Nicky English: Wasteful Clare do just enough to oust depleted Déise

The small number of spectators who had tickets to the Munster championship match between Clare and Waterford at Semple Stadium must have hoped they’d struck golden tickets to a blockbuster. Unfortunately, this was anything but, a truly tame affair, and the real wonder was that it finished as close as it actually did.

There’s an old motto that’s always hung around team rooms, that if you don’t take your chances and you hit so many wides (22 I think was the final count for Clare!) then you’re really giving the other team a lifeline. It was one Waterford scarcely deserved on the run of play and ultimately they weren’t able to take it anyway.

Waterford were short of players from the word go and it was a game Clare simply had to win and they got the required start, going into that 0-7 to 0-1 lead. It looked all over from early on. Tony Kelly going into the full-forward line was a surprise to Waterford because they detailed Calum Lyons to mark him and he followed him in. In fairness to Lyons, he got to grips with Kelly, but his marauding influence of 2020 was a huge loss to Waterford.

What's certain is that there was a lack of atmosphere. It lacked intensity, and lacked energy

Clare’s difficulties in front of goal manifested themselves quite early after that initial burst, and there were some horrendous wides from all over the place after that. Aron Shanagher had goal chances in both halves which he failed to convert and that seemed to leak confidence from him; he was very jumpy with point chances thereafter and missed them badly. But he wasn’t alone.

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Without doing a whole lot, Waterford got it back to four points. It’s hard to imagine they could do so given how dominant John Conlon was at centre-back for Clare, Cathal Malone in midfield, Aidan McCarthy all through and Ryan Taylor in the first half were outstanding at wing forward. But the wides from all angles really hurt and sucked the energy from them and Waterford got back into the game.

The goal from the penalty was important for Clare. I suppose Waterford might dispute where the foul actually occurred and whether it was a penalty but, on the balance of play, the scoreline at half-time was more representative of the game.

Clare were totally dominant in all lines really. Unlike last year’s match between them in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. On that occasions we saw a brilliant battle between Rory Hayes and Dessie Hutchinson. But this time I’m not sure the latter actually ever got the ball into his hands. Hayes was really tight on him, won the battle of 2021, but, that said, the supply in to Hutchinson was very poor.

Clare’s half back line, Conlon particularly, was outstanding. Diarmuid Ryan and Paudie Fitzpatrick were big and strong and completely blocked out the ball and, with Malone in the middle of the field and wing forwards, that continued all through the game until the last quarter.

At that stage Clare should have been out of sight, but their wides gave Waterford a chance. Austin Gleeson and Stephen Bennett were about as much threat as Waterford had; they were about the only players who played to form or at their best.

Lacked intensity

In fairness to Gleeson he was outstanding in the second half, they chipped away and got it back to a scoreline which was scarcely believable. And even at that stage Clare had another goal chance from Shanagher and amazingly even two frees, one right in front of the goal, from Tony Kelly which they missed. It summed up the day and on the whole it was a really poor game.

I don’t know why it was as poor as it was and why there were so many wides from both sides from plenty of scoring chances. Was there an issue with the breeze?

What’s certain is that there was a lack of atmosphere. It lacked intensity, and lacked energy. All the early energy was on the Clare side and they didn’t sustain it with their wides draining them.

I think it was a game Clare had to win given Waterford’s injury issues. Brian Lohan will be happy with it. At times they looked very powerful.

Conor Cleary has settled in at full back and you have Conlon centre back. Ryan and Fitzpatrick at wings, Malone, Shanagher, McCarthy and Taylor, and certainly a much more stronger and physical Clare team than we have seen over the last number of years.

They have things to work on, but they have a game under their belt going in next against Tipperary. They know they won’t get away with hitting 22 wides against Tipperary and win. It is a case of mission accomplished after a rough winter for Clare and Lohan. They had a tough start to the league, but that improvement was sustained by the result. They have flaws to iron out but at the same time they are up and running.

Waterford need to get back Conor Prunty particularly and Jamie Barron; those two on top of Tadhg de Búrca were huge losses. Any team would struggle to replace the calibre of those players.

Waterford went in through the back door last year after defeat in the Munster final and dealt well with it and got back to the All-Ireland final. They are not done yet but will need to regroup and get their big guns back in on the field the next day in the qualifiers.

Perhaps the real highlights of the weekend’s championship were the high scoring totals put up by Wexford and Dublin. I thought Dublin could be under pressure from Antrim but that was a big win for them.

I think Dublin will be delighted with what they scored, they haven’t been putting up tallies like that in the league and it’s much the same for Wexford who came out of the blocks strong. I watched their league game against Laois and there wasn’t as much between them. That score count is very encouraging and will give Wexford heart going into the Kilkenny match.