All-Ireland SHC Semi-final/Kilkenny v Clare: The way this ended up was predictable but along the way Clare proved better than I had expected whereas Kilkenny were a bit worse. Niall Gilligan's miss from a free with about 10 minutes left was a turning point in Clare's spell of second-half ascendancy, though to be fair the efforts they had made were draining them, and I doubt they would have withstood the pressure until the end.

Their legs were gone and understandably so because they had made a massive effort to recover from a terrible start and a poor goal. I felt the referee was hard on Brian Lohan in the opening minutes but a lot of the other senior players played terrifically and turned back the clock heroically.

I didn't expect Seán McMahon or Colin Lynch to play that well, and Frank Lohan gave the best performance I've seen from him. He had a magnificent game, and the referee should really have exercised discretion instead of sending him off for a second yellow card when the game was effectively over.

On the other hand Davy Fitzgerald in goal looked unsettled. Maybe it was the spat he had with the umpire but he seemed to lose his composure. It was obvious Clare had decided to utilise the quick puck-outs but he was taking them before his own players were ready and then conceded a poor goal in the second half.

It was always going to be the case that Clare had to take a high proportion of their chances but they fluffed good goal opportunities - better ones than Kilkenny got. Tony Griffin shouldn't have been hooked and Gilligan could have done better. Alan Markham also had a chance.

It meant that by half-time they'd done an awful lot of hurling just to go in level, so in the second half they were struggling to close a gap on the scoreboard rather than hold a lead.

They were aided and abetted by some horrendous wides from Kilkenny. Eddie Brennan had a bad wide and Michael Rice and Eoin Larkin had very bad wides in the first half. Any time Kilkenny looked like finding top gear they shot wides that seemed to unnerve them.

There was indiscipline in the striking. Cha Fitzpatrick was excellent but he was occasionally inclined to try and shoot from 80 metres rather than give in the ball. Derek Lyng did the same. It was unusual for Kilkenny not to use the ball better.

The match also showed why it's no surprise that Brian Cody is changing the team so often. Kilkenny have a lot of lithe, athletic midfielders or wing forwards but they're short on the inside line. Aidan Fogarty was a disappointment and virtually anonymous and Michael Rice's best position is no farther up than the half forwards. Fitzpatrick used to be an option there but he's made a big success of midfield.

Eddie Brennan's another but he's become the most reliable ball-winner in the regular half-forward line and when there was a crisis there yesterday he was the only one showing.

At one stage they had to move Henry Shefflin away from the full forwards, where he's at his most dangerous, because they were winning so little against the Clare half backs. McMahon was dominating the middle and James McGarry's puck-outs were coming straight down on top of him until he tried to vary his delivery to the wings.

Tommy Walsh was superb when he went back to sort out the corner-back problems but it was unfortunate that after his first settled year, playing at number seven, he has to be moved again to shore up other areas.

Shefflin's contribution was remarkable. We've become used to saying that Tipperary are over-reliant on Eoin Kelly but Kilkenny rely on Shefflin as much at this stage. When everyone around him was missing he was there standing up and taking responsibility.

Cody's been picking the team on the form shown in training and the sessions in the weeks ahead will be worth watching. The problem is that if you've a number of players trying to stake a claim for places it makes them jumpy and individualistic in their thinking.

Some of the rashness we saw yesterday - shooting from all angles - to me smacks of fellas trying to impress rather than playing with the sort of collective personality we've become used to in Cork's displays.

But Kilkenny are evolving and it will take time to find that unity.