Ah, this beautiful game. No poem has ever been more stirring or more wild than the second half which Clare and Galway created at Croke Park yesterday. A contest which had been sparky and satisfying before the break roared and flamed as it grew into an epic. They divided the spoils in the end courtesy of another in the endless line of referees who abolish injury-time when a draw beckons. Few cared. Nobody argued.
The replay takes place this day week back in Croke Park, but it would be too greedy to ask that it match the quality of yesterday's game. Either Galway will have blown their main chance or Clare will find the trip to be one game too many.
From the wreckage of yesterday's blow-out there is enough evidence to support both arguments. Clare had to dig deep, deep into their resources to rescue this one. Ollie Baker and Jamesie O'Connor, sporting the two most discussed injuries since the Battle of Wounded Knee, both played parts and succour came also from Stephen McNamara, resurrected to score the goal which tipped the momentum Clare's way.
Galway won't surprise Clare again as they did yesterday with their early hunger and scorching pace. In the first half, as they zipped about the place snapping like terriers, it looked for a while as if they would finish the game as a contest before half-time. A mark of the trouble Clare were in was that Alan Kerins had three first-half points off Liam Doyle, yet Doyle was among the least of Clare's worries. The Galway half-back line were gutting and filleting Clare and only constant tampering which brought PJ O Connell, O'Connor (briefly) and Conor Clancy into the half-forward line subdued Galway.
It was one of those afternoons when players were left to fend for themselves as the game crackled around them. Enda Flannery, a solid find this season for Clare, was eclipsed by the immaculate Cathal Moore. Elsewhere Eugene Cloonan of Galway was struggling for air, Baker and Colin Lynch were meeting equal mounds of physicality in Joe Cooney and Fergus Flynn, and Joe Rabbitte was toiling behind Sean McMahon's diligence.
Galway were scoring, though, making those little incisions in Clare's confidence which threatened always to create haemorrhages. Ollie Fahy, who would plunder 2-2 off Brian Lohan before the day was out, served early warning with a point seconds after the throw-in.
The exuberant, sometimes malevolent physicality of the game was in evidence right there at the start when the throw-in had to be delayed for a few seconds in order to calm things down. Things would remain controlled until an outbreak in the second half which seemed to beg red cards but received nothing of the sort.
Fahy's point was soon matched by the first in a string by Kerins and the cloud in Galway's sky in those helter-skelter opening minutes was the loss through injury of full back Brian Feeney. They wouldn't pay the full price for his absence until the second half.
Through the first half Clare looked as if they were feeling the weight of all the massive games they have played through the bigger part of this decade. A livelier, younger team were floating like butterflies and stinging like bees.
Cloonan added a free to stretch the lead to three points and then Ollie Canning, in the first of the misfortunes which would befall him, struck a shot on the run which demanded a goal but provoked a reflex save from Davy Fitzgerald. Clare struck back with frees if not fluency, but Kerins added two more at Doyle's expense and the gap never seemed to grow smaller.
Clare got to the break in better shape than perhaps they deserved, a string of late scores from Alan Markham, Baker and McMahon drew only the riposte of a Fergus Flynn point and Galway went to their tea surely feeling that they had done a lot of hurling for a four-point lead.
The second half was to bring drama and suspense that Hitchcock would have been proud of. It began with McMahon and Kerins exchanging points and came to life with an unpunished 12-man brawl behind the Galway goal.
Rory Gantley, who can puck a ball from his front garden and land it in Clare, was introduced instead of Cloonan and his dash and touch caused Clare some early problems. Clare were sorting out their own half-forward line, however. PJ O Connell had made a difference when introduced before the break and now the introduction of McNamara for Flannery allowed Clancy to break up the rhythms which had defined the first half.
With 15 minutes of the half elapsed Fahy struck again, though. A sideline cut flashed across the Clare goal, Frank Lohan came to clear it but lost possession as he went to scoop it away. Fahy, lurking, whipped it to the net.
Clare's response was instant and furious, a long ball from McMahon dropping into the square - McNamara was in crowding the 'keeper to knock it to the net.
Yet Galway had the next two scores, rapped off in succession by Gantley and Rabbitte, before McMahon replied with two frees.
Incredibly, those four points were squeezed into a three-minute interval. In the 55th minute, six minutes after Fahy's second goal, Gilligan found himself at the end of a splendid handpassing movement involving Clancy and McNamara and the ball was nestling in the net.
Somewhere between McMahon's two frees, O'Connor came on. His presence sent a current through the Clare attack.
Three minutes after Gilligan's goal came a better one. Gilligan, full of gorgeous impetuosity now, lobbed a cross from the left and Markham flashed in in front Damien Howe to volley to the net. Clare, having been nine points down in the 50th minute, were now level in the 58th minute.
Nobody drew breath. Baker and Canning exchanged points before Kerins and Gantley restored the lead for Galway.
The game was in a fever by now. David Forde had a kicked shot saved by Howe. A McMahon free reduced the difference to a point and then Canning, set free by Rabitte, drove a thundering shot off the crossbar.
The calm was found at the eye of the storm. McMahon stood over another long-distance free and, as was his routine yesterday, spliced the posts with it. The whistle blew an end to it soon after.
Magnificent.
