Clare’s bench strength can edge All-Ireland hurling final clash with Cork – but don’t be surprised if they need a replay

On Sunday it’ll be 84 days since what was supposed to be the last dance, Cork and Clare tangoing down in the Páirc in a Championship showdown that was knockout in all but name.

After both counties lost their Munster openers – Cork to Waterford and Clare to Limerick – another defeat would surely, if not technically, be terminal to their hopes. The summer gone in the last week of April.

In the end it was Cork left staring into that prospect as the afternoon sun beat down on SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The situation Pat Ryan’s side had gotten themselves into could hardly have been sticker. No points after two matches and Limerick, still driving for five straight down hurling’s fast lane, up next.

Even if they did manage to upset John Kiely’s men, then beat Tipp in Thurles on the last day, results elsewhere could make all that immaterial.

But things fell into place for the Rebels again and again. They fulfilled their part of the bargain, blowing away the doom and gloom on Leeside with their blistering home win over Limerick before hammering Tipperary.

A bounce of the sliotar in either Waterford’s draw with Tipp or one-point defeat to Clare could have done for them. But they survived. And 84 days later they’re playing Clare again, this time at Croke Park, this time with the Liam MacCarthy Cup catching the afternoon sun and waiting for the winner.

Only a chastening defeat for Clare in that Munster Championship match, which ended up a 3-26 to 3-24 win for Brian Lohan’s side, would have left them in as much trouble as Cork, having already gotten their clash with Limerick out of the way.

But that opening day defeat to their cross-Shannon neighbours in front of a febrile, and after victory over Kilkenny in the League final, expectant home crowd in Ennis was the latest in a succession of big-day defeats that have hung around Clare’s neck over the past few seasons.

The win over Cork got them back on track, and eventually back into the Munster final, but another loss to Limerick was the result, their third successive provincial decider reversal to them.

A comfortable win over a Wexford side that played nearly half of their All-Ireland quarter-final with 14 men set up another dose of deja vu – a last four clash with Kilkenny for the third season in-a-row.

Beating the Cats, which looked fanciful after a first half in which Clare didn’t show up and were lucky to be trail by five by the end of it rather than double that, was huge for Clare after what had gone before. A glass ceiling shattered, a first All-Ireland final appearance since they last won the thing in 2013.

Back then they beat Cork. Not many expected they’d be playing again on Sunday. Cork followed up squeezing out of Munster with middling displays to beat Offaly and Dublin. But there had been sickness in the camp, including throwing up in the Thurles changing room before the Dubs match. Even so, beating Limerick – again – was a big ask. Cork’s answer was the most impressive any team has offered this summer. They took advantage again and again of a Limerick side that looked just a little off. As rarely as that has been the case the past half-decade, they’ve still usually had enough to get through it. Especially when they score 0-29. But not against Cork, who managed to almost keep pace with Limerick’s shot rate – 49 to 50 – while managing to be a hair more efficient as well as scoring a crucial goal from Brian Hayes among their 1-28 total.

A large part of Cork’s success came from getting their puckouts just right – both in keeping the ball away from Kyle Hayes in the Limerick half-back line and, more generally, in upping the pace of Patrick Collins’ delivery – made possible by the awareness and movement of his team-mates out the field. Limerick were kept off balance and Cork give themselves chances to keep the scoreboard moving.

This was a marked contrast to their loss to Clare in April when Cork lost six of their last nine puckouts, with the only three they won hit short by Collins.

All six long puckouts after the 54th minute were hoovered up by saffron and blue shirts, a situation exacerbated by the fact all this was happening with Cork down to 14 following captain Sean O’Donogue’s 52nd-minute dismissal.

In contrast, Clare claimed six of their last nine puckouts, three of them by Peter Duggan, who tortured Cork under the high ball all afternoon.

But Clare still struggled to put Cork away, even with a man advantage for the last 25 minutes, a period they won by just three points.

And as well as the three goals Cork scored, they made another five decent opportunities. After Kilkenny created three clear green flag chances that were turned away by Clare ‘keeper Eibhear Quilligan in the first half of the semi-final, tightening up this area will be necessary for Clare to have a chance. But they’ve still got a great one.

Shane O’Donnell, who announced himself to the hurling world with his 13-minute hat-trick against Cork in the 2013 All-Ireland final replay, has been in Hurler of the Year form, and gave the Rebels fits in April. But 84 days is a long time in hurling. At this stage of the season 14 or 15 is long enough.

Cork’s form is exactly where want it to be, or at least it was a fortnight ago, while Clare look like the team with most scope to improve.

Pat Ryan made six changes to the side that lost to Waterford for that first Clare game and that team, apart from Mark Coleman coming in from Ethan Twomey, was one he selected to face Limerick and the same one he’s announced for Sunday.

Brian Lohan has also named the same 15 as the one that started the semi-final but the impact of his forward replacements that day – Ian Galvin, Aron Shanagher and especially the blisteringly fast Ryan Taylor in his first appearance after a year out with a knee injury – won’t have made it an easy decision.

While Taylor may be a candidate to be promoted from bench to parade as O’Donnell was 11 years ago by Davy Fitzgerald, Lohan is likely to keep faith with the men he’s selected, as he did in the semi-final when he trusted them to get themselves out of their half-time hole.

Not digging something similar will be the priority on Sunday. If they manage to stay in the game, those bench options can swing a contest that would surprise no-one by needing another afternoon to sort it out. But, like 2013 the end result looks like the Liam MacCarthy Cup catching the afternoon sun, in Clare hands.