Nine thousand and forty brave hearts cowered under a maelstrom in Thurles yesterday to watch some shadow boxing from the All-Ireland champions and the freshest show from Clare since their furnace days of the recent past.
Kilkenny landed just two points over the second half of this strange match, but two unlikely goals in that period rectified what might have been an astonishingly lop-sided scoreline.
The champions started just six men from the blistering triumph of last September and almost from the off this patchwork unit was chasing the game. The match was really about Clare. Ollie Baker's pared down frame was a manifest sign of the county's spartan and focused winter.
Impressive though the general shooting was, it was the attitude that struck most forcefully. But afterwards team manager Cyril Lyons, whose relationship with words differs greatly to that of his predecessor, was reluctant to announce that banner days were on the horizon again.
"Well, the league is the league is the league and the championship is the championship. They are different as chalk and cheese. That's it," he said quietly and firmly.
"We laid a good foundation in the first half but we didn't add to it in the second, I thought we sort of sat back and let the thing peter out. And it's time to be playing well now. We are coming in to May and June so it is time to be showing our shape and form."
And that he saw. Serious summer intent was obvious in the way Baker set about his business. He was at his marauding best around the middle of the park and the hope is that his tussle with Andy Comerford gets another billing on a brighter day. Baker's clubman, James O'Connor was equally impressive, fussing about broken play and nothing less than a joy when on the ball.
When O'Connor buzzes, Clare sings. So it was and, reassuringly, it was the survivors of the revolutionary years who were sharpest, suggesting that last year's jaded fall was not fatal. It was an afternoon of easy pickings for the Lohan brothers in the full-back line.
With Colm Forde, they kept Kilkenny's novel full-forward line muted. John Reddan had a solid outing at centre back and Colin Lynch was full of energy.
Up front, Niall Gilligan worried Noel Hickey and contributed five points from play - one of which really ought to have been a goal - and Barry Murphy seemed to be involved in the sweetest of the Clare scores. Gearoid Considine, cut from the same electric cable as O'Connor, undermined some brilliant approach play and two early points with wayward shooting in the second half. But overall, it was an excellent performance.
After 23 minutes, Considine hared onto a long clearance from Reddan and with the Kilkenny half-back line on his tail, he glanced a wonderful pass back for Lynch to point. That score left it at 0-10 to 1-2, Kilkenny's goal coming in the eighth minute when a harmless Andy Comerford lob deceived Davy Fitzgerald and dropped into the net.
Despite that good fortune, the All-Ireland champions continued to misfire at an appalling rate, accumulating eight wides in the first half and one less after the break. It was hardly polished. John Power was keen but his touch was back at the homeplace. Charlie Carter was drafted in and bottled up.
Jimmy Coogan kept them flickering with frees, and in the second half came two more strange goals. Eddie Brennan fired one against the underside of the crossbar after 55 minutes and after some consultation, the score stood. Then Davy Fitzgerald presented Coogan with a gift after the kind of misjudgment goalkeepers of his quality rarely make. That made it 3-8 to 2-20 after 68 minutes.
Clare swept upfield, polished and flowing, Barry Murphy spun free and laid a perfect handpass for Conor Clancy. However, the substitute's drop-shot, with the goal looming, went skyward and over the bar. That was the end of the scoring in a contest that was at its liveliest during a searing, stinging downpour of hail just prior to half-time. When the sun came out, Kilkenny looked wrung out and not too concerned about it.
"As some Kilkenny man shouted from behind the goal, `we have only half a team out'," said Lyons, smiling.
"Tis only April, isn't it. There are a lot of teams lying in the long grass waiting to ambush. I'm sure Kilkenny won't go home too worried." Kilkenny boss Brian Cody, ambling around the corridors of the old stadium afterwards, more or less assented.
"We can't expect to go out short five or six and expect to take on a full Clare team. Because Clare are certainly back on song, they have the old back-up for one another and their accuracy was phenomenal at times."
Clare meet Tipperary at Limerick on Sunday in the final, a game that will be an edgy reunion before the counties get together for the real fury on June 3rd.
CLARE: D Fitzgerald; C Forde, B Lohan, F Lohan; L Doyle, J Reddan, G Quinn; O Baker (0-2, one 65), C Lynch (0-1); G Considine (0-2), J O'Connor (1-3, two frees), E Flannery; B Murphy (1-3), N Gilligan (0-7, two frees), D Forde (0-1). Subs: T Griffin (0-1) for E Flannery (49 mins); C Clancy (0-1) for N Gilligan (66 mins); B Quinn for F Lohan (68 mins); A Daly for L Doyle (68 mins).
KILKENNY: J McGarry; M Kavanagh, N Hickey, S Meally; P Mullally, E Kennedy (0-1, 65), P Barry; A Comerford (1-0), A Cummins; A Geoghegan, J Power (0-1), S Grehan; D Buggy (0-1), T Drennan, J Coogan (1-4, three frees). Subs: D Lyng for P Mullally (19 mins); D Byrne (0-1) for A Geoghegan (half-time); E Brennan (1-0) for T Drennan (43 mins); C Carter for D Buggy (49 mins).
