Shane O'Donnell on semi-final with Kilkenny: 'This year, we will be completely zeroed in on the game'

The Banner booked their last four spot with a win over Wexford on Saturday. 

FORWARD THINKING: Clare's Shane O'Donnell passes under pressure from Eoin Ryan of Wexford. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Back to his bustling best on Saturday, Shane O’Donnell proved the Munster final was only a punctuation mark in this exemplary season of his.

Losing to Limerick, he knows, is nothing to be shameful of but the nature of their latest defeat to them earlier this month stung. Similarly, O’Donnell’s fadeout in that game after an enterprising start smarted.

With typical thoughtfulness, Clare’s two-time All-Star addressed that matter. “I think Limerick adapt so quickly to how we’re playing. I think they have a lot of people watching from all the cameras and zoning into the sideline when that information is getting in and you always need to be preempting that they’re going to change and you should change type of thing.

“That’s fair challenging so that was what happened 10 or 15 minutes in, they probably adapted to what we were doing and then clamped onto the men in the middle of the field who were distributing the ball so that’s where they shut down the ball coming in and we probably struggled then to regain control.” 

The idea that Clare might not recover from a third consecutive provincial final defeat to Limerick never dawned on O’Donnell. “They’ve been tough but Limerick are an excellent team. We’re under no illusions about that and we go out every day trying to beat them and we don’t come away the right side of it most times.

“The same over the last couple of weeks, I wouldn’t have read much into any of the stuff that had been said about ‘it was a particular difficult defeat’ or anything. It was a defeat, all of them are difficult. We knew we were going to have two weeks coming into this game and we were able to focus after a couple of days.” 

He continued: “When you lose by a point or you draw a game, there are so many ifs and buts but when you lose by six or whatever and play really poorly, you kinda just have to put it behind you, you take your learnings from it and move on pretty quickly. There’s not much time so there’s no point thinking, ‘If only I had caught that ball.’” 

Lohan’s decision to give his players most of the week off after the Munster final worked, says O’Donnell. “We put a lot into those games even when it doesn’t look like it out on the pitch.

“It’s the psychological and the physical stuff that all culminates into those Munster finals. They’re big occasions, you’re really nervous and scared coming into them, so it takes a lot of energy out of you and we really appreciated the few extra days and I think it really did suit us well.” Contemplating their All-Ireland semi-final on Sunday week, O’Donnell would like to think Clare are improving against Kilkenny. Eoin Murphy’s outrageous save from Peter Duggan was part of the difference between the sides last year. The season before, he admits The Banner erroneously regarded their semi-final against The Cats as a means to an end.

“We probably made the mistake two years ago thinking that the carrot was Limerick when the carrot was getting to the Croke Park game against Kilkenny. This year, we will be completely zeroed in on the game, that’s all we’ll be focused on.” Like his manager Brian Lohan, O’Donnell places some store in the fact Clare overcame Kilkenny in the Division 1 final at the start of April. “I think it helps but it’s quite a long time ago realistically. But it does help, all those good games you’ve had against players.

“Even sometimes, it’s just the one-to-one when you’ve had a good game against a Kilkenny player or a Limerick player or a Wexford player, it gives you that bit of edge when you know that you’ve done it before. Yeah, I think it does help coming into this game in a couple of weeks.” 

To avoid another hat-trick of championship reverses, O’Donnell knows the attitude Clare must take into the July 6 game. “Well, they are an extremely physical team, they’re an extremely good team. That’s the bottom line.

“We saw that in the Leinster final against Dublin what they can do when a team isn’t fully… and we know from two years ago if you don’t come fully gung-ho for them you know what you’re going to get from them.

“There isn’t too much else to it, they play very tough hurling, they play man-to-man for the most part but they’re not missing out on that tactical nuisance as well so they are kind of the full package and you have to focus and do everything you can.”