Thatâs a pity for the best wing back in the country according to some lad on here
Itâs being reported that there 5 changes to the Tipp team, isnât there 6? O Brien, Cahill, O Dwyer, two Mahers and Callanan all coming in
Swapping Malone and Kelly has to be done.
Shane Kingston in for O Flynn is only change for cork.
Conor O Sullivan is on the bench
1 Like
Surely there is better than Cathal Malone in the county? He doesnât fit into the team at all in my opinion. Someone said here last week that Clare are a strange mix of big awkward lads and small fast lads and theyâre not far wrong. Itâs a as if Malone is picked based on his size but I donât think heâs good enough
I donât rate him either. Shsnagher and Cunningham are unavailable we donât have too many options. Kelly needs to be further upfield and Malone down
Surely Jamie Shanahan would be a better player than him in midfield. Or move Morey to midfield, he canât defend but is a good athlete and is good at carrying the ball forward. Malone is not up to it. Either is Jack Browne
I would see that the team picked for this game as much better balanced than the one that played Limerick. Maybe he got it completely wrong the last day, but that team looks decent.
Heffernan can hurl but he was poor against us. So were the two Mahers but they have more credit in the bank and the switch pushes them back into their best positions, although Lehane could expose Ronanâs lack of pace.
Bubbles had to be dropped, they needed Bonner back in the forwards just to give McCormack a hand. A big thing will be whether Brendan Maher, Bonner and Callanan are actually fit. Fully-fit, that looks fairly decent, although the full-back line is still suspect.
AKA the team that should have started against Limerick, if Michael hadnât been so cocksure. Tipp managers and their notions of grandeur.
1 Like
Browne was pretty good the last day. Surprisingly
Their bench looks considerably weaker though. If its not working , where do you look for the match winners
Breen off panel?
Seems mad.
They need a kick but I do not think they have rhe next layer or hurlers to be losing those guys.
1 Like
Shanahan hasnât the legs for midfield. Morey hasnât the physicality for it. Malone is a limited hurler but is very honest and works very hard, does an amount of spade work. Given the lack of consistent workrate and physicality in the forward line he is a nailed in starter at this point, until someone with more hurling matches his attitude and effort. Given how porous our defence is, dropping Malone for a light wristy hurler who might hit 2 or 3 points from loose ball but do fuck all else and let hiscman saunter out of defence to pick a pass isnt the best idea. Malone kept Coleman fairly quiet for 50 odd minutes on Sunday and did alright on fitzgibbon considering his impact in the 20 odd minutes beforehand. The consistent poor touch of Duggan and consistent poor decision making by Reidy hamstrung us a lot more than Maloneâs lack of hurling.
Clare are really paying for the 2012-2016 period where the Pat Fitz appointed cronies to manage the minors rather than looking to appoint those who had done the spade work with development squads. This has been further undermined by appointing a ham like Carmody at 21s for the last two years. Means the depth of the senior panel is now badly affected by injury and retirements and the new lads who have come in are not up to it and may never be.
Some decent prospects in last years and this years minors which will help in the medium term but we will badly need the likes if Cunningham, Shanagher and Oâ Brien back next year for depth.
2 Likes
Whatâs the story with Bobby duggan?
In America.
See my point re forwards who might score 2 or 3 points from loose ball and do nothing else.
I think Clare has very good structures until they go to minor and what not. As you said mid management. Lads just fade away. Limerickâs system seems to be generating way more traction from similar level of player skill wise. I take it ye have a decent minor side this year. Limerick are okay with one stand out in Cathal OâNeill who looks like he has huge potential.
They are well prepared and have a good mix of hurling and size. Rodgers at corner forward is very classy.
The 4 or 5 lads who played relatively well in the hammering by Limerick at 21s last month like the full back Hayes, Diarmuid Ryan, Gary Cooney and Aidan Mccarthy were all minors last year and will get a chance at senior in the not too distant future.
Breen isnât off the panel. Heâs injured
1 Like
Incorrect.
Nobody would have started Sean OâBrien against Limerick
Cahill wasnât even on 26 due to injury
Joe OâDwyer has never played Munster Championship
Seamus Callanan hadnât togged out for county since last August
Brendan Maher wasnât even supposed to be on bench during week due to injury
Bonner Maher coming back from injury
On top of that, Paudie Maher had to get injection in ankle just to play before the match. He didnât have a full deck of cards to play with and he is now going with a team that isnât fully fit
1 Like
Take Conlon and Donal Touhy who are both 28, it is a young enough Clare team Mcgrath and OâConnor are both 26 but the remainder are 25 and under but a lot have been at it for 6 or 7 seasons. It is very hard to have any confidence in them winning a tight game against a well matched side as they simply havenât done it for 5 seasons now.
The hunger and leadership shown by the likes of Harnedy, Horgan and Lehane in the last 10 minutes last Sunday summed up exactly what Clare are missing. Too much energy spent clawing back leads and then nobody takes it by the scruff of the neck when the game is there to be won.
I think David Mc and Cleary are very good hurlers at 3 and 6 but the rest of our backs are either average enough intercounty hurlers like Browne abd OâConnor or not natural defenders like Morey and Fitzgerald. In saying that I dont think the Cork defence is full of superstars either, Coleman aside, yet their attitude and ability to defend as a unit was the reason they won the match by 5 points. On the balance of play Clare should won by 5 but decision making and final balls killed them.
Clare defend as individuals with lads too preoccupied with their own man and reacting to danger rather than pressuring/swarming the man in possession and anticipating danger. Cork were excellent at this at the weekend.
With a back line than is going to cough up scores when under pressure the work rate in the forwards needs to be manic and a few lads simply seem happy enough to give chase rather than put a hit in. We have some very talented forwards but I canât recall when more than two of them performed well on a given day which also holds us back.
I think home advantage and the absentees will see us home against Waterford. I think we will have two tight games against Tipp and Limerick but it is very hard to have confidence in Clare winning a tight game until they actually start doing it.
1 Like