Clare emphatically prove that the unbeatable Kilkenny are very beatable

Clare 4-22 Kilkenny 2-18

One consequence of Kilkenny’s routine greatness is that we tend to overstate the significance the occasional blow-out to befall them. The immediate instinct walking out of Semple Stadium after this double-digit bend of the knee to Davy Fitzgerald’s bouncing Clare side was to puff the cheeks and declare the championship to be wide open now. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t but experience has taught us to demand far more evidence before making facile judgements.

Kilkenny were sloppy here and in the full-back line especially they appeared as perfect strangers to each other. Clare made them look analogue citizens in a digital world. We often give a wry smirk to the notion that Kilkenny don’t do tactics - well, they didn’t here and they paid heavy tariff for it.

Three first-half Clare goals came via the same delivery system each time - long, arrowed balls into John Conlon on the edge of the square and Clare’s lone inside forward taking Joey Holden to school. Conlon snagged the opening goal and created enough confusion between Holden and goalkeeper Eoin Murphy to usher Aaron Cunningham in for a couple more.

Throughout the ordeal, it was hard to fathom why Holden was left to handle Conlon on his own with nobody to mop up in front of them, all the more so since Clare withdrew the rest of their forwards. Paul Murphy was badly missed and though Jackie Tyrrell went off with a twanged hamstring in the first-half, Kilkenny were already 2-8 to 0-5 behind when he departed. All in all, it was a strangely confused display from Cody’s side. Dysfunctional beyond belief, you might say.

Though the list of absentees was not insignificant for Kilkenny - Murphy, the Fennelly brothers, Conor Fogarty and Eoin Larkin would all be pencilled in ordinarily - neither did Clare take the pitch with anything like their championship side. On the bench were Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell and Colin Ryan, with Pat Donnellan out for the year and David McInerney and Conor Ryan still sidelined. In those circumstances, 4-22 is a weighty old catch to be hauling into the boat.

If Cunningham’s 2-3 meant he ended with the gaudiest brackets beside his name, it was the contribution of Colm Galvin that really caught the eye. Roving in and out around the middle third, Galvin chipped in with five points and supplied Conlon and others with enough bespoke ball to create a further 1-4. Kilkenny never step in the same river twice so it’s hard to imagine Galvin being given the same latitude should their paths cross again in the summer. But they weren’t in his postcode here.

This was one of those dodo-rare game where Kilkenny didn’t hold the lead even once. Richie Hogan equalised Conor McGrath’s opening free a couple of minutes in but otherwise, Clare led from wire to wire. Cunningham looked dangerous throughout and stitched a gorgeous early effort off his left, followed soon after by a smart score from Podge Collins. When Darach Honan answered a TJ Reid free with a point of his own directly from the puck-out, Clare led by 0-6 to 0-2 with 13 minutes gone.

Galvin, Honan, Collins, Cunningham and McGrath were all playing as midfielders/half-forwards, leaving Kilkenny with a conundrum as to how to protect the space in front of their goal. Though Tyrrell did a measure of sweeping there during his time on the pitch, he and Shane Prendergast got drawn out the field following McGrath and Collins all too often and Conlon made lorryfuls of hay inside.

The first Clare goal came on 17 minutes, a tailor-made Galvin ball dropping between Conlon and Holden, with Eoin Murphy rushing from the Kilkenny goal to get involved. Goalkeepers in that scenario have to get one or other of man or ball and Murphy got neither and Conlon’s punishment was instant.

The second followed four minutes later - this time with Paul Flanagan delivering the ball from deep and Conlon breaking it for Cunningham to sweep home. It wasn’t the first time in this league that Kilkenny have wavered under the high ball, as Seamus Harnedy among others can attest.

When a third came along in similar fashion - this one a sort of cross between the first two, Conlon breaking to Cunningham with Murphy rushing from his line and failing to collect - it meant that inside 10 minutes, Kilkenny had gone from being three points down to trailing by 11. And all because they couldn’t defend their square. Strange days.

The second Cunningham goal put Clare 3-9 to 0-7 ahead and effectively ended the contest. Clare were humming now and Cunningham, Galvin and Conlon all swung over picturebook scores before half-time to underline the point. John Power and Kevin Kelly flitted in with fine points apiece in reply but just as quickly flitted out again. It was 3-12 to 0-10 at the break and Clare deserved every bit of it.

Fitzgerald’s side held firm against the Kilkenny efforts at a comeback after the break. The closest the All-Ireland champions got was to bring the margin down to seven after a TJ Reid free dribbled across the line and he backed it up with a couple of points and one from Walter Walsh.

But any notion that there might be a grandstand finish dissipated when McGrath cracked home Clare’s fourth goal on 51 minutes. From there on, it was carnival stuff, including two Tony Kelly points immediately when he came off the bench.

CLARE: Patrick Kelly; Oisin O'Brien, Cian Dillon, Paul Flanagan; Brendan Bugler, Conor Cleary, Patrick O'Connor; David Reidy (0-1), David Fitzgerald; John Conlon (1-1), Colm Galvin (0-5), Aaron Cunningham (2-3); Conor McGrath (1-6, 0-2 frees, 0-2 65), Podge Collins (0-1), Darach Honan (0-2). Subs: Tony Kelly (0-2) for Conlon, 51 mins; Cathal O'Connell (0-1) for Honan, 57 mins; Colin Ryan for Reidy, 64 mins; Aaron Shanagher for Cunningham, 67 mins; Bobby Duggan for Collins, 70 mins.

KILKENNY: Eoin Murphy; Jackie Tyrrell, Joey holden,Shane Prendergast; Pádraig Walsh (0-2), Kieran Joyce, Conor O'Shea; Lester Ryan, Cillian Buckley (0-1); Walter Walsh (0-2), TJ Reid (1-7, 1-6 frees), Kevin Kelly (0-2); John Power (0-1), Jonjo Farrell (1-1), Richie Hogan (0-1). Subs: Brian Kennedy for Tyrrell, 22 mins; Liam Blanchfield for O'Shea, 55 mins; Chris Bolger (0-2) for Kelly, 64 mins.

Referee: Fergal Horgan (Tipperary).