I think Wexford should win this with a bit to spare on the simple fact that they are a more experienced team and physically more powerful team than this current Clare side. I think we only had 5 starters the last day that started the first two Munster Championship matches last summer. Regardless of strength in depth I doubt there is a team in the country who could expect to be winning games consistently with that much turnover of players. From 1 to 7 the last day we had 5 lads making either their first or second championship start and the two experienced lads in Cleary and Morey were playing out of position at full and centre back respectively.
The only two things I see in Clare’s favour is that Davy’s track record as at intercounty level when his side have been flat first day out has normally led to flat performances for the remainder of the championship and I think they might struggle to hit top gear this year in the condensed season - but they may not need to in order to get a win here.
The other aspect which may help Clare is that Laois caused them a lot of problems in the second half last week with their short puckouts and then carrying the ball up the field which we really struggled with, we dealt with anything Laois sent long or direct fairly easily. Some was down to the fact that they had an extra man meaning that we couldn’t push up on their puckouts and our half backline followed their men rather than looking to close the space and channels for the man in possession. Again i think if we had 15 men it wouldn’t have been as big an issue as Paul Flanagan would most likely have operated as a free man holding the middle 30 odd yards from goal rather that it being empty space for runners.
Management also made the mistake of switching Kelly to midfield for the second half. While he played well there and tracked runs and turned over a few balls, the partnership of him and Reidy were too light and Laois were able to work the ball through the middle far too easy until Golden came on for Reidy. Morey while a very pacey hurler has poor defensive instincts to be an intercounty centre back and wasn’t capable of holding the middle or dealing with runners from deep.
These issues may well come back to cost Clare at the weekend but I would see them as an opportunity to fix some of it now ahead of Wexford’s running game this weekend rather than being completely unaware of these limitations. With that I would expect is to put more emphasis on not letting Wexford have easy short puckouts and if as expected Wexford have a sweeper it should allow us to have an extra man as well who will help clog up those channels where Wexford want to send runners. I think Jack Browne will return this weekend, he had a knock last week and wasn’t risked, either for Morey or Flanagan and while he lacks pace he will at least track runs and be physical in the tackle.
Diarmuid Ryan will most likely replace Colin Guilfoyle and I’d expect Shane Golden to replace David McInerney if his appeal fails and I’d rather he start over Reidy if David Mc is available too as we will need bigger men in that middle third.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cathal Malone be given a man marking role on Lee Chin when he is in the half forward or midfield area.
