Clare at their best in replays

For a side which admits to needing plenty of recovery time, Clare have made extraordinarily heavy weather of the last couple of Guinness championships.

Despite being arguably the best team in the country in that time, Clare's inability to take handy wins while not playing particularly well has cost the an awful lot of needless labour.

An unprecedented series of replays has ensued and this afternoon's against Galway at Croke Park will be their fourth in two seasons (not counting the invalid match with Offaly). Consequently Clare have won one match in four this season, one match in their last seven championship outings or if you prefer two in their last nine.

It's a remarkable record - and not for especially impressive reasons. But if last year was a case of the team gradually becoming ensnared in an excess of matches, this year has been less flattering with only one good performance the replay demolition of Tipperary last June - and three mediocre ones.

There were a few reasons to lighten the mood in the camp after last week's draw - survival being chief amongst them - but not really enough to justify the revivalist fervour which appears to have swept the county in the aftermath.

The restoration of Jamesie O'Connor and Ollie Baker to nearly full health has naturally galvanised the team and the discovery of a goal-rush technique which appears to approach El Dorado proportions against Galway was as gratifying as it was central to last week's recovery.

Yet question-marks will remain because of what can only be described as the fading force of a team so reliant on its power and relentless pressing. Certainly it was impressive to overhaul a nine-point deficit and the eight-point one which developed later but the awesome nature of Clare's game hasn't been much in evidence this year.

Maybe with a full side, they can re-ignite the furnace but there's no evidence to justify presuming on the fact. Most worryingly, there have been problems in the onetime fortress of their defence. To one degree or another all six backs suffered discomfort last week. The key question this afternoon is where Galway enter the equation. If they have blown themselves out as comprehensively as Tipperary did, similar consequences will befall them. But there's a large gap between such a dire outcome and playing as well as they did in the drawn encounter - or indeed improving.

For a long time, it has been common knowledge that Galway have been under-performing and a decent performance has been overdue. It was achieved by coherent deployment of their forces and the great improvement in morale and appetite.

The poverty of last year's farcical display against Waterford probably obscured the relatively marginal nature of previous All-Ireland defeats. Last week things went well and the team should have won. Whether that sharpens their hunger or nudges them into decline will decide the match.

Galway also have room for improvement. Their defence was very unstable when Clare turned the screw and although having to use up two substitutes on the fullback position was unfortunate it didn't fully explain the collapse of a substantial lead.

Goalkeeper Damien Howe was jittery in his square, incisions were made in the corners as the match wore on and most critically, the dominion of the halfback line had been disrupted by Clare's eventual infliction of Conor Clancy on Cathal Moore and the impact O'Connor's introduction had on Galway's defence.

Joe Cooney's recall proved well-judged and his craft helped Galway create good chances. In attack, Ollie Fahy will hardly plunder Brian Lohan for 2-2 again but equally, Galway could devise a more aggressive placement for Kevin Broderick than sweeping up around the middle. And in general there is room for improvement in the amount of frees conceded within range of Sean McMahon's formidable dead-ball prowess.

What may ultimately trip up Galway is their inexperience in these type of situations. How will they adjust to having to do it all again? Clare have established a pattern of raising their game after drawn matches and nearly all their best performances in the last two years have come in replays: Waterford last year, the first half of the first Offaly replay and Tipperary in June.

Clare possess the old replay advantage of having more room for improvement. That allied to their greater familiarity with the demands of a replay gets them a tentative vote.