It won't rate as Jamesie O'Connor's favourite season in a Clare jersey. After the euphoria of bringing an All-Ireland club title back home to St Joseph's Doora-Barefield last March, the county struggled for form, lost its Munster title and finally took its bow in the All-Ireland on Sunday last after defeat by Kilkenny.

For O'Connor himself, the replayed first round against Tipperary was cut short by a broken arm and a nasty facial injury. He has only recovered in the last few weeks. Inevitably questions have been raised about the future of the team, which has indelibly marked hurling in the 1990s, and its manager Ger Loughnane.

"We're looking forward to the break," says O'Connor. "Someone asked `where do Clare go from here?' but now isn't really the time to be considering it. A lot depends on Ger and he could afford to take six months off into March to see how he feels.

"He may feel that we've been listening to him for too long over the last five years, but if he had asked the 30 lads to jump out of the plane coming back from Dublin, there'd have been no questions about it. There's still huge respect for him."

There are still regrets about the weekend's defeat in a match which drifted away from Clare after plenty of chances had gone a begging in the first half.

"Sunday was a weird game. It was there to be won. We were creating chances and it was anyone's match. At half-time we knew we just had to go out and do it. We didn't. They got three or four scores after halftime and we were struggling from then on."

Kilkenny's run to the All-Ireland semi-final was almost recreational compared with Clare's and O'Connor feels that the greater freshness was noticeable as was - unprecedentedly for the team in Loughnane's era - maybe a larger appetite.

"Their defence was under-rated. I felt it was bad news when Philly Larkin and Pat O'Neill started for them. They're great players with experience. Maybe if O'Neill had been on the team earlier this season we would have been prepared and could have worked something out.

"I was looking at fellas like Larkin, Brian McEvoy and Canice Brennan. They're around my age, but they've no All-Ireland medals. Even an experienced guy like John Power - all he wants to do is get his medal and show it to Kevin Fennelly (last year's Kilkenny manager who left Power off the panel). Maybe they wanted it a little more than we did."

It has been a year when things have caught up with Clare a bit. Never before had the county to cope with so many injuries. PJ O'Connell and Conor Clancy were late back to training this summer - after an aborted retirement and an operation respectively - and O'Connor and Ollie Baker received injuries at critical times which disrupted their season.

Ambitions are re-adjusted now with the county's club championship starting in the next couple of weeks. Already, within five months of winning the All-Ireland, DooraBarefield will have to defend their Clare, Munster and national titles. O'Connor and county team-mates Baker and Sean McMahon have been on the road for a year and a half.

Last year's campaign with Clare was attritional and followed by a lengthy club season. The dose is now being repeated. O'Connor's arm is slowly rehabilitating, Baker has been plagued with a chronic ankle injury and McMahon has looked flat on occasions. The latter two have the added burden of working outside of the county.

"We're facing club championships," says O'Connor. "Ollie (Baker's) ankle injury is a lot worse than mine. He'd probably be as well if he didn't play for the club or at least played but didn't train. There's football coming up. Sean (McMahon) will play football but Ollie won't and I probably won't. Sean's coming from Galway and Ollie from Ballinasloe, which makes it a lot more wearing for them."

Team captain Anthony Daly told them on Sunday night that they'd all feel better when they got back with their clubs and started to concentrate on the county championship. There'll be time afterwards to work out the bigger picture.