Kildare ready to tackle 2024 All-Ireland champions Clare

With the Clare hurlers coming to Cedral St Conleth’s Park on Saturday evening (6.30pm), I was curious about the origins of the term ‘free hit’ in sport. It seems to stem from cricket where it is usually awarded to a batting team after a ‘no ball’ (an illegal bowling delivery).

Now Brian Dowling and his panel will no doubt baulk at the idea of this third game of the League being referred to as such, but the reality surely is that following their impressive win over Antrim two weeks ago, the Lilywhites will be targeting the games against Down and Carlow to secure further points as they seek to consolidate in Division 1B.

We’ll see about the final game against Wexford when we get to that point. On evidence to date Kildare can be hopeful of giving that a lash too.

But Clare represent a different animal as the All Ireland Champions as recently as 19 months ago. Yes, they suffered a hangover from that triumph with relegation from Division 1A and a failure to get out Munster last year, but they have started 2026 like a team on a mission with wins over Dublin, Antrim and Down seeing them set the pace in the Division.

That win over Down by 29 points the last day is a reasonable, if perhaps scary, benchmark for Dowling and his troops considering Down beat us twice in last year’s league, though we gained revenge in the McDonagh Cup. We’d like to think we’ve pushed on a notch since then too, though Ballycran next time out will tell us more on that front.

It’s a Clare team littered with household names, none greater than Tony Kelly whose late goal finally saw off fellow promotion favourites Dublin in Ennis in the opening round. Éibhear Quilligan was outstanding in goals that day as well.

With the outstanding win over Antrim, Kildare can approach this with confidence and a ‘give it a lash’ attitude. They demonstrated that they truly belong at this level even if the likes of Clare and Dublin are a little ahead of the chasing pack with Wexford possibly nestling in third place behind them.

But if Clare are any way off their normal form, and if Kildare can replicate the quality of stickwork, teak tough defending and accurate shooting they displayed against Antrim, there’s no reason they can’t push the Banner all the way.

What would constitute a good result for Kildare? Again, Dowling might not agree but any margin less than ten points would surely represent further progression for the Kilkenny man and his team after disappointingly heavy defeats to Dublin last summer (21 points) and a few weeks ago (14 points).

Unsurprisingly, the teams have rarely clashed during the GAA’s long history, with all four previous encounters coming in the National League. The good news for Kildare fans is that we have had no trouble scoring goals against the Bannermen with nine registered in those four games. The bad news is we’ve conceded fifteen.

It won’t shock you to hear we have never lowered the Banner, so to speak. After a high-scoring eight-point defeat when they met in November 1970 in Newbridge (5-7 to 7-9), the Lilywhites came closest to an upset the following August when they went to Ennis for a promotion play-off from Division 1B and lost by only three points (3-9 to 4-9).

It was 1984 before they met again, this time in Division 2, with Clare handy enough winners in Newbridge by 2-15 to 1-9, their final meeting coming in 2010 in the same Division, that one ending with a similar scoreline in Conleth’s (2-15 to 0-11).

We might need to bowl them a few googlies, but it will be fascinating to see how close we are to the level of the likes of Clare. Bring it on!