The draw between these two teams a fortnight ago was the most dramatic result of the season to date. This afternoon's replay of the Guinness All-Ireland hurling semi-final will have a considerable impact on a good few assumptions governing the modern game.

Central to any consideration of the match is the direction of each team's graph - are Clare a waning force and have Offaly discovered a new momentum?

Reading too much into one hesitant performance is a dangerous way of working out whether Clare are in decline or not, as the Munster final showed, but there were signs that the All-Ireland champions are finding the going a bit arduous at the moment.

It was interesting the extent to which the match demonstrated the extent to which fitness can be a psychological consideration. Offaly were obviously not as fit as Clare, but their natural game is to make the ball do more work and by the end of the match - with the result going their way - their lack of fitness was not posing an obvious difficulty.

Another factor in Offaly's favour is that theirs is an experienced team rather than an emerging side like Waterford's in the Munster replay. They will have quickly worked out that the gap between themselves and the champions doesn't appear to be anything like the chasm it was believed to be.

It was always known that Offaly's defence wouldn't be easily burgled, but the emphatic nature of the backs' performance was impressive. With Clare weakened both at centrefield and in defence, Offaly had the opportunity to make some inroads. They did.

There is room - more accurately a need - for improvement in the attack. Two of the more established forwards have good reason to hope that they can move up the gears a bit. John Troy's facial stitches, which forced him to wear a helmet for the first time in the drawn match, have healed and he would be a certainty to do better were it not for news of a groin injury. Any restriction on his mobility is hardly going to help Troy regain full effectiveness. Johnny Dooley will have recovered more completely from the facial injury he sustained in the Leinster final and will be expected to build on the greater industry he displayed in the first half of the drawn match.

Paudie Mulhare was the other publicly quoted injury doubt, but he is expected to be untroubled this afternoon. Whether he spends much time at centrefield or on the wing where he was very impressive two weeks ago is open to question.

All the foregoing indicates that Offaly have a good chance of improving on their performance in the drawn match. Their selfconfidence will have risen and the word from the camp is that they have prepared with enhanced seriousness. Yet for this to have the desired effect, Clare's performance will have to stagnate and this is unlikely. There is no doubt that Clare could have done without this match. Their high-velocity game - and they don't appear capable of performing well at a lower notch - is very demanding and whereas last year they blew away all challengers, this year they have slipped up twice, albeit that their winning margins have been bigger.

So far they have alternated awesome displays against Cork and Waterford (in the replay) being followed by more jaded-looking outings against Waterford (the first day) and two weeks ago.

This implies that they are due a good performance today. Such a performance may well come, but not automatically. On the evidence of the last day, however, Clare have a good bit of room for improvement, too.

Brian Lohan's return to full back will steady the team's nerve and bring authority to the full-back line, whereas Fergie Tuohy has shown enough against Offaly in two big matches at Croke Park to fire hopes that he can maintain that level today.

Centrefield will remain a problem. Colin Lynch's suspension is proving a trial for the team. There were signs in the Munster final replay that he was rediscovering the fabulous form of last year. His replacement the last day, Fergal Hegarty, struggled.

No one seems sure who's going to slot in to the middle to partner Ollie Baker. Richard Woods, the stand-in full back, is named, but given the county's policy to utter deliberately misleading team selections, you wouldn't want your house riding on the outcome.

Woods has experience of playing centrefield at club level, but whether that poses sufficient credentials for this level is open to question. Presumably someone other than Jamesie O'Connor will be found for the role in order not to strip the attack of its star turn.

The weaknesses of that attack were visible the last day, but Niall Gilligan can be expected to make more of an impact on the scoreboard and Offaly's Simon Whelahan will do well to play as exceptionally as he did on Alan Markham a fortnight ago.

Offaly's defence will still probably hold Clare to around the 1-13, which has been the concession in the two championship meetings between the sides to date, but the problem for the challengers is that with Lohan back for Clare and the element of surprise gone, they may not be able to better that.