David Reidy believes Cork have transformed into a “different animal” since they were beaten by Clare in April. The Banner attacker says both sides have improved throughout the championship but he rates the Cork turnaround to win five games on the spin as “completely different”.
It all means that their 3-26 to 3-24 Leeside victory holds no relevance in Sunday’s All-Ireland rematch.
“It probably doesn’t matter at all. That’s a long time ago now,” says Reidy. “You have to take into consideration, when we played them we were coming off a loss and it was a must-win game.
“The structure that Cork had at the time, it’s probably changed a small bit. A couple of personnel changes. The way that they have come into their own and the way that they are playing tactically, physically. What they pose as a threat, has upped another couple of per cent since the time we played them. So we’ll be focusing on one do-or-die game.
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“What they showed on Sunday [against Limerick] was unbelievable. It was a privileged position that we were able to sit back, relax, and watch the game. Some of the scores they were taking were unbelievable. So they’re going to be a different animal than when we were playing them.
“Down in Cork, there was only two points in it. You can only imagine that there’s only going to be a point or two in it on Sunday.”
The pace and intensity of that semi-final victory over Limerick persuaded Reidy that Clare can’t afford any slow start like their first half against Kilkenny.
“When we had the ball was when we were under the most pressure. That’s very unusual in a game of hurling. Normally when you don’t have the ball you’re in trouble, but it was when we had it. We were getting turned over too easy because our standards were let slip.
“We were wasteful to a certain degree. There was a good bit of time that we weren’t even under pressure and we weren’t getting ball to hand. The standard is ball to hand. If you put the ball on to the ground and take a touch, you are getting closed down.
“Thinking of the work rate that we saw last Sunday with Cork, it has to be ball to hand, move the ball fast. Take your opportunities. It’s going to be 75, 76 minutes of a game of hurling against Cork, who have improved so much since the first day of the championship.
“We’ll have to come with our own performance and that’s where our main focus will have to be.”
Reidy was added to the Clare panel in 2014, a couple of months after the county’s last All-Ireland appearance. That was the year their under-21s completed three in a row, with the Éire Óg finisher lining out in an attack that featured Tony Kelly, Peter Duggan, and his clubmate Shane O’Donnell, who teed up Reidy for the opening goal.
It all looked set for a Banner takeover but things didn’t quite work out that way.
“I’ve been on the panel for 10, 11 years and it’s my first All-Ireland final. I was talking to a few of the young lads that came on to the panel this year and I was saying to them, ‘Don’t get too used to this’. When you get a call up saying that you are coming on to a senior panel that are All-Ireland champions and with such a young team, it’s only natural for a 19-20-year-old to think, ‘Jesus, this is going to last’. But you are very quickly brought down to earth that it’s not that easy.”
A run free from injuries has helped Reidy to nail down his starting place, although he did have to overcome being dropped for the Munster final against Limerick as Kelly returned. He responded in the right manner and clipped three points to cap hard-working displays in both the quarter- and semi-finals.
“I’m happy where I’m at. I was dropped for the Munster final so the couple of weeks before the All-Ireland quarter-final, I probably proved in training that it might’ve been a mistake. I upped my level of work rate in training and got back starting against Wexford, got a couple of points, and continued that vein of form into the All-Ireland semi-final.
“Hopefully, I’ll do the same thing into the final and make sure that they can’t leave my name off the team sheet.”
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