ALL-IRELAND HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
Clare v Galway
Semple Stadium, Sunday, 4pm
RTÉ 1 Considering the second of Sunday’s GAA All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals features two teams teetering on the threshold of the Last Chance Saloon, the build-up to this match has been pretty eventful.
Clare manager David Fitzgerald has been in hospital undergoing cardiac stent procedures and it's not clear whether he's going to declare himself fit to take to the sideline in Thurles.
How natural concern for their manager translates for the players could have been a significant feature of the match and team performance although the fact that he’s in recovery and has plenty of deputies to take the wheel would suggest that there will be equilibrium.
Underwelming performances
Clare, however, need to raise the tempo after some underwhelming performances in the championship. The swatting at the hands of Waterford was given an eerie new context by the Munster final and the win over Limerick so laboured and, in the end, so jittery that the spirit of 2013 still looks fairly elusive.
Lining up to take on a Galway side, which was widely panned for another inert second-half display against Kilkenny, Clare have the nagging discomfort of wondering how Ger Loughnane’s incendiary remarks about one of his old teams will impact on the other.
Denouncing Galway as “gutless” had the predictable effect of focusing attention on Loughnane’s own time with the county, which at one point was marked by something reasonably close to despair.
“If we produce another performance like that, even if we scrape into the quarter-finals,” he said after a wan display against – coincidentally – Clare in 2007, “I have no business whatsoever being in Galway. It’s going to take somebody else.”
Aside from the back story, was the Leinster final reaction fair comment? Not unless sliding to a final quarter defeat – Galway trailed by just one point going into that period – against a team unbeaten in championship for three years this weekend drastically undersold the team’s potential.
If anything it was a slight improvement on last year’s All-Ireland final rather than further proof that Galway are cravenly incapable of doing themselves justice – the 0-22 scored against Kilkenny earlier this month was the biggest concession by the champions since the 2014 championship.
Yes, there was the fitful nature of the contribution from some of the top players, notably Joe Canning who didn't score from play, David Burke, and Niall Burke whose aerial prowess didn't become the weapon the team needed it to be against the Kilkenny half backs. But it's not as if the champions' defence was there for the taking.
Whereas below-par displays shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee of future performance there is room for some improvement.
The same applies to Clare, who started the most recent qualifier against Limerick in a blaze of lassitude before recovering, regaining control by half-time only to lose it against and have to endure a fraught closing few minutes.
There were positives. Shane O'Donnell fired with a handful of points, as did Podge Collins. Tony Kelly put up a big score from mostly frees but is playing very deep for a shooter of his calibre.
Hugely significant
Collins is also down to play football on Saturday in what could be a hugely significant match for his father’s team – not the ideal preparation for Thurles even for a player dubbed by a football team-mate as an “energizer bunny”. They also really could do with Conor McGrath’s return from injury – something that remains in the balance.
It depends what you find more plausible: further incremental improvement from a Clare team desperate to return to Croke Park for the first time since the 2013 All-Ireland triumph or a Galway side stung into finding the combination that will unlock their best form.
Clare look faintly more persuasive.
THE LOWDOWN
Previously: The counties have met three times in All-Ireland quarter-finals: 1999, 2002 and 2013 – all of which have been won by Clare. Three years ago on the way to the All-Ireland title, David Fitzgerald's team were comfortable 1-23 to 2-14 winners.
You bet: Clare 10/11, Galway 11/10 and the draw at 9/1.
Just the ticket: Stand €30, terrace €20 and juveniles €5.
Verdict: Clare.
