Originally posted by BeTimberin:
Jez fine weather you are fairly negative in the face of Davy's results this year.As you say, the pressure is off in this game. I don't think there is any expectancy(much like the game against Tipp last year) nor would there really be much confidence but for the most part Clare can come into this game off the back of a good run of games. This is about 3 to 4 steps up from that with respect to everyone including ourselves. Kilkenny rarely take it easy on anyone.I'll write a more detailed piece closer to the time but just on the short passing - i think a lot of people are cutting this because of the interceptions which have lead to scores. For anyone who has a hurling brain who watched Clare last year i will gladly take the short passing game that is being used this year. On how many occasions was possession fcuked away last year with poor distribution out of defence? The whole point of a short passing/support game is to provide a more varied decent supply of ball to the forwards. This has been evident in nearly all games this year as anyone i have spoken to have agreed that ball being sent in was of much better quality - i have witnessed it in the short clips i've seen of the Clare side on TV and also from the first game against Limerick.Im all for Davy adopting this gameplan in order to better use possession providing he adapts it over time and looks to develop other options as more material becomes available to him. I am convinced he will aswell.

Originally posted by bluesky:
well remember 1995 kilkenny hammer the daylights out of clare in that years league final, Clare went on to win the all ireland after, i am sure Davy is saying the same to this bunch
of players.

Originally posted by hurling immortal:

(clare probably have zero chance of winning)

i would be happy enough with a 7 point loss or less..(i know that sounds defeatist)

Originally posted by tv1:
How many of the Clare team would make a Kilkenny practice session in Nolan Park,genuine question.6 to 10 maybe?

Originally posted by busdriver:

that said i am travelling to thurles sunday week expecting 15 claremen and subs to give a good account of themselves in preparation for the waterford game .
then we get a chance to have a look at the cork v tipp game and our probable opponents in the munster final.

Originally posted by BeTimberin:
Must admit im sick of people building up our Munster Final appearance chances at this early a stage.Writing off Waterford is bad enough - look at the amount of Munster Finals they've appeared in since the turn of the century in addition to their match day experience, number of All Stars in their squad and the finish they put down in the league...........but most people are forgetting that we have 2 and a half months to go before we play them - injury potential is huge and we might get a severe lesson next weekend to give us a better indicator of our chances.In truth, we have a long way to go yet before we can start pushing our chances of beating Waterford. I would be confident that we are going well enough at this stage(certainly better than we had 2 years ago when we ran them to 5 points) but all in all outside of our Division 1B league success we have little of nothing to shout about and the league win will mean little to the Déise!