Last Sunday in Semple Stadium, for the second time in a row, Clare lost a championship game they should have won on the basis of territorial possession. As in the Munster final, they created enough chances to win but failed to convert a sufficient proportion of them. In addition, on this occasion they were the victims of a couple of crucial non-decisions by referee Dickie Murphy.

Clare’s domination of the first half exchanges against Cork was extraordinary. They played the ball 92 times to Cork’s 69. In addition to winning five of their own puckouts to Cork’s four, they won ten of Cork’s puckouts to Cork’s three (some puckouts were indecisive). The Banner had twice as many shots on goal (20 to 10). Tellingly, however, seven of those shots went wide and one hit the post.

In the second half, Cork dominated possession, but not to the extent that Clare did in the first half. Cork’s play count was 74 to 59 for Clare, giving Clare overall superiority in the number of plays 151-143. However, the fact that their play count fell from 92 to 59 reflected not just the way Cork raised their game after the interval, but Clare’s inability to maintain the extraordinary intensity which they brought to bear in the first half.

In terms of scoring chances created, the second half was almost a mirror image of the first, with Cork managing 24 shots on goal (of which 15 were converted) against Clare’s 13 (seven converted). Overall, Cork had 34 shots on goal to Clare’s 33, but converted 21 to Clare’s 19. Of Clare’s 12 wides from shots on goal, An Moltóir deemed eight of them to be bad wides. Four of Cork’s eight wides were bad misses. If Clare had managed a similar conversion rate to Cork’s, the game would have ended in a draw.

However, the “ifs” do not end there. Clare should have got a penalty in the 48th minute when Diarmuid O’Sullivan fouled Niall Gilligan twice on the edge of the square. They also should have got a free in the 69th minute when John Gardiner blatantly pushed Gilligan in the back in open country. Why does the GAA use top referees as linesmen in these games and not allow them a role in calling frees as is the case in rugby and soccer? The need for more involvement of linesmen is greater in the GAA, given the bigger size of the pitch and the greater number of players to be watched.

Nor was Clare’s cause helped by Philip Brennan’s poor attempt to stop Timmy McCarthy’s harmless enough shot just after half time, and Brennan was also at fault for the poor clearance which led to Cork’s clinching point in added time.

Clare will undoubtedly draw solace from the emergence of Pat Vaughan, Brendan Bugler and Pa Donnellan as serious intercounty hurlers in 2008. However, the heroic Colin Lynch cannot go on forever and they desperately need some extra forward talent. Fair dues to Niall Gilligan who played his best hurling for almost a decade this year. However, the no-shows by Tony Griffin both last Sunday and in the Munster final ultimately proved fatal for the Banner cause.

Fair dues to Cork also for producing two marvellous backs-to-the-wall performances in a row. However, for the first time ever, Diarmuid O’Sullivan has been badly burned by two full forwards at the top of their game, and Cork have no obvious replacement for the rapidly-eroding Rock. Cathal Naughton has emerged as a serious talent, but Pat Cronin has not been as impressive as in 2007 and a substitute line-up last Sunday of Timmy McCarthy, Fraggy Murphy and Neil Ronan suggests that the Rebel assembly line has a few broken rollers.

In terms of individual plays, not for the first time was Jerry O’Connor ahead of the field with a total of 20. The quality points scheme used by this column (one point for a basic play, two for a good play, three for an excellent play and four for a superb play) also saw Jerry coming out on top with 32, just one ahead of twin brother Ben (from just 15 plays, reflecting the quality of his plays). While Jerry’s plays were equally divided between halves, eleven of Ben’s 15 came in the second half when he played the key role in the Cork revival. Bearing in mind that Ben only played the ball in open play four times against Galway, his contribution on this occasion was vital, given the way Joe Deane was eclipsed by Frank Lohan. Cork’s other main players were John Gardiner (15 plays for 22 points) and Tom Kenny (14 plays for 26 points).

The evergreen Colin Lynch was once again Clare’s main man, with 19 plays for 31 points, followed by Gerry Quinn (15 plays for 25 points, most of it in the first half) and Niall Gilligan (also 25 points from just eleven plays). Other significant contributions came from Tony Carmody (12 plays/23 points, most of it also in the first half), Pa Donnellan (12 plays/21 points) and Brian O’Connell (13 plays/19 points).

Waterford vs Wexford

The most intriguing aspect to emerge from the analysis of the curtain raiser in Semple Stadium was the extent to which the game was dominated territorially by Waterford. In the first half they had 94 plays to Wexford’s 73 and after half-time the respective tallies were 88-63 for an overall total of 182-136 in Waterford’s favour. Given this huge disparity, why then was the game so close? To a small extent this was due to Wexford making better use of fewer scoring opportunities. Over the course of the game Waterford had 33 scoring chances, 21 of which were scores, with eleven going wide and one falling short. Wexford had 27 scoring chances, of which 18 were scores (including one goal more than Waterford) with just eight wides and one shot falling short.

However, one cannot get away from the fact that Waterford do a lot of huffing and puffing in order to create their scoring chances. The play statistics for the previous week’s game against Offaly were remarkably similar to last Sundays’s – 173 for Waterford and 136 for Offaly (identical to Wexford’s last Sunday). A key element in this differential is the amount of hand-passing the Déise boys engage in – 38 in all last Sunday against just 18 for Wexford. While hand passes can be important in getting out of trouble and creating scoring chances, there is no doubt that Waterford at times overdo it, especially in defence and midfield, when a more direct approach might create more dividends. On several occasions last Sunday handpasses were made which were either totally unnecessary or put other players under pressure, leading to a poor quality of ball delivery. This could be an important aspect of Waterford’s play for Davy Fitz to work on over the next three weeks.

In terms of the number and quality of individual plays, Tony Browne came way ahead of everyone else last Sunday – 22 plays for 39 quality points. An amazing 17 of these plays came in the first half when Browne held a creaking defence together by plugging holes all over the place. He was much less prominent in the second half as the Brick Walsh and especially Jamie Nagle took over in midfield and the introduction of Jack Kennedy and Kevin Moran stabilised the wing back positions.

Nagle confirmed the good impression made against Offaly with a total of 31 quality points – the same as he amassed against Offaly but from fewer plays (16 compared with 23 the previous week). The first Dungarvan man to play for Waterford in over thirty years, Nagle has shown a good work rate, physical toughness, good close skills and a quick and crisp delivery. He also is very aware and alert – he hit two short sidelines in the second half last Sunday both of which led directly to Waterford points. And, of course, his point on the run from the right wing after Eoin Kelly’s superb catch and handpass was one of the highlights of the afternoon. Waterford’s other key men were Ken McGrath (14 plays/26 points), Brick Walsh (14/25), Seamus Prendergast (14/24), Eoin McGrath (12/24), John Mullane (12/21) and Declan Prendergast (12/20).

For Wexford, Doc O’Co