The TJ Reid conundrum - what are Clare to do with the Kilkenny maestro in Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final?
How Clare handle the Kilkenny attack, and Reid in particular, is central to the outcome.
If John Conlon is centre-back will he mark Reid tight? I don’t believe that he will. In previous games he has sat in the pocket and provided important cover for Clare.
Read next: Taoiseach labels Croke Park scenes between Galway and Armagh 'disturbing' as GAA launches eye-gouging probe
But if you give TJ space, he’ll hurt you from any distance.
Clare may assign a midfielder to pick Reid up but that has the potential to cause confusion and destabilise the team elsewhere. It’s no small matter and, from a Clare perspective, one that I’m worried about.
But if they can get it right, it could be a decisive factor in their favour.
When I was managing against Kilkenny, I always had TJ man-marked. He deserves that respect.
He’s not the only threat that they have up front though and Clare need to nail their match-ups.
You’d wonder if Rory Hayes will start this time. He can count himself unlucky if he doesn’t but Cian Nolan has done well, to be fair.
Kilkenny seem to have adapted their game since losing to Galway. They’re using the ball way better now having hit it long time after time in Salthill to little effect.
They will be ready and will bring a performance on Saturday evening. Clare will have to step it up considerably from the quarter-final to be able to counter that.
While it was always going to be difficult to reach the intensity of the Munster final again, they were lucky to escape with a win against Wexford, who had chances to finish them off. Chances that Kilkeny are unlikely to pass up if they are presented to them on Saturday.
But while Kilkenny have TJ, Clare have Tony Kelly. I hope he starts on the inside line and then drifts all over.
Against Wexford, he didn’t seem to move out too much. But when he does, his movement becomes very hard to mark and creates a problem no matter who is on him. As well as that, he opens up the space inside for others when he comes out.
How to deal with Kelly is quite the imponderable for Brian Cody. Limerick didn’t man-mark him and it hurt them big time. Wexford did with Shane Reck and it worked well for them, even if Clare played into their hands by leaving inside too much.
The battle between Huw Lawlor and Peter Duggan will be fascinating. Lawlor is one of the best full-backs out there but Duggan is a handful who will test him to the limit.
I’ll be interested as to whether Kilkenny push up on the Clare half-forward line. They normally hold their shape but if they allow Shane O’Donnell and Ryan Taylor to pick up short ball, they will do damage.
