*Clare failed to supply Mark Rodgers with enough possession. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
WHILE I WAS confident going into the game against Tipperary at the weekend I was nervous as Tipperary had shown the better form of the two so far in the league.
The hope for Clare supporters was that they would be able to rise it for the heat of championship battle, but we ended up playing in fits and starts in an erratic performance. We did not seem championship ready and this translated to early blunders which gifted Tipperary a great platform from which to go on and win the game.
It’s clear that Clare were attempting to work the ball out from the back and play a possession based gameplan. Puckouts went short and we took multiple passes to work the ball out of defence to midfield before feeding the forwards or taking on a shot from distance. Our hurling sharpness let us down regularly here as play broke down through misplaced passes and poor first touches. To give Tipperary their due credit, they applied fierce pressure to our defenders and when the opportunities arose, they mercilessly punished Clare.
Our short puckout malfunctioned and gifted Tipperary two goals and three points. Combined with a sideline cut which went straight to the net, we gifted Tipp 3-3 and yet the winning of the game was not beyond Clare. If we had used possession more cleverly in the middle of the field we could have put our forwards in a position to be more successful.
Unfortunately, particularly early on, we favoured shooting from distance into a strong breeze rather than getting the ball into the danger area to our scorers. Clare hit aimless wides or landed shots short into the Tipperary goalkeepers hands time after time. This is demoralising for the team as a whole as forwards become less likely to make the hard runs when the ball is sailing over their head instead of delivered in at pace.
Though, starved for possession and opportunities, our inside forwards did produce some magic. No one more so than Mark Rodgers who turned an attempt at scoring from out the field into an amazing goal. Mark caught the ball under severe pressure and managed to bury it before the two covering defenders could get to him. It was a score which lifted Clare and allowed us back into the game before the half. It was a pity then that Clare players did not recognise the danger that Rodgers posed and feed more ball into him.
Tipperary did well to keep Clare at arm’s length throughout the second half. The loss of David McInerney on a black card stopped Clare from fully turning the screw for a portion of the second half. The fact that the penalty was adeptly put in the back of the net was a double blow. I have no issue with the implementation of that rule as it is probably a textbook case of what the rule was brought in to stop.
However, there was a glaring inconsistency late on in the game when Aron Shanagher’s advance on goal was halted by Michael Breen and only a 21 yard free was awarded. Perhaps an addendum to this rule which we all missed is that it can only be awarded against Clare when playing Tipp!
The loss is a major blow to Clare, Tipperary were not massively impressive but we made too many errors to fight our way back into the game. It is plausible that Tipp may not win another game in Munster so losing at home to them puts us in a bad position from the off. It becomes more serious when we consider the daunting prospect ahead of the lads when visiting the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night. Clare did not compete in the league fixture against Limerick this year and were well beaten on the night.
Limerick were underwhelming in their performance against Waterford, but still managed to win despite losing Declan Hannon early and playing with just 14 men for much of the game. Clare will have to bring a massive aggression to the game this weekend. There’s no doubt that there are positives to take from the Tipperary game and they will have to regroup and work on some aspects of the game this week.
The most important aspect will be to prioritise getting ball to the forwards and not settling from pot shots out the field. While they clearly want to work the ball the man in the best position before delivering, they can’t allow themselves to be turned over as regularly as they were the last day. Bad ball is better than no ball for forwards as was shown by Aron Shanagher at the end of the game when he won some great possession and created havoc inside.
Clare’s hurling should be sharper now that they have a game played and you would expect that will reduce the amount of handling errors which occurred. In order to compete with Limerick they will need to be at their sharpest and missed touches and sloppy passes won’t cut it. While it was a tough starting debut for our goalkeeper Eamonn Foudy, he will need to bounce back this week. He is a player I have seen at underage and have been impressed by. It will test his character but could be the making of him in the long run if he can come back stronger.
Limerick are the best team in the country, and they will have made their own improvements from their first outing of the season last weekend. While I think a win is probably beyond Clare in this fixture, it will be crucial to keep this game competitive. Clare have the beating of Waterford and Cork and progressing from Munster could come down to scoring difference at the end of this championship.
