On paper Clare are a better team than KK. But I would be wary for Clare. KK will set out to shut down Kelly. If you can do that you are half way there. Clare definitely have more contributing now than him, but they still need a big score from play from Kelly. If he is off the frees as well will that affect his ability to get into the game?
Cody is the King of having a team primed after the break. They will present Clare with a different type of challenge than what they have faced so far. They will be going over the warzone as much as they can and high down on the FB line where Clare struggled. Be interesting to see how Clare can adjust.
Clare showed great bottle to dig it out against Wexford the last day after the sickner of the MF. Theyâll be afraid of no one, nor should they be, but what have they in the tank is the question for me.
I have a feeling KK will do it, I donât know why.
Weâll bate the shite out of Galway in the other one
Our record against non leinster teams is really shit so the odd victory stands out! Dublin went out the following week and lost to Antrim after being 10 points up
I donât see Kilkenny winning this at all. Clare have a more than enough in the battling stakes and miles more skill. I really donât rate Kilkenny at all, perhaps Iâm completely wrong.
Edit, I kinda hope Kilkenny win as it would be great to face Kilkenny in a final and it would be easier for Limerick fans to get tickets.
Iâve no idea what to expect in terms of how the game will be played but I wouldnât draw an obvious conclusion that KK canât win a shootout. Any negative conclusion drawn about that outcome would only be as a result of form and form (Limerick aside) has been very unreliable this year. Clare will, I feel, be still suffering from the result of the Munster final, not the scoreboard, butt he manner. They threw all they had, hurled unbelievably, died on their feet but in reality Limerick pulled away handy for a finish. Clare, rightly, see themselves as the greatest challenge to Limerick this year but there will be sub conscious thoughts amongst the panel that they tried their best already this year and it wouldnât surprise me if a fear of beating Kilkenny this Saturday evening seeped into the minds of some of the Clare lads. Cody wonât want for an iota of motivation for this match and you can be assured that the past 4 weeks will have seen 2/3 Kk players singled out for special attention and targeted âmotivationâ. Itâs Codyâs speciality, itâs also his 3rd attempt to get this team beyond a semi final, draw whatever you will from the motivation that will have provided him. Not a peep from KK since the Leinster final, not a whisper. Clare are the better hurling team coming into this match, they need to prove that Saturday evening
I think Clare will beat Kilkenny by a little bit, maybe 4-6 points.
I think Limerick will beat Galway by a lot, maybe 14-16 points. Galway are absolutely useless and theyâve fluked their way to this stage. Under my Xp&g model, Cork should have beaten them by 3-28 to 1-18 and their results will surely regress to the mean. I mentioned ages ago that the players were totally bemused by Shefflin not drilling down into tactics, other than the very high levelâŚdefenders stay close and compact, Cathal Mannion hurl away in a free role, half forward line work up and down and leave two inside. Theyâve no patterns of play within that, no attacking or defending puck out strategy, nothing other than fong the ball in the general direction of Whelan. Now he might turn 8 or 9 Hail Marys into 1-2 from play himself, 0-2 in pointed frees and an assist for another 0-1. But theyâll get battered at the weekend and they might have been better offer losing narrowly to Cork tbh. It didnât bode well when they players were looking for basic stuff that any good club set up would have in terms of stats, GPS data etc back in the winter/early spring. Just hurl away wonât really cut it against The Big House and their whiteboard. Itâll be interesting to see if Shefflin walks or gets the bullet after his first year.
I canât look past the God awful Leinster final this year. Two rubbish teams. Galway werenât much better against Cork. Clare should beat them handy.
But why would a fear of a beating seep in? The teams havenât met in championship hurling since 2006 and and Kilkenny havenât inflicted a heavy defeat on Clare at any level in a decade, there is no basis really for such a claim.
To be honest, I mentioned to a friend in James Stephens a couple of years ago that I thought AMâs best position â for Kilkenny, at least â might well be midfield. Can certainly understand what you are saying about the left hand robbing the right hand â but this scenario might have more to do with loss of form/erratic form/inexperience on the part of John Donnelly, Cian Kenny, James Maher, Billy Ryan and PĂĄdraig Walsh.
If everyone was playing to optimum form, the Kilkenny team would probably be along these lines:
Eoin Murphy
Mikey Butler
Huw Lawlor
Tommy Walsh
Michael Carey
Conor Delaney/Richie Reid
David Blanchfield
Paddy Deegan
James Maher
Billy Ryan
PĂĄdraig Walsh
Adrian Mullen
TJ Reid
John Donnelly
Eoin Cody
But we are where we are. And I have a gut instinct about us having a right chance of beating Clare.
I like Mossy, he works hard and has bagged a few goals.
I was just thinking I donât recall seeing Maher this year, although I did miss a couple of Kilkennyâs Leinster games and I know there has been a lot of switching at midfield.
Probably looking at Fogarty & Browne this weekend, I suppose.