Hurling teams lose matches for two reasons – either they don’t create enough scoring chances to win or they do create the chances but don’t take them. If the latter is the case, is it that the players basically aren’t good enough to convert the chances they have created, or is it that they have just had an off-day?. This latter question is of crucial importance for Clare’s chances of making further progress in this year’s hurling championship, because last Sunday they certainly created enough chances to win the Munster final against Tipperary.

In Limerick, Clare came out on top on all the indexes of territorial domination and chances created, and still ended up eight points behind. In numbers of plays (excluding frees, puckouts and sidelines) they edged it against their opponents in both halves for a total of 202-193. They won half of their own puckouts and two thirds of Tipperary’s. And in terms of unsuccessful shots at goal they were way ahead, 24-14. Clare’s total of missed chances included 15 wides, five shots that fell short, three saves and one shot that hit the post. Tipp’s total was made up of nine wides, three shots that fell short, one save and one shot that hit the post. All of Clare’s wides were bad wides compared to just four of Tipp’s. A couple of their other missed chances were also bad misses. If they had got a reasonable number of their bad misses, there would have been very little in it at the finish, and it would have been interesting to see how Tipp would have performed in such a pressure situation.

Clare no doubt will argue that they had shown plenty of ability to score in their games against Waterford and Limerick, and that last Sunday was an off-day. However, Sunday’s game was played at a much higher tempo, against tighter marking and better-quality opponents. Having said that, some of Clare’s misses were truly appalling, and they did show an ability to land excellent scores in the second half, so maybe it was a once-off. Nevertheless, they never showed an ability to threaten the Tipp goal in the way the Premier did at the other end of the pitch, especially with the two superb goals which ultimately decided the issue. Even then, Clare could point to their goalie being unsighted by Frank Lohan for the first goal, and for the poor defensive formation which allowed John O’Brien to run in from out the field for the second. Whether or which, whereas Clare got the rub of the green in terms of converted goal chances in the semi-final against Limerick in an otherwise evenly-contested game, last Sunday the fates evened things out.

Apart from their more efficient conversion of scoring chances, the other key factor in Tipperary’s victory was the way their halfback line – and especially Eamon Corcoran and Conor O’Mahony – were able to compensate for the fact that they were essentially cleaned out in midfield. James Woodlock was a peripheral figure for most of the time he spent on the pitch, and while Shane McGrath did put in some good work, in this sector Tipp were comprehensively beaten by Brian O’Connell and Colin Lynch. Between them, these two played the ball 40 times compared to 23 times for their opponents (Benny Dunne added nothing when he replaced Woodlock on 66 minutes). While O’Connell’s 22 plays made him the busiest player on the pitch, overall the quality of Lynch’s contribution was better.

Under An Moltóir’s revised system of awarding one point for a basic play, two for a good play, three for an excellent play and four for a superb play, Lynch got 37 points (the highest of all the players on the pitch) and O’Connell 34, compared to McGrath’s 23 and just eight for Woodlock. It is a tribute to Lynch that, at this stage of his career, he was able to produce such a consistent performance from start to finish in such a highly-charged game.

On the Tipperary side, the play count confirmed An Moltóir’s initial impression that, if any Tipp player was to get the man-of-the-match award, it should have been (as usual) Eamon Corcoran. Corcoran had 21 plays for a total of 35 points. Conor O’Mahony, with 31 points from 17 plays, was also ahead of John O’Brien who undoubtedly did have an excellent game (30 points from 17 plays). Interestingly, Eoin Kelly also got 30 points (from 18 plays). Last Sunday he got through an enormous amount of hard work and showed that he is not just there to take frees and notch individual scores. Apart from Shane McGrath, three other Tipp players got a points total in the 20s – Lar Corbett and Seamus Callinan (23 each) and, unusually, Brendan Cummins (20).

Returning to the Clare side, both Gerry Quinn and Pat Donnellan almost made the 30 points with 29 each (from 18 and 19 plays, respectively), while Tony Carmody, Niall Gilligan (despite their poor shooting) and Jonathan Clancy (who again had a good game) all rowed in with 22 points apiece. The Banner mentors will no doubt take considerable solace from the strong performances put in by relative newcomers Pat Donnellan and Pat Vaughan, and the good form shown by Gerry Quinn and Gerry O’Grady, while Gerry O’Connell (14 points from 10 plays) also showed up well when he replaced Conor Plunkett (although badly beaten for possession by John O’Brien in the lead-up to Tipp’s second goal). However, the central defensive spine of Plunkett and Frank Lohan were put under a lot of pressure by the pace of Callinan and Corbett.

For their part, the Tipp management will have been pleased by the strong showing of Eamon Buckley at corner back and the sharpness displayed by Declan Fanning when called on to fill the gap left by Paul Curran’s injury. However, Conor O’Brien and Shane Maher have still to be fully tested, James Woodlock once again fell short, and on this showing, Pat Kerwick does not offer a ready-made solution to Tipp’s longstanding half-forward problem. Fair dues to John O’Brien for grabbing his chance, but consistency has not exactly been his middle name in the past, and this writer has yet to see anything to suggest that Seamus Butler is up to it at this level. Tipperary certainly are by no means the finished article, and may find themselves shipping too much water when they get into the deep end of the championship.

Offaly v Limerick
For An Moltóir, Offaly’s victory over Limerick was no shock, but the extent of it certainly was surprising. Again, there was not as much between the teams as some writers would suggest, and the game ultimately hinged on two handy goals that came Offaly’s way – the first, when the ball fell kindly for Joe Bergin to usher into an empty goal, and the second when he just got the faintest touch to Rory Hanniffy’s superbly-delivered line ball.

Bergin’s third goal was indeed a smasher, but his contribution did not really merit the man-of-the-match award. The real basis of this Offaly victory was laid at midfield, where Hanniffy and Brendan Murphy got through an enormous amount of work (although Limerick’s Donal O’Grady and Wayne McNamara also hurled a lot of ball in this sector). However, the best hurler on the field was Mark Foley, another veteran who, like Colin Lynch the following day, kept going from start to finish and generally used the ball a lot better than he was wont to do in the past.

Offaly also got the usual couple of good saves from Brian Mullins, a very solid fullback line display against a woeful Limerick inside line, a superb first-half contribution from Kevin Brady and a very impressive input from Diarmuid Horan right through. Up front, Brian Carroll and Declan Molloy showed a work rate and ability to win possession which no Limerick forward could match, and an extraordinary display of scoring efficiency from Shane Dooley (five scores from just eight plays in all). However, it will be a real test for such a young team to repeat the performance within a week, especially against a Waterford team that is likely to be much more fired up than Limeric