We really got out of jail today, we were sloppy and lethargic for about 55 minutes and thundered into the game in the last 15! minutes and got away with it.
We were obsessed with short passes today, a trait that I thought we got rid of, it was ridiculous the amount of hospital passes we tried to play in defence. If we persist with that we will have a very short summer.
No excuses but we don’t know what training has been done for the last few weeks but I suspect we are just coming out of a very heavy training block. That’s certainly what it looked like. If not I’d be really worried
What the fcuk is our goalie at coming out as a spare man when the danger is still there. Some on here are lauding him for his spectacular recovery but he should never have left his line. More sloppiness
Did someone say Shane Kingston got man of the match? You’re shitting me surely? He barely hit a ball all day, no less than a lot of others but man of the match? I’d have given it to Paudie Power or Seamus Harnedy, no one else deserved it
Not one player stood out today, not one, to me Eoin Downey, Ciaran Joyce, Tommy O Connell, Declan Dalton, Shane Barrett and Paudie Power were the best of the starters with Seamus Harnedy and Robert Downey the pick of the subs.
That doesn’t mean the other fellas should be written off or anything but some have dropped down the pecking order and things are going to get serious from here on in.
We have Clare next weekend in a dead rubber and a league semi final the following weekend against probably Waterford or Kilkenny. If players are going to start against Waterford in championship they are going to have to perform from now on in, and I include the returning older players in that. To start someone in championship who hasn’t struck a ball for you would be some gamble to take no matter how much experience they have.
But Seamus showed today the value of older experienced players who are prepared to work hard and fight for the ball. Others have yet to show if they can or not.
Team for Clare
Ger Collins
Niall O Leary Daire O Leary Eoin Downey
Cormac O Brien Tommy O Connell Robert Downey
Ciaran Joyce Brian Roche
Declan Dalton Conor Cahalane Seamus Harnedy
Alan Cadogan.Paudie Power Shane Barrett
I’m presuming anyone not fit enough for the bench this week won’t be fit enough to start next week
Personally I don’t think Ciaran Joyce and Tommy O Connell should both start half back as they both like the free role of 6. Now is the time to look at Joyce midfield as we need a driving force in there going foward so let’s look at Tommy at 6
but could we not at least look at our options in a dead rubber game?