All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final

Clare v Galway, Semple Stadium, 4pm (RTE)

By John Harrington

We’ve yet to have a really barnstorming game of hurling in this year’s Championship, but it could come here.

Both teams have some of the most technically gifted hurlers in the game and motivation levels will be ratcheted high because this is a massive game in the life-cycle of both teams.

Galway have come in for a lot of criticism for the manner in which they were overpowered by Kilkenny in the second-half of the Leinster Final much like they were in last year’s All-Ireland Final. Much of that criticism was excessively harsh and their players will surely be massively fired up to prove a point today.

They took a big stand last year when they effectively forced out Anthony Cunningham as manager in the wake of the All-Ireland defeat. The players are all too keenly aware they need to back up that decision now, because were they to simply fold their tents and go home the reception in Galway wouldn’t be a warm one.

Clare, too, will know this match represents a significant crossroads for them. Were they to lose then the 2013 All-Ireland Final win would recede further in their rear-view mirror and people would start questioning whether they are on the road to underachievement that a similarly lauded young Tipperary team took in the years following their 2010 triumph.

What would defeat mean for Davy Fitzgerald? Is a League title enough of an achievement to guarantee he’d get at least another year in charge? And, if it isn't, would his successor be as capable of doing as good a job as he has?

The stakes couldn’t be any higher, a fact Galway manager Micheal Donoghue is all too keenly aware of.

“It’s a huge game and we will need to produce our best performance of the year to reach the semi-finals,” he said. “We will need to hit the ground running,” said Donohue this week.

“The mood is really good in the camp and I’m very happy with how the past week has gone. Clare won’t be easily beaten, but I believe our lads are ready.”

Clare beat Limerick convincingly enough in the Qualifiers without ever hitting top-gear. Their ability to do so today might be compromised by the fact that the heart-beat of their team the last day against Limerick, Podge Collins, will have played a football match the day before.

Clare have so much talent that were everything to click for them it’s easy to believe they would be close to being an unstoppable force, but there has been something strangely tentative about them in the last two games.

“We need to get to Croke Park and we will open up if we get there,” said selector Louis Mulqeen this week. “I’d love to see our lads back at headquarters and a win on Sunday will see us there, where I really believe our best will come out.

“This is a very good Galway team. The fact that Galway were relegated from Division 1 gives us a false impression. They have shown that they can match the best and were certainly unlucky to be relegated.

“Galway are a serious team. They have contested two All-Irelands in four years, as well as three Leinster Finals, one of which they won.”

Clare might well produce their best were they to get to Croke Park, but there’s little point thinking about such a prospect when they have the massive challenge of Galway to overcome first at Semple Stadium.

Both teams forward lines capable of posting big totals, so the game is likely to be decided by whichever defence can do the better containing job.

If Clare play with their usual sweeper system then they may have an advantage as it will effectively force Galway to do the same and the Tribesmen are not as well practiced in the art.

Against Kilkenny they went with man-marker system in defence which meant different players occupied the central positions of their defence at different times as they followed the Kilkenny forwards they were detailed  to mark wherever they roamed.

If you win most of the head-to-heads you can get away with that, but when players are constantly being pulled into different positions they often end up in one that doesn’t suit them, and the defence as a whole can become disjointed and less of a unit.

It’s not a good sign if a team doesn’t have an established full-back and centre-back that anchors those two positions regardless of how the opposition line up their forwards because all the best ones do.

You’re talking about fine margins when put these two teams side by side. Whichever way it goes, chances are it’ll be a hectic final few minutes.