Clare quickly switch focus again to Wexford showdown at Semple Stadium

Aside from its occasional ditching of the playing rules, praise for the latest Munster hurling final showdown was unanimously high. If there is to be a better championship game in the few weeks remaining it’s likely to involve Limerick or Clare again or indeed both.

It took another toilsome 20 minutes of extra time to eventually decide the outcome — the teams also level after normal time in their Munster round-robin game, and in their league game last March. At times it felt like destiny couldn’t tear them apart.

As recalled by Sean Moran on these pages only yesterday, it symbolised those days “when hurling is transported into its own dimension and plays out in displays of skill, physicality and indifference to danger that are unrelenting and equal”.

Which neatly elevated the satisfaction for Limerick, winning a fourth Munster title in succession, not so much Clare. Just 13 days on, they’re faced with the task of rising above the physical and mental blow of that defeat when taking on Wexford in the second of Saturday’s two All-Ireland quarter-finals at Semple Stadium (3.45pm); beaten Leinster finalists Galway are up first against Cork (1.45pm).

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For Clare midfielder Cathal Malone all and any such talk of another hurling classic certainly doesn’t lessen the blow of that defeat; if anything the players are mostly oblivious to it anyway.

“Sometimes you really don’t notice,” he says. “You’re focusing on the next ball and trying to get your position right and anticipate where the next ball is. Yeah, in the first 10-15 minutes everyone was going for it. Probably the atmosphere told more than anything.

“Every team really is very physical. Of course, the Munster final, the first 10-15 minutes, throughout the game, was a great game. It had skill, it had everything.

“When you’re on the pitch, you don’t really notice because you’re thinking all the time of the next ball and you don’t notice the hits that you’re getting. You don’t look outside of the group or see what anyone is saying. You just have your own focus and that’s really it.”

Malone doesn’t place any added disappointment or despair on the fact Clare were also waiting 24 years since their last Munster title, being level with Limerick 15 times before wrestling the match into extra-time one indication of how close they came.

“We don’t really get caught up in history. For ourselves, we wanted to win — and we lost one in ‘17 and ‘18. Look, we know how hard it is to get to a Munster final; there’s a good few lads who’ve been there for the last few years and it’s really hard to get to one. So we just wanted to give it everything and we felt like we did but unfortunately, the result wasn’t the one we wanted.”

Recent history has proved Clare’s next task is tricky: in the football championship, all four provincial losers — Donegal, Kildare, Roscommon and Limerick — couldn’t rise above the setback of defeat in their respective finals, making their championship exit in the last round of football qualifiers last weekend.

If Clare are to go on and win the All-Ireland, they’ll be joining the just four counties who have done likewise after previously losing their provincial final; Offaly in 1998, Cork in 2004, Kilkenny in 2012 and Tipperary in 2019.

“Obviously when you get into extra time and the intensity of the game throughout the full 90 minutes was incredible,” he says. “When you get to a Munster final, having already lost two, we just wanted to give it everything. It just shows what a great team Limerick are, in fairness. But we have high standards for ourselves and we just want to keep improving all the time.”

Clare have got better of Wexford in recent championship ties, winning last year’s qualifier by three points; they also met in 2020, when Clare had a seven-point win. Still, Wexford are coming in on a roll, putting up 3-30 against Kerry last weekend, after beating Kilkenny in the last round of the provincial series.

“We put a massive focus on the league games because we wanted to build a panel as well. We had a few injuries earlier on in the year, so we gave game-time to the younger lads. And you could see in the Munster final, there were younger lads coming on or playing, and they made an impact as well. So, it’s important for everyone to get game-time and develop a squad.”

Tony Kelly’s equalising score from a sideline which forced extra time will be talked about for seasons to come, no matter where Clare’s season goes for here: for Malone nothing about Kelly’s nerve surprised him.

“He’s just incredible, he really drives the standard both in training and in matches. He works incredibly hard as well and he’s always looking to improve, we want to do the same. Everyone is trying to get better all the time and everyone is trying to perform and everyone wants to perform. We have a panel of 40 players and everyone is driving it at training and it’s important that we keep driving it. You can see it in how Ryan Taylor, David Fitzgerald and Rory (Hayes) are all playing.”

And all unquestionably playing for their manager Brian Lohan, and his desire to win.

“As players, we want to do the same as well. We just need to switch our focus. get going again. He does that and we have to do it as players.”