wouldn’t fancy steering a team through the current round-robin system: “No. I didn’t like it at all. Especially in the summer we’ve had, the heat.

“People forget how fast hurling is, and it’s okay in professional sports to go from game to game, and week to week, but for amateurs to hurl at that level every six or seven days, and in serious, serious games on every occasion.

“If they do it again I think they’ll have to break up the series of games. Clare were lucky there as well — they were the middle team so they had a break. Waterford, by comparison, had the games one after another, and I just felt that’s too much, particularly the speed the game is played at now.

“Getting up for work every Monday morning after those games is no joke.”

Saturday will test the Banner defence, he adds.

“The way we’re reading it in Clare is that from what we’ve seen so far, we’d be worried about the Galway forwards on the Clare backs.

“Against that, the Clare forwards are not so bad and when it comes to this stage of the season, if you have that bit of luck with you still...

“I think Clare are a team that has grown up together and having put so much into it they might be saying at this stage ‘it’s now or never’.”

“No-one could deny Galway will be favourites, but you never know.”

That’s a change, seeing a Clare attack rated higher than the defence.

“It’s a massive change,” says Bohan. “Even the two All-Ireland teams in the 90s, it was the backs who stood out — Brian Lohan, Seanie McMahon, Anthony Daly, those lads. Apart from Jamesie (O’Connor) and a few others the forwards were often average enough.

“Now it’s the forwards that people talk about, which is a big change. They’ve shown a bit of form in the last couple of outings, but I think some of the big names will have to show it this Saturday.”

Frank as ever, Bohan wonders if Clare have been overrated in some quarters.

“I’ve been saying that for a long time, that maybe we could be overrating them. They’re capable of producing it alright, but since 2013 they weren’t doing it.

“Now the Tony Kellys are starting to come again, and a player like him plays off the others.

“Something I’d be looking forward to seeing this weekend is himself and Gearóid McInerney.

“As we all know McInerney is a serious centre-back, but Tony won’t play on him. He’ll play off him and try to create problems for McInerney with his speed.

“That said, Galway protect McInerney well, the wing-backs cover for him and the midfielders drop back too.

“Clare play for one another as well, in fairness — they don’t give opposing defenders too much on the ball to measure their deliveries, they support one another well.

“I’d expect a lot of that kind of hard work on Saturday evening if Clare are to have any chance. That’s as true of the defenders as it is of the forwards, but they’ll all have to work as a team.

“The danger, of course, is if Galway open up. Their forwards are a serious bunch. They were able to drop a player like Conor Cooney the last day, a guy in hurler of the year territory last year, and still win, while they have plenty of talent on the bench as well.

“As I said, Galway are favourites. But Clare have had a bit of luck this year. Maybe they’ll have some more on Saturday.”