So, the hurling century will end with a match resonant of the sepia-tinted days. Kilkenny, flag-bearers for tradition, yesterday brought the curtains down on Clare, darlings of the new order, and thus will meet Cork in the All-Ireland hurling final on September 12th. Just like old times.

In the end, Clare just buckled against a fresher force. It was Kilkenny that splashed whatever colour was to be wrought out of a curiously prosaic day at Croke Park. They started as though hell-bent on bettering the five-goal lesson they administered to Offaly, with Ken O'Shea swinging on a long free from Pat O'Neill and deceiving Davy Fitzgerald in the opening minute. When Andy Comerford flicked over a point four minutes later, the Clare backs visibly bristled. For the next half hour, the Leinster team hurled against a stone wall.

Brian Lohan was untouchable, and his brother Frank came close to matching him at times. As a unit, though, they defended with a telepathy honed on finer days. Their worries lay on the scoreboard. Kilkenny ambled off at the break with hardly any hurling behind them, but with 1-5 on the board to Clare's eight points.

When they came back they opened up and Clare had simply no answer. Hence, the second half was full of novel images. The Clare half-back line, which trembled a little against Galway in the drawn game, came apart yesterday. Late in the game, John Power, the venerable statesman of the Kilkenny team, turned on his heels and cut through the heart of the Clare defence, tapping the ball on the turf with delightful skill before flipping a pass for DJ Carey to rifle over.

It was that sort of afternoon. Elsewhere, Brian McEvoy was firing points on the run while Henry Shefflin grafted and sweated and made up for his inconsistency with frees.

He was also central to the move which defined the game. With Clare down by a point after 55 minutes, Denis Byrne floated in a ball from a sideline cut, Shefflin soared and ushered the sliotar into space, and onto it raced Carey, scorching towards goal and drilling his shot to push the team into an unassailable position. From there they coasted.

Afterwards Clare manager Ger Loughnane stood sipping bottled water as Brian Cody made his entrance to the Clare dressing-room. It was all but deserted; only Brian Lohan, and Tony Considine remained. Cody, though, spoke words that filled the room.

"It really is a great honour to stand in the Clare dressing-room and I don't say that lightly," he announced. "Clare are the team of the nineties and I say that with no problem, even if we go on to win the third All-Ireland. I am a huge fan of Clare hurling. Very, very often, I have been tempted to pick up the phone just to say well done to that great man," he said, nodding at Loughnane.

"It is a great source of pride to me that I could, in my innocence, come up here and manage a team that could take ye on and beat ye."

Humble words which go some way to explaining the mind-set which has sustained Kilkenny this year and seen them advance with irrepressible purpose. Again they stand on the threshold; Kilkenny are close to rediscovering that old knack they have for simply winning All-Irelands.

For Clare, there was a comprehensiveness about yesterday's defeat which must be new and chilling for them. Hard to know what the coming years hold for them. Their manager, though, was saying little. "Oh, I've plenty of thoughts on the future you know. I'll go upstairs now and we'll have a few drinks with the Kilkenny lads and then go on to the Burlington and I'm not thinking beyond that at the moment."

No fireworks then or last goodbyes, just more evidence that an old power is back in business.