Impossible to see beyond Clare

The controversial radio interview given by Clare manager Ger Loughnane may have left the hurling world feeling a little queasy but there is an apparent consensus that his words will benefit the team in tomorrow's Guinness All-Ireland semi-final against Offaly in Croke Park.

Allowing that Loughnane's words smacked of using a neutron bomb to get rid of mice, this analysis rests on two bases: that the players needed geeing up and the supporters needed jolting out of any complacency.

Offaly, who were cited by the Clare manager as "one of our more daunting tasks", are nothing of the sort. Followers of the county are pessimistic and realise that the performances of the team to date have been unremittingly poor, a judgement even players have agreed with.

When a team has shown so little during a season as well as suffering the upheaval of losing a manager in a public row, it is impossible to hold out any rational hope that the players will suddenly click on the biggest day of the season. There is an irony in Offaly's presence in this semi-final in that the reformed championship was supposed to weed out underperforming teams by this stage.

Offaly got lucky against Wexford in the Leinster semi-final, and on that unlikely victory their season has been constructed. The two other wins were against Meath and Antrim - the former being moderately encouraging in terms of sharpness and apparent appetite, the latter, in the All-Ireland quarter-final, as unconvincing as the Wexford match and the defeat by Kilkenny in the provincial final.

It was certainly not to the county's advantage to draw Antrim in the quarter-final. The Ulster champions, their preparation in tatters because of civil unrest, were never going to be able to give Offaly the sort of rigorous examination they needed.

Only twice in the last 10 years has the team which played the northern representatives in the semi-finals gone on to win the All-Ireland. It may be co-incidence, but it also reflects the benefits of coming through a harder semi-final.

(Of course, Antrim people can justifiably point out that they got closer to Offaly on the scoreboard than Galway did to Waterford in their semi-final. And Waterford also lost to Clare by a bigger margin in the Munster final replay. But neither match was quite as torpid as the Offaly-Antrim quarter-final.)

In terms of preparation and performance, Offaly's new manager, Michael Bond won't have found out much from the last outing and whereas there remain high-quality players on the team, the county's limited playing stock has left them with too much mileage up and diluted the adrenalin-charge that comes from competition for places.

In order to fire up the players, Bond invited former Offaly hurler Pat Fleury and Galway's Joe Cooney to address his panel during preparations for tomorrow.

Looking through the line-ups, it is difficult to see how Offaly can win the match. Their defence is strong and has played reasonably well to date but it doesn't have the practised assertiveness of previous years.

The half-back line which won an All-Ireland was restored for the Antrim match and Kevin Kinahan's return at full back means that only Simon Whelahan has been added since the counties met in the All-Ireland final of 1995.

Moving up the field, the picture is less settled. Johnny Pilkington has been in dire form this season and his concentration wasn't helped by his role in deposing Babs Keating.

Such hope as exists in Offaly that the team can defy expectations rests at least partially on Pilkington's proven capacity to raise his game.

Having played poorly against Clare champions Clarecastle in the All-Ireland club semi-final, Pilkington improved in the replay and had his best big game in ages in the final. His partner tomorrow will hardly be the man listed in the number nine jersey, Darren Hannify, who is likely to renew what was a profitable afternoon on Anthony Daly in the Birr-Clarecastle replay.

Whether this works out remains to be seen, but Sean McGrath can attest to the difficulty of prospering on the Clare captain twice and Hannify threw in seven wides on top of the four points he took in that club replay. Speculation is that Michael Duignan will move to midfield with, perhaps, Johnny Dooley moving into the full-forward line with Paudge Mulhaire dropping back into the half-forward line.

Offaly's forward play has been their weakest aspect and question marks hover over tomorrow's prospects. John Troy, whose form has been encouraging in an otherwise poor season for the attack, is still recovering from a recent car crash and doubt has to surround the prospect of his being 100 per cent fit.

John Ryan, whose arrival as a potential full forward dates back to the National League match against Clare at Easter, actually played better at centre forward against Antrim, whereas veteran Joe Dooley was Offaly's best attacker - hardly an encouraging phenomenon for the team.

Clare teams these days are beyond speculation but after years of settled line-ups untroubled by injury, the county has gone through flux this season.

In the absence of the suspended Brian Lohan, and with the uncertainty surrounding Colin Lynch at the time of writing, the team may be short two of the top three hurlers of the year from 12 months ago. Injury still haunts Liam Doyle, although the word during the week was that the selectors are reasonably confident that the wing back will make it.

John Reddan from last year's minors is named at corner back. He is a player of great promise and has greatly impressed one opposing manager during a challenge match, albeit at centre back.

If he falls prey to one of the now regular late changes, the queue of replacements could include Michael O'Halloran, twice an All-Ireland winner, who lost his first-team place at the start of the year and Bernard Scanlan, who played well for Clarecastle in the club championship.

Whereas the Clare management make it their priority to protect players - and the Loughnane interview this week certainly took them out of the spotlight - the proof of the effect on the team will be seen tomorrow, particularly in the absence of key players.

Their implacable disposal of Waterford in the Munster replay shows that when roused, Clare are desperately hard to beat. Any danger of complacency has been guarded against by the events of the week and it's virtually impossible to see them slipping up.