If you’re lucky enough to get a second chance at something, in sport or life, you need to grasp it.
You often don’t get that opportunity and sometimes it takes so long to come around that what happened previously is hardly relevant anymore.
But that’s certainly not the case for Clare, who face Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final, 12 months after they were destroyed by them at the same stage of the Championship.
At half-time in last year’s game, if the ground opened up, Brian Lohan would have happily jumped in rather than wait for it to swallow him. The last 20 minutes of that game must have seemed neverending for him and his players.
To make matters worse, on top of being destroyed, he got his team selection wrong in terms of how he filled the hole left by John Conlon’s injury and that will have only compounded his misery.
I’m sure it’s something that he stewed on over the winter but, all of a sudden, another opportunity has now presented itself.
Don’t think for a second that Clare are coming to give a performance and see where it takes them. They will have bottled the hurt from last year and will be gunning for revenge.
Processes and tactics have their place but they will only bring you so far. You need to find something extra and Clare should have no problems in that regard.
Galway will have it to a certain extent against Limerick too, but Clare ought to have it in spades.
Tony Kelly has a score to settle with Mikey Butler. Peter Duggan the same with Huw Lawlor.
Conlon will remember being helpless on the sideline. And many more will have itches that need scratching.
So, if I was coming at it from Kilkenny’s point of view, I’d want to meet all of that head on from the start by sending TJ Reid, Walter Walsh and Eoin Cody into the full-forward line and peppering them with ball. The Clare full-back line has been suspect, so test them out right from the off.
Clare will know that Kilkenny won’t play a sweeper and that Mikey Butler will man-mark Tony Kelly once again. I’d be telling Kelly to drift way out the field and see what Butler does, though I’d expect that he’ll follow him. Leave Ryan Taylor and Shane O’Donnell inside and exploit the space.
I don’t see this game being a hugely tactical affair but Clare really need to batten down the hatches for the first 20 minutes and not let the game get out of reach like it did last year.
So crowd the middle, keep it tight, leave the two gunslingers close to goal and take it from there.
It’d be amazed if Clare allow themselves to be buried after 20 minutes again this time and expect a much closer contest. And having waited just a year for their second chance, I reckon they’ll make the most of it and reach their first final in 10 years.
Limerick in danger of running out of road
This great Limerick team’s run is going to come to an end sooner or later.
God knows when that will be but Galway’s approach must be that if they can tighten up on a few things from last year’s semi-final and get a few breaks that didn’t fall their way that day, then there’s no other reason why they shouldn’t end Limerick’s reign.
But the big question is whether they genuinely believe that they can do it.
Coming down the home straight, if there are a couple of points in it either way, do they get that feeling in the pit of their stomach that this is it, we’re going to drive it home from here? Or will they wilt at the prospect of taking Limerick out?
They couldn’t quite get there last year and a few Hawk Eye calls didn’t go their way but ‘nearly’ doesn’t cut it.
Limerick are without Declan Hannon and Sean Finn and while they’re performing reasonably well of late, they’re not at the levels of 2020-21.
Galway are in their second year under Henry Shefflin and are coming into this semi-final on the back of a steely victory over Tipperary.
With the exception of Jason Flynn, who has only come on late in games anyway, Shefflin has a full deck to pull from.
Galway have mixed the good with the bad but they got a result against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park and only a lucky late winner beat them in the Leinster final, while they dominated Tipp and saw off their late rally.
Galway’s time has to be now under Shefflin. Because if not now, then when?
Naturally, I want Limerick to maintain their run for a while yet, but I’m more hopeful than confident at this stage.
Female players need to embrace REAL protest
Camogie players and ladies footballers have been protesting in recent weeks in a bid to have a basic players’ charter brought through for the 2024 season.
While their frustrations are valid and they’re certainly not looking for anything that they aren’t worthy of, I just don’t get it.
Sit-down protests, training tops with logos, leaving the field briefly after the anthem. This week there was a statement from the male inter-county captains.
But what’s actually going to change as a result of all of that?
As I say, how female inter-county players are being treated is a disgrace and those in power should be ashamed, but their method of protest just doesn’t do it for me and I doubt it has the authorities quaking in their boots either.
Imagine if they all refused to play until an agreement was put in place. I bet they wouldn’t be long in sorting it out then.
I respect where the players are coming from and I sincerely hope that they get what they deserve - but if you’re going to protest, you need to go the whole hog.
