IN ALL FAIRNESS - Semi-Final Weekend is Hurling’s Festival

All Ireland Hurling Semi-Final weekend is quickly becoming as big as All-Ireland Final day itself.

It helps that since it was inaugurated in 2018 (none in 2020 due to Covid) the games have largely been massively entertaining, and it continued last weekend. 39,000 was a disappointing crowd for Saturday’s semi-final between Kilkenny and Clare but the 3.00pm throw-in didn’t help on what is a working day for many. A 6.00pm throw-in would be much more suitable to allow more supporters an opportunity to attend, including those from the competing semi-finalists on the Sunday who might like to make a weekend of it.

It doesn’t appear as if there was a special ticket package was put in place for those that wished to attend both days. While the Cork v Limerick game on Sunday was a sell-out, such a deal would have ensured a bigger turnout on Saturday, helping ensure a better atmosphere and again another promotional tool in making semi-final weekend a hurling extravaganza that camogie can benefit from as well with their quarter finals being part of it.

Back to what we saw and in terms of Clare, if anyone questioned the mental toughness of this group of players, they got their answer. They were terrible in the first half, arguably as bad as they were in the 2022 semi-final, and but for Eibhear Quilligan between the posts, the game would have been done at half time.

In that first half, they looked like a team weighed down by the pressure of it being a defining game for this group. Losing three Munster finals and three All-Ireland semi-finals would have been very hard to come back from. Psychological pressure makes you look sluggish, apart from David McInerney who was the only outfield player to take the fight to Kilkenny in the opening half.

The remarkable thing about Clare’s fightback in the second half was they didn’t do anything spectacular. They just played to their true ability, Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly performed like we know they can, Adam Hogan getting to grips with Eoin Cody, and crucially they got the impact from their bench, particularly Ian Galvin and the fit again Ryan Taylor.

The surprising aspect was how Kilkenny fell away. It’s not something usually associated with them, even in the brief Derek Lyng era. Failing to score in the last fifteen minutes was shocking when you have the quality forwards they have. The usual steely mindset of doing the right thing with the ball and keeping the scoreboard ticking over just wasn’t there and the aura from the Brian Cody era seems to be well and truly gone. And if the likes of TJ Reid, Conor Fogarty, Walter Walsh, and Cillian Buckley decide to move on, that is a lot of leadership exiting the Kilkenny dressing room considering Lyng didn’t throw in many youngsters to rescue the situation on Saturday.

Moving to Sunday, the Cork v Limerick clash had the feeling of an All-Ireland Final itself and it will be only after next Sunday week will we be able to reflect on whether it was in all but title.

Going into the game, the question was whether Cork could rediscover the level of performance which saw them beat Limerick in Munster in May, and they did, arguably exceeding it. On both occasions, they did it, not only with power and pace, but also with a clever gameplan.

First of all, they took Kyle Hayes out of the game, by not putting many puckouts down on top of him and Declan Dalton, and still the Cork wing forward managed to have a big impact, his raking second half point after the Patrick Collins save from Gearoid Hegarty, you could sense the stadium foundations shake, even through the television.

Limerick didn’t reach the heights they can, but you couldn’t say they underperformed. They just weren’t allowed play the game on their terms. Cork have shown this year of how best to play them, you have to take them on. Sweepers and systems are a waste of time. You must go man for man, play three players in the full-forward line, and win your own individual battles. When was the last time Sean Finn was outplayed as he was? Diarmuid Byrnes was again ran ragged by Seamus Harnedy as he was in the Munster Championship game.

And yet, Limerick could still have at least brought the game to extra time if Shane O’Brien and Aodhan O’Connor had taken their scoreable chances late on but that is the risk with inexperience in those key moments, however both didn’t shirk the responsibility and is an indication of Limerick have to come that when the transition comes, the drop off shouldn’t be too great.

While the 2024 final has yet to be played, Limerick will be very hard beaten in 2025, as like Kilkenny in 2011, a dethroned great team will have ferocious hunger and drive to come back, and who do Limerick get first up in Munster next year…. it’s Tipperary in Thurles. A challenge to fear but also to relish.