Clare remain a threat

Was disappointed with the Clare performance in Sunday's Munster hurling final but if the Banner men learn anything from the game they could be a threat yet and no one will enjoy playing them.
I thought the occasion got to some of the Clare players and it was a very nervous first half performance from their forwards in particular.
When Mark Flaherty missed his first shot from a free I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days for the Banner.
However, I have to confess that I didn't expect the likes of Niall Gilligan to be suffering from the shakes.
He spurned three out of four chances in the first half, one after he had done all the hard work to win the ball, shake off his man only to blaze a mishit shot wide.
Clare's series of early wides cost them the game, you could almost see the confidence draining out of them as Carmody, McMahon, Gilligan and Clancy all missed chances.
The failure too to deal with the threat posed by the Tipp three quarter line until the break left them too much to do in the second half.
The biggest difference between them and Tipp was that the Premier men seemed to be able to take their scores at will while Clare had to fight for every chance they got.
The weaknesses in the Banner defence exposed by Waterford and Limerick couldn't be covered up by a big score being posted at the other end.
However, they did put some of this right at the interval and Gerry Quinn's move to centre half certainly turned the game in their favour.
It was worrying however, that so much of the fight back was built upon the efforts of the veterans like Quinn, Colin Lynch, who was magnificent throughout, and Gilligan.
Maybe the tension of a first Munster final for the younger lads and the expectation this raised in the county took its toll but despite the horrific number of wides posted by the Banner if they can learn from the experience they will not fear anyone coming out of the next round of qualifiers.
We can only hope that the weekend's games do indeed signal a change in the hurling order and that Tipp and Clare will emerge once again as genuine contenders for the Liam McCarthy.