Clare must improve for Kilkenny showdown | The conundrum facing Brian Cody: Jamesie O'Connor column

It's hard to believe that Saturday will only be Tony Kelly's fourth ever senior intercounty championship match at Croke Park.

Walking out of HQ in 2013, had you told me that it would be another five years before we'd see John Conlon, Shane O'Donnell and Kelly back in Croker, I wouldn't have believed it.

And had you said again in 2018 that it would be another four years, I'd have thrown my eyes up to heaven.

There are several players in Clare's panel who have never played there.

It's certainly advantage Kilkenny in that regard. They are well used to Jones' Road.

But historically, Clare have a good record in Croke Park when we get there. This team has shown no evidence of stage fright this summer.

In my time, we loved going up to Croke Park and always felt we could play well there. Brian Lohan will instil that mindset in the current group.

The Banner will be relieved to have come through their quarter-final.

Wexford made mistakes, missed chances, and Clare dodged a bullet on the penalty decision.

As good as they were in the last quarter, Lohan will be giving his team a dose of reality. He knows that it could have easily gone the other way, and those performance levels simply won't be good enough against Kilkenny.

Deep down, the Clare players know that.

It's a good way to go into a game, knowing that you got lucky and can't afford to be as poor again.

But at the same time, when the chips were down, they delivered.

How will Clare approach Kilkenny?

TJ Reid is perhaps half a pace slower than he was in his prime. You never thought TJ was lightning quick, but he certainly wasn't slow. However, his ability to read the game also helped him to be a step ahead.

He clearly wasn't right for the Galway game in Salthill, but he has grown into the championship and delivered in the Leinster final.

Clare will need to keep tabs on him in general play. I don't know if you man-mark him, as TJ could pop up anywhere.

The Banner won't want Conor Cleary getting taken too far away from goal. But if the Ballyhale man goes into the edge of the square, Cleary will pick him up.

There's no doubt that Reid takes watching. And Brian Cody will have noted how some long high balls from Wexford caused Clare major problems.

TJ Reid, Eoin Cody and Walter Walsh could be used as weapons in that regard.

Clare will need to get their match-ups right, and make plans for when those forwards move around.

Kilkenny to peak at the right time?

The Cats struggled for form at times during the Leinster round-robin but did enough to retain the Bob O'Keeffe Cup.

They have had a four-week break. Nobody has managed that better over the years than Brian Cody.

Four weeks is ideal. Throughout the round-robin, you don't get a chance to get a block of work done in training.

But internally, they will have spent the last few weeks finding out who has been finding form. The training games will have been intense as Cody settles on his best 15.

He will also have had a good look at Clare. He was at the Munster final, and I'm sure he was somewhere in the stands for the All-Ireland quarter-finals, hiding under a baseball cap.

He has been adept in the past at solving riddles the opposition has thrown at him. One of those key riddles is what he does with Tony Kelly. Does he man-mark him? Does Mikey Butler follow him?

He solved that problem with Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly for Tipperary in the past. You've got to trust Cody. His semi-final record was impeccable up to two years ago. They lost to Waterford in 2020, Cork in 2021. There's no way he will stomach three semi-final defeats in a row. Kilkenny will be massively motivated.

I expect that Kilkenny will be as good, if not better, than they have been all year on Saturday night. And Clare will have to produce what they did against Limerick, if not better, if they are going to get over the line.

Watch Kilkenny vs Clare from 5pm Saturday, and Limerick vs Galway from 3pm Sunday live on Sky Sports Arena.