It’s part of their charm. But still. They might see about occasionally making things a little easier on themselves. On their supporters. On their hearts.
Amid all the talk before the All-Ireland semi-final there was, by universal consensus, one thing Clare couldn’t do against Kilkenny – start poorly.
It would constitute an act of hara-kiri. After two defeats to the same county at the same stage, it was simply out of the question they would proceed to lose in the same way. Thrice.
By half-time, they trailed by five. After Billy Ryan’s goal went in midway through the second, they were six adrift.
Now. This is the bit where we like to imagine Clare simply stamped their foot and announced they had had enough. Too much pain. It wouldn’t be happening again. The reality, though, was much less dramatic, almost anodyne.
“Probably our use of ball,” said David Reidy, who scored two points from three shots himself, when asked what went wrong and by extension, what then went right for Clare.
“There was a good bit of time that we weren’t even under pressure and we weren’t getting ball to hand. The standard is ball to hand. If you put the ball on to the ground and take a touch, you are getting closed down.
“Thinking about Sunday and the work rate that we saw last Sunday with Cork, it has to be ball to hand, move the ball fast. Take your opportunities.”
It was as specific a diagnosis as you’re likely to get from an in-season player. Almost suspiciously so. Hence, a second opinion was sought. Conor Cleary’s.
“With the six forwards and two midfielders that we have,” Cleary noted, “the quality of ball we were getting to them wasn’t good, and there’s no better team in Ireland than Kilkenny if there is poor ball going in. They’ll just eat it up and play it out the field.
“That was a big focus going into the second half. Our use of the ball in the first half was poor and we felt it was costing us.”
Next up, Shane O’Donnell. What, we wondered, might the good doctor diagnose as Clare’s near-fatal condition in the first half.
“It was just not a great use of the ball, basically,” he said, reiterating the message of his team-mates. “We were getting the ball to good positions that we could have done damage and get scores out of. Some forwards, including me, were not making the right decision for the person on the ball.”
So that was that. Rarely at a GAA press night has a straight question had such a straight answer. Consensus. Unanimity.
Clare’s half-time report card had decent marks for effort and intensity. But for use of the ball, it said: must do better. So they did.
This is the reality of inter-county performance. Even in the immediacy of half-time, data-based conclusions can be provided. This is how it works now.
“It’s to get after the performance,” added Reidy. “It might be cliche, might not, but this group of players have always gone after it. Sometimes we didn’t get it, sometimes we did. As an individual then, how can you improve? Everyone wants to win. But how much do you want to win? What do you need to do to get to the next level? What do you need to do to rectify a weakness in your game? It’s being able to pinpoint that weakness, understand how to go about improving it, no matter how big or small it is, going doing the work then. And try again.”
In the first half against Kilkenny, Clare had taken eight of 13 scoring chances. They went on to convert 16 of 24 in the second. A 64pc conversion rate to Kilkenny’s 47pc.
They’re the numbers they’ll hang their hat off this week. They will form the underlying themes of their preparations.
“We’ll enjoy the bit of a build-up and put that to the back of our minds. It’s going to be 75/76 minutes of a game of hurling against Cork, who have improved so much since the first day of the championship,” said Reidy.
“We’ll have to come with our own performance. When we played Kilkenny our focus was on our own display – we only got that for 35 minutes probably. We were very lucky to only be five points down. We need to have a performance of 75 minutes or we will be in trouble.”
