Galway vs Clare

**clash-of-da-ash** Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:03 pm

Probably the pick of the hurling qualifiers. A Galway team who played well against Kilkenny but who hasn't won a championship match against one of the big teams since 2005 against Kilkenny. Clare should be up for it and it is rumoured they are all out of white paint.

Galway should have the quality to win as long as they can hold out and finish them off.

**Jayo Cluxton** Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:29 pm

Clash - I'd say you will be more satisfied with this poll than the last one.

Clare are not up to much and only Tipp went to sleep they'd have bet them out the gate. Some people would have you believe Clare are world beaters but the truth is that even in the Liam winning teams they had a good spine (Lohans, Seanie, Lynch, Baker, Sparrow etc) and a good few passengers - never one of the great teams.

Galway will win this one handy.

Guest Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:01 pm

Jayo, you are losing it. Why don't you try to justify saying Galway will win this one handy? The day Galway come away with a handy win in Ennis is the day I give up watching hurling for good. Its not going to happen. Maybe Tipp went to sleep but if the game on Saturday is anything to go by, then so will Galway so problem solved for Clare I guess?

If Gerry Quinn was playing on Sunday, Clare would have won. Anyway the way I see it is that Galway's ace card is their full-forward line, Alan Markham is the ideal sweeper-type player, he's just going to sit in front of the FB line and clear up everything. And Brendan Bugler in front of him again, there ain't going to be a lot getting into the Galway FF line. And if Galway are relying on Joe, then I suggest they watch the replay of the Kilkenny game because he was never in the game.

This will be a close game, won't be more than a couple of points in it, sure to go down to te wire.

Who are the Clare passengers from 1995 BTW?

**Jayo Cluxton** Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:08 pm

O'Halloran, Doyle, Tuohy, Hegarty, McNamara, C. Clancy and Taaffe - Jamesie, the Sparrow & PJ O'Connell aside they were the weakest front six I ever saw winning to win - other than the '97 winners. Any Clare man will tell you that.

**clash-of-da-ash** Wed Jun 24, 2009 11:22 pm

My description of the Clare hurling team would be hacket men. Big strong men who mightn't be the most talented but they will try all day. They do lack the quality they had in the past, I'd say Brian O'Connell would be their most consistent player over the last few years. At least we have the manager on our side this time (telling his players 4 mins before throw-in who was playing and who wasn't). We should have beat them in 2002 and in 2007, 3 time lucky hopefully.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:21 pm

Bugler and Markham are standard enough inter county players and I would expect the Galway forwards to have too much for them, although saying it will be handy is way off the mark. Mike Mac will know a lot about Galway hurling from his days with Noel Lane and he was still involved with Ballindereen just before he took the Clare job. He'll have Clare psyched to the nines for this one and their performance against Tipp will give them added belief. Our record against Clare in the championship is pretty dire and I'd have preferred anyone else at this point to be honest, espicially as its in Cusack Park. That said I believe Galway should win. Brian Cody said if Galway were to build on their performance in Tullamore they would be major All-Ireland contenders and hes right. Its all all well and good for Galway to put in a big game against Kilkenny or whoever but its exactly this type of game in Ennis that has seen them fall short before and thats something they simply have to put to bed this time around.

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:33 pm

Its Hayes and Healy I'd be worried about, according to stats available to me, Joe Canning was only Galway's fourth most productive forward last Saturday. That said, he was up against the mighty JJ so no shame in losing out to a player of his stature but it will be interesting to see Joe up against James McInerney.

I feel sorry for Damiam Hayes, he is an unbelievable talent and does not get half the recognition he deserves, instead he lives in the shadow of Canning. Hopefully, the world will start to realise Cannng is nothing special and give Hayes the respect he should be given.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:48 pm

Hayes hasn't done it in a county jersey for going on three years now and his card is become increasingly marked on the terraces. Would love myself to see him step out of Cannings shadow and join him on the pedestal as one of the all time greats of the game as Galway would thus be unbeatable but an improvement in score-getting will suffice for the present.
He ran himself onto the ground in Tullamore but ulimately his scoring return was abject. He needs to turn this around for Galway to prosper this Summer starting in Cusack Park on the 11th July

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:52 pm

He did indeed run himself into the ground, according to my stats, he was Galway's most productive player. Member the goal he got against Tipperary a few years ago, just pushed the Tipp defender out of the way and bang from 21 yards, great goal. Hopefully, the other Galway forwards can step up to the mark and not leave it all to Damian like last Saturday.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:04 pm

Care to flesh these stats out a little Loyal me auld flower? Or are you just arseboxing a little to relieve the boring drudgery of living in Meath

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:07 pm

Galway beaten by their own errors

Kilkenny showed once again that matching them for intensity only goes half way to beating them – you also have to be able to use the ball well while playing at that level of intensity. While Kilkenny’s ruthless finishing in the second half was sublime, the key difference between the teams was Galway’s high error count which repeatedly allowed Kilkenny to get into positions where they could exert maximum punishment.

In the second half alone, An Moltóir counted eleven Galway fumbles to Kilkenny’s two, and ten poor plays by Galway to just one for Kilkenny. Between the 48th and 67th minutes there were no less than eight episodes where Galway conceded possession due to such errors and a Kilkenny score followed. It was Clare in the 1990s who patented the concept of high-performance intensity but the current Kilkenny outfit have brought it to a new level which other counties are going to have to match if they are to have any chance of bringing the Cats down.

Another major problem for Galway was the lack of scoring edge among their half forwards who could only manage two points from play compared with eight for their Kilkenny counterparts. The Tribesmen did give a good account of themselves but the only way they could have won this game would have been through a couple of more goals from frees by Joe Canning (and even then who knows how Kilkenny would have responded). When one considers that the Cats were without Noel Hickey, Brian Hogan and Cha Fitzpatrick and were still able to bring on Derek Lyng, Richie Hogan and TJ Reid (not to mention newcomer Seán Cummins who gave a good account of himself), one can clearly see the mammoth task facing potential pretenders to their All-Ireland crown.

For all their hard work, Galway were still shaded it by Kilkenny in both halves in terms of number of individual plays (76:71, 78:69). This 11 per cent gap in number of plays expanded to 18% in terms of quality of plays – exactly the same gap as the scoring difference between the teams. Michael Rice was far and away the most effective player on the field, his 22 plays garnering him 53 quality points (note the similarity with Brick Walsh in Thurles). The other key Kilkenny players were Eoin Larkin (42 points from 15 plays, John Dalton (36/15) and Aidan Fogarty (31/12); four other players exceeded the 20-point mark.

Galway had no one in the same league as Rice or Larkin. Their top player was Damien Hayes (35/14) followed by Cyril Donnellan (32/12) and Eoin Lynch (32/15); three other players managed in excess of 20 points.

Key post-match talking points here were the sending off of Richie Murray and the non-sending-off of Tommy Walsh. Side-by-side with the game in Thurles, this game again highlighted both the inconsistency of the rules of hurling and the inconsistency of their application. Murray got a red card for a wild swing under a high ball; Séamus Prendergast did something similar in Thurles and got a yellow. Murray’s pull was not targetted and did not hit anyone. Tommy Walsh’s slap across Damien Hayes’s hand was nasty and could hardly be regarded as careless – he pulled exactly the same stroke on Eoin Kelly in the league match against Waterford. Then he follows this with a rugby tackle on a Galway player through on goal and still survives. Furthermore, in an incident in the third minute which the referee did not seem to notice, Walsh hit Damien Hayes in the back of the neck with his hurley after the Galway man had gone to ground following a foul.

A key problem here is the fact that hurling referees only appear to be prepared to give out cards for violent offences or repeated non-violent offences. Bringing down a player without applying violence, even where the player would otherwise be through on goal, rarely attracts a booking. Walsh’s tackle on Adrian Smyth would have merited a red card in soccer. And when Eddie Brennan – already on a yellow card – took out Ollie Canning with a high tackle which verged on the dangerous in the 57th minute, Barry Kelly just awarded a routine free.

The GAA needs to make all deliberate personal fouls yellow-card offences and all violent fouls red-card offences. They also need to impose suspensions for players receiving yellow cards in successive games. But then they also need to introduce an advantage rule and to allow linesmen to flag for fouls, not to mention…oh, forget it.

Number of plays – open play only (quality points in brackets):

Kilkenny: Ryan PJ 4 (9); Kavanagh M 2 (4); Delaney JJ 7 (16); Tyrrell J 5 (10); Walsh T 10 (22); Tennyson J 10 (25); Dalton J 17 (36); Fennelly M 7 (15); Rice M 22 (53); Sheflin H 9 (26); Comerford M 13 (27); Larkin E 12 (30); Brennan E 4 (9); Power R 6 (15); Fogarty A 12 (31); Lyng D 7 (18); Cummins S 4 (10); Hogan R 1 (2) ; Reid TJ 1 (3). Note: Kilkenny players can be difficult to identify at times on screen. Ger Canning’s tendency to misidentify players is no help.

Galway: Callanan C 2 (5); Joyce D 11 (26); Kavanagh S 6 (14); Canning O 12 (29); Moore F 7 (16); Lee J 9 (17); Cullinane A 9 (18); Lynch E 15 (32); Hynes K 4 (; Callanan A 12 (27); Donnellan C 12 (32); Smyth A 5 (9); Hayes D 14 (35); Canning J 7 (17); Healy N 5 (13); Tierney D 8 (15); Kerins A 2 (4); Murray R no plays.

Thank you An Moltoir.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:13 pm

An Moiltior
Was expecting better than that that loyal. His 'stats' are the laughing stock of the hurling world as is the website he publishes them on. Your scant knowledge of the small ball game being badly exposed once again here Meath. Go watch a horse-race or something, it might cheer you up

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:17 pm

Probably clueless people like yourself who don't give them the respect they deserve. These stats back up everything I thought after the game, An Moltoir deserves much commendment for bringing these stats to the public's attention. His columns are a great read.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:21 pm

A great read for wannabe pundits on 'Ford Super Soccer Sunday special' with little or no real relevance to anything to do with anything. Quit whlie your not too far behind(oh wait your already tailed off Razz

)

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:25 pm

They are relevant to everything, you should check out the Waterford-Limerick one, you won't read a more informative article all year.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:37 pm

Me B****x, its exactly this kind if pseudo-scientific statistical bullshit that has football destroyed and now you want to bring this shcyte to the aincent game as well??
Only morons fall for this glossed up empty drivel and people who really know the game are the ones who are sitting back laughing in the end. Do you really think Brian Cody pays much heed to these stats loyal?? None of the great readers of their respective games ever did, their understanding of their chosen field was much more primal, based on 1st hand experience and real feeling as opposed to geeky cold statistics. Take who you like from Mick O Dwyer to Brian Clough to Vincent O Brien, even to Sean Boylan. That this kind of analysis has become popular has more to with Sky sports and idiots on the internet than any deeper understanding of how to be the best.

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:51 pm

Yeah some good points, but I'll be reading An Moltoir's analysis all summer long if you don't mind. They are a fascinating read but thats only my opinion. There are more to the articles as well than just all them figures. But its the figures that appeal to me most anyway, nice to have them there to back up what you say.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:59 pm

Well one thing I completely agree with you on is the undoubted ability of Damien Hayes. Never needed facts and figures to see that myself but sure no more than dungbeatles, they have their place too somewhere I suppose

**clash-of-da-ash** Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:12 pm

How can he give Damian Hayes 35 and Eoin Larkin 30, Diarmuid Lyng also got a low score and he turned the game around at midfield.

How did he come to a conclusion for the scores of 35 etc.?

Guest Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:17 pm

clash-of-da-ash wrote:How can he give Damian Hayes 35 and Eoin Larkin 30, Diarmuid Lyng also got a low score and he turned the game around at midfield.

How did he come to a conclusion for the scores of 35 etc.?

I don't know how he distributes the points, something to do with quality of plays. I just take it that they are accurate and use them accordingly. Lyng wasn't on for long enough to get a high score presumably and Larkin did struggle a bit in the first half. The Galway HB line did dominate that sector for a considerable period.

**clash-of-da-ash** Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:56 pm

Whats the story with Cusack Park, they were supposed to be selling it but thats unlikely now with the collapse of the property market. It definately needs some redevolpment as its not in the best of conditions.

**mossbags** Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:32 pm

'not in the best of conditions'
Thats been generous beyond the call of duty

**clash-of-da-ash** Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:58 pm

mossbags wrote:'not in the best of conditions'
Thats been generous beyond the call of duty

It needs a lick of paint I suppose.

**clash-of-da-ash** Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:07 pm

No Dickie Murphy or Barry Kelly please.

**mossbags** Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:38 pm

Galway and Tipp drew 2-23 each in a challenge match down in Thurles there last night.
Farragher played a stormer by all accounts, Needs to start against Clare, Joe Ganley is said to have also done well at centre forward which is interesting

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