GAA weekend preview: League Final looks hard to split

Kilkenny v Clare
Semple Stadium
Saturday 6th @ 7.15pm

If Saturday night’s Hurling final could emulate even half of what last Sunday’s football decider provided, then we’ll be in for quite a treat.

The good news is, that’s not beyond the realms of possibility, based upon the last meeting we saw between Kilkenny and Clare.

That came in last year’s All Ireland semi-final where the Cats, thanks to heroics from goalkeeper Eoin Murphy, saw off the Banner by three points to book their place in last July’s final.

And the way both sides’ won their respective semi-finals a fortnight ago, we could be looking at more of the same.

At this stage, it looks incredibly difficult to separate these sides, and the market would agree, with both teams priced at EVS for victory.

Kilkenny dethroned Limerick in a way that no team has managed to do recently, as they succumbed to their first knockout fixture defeat in five years.

They raised three green flags in the opening half and had Limerick under the cosh for the majority of the first 35 minutes, and only for goalkeeper Nickie Quaid, Limerick could have conceded more majors before half time.

When Eoin Cody was sent off in the 37th minute, it looked like the spark Limerick needed, but they failed to fire at all in the second half, with the experienced TJ Reid answering every single call for Kilkenny, and he finished the afternoon with 1-8 in a brilliant display.

Kilkenny finished with eight scorers in the semi-final. They were brilliant going forward and resilient in defence, holding Limerick to just 1-15 and keeping Aaron Gillane, Cian Lynch and Gearoid Hegarty very quiet.

No doubt it was a huge morale boosting victory and one they will look to build on Saturday night.

Clare were equally as impressive in their semi final win over Tipperary. Similarly to Kilkenny, they flew out of the traps early, and raced into an 0-8 to 0-0 lead inside the opening ten minutes.

When Tipperary did respond, with a Jake Morris goal in the 16th minute, David Fitzgerald won the puck out, raced into the D, and smashed one into the top corner.

They lead 1-13 to 1-7 at the break and even when Tipp notched a goal 10 minutes after half time, Clare responded in kind again, thanks to the leadership of David Fitzgerald, and they ran out easy winners.

Fitzgerald led the line superbly in midfield, David Reidy got 0-3, Keith Smyth 0-2, while another seven teammates registered white flags.

It sets up Saturday evening’s tie perfectly.

Both sides have a brilliant spread of scorers, are resilient in defence and fruitful in attack. If we see the teams that turned up a fortnight ago, we could have a cracker in waiting.

It’s too hard to split. A draw at 8-1 looks a very enticing price.