This week, time finally ran out. There was undeniable sadness as the curtain came down on Clare's reign as champions. Saturday's Guinness All-Ireland semi-final refixture at Thurles was grand opera and appropriately there was tragedy present as well as the soaring passion of a revitalised Offaly, hurling with a grandeur only recently thought to be just a memory for this team.

Clare accepted their eclipse with the gracious words that many would like to believe are closer to their hurling instinct than the monstrous constructs more in the news of late. But in the strictly tragic sense, they have railed against the fates this summer and now the fates have nailed them.

There was anonymous injustice in their having to play this match a week after apparently defeating Offaly by three points. And the two minutes that separated that advantage from being a winning margin sum up the tantalising nature of the champions' torment.

But this match, one too many for Clare, was chiefly notable for the superb performance of Offaly. Yet again, most observers found reason to write them off going into this match. Thurles was a venue supposed not to appeal to the team, although there was little reason for this dislike apart from the Centenary All-Ireland defeat 14 years ago.

In the event, more logical imperatives prevailed and Offaly's sharp, fluent hurling worked the ball all around Semple Stadium while their forwards spread out across the wide spaces and stretched Clare beyond breaking point.

As further exorcism of the 1984 defeat, the one survivor Joe Dooley - then a sprightly 21 year-old - returned and gave a sparkling display to end the match with five points from play, all struck at critical moments.

Clare's manager Ger Loughnane had said publicly that certain GAA mandarins would do all in their power to stop the county winning this All-Ireland but on Saturday, the team did enough themselves to bring about defeat.

Wides from play, off-centre free-taking and, most crushingly, a succession of wonderful saves from Offaly's goalkeeper Stephen Byrne. A debutant this season, Byrne pulled out four excellent blocks to ensure that Clare didn't get the goal which would have turned this match.

Joe Dooley's tally may be the headline on Offaly's success but this was a wonderful team performance. Byrne's display was complemented by a tight, tenacious defence. Every one of the defenders did well.

Martin Hanamy was immense on the full back line, switching when David Forde became too troublesome for Simon Whelahan - although the youngster gave a much improved performance on last week's - battling and sweeping his way across the back. Kevin Kinahan had his best match of the season, seeming more confident and at ease at full back as he gathered ball and cleared without fuss or mishap.

The half back line was as good as in 1994. Brian Whelahan, his dander up after last week's unseemly difficulties, subdued Markham, his tormentor from the replay, switched wings, marked suffocatingly as well as clearing ball to his usual high standard.

On the other wing, Kevin Martin, carefully supervising Jamesie O'Connor for the first half, reflected the competence of Whelahan and between them Hubert Rigney saw off a succession of putative Clare centre forwards without yielding an ounce of control down the middle.

This was the cockpit. Clare led Offaly by 10 points at one stage the previous week largely because Loughnane's switches in attack proved so effective. On Saturday, fate again intervened as Barry Murphy, whose pace had so distracted Simon Whelahan, failed to shake off a hamstring injury.

In Murphy's place Ger O'Loughlin proved again this season that the flight of the Sparrow may be over. And on the wing, Markham couldn't subdue Brian Whelahan a second time and the attack struggled.

At the other end, there was also improvement for the Leinster side. And it was needed. A week ago, the apparent indifference of the Offaly attack was a major influence on the first-half hammering the team received.

This time, Clare's defence were again formidable but their opponents played them more intelligently, using the ball better and taking advantage of the space.

Centrally Clare were on top.

Brian Lohan got in some lengthy clearances and did well on John Troy and Errity although he again found substitute John Ryan an awkward opponent and Sean McMahon took his usual grip on the 40.

Clare made minimal changes from last week. In addition to O'Loughlin's replacing Murphy, last year's minor captain John Reddan came in for Christy Chaplin at centre-field. Ollie Baker partnered him despite an obviously debilitating back injury and gave a characteristically inspiring display, driving the team forward until the bitter end.

Before half-time, however, he was involved in an incident which seemed to symbolise the bad karma settling on Clare. He was booked for a chop on Brian Whelahan and in that instant, sympathy was ebbing away from the player bravely carrying an injury to the consummate hurler lying stricken on the ground.

Whelahan subsequently got up and struck the resulting free over the bar in injury time.

The match had started in a blaze. Offaly forced what was a ferocious pace and had a four-point lead by the seventh minute. Such was the quality of the play that it wasn't until the 10th minute that the first wide was recorded. By then Offaly led 0-4 to 0-1.

Clare's response was equally emphatic and the match was tied going into the second quarter. On 18 minutes 48 seconds, Jamesie O'Connor's free gave Clare the lead. Its significance lies in the fact that the following 54 seconds was the sum total of the time Clare were to be in front for the whole match.

A team more used to winning from the front, the champions were unable to establish the powerful rhythms associated with their best performances. As they struggled to reel in the game, Offaly hovered and picked off the points.

The final struggle foundered on Byrne's brilliance but also on inaccuracies. O'Connor's 56th minute free was mis-hit and blocked by Martin. A few minutes earlier Danny Scanlan had come on only to blow two good chances, drawing a save from Byrne and hitting a wide before being hastily withdrawn after 11 minutes on the pitch.

On the hour, Joe Dooley hit Offaly's first score for a quarter of an hour, finishing a move begun by Hanamy's clearance. There followed a dam-burst of points which, five minutes later, left Clare trailing by six, 0-10 to 0-16, and David Fitzgerald had to be quick to keep out Ryan in the 65th minute.

Clare responded as expected but it was too fractured a response and not sufficiently sustained. Captain Anthony Daly threw everything into the pursuit of salvation, including a fine point, but there wasn't enough time left to catch Offaly on points.

Fergal Hegarty's 70th-minute attempt on goal was saved by Byrne but in truth it lacked the conviction of, say, Johnny Dooley's rocket which set up this improbable crusade at the end of the Leinster semi-final with Wexford.

Clare's fate had been coming inexorably, however retrospective that judgment may be. In the week between the Leinster and Munster finals, hurling didn't even wonder about who was going to stop Clare. It was assumed that no one could.

Any further hypothesising would hardly have dwelt long on the chances of Offaly, managerless and beaten after a wretched show in the Leinster final.

From that time on, the balance has been shifting. Whereas no one troubled themselves to re-evaluate Offaly's prospects after the appointment of a low-profile successor to Babs Keating, Clare's invincibility came under review.

It was a tortuous business. An off-day against Waterford who nearly beat them in the drawn Munster final was followed by a return to form in the replay. But the seeds of doubt had been planted, nowhere more evidently than in Clare.

Even over the three Offaly matches, the fuel needle has been straying into the red zone. Over the same period, their opponents have been gaining the self-belief and elan which made them such a likely dominant force four years ago. What happened on Saturday was that the graph lines, once wildly divergent but converging all the time, finally crossed.