Have had a flick through the last few pages and the negativity is way over the top.
We had a poor performance down in Walsh Park - 6 changes were made and a dramatically improved performance was needed, and that's what we got.
We were playing the 2nd best team in the country (they might prove to the be the best yet this year) and definitely the best attacking team in the country, and I think we were the better team on balance when it was 15v15. Kind of a pointless comment but I genuinely believe that we would have gone on and won it without the sending off.
Just to breakdown the changes first:
Eoin Downey, Niall O'Leary, Tim O'Mahony into the back line and I thought the 3 of them put in huge shifts. I've been critical of NOL but he put in a big performance. Same with ED - he did a great on Aidan MacCarthy overall, great paw and needs to stay in the team. Tim had a real tough one against Duggan, and there was an obvious switch to be made, but I thought he showed his value to the team, we have more fire and aggression as a team when he's on the field.
Ethan Twomey, Dalton, Hayes also did well. Hayes should have done more with a few balls in the first half, Adam Hogan was on top but Dalton was excellent (himself and TOM are our most aggressive players) - we lost something when he went off unfortunately. E Twomey will have got loads out of that - he got on plenty ball, he's a super athlete and he'll keep on getting better.
The pressure was on Hoggie and Harnedy of course after thursday evening's team announcement. Hoggie was excellent. Clare don't have a number 4 (this is going to keep catching them) and Hoggie took advantage. Harnedy did well initially and in fairness he was everywhere but Ryan got on top eventually. But fair fucks to the 2 boys - they both delivered a performance.
So what went right and what went wrong?
The first 45 minutes were exactly what we wanted. We moved the ball quickly, we were looking for the right lads at the right time, we were accurate. Most importantly, we got bodies back to support the full back line and conceded frees when we needed.
Barrett was pulling Conlon all over the place (although he never did the damage that he should have done), Connolly had Cleary on a yellow, Darragh was finding space, Joyce and Rob Downey hurling well. We had the Clare defence in bother and probably should have another 2 goals (the Darragh chance and Barrett chance had to be converted). Work-rate was excellent. Only thing you could fault in the first two thirds of the game were the puc-outs, Collins was under-hitting too many and it kept Clare in the game in that period. Clare weren't playing poorly at all at this stage so I think it's important to note we are at the level required when we're on it.
What went wrong was all preventable in my opinion. We got a bit caught up in that early second half excitement and our half back line and midfield totally lost their shape and followed the Clare half forwards out the field like an u14 team really. It was incredibly difficult for our full back line to manage 1 on 1s in that amount of space. This was totally different to the first half. To compound that we made poor changes. The 2 Roches should have been on the bench and Brian should have replaced Twomey or Dalton, and Eoin (who did really well in Ennis in March) should have replaced SOD (or if you wanted to keep SOD on the pitch, get him out of that full back line and into the middle of the field). You can't go around after Shane O'Donnell and Rodgers on a yellow card.
Those giving out about the second yellow I'd say haven't played in many high intensity matches. It's a split second thing and I think if that's Clare v Limerick reffed by Keenan or KK v Galway reffed by Gordon its either play on or maybe a free, it's a harsh yellow. I've said for ages that SOD shouldn't be in the corner, and I didn't see anything yesterday to change my mind on that but I wouldn't be hard on him for the second yellow. He shouldn't have been on Shane O'Donnell at that stage and it was complete madness leaving him 1v1 on him on several occasions while on a yellow. Watch Limerick playing Shane O'Donnell - they never leave anyone 1v1 on him, they know you need a second defender in there immediately, probably the most dangerous forward in the country along with Gillane.
Other changes didn't work either. ROF is unfit and out of form. Coleman did ok. Meade shouldn't be on the match day panel. There are small changes that are staring us in the face that can make that difference - others have mentioned it already but we need to pick a midfield that help us to concede less. When was the last time you saw a Cork number 8 or 9 getting in a hook to stop a goal, or just making a tackle in our 21?
Clare played some super hurling, and they're missing 2 top players so they are a serious side. We were better than them for a good chunk of it but ultimately we shot ourselves in the foot by not prioritising how we would stop them as the game played out.
Players and management got a lot right yesterday, the players gave absolutely everything, and it was fantastic to see great attacking hurling by Cork down the pairc in a game of the highest quality. Smarter defensive thinking about positioning and personnel would have got us over the line.
