Clare wolves play lambs to the slaughter

Galway beat Clare by nine points in Ballinasloe yesterday. It's a pity there is no typeface called shrug.

For those who saw Galway put five springtime goals past Clare in one half in Athenry a couple of years ago this latest splash of springtime vigour from the westerners will be a matter of supreme indifference. Of far more interest this week will be the rumours circulating around Ballinasloe that Joe Rabbitte has opted out of this year's county panel.

For a start Clare have mitigations aplenty. Despite the democratic spread of their success at club level over the past few years there is probably no contingent they could less do without than the Doora-Barefield boys, Ollie Baker, Jamesie O'Connor and Sean McMahon, whose collective absence deprives the team of huge amounts of brain and brawn.

Then there is Clare's easy-going approach to this year's league. The big names haven't even returned to training, the lesser lights are suffering in Mike McNamara's boot camp.

Little wonder then that Galway looked sharp and sprightly yesterday. They are a pleasure to watch on these days when they find their gears clicking smoothly and the opposition less than ferocious in their concentration. All of the selected attack scored at least two points' worth from play. Cathal Moore was a fine fulcrum in the forwards, Eugene Cloonan dabbled with good effect.

The rap against them is that they are lightweight and have forgotten how to win big games. On days like these those things don't matter, however. They scoured enough out of midfield to keep their quicksilver boys well fed, and in defence they were doughty and resilient.

The sides had stayed in touch with each other for the first 23 minutes of the game and if anything Clare had looked the stronger. Ronan O'Hara, whose beguiling athleticism has been alternately judged as almost good enough or disposable in recent years had a quiet enough game overall at centre forward but he was at his best early on and Clare muscled about the middle third of the park and sought to find the openings to keep Niall Gilligan and Alan Markham in business close in.

Then Francis Forde scored a point to give Galway a two-point advantage and the roof fell in. Clare's late first-half collapse featured such novelties as the disappearance of their midfield and Brian Lohan's man Mark Kerins thieving a soft goal. It was remarkable nonetheless. Galway, nippy as grasshoppers, scored 1-6 without reply in the 10 minutes before the break.

We take it that no cups were thrown and no tables were thumped at half-time in the Clare dressingroom. One envisages them reading the Sunday papers and discussing the Monica interview.

Whatever. They continued in the same dignified, sedate gear in which they had played the first half. Anthony Daly, one of those spared the winter training, scored a couple of points early on, but the game was running against his team and when on 13 minutes Alan Kerins launched a 60-yard free which deceived Davey Fitzgerald and fell to the Clare net several players looked like they wanted to join the flow of spectators leaving early.

Clare were 12 points behind with little over 15 minutes remaining. On a good day they might have set about that deficit with frenzied fury, instead they just ensured it didn't get any worse. Markham deflected a Colin Lynch ball into the net minutes later but Kevin Broderick and Cloonan quickly added points for Galway.

The final 10 minutes were Clare's but they took just two points out of their little patch of domination and left the field shrugging their shoulders and defying anybody to read any significance into the afternoon's events.

Come the summer Clare's personnel will be a little different and Galway's will be as unproven and uncertain as ever.

Galway: D Howe; R Walsh, B Feeney, V Maher; P Walsh, L Hodgins (0-1, a free), P Hardiman; N Shaughnessy, N Kenny (0-1); A Kerins (1-0); C Moore (0-2), K Broderick (0- 3); F Forde (0-2), M Kerins (1-0), E Cloonan (0-8 six frees). Subs: O Fahy for Moore (halftime); O Canning for A Kerins (50 mins); T Kavanagh for Hodgins (60 mins). Clare: D Fitzgerald; L Doyle, B Lohan, F Lohan; J Reddan, D Hegarty, A Daly (0-3, two frees); C Lynch (0-1), D Scanlon; F Touhy, R O'Hara (0-1), D Forde; N Gilligan (0-1), B Minogue (0-2, one free), A Markham (1-3, two frees). Subs: E Flannery for Hegarty (47 mins).

Referee: D Murphy (Wexford).