Galway’s patchy performances will give Kiely and Limerick reason for optimism

By Enda McEvoy

You are John Kiely. Obviously, you were in Thurles yesterday, although not in the Árd Comhairle, near JP or Cody, for prying cameras to see.

You went in search of impressions, rather than details. After all, Sean O’Donnell, your video analyst, will see to the minutiae of the replay, and its implications for Limerick, over the next couple of days.

So, what struck you? Here are a few discoveries you’ll have made.

Clare won the battle of the supporters

An hour before the match, the road in from Two Mile Borris was a tableau of saffron and blue, many of the Clare fans having come around the houses to avoid the traffic. Inside the stadium, they comfortably outnumbered their opposite numbers.

The Banner folk had rowed in behind their team, following their heroics in Croke Park eight days earlier, and there were clear shades of the third Clare/Offaly game of 1998, when the Faithful faithful were fully mobilised and energised for the trip to Tipp.

All of this has minor, but positive, implications for Limerick.

Had the outcome been different yesterday, they’d be facing All Ireland final opponents backed by wildly excited supporters. As it is, they’ll be facing Galway, and the hunger of the Galway fans was largely assuaged 11 months ago.

The result on Sunday week could conceivably come down to one team being shouted home by their supporters, a la Cork in 1999, in the closing ten minutes. In that case, the challengers will not be outshouted.

Galway are specialising in rocket-fuelled starts

They haven’t been hanging around lately. Against Kilkenny in the replay, they hit 1-16 in the first-half and led by nine points; against Clare, in Croke Park, they hit 1-7 in the opening 16 minutes and led by nine again; and here, following Jonathan Glynn’s goal, they had 1-9 on the board after 20 minutes and led by — go on, take a wild guess — nine points.

Limerick will have to be braced to face a hurricane from the throw-in, with the race memory of the first ten minutes of the 2007 final a potential help. The challengers won’t win the All-Ireland in the opening 20 minutes. They could lose it there, though.

Galway are also playing in patches

Now, this will please Kiely. For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction; for every flying start by Galway, there are subsequent longueurs. Kilkenny hauled the deficit back to a point, midway through the second-half; Clare had it back to four points by half-time in the draw; and, yesterday, the MacCarthy Cup holders didn’t score again in the half, after Glynn’s goal, a lacuna of 18 minutes (the three minutes of injury-time included). They lost the second-half of the Leinster final by 2-8 to 0-12, the second-half of the first Clare game by 0-17 to 0-13, and the second-half yesterday by 2-7 to 0-8. Their bottom line is declining, too, from 1-28, against Kilkenny, to 1-23 in the drawn semi-final, to 1-17 here. Galway are beginning to run on empty.

But their leaders continue to lead

David Burke and Joe Canning — not that there was any doubt apropos the latter — clinched their All-Stars here. Burke took a more attacking brief than usual in the first-half and boomed over two fine points, while the reigning ‘hurler of the year’ has now landed 0-11 from play in his last three outings. Late-era Canning is not unlike late-era Shefflin, playing a more mature and considered game than before, the one difference being that Shefflin was happy to provide the assist for the score, whereas Canning is going for it himself.

Here, both the captain and the spiritual leader did their bit, when the need was greatest in the second-half. Clare had hit 1-2 to close to within two points, after 47 minutes, when Burke took control and started a move that led to Niall Burke putting Galway three ahead, thereby stopping the rot. When Peter Duggan blasted the challengers’ second goal, to cut the gap to the minimum, Canning got hold of the ball, bullocked forward, won a free and made it a two-point game. Two big players making two big plays. Not that Limerick will have to be told to try and keep Burke and Canning on the tightest of leashes.

Wides may make the difference in the final

Limerick’s accuracy under pressure has been notable. Witness their coolness in the final furlong against Kilkenny and Cork. But they started the second-half of the All Ireland semi-final with four wides in six minutes, an occurrence for which they may be severely punished, if they repeat it on the big day. Yesterday’s was a gripping contest that was simultaneously mediocre, the two not being mutually exclusive, with wides (32) outnumbering points (30).

Or, if you prefer, Galway ended up a point ahead of a team that drove 19 wides.

You are John Kiely. You went home from Thurles with a song in your heart.