“This is not the end of Clare,” says Fitzgerald

THERE isn’t much to say after losing an All-Ireland. Losers' dressing-rooms are filled with crestfallen men, too emotionally shattered to analyse properly what went wrong, words just don’t sound right. They are usually locked.

That’s why Brian Cody, in his moment of triumph, could be found banging on the dressing-room door. He wanted a way in to offer some consoling words for Clare’s defeated warriors. As Clare milled around outside their dressing-room, one of their oldest warriors spoke of the lesson in all of this for the young guns unearthed in the twists and turns of their season.

“Take nothing away from Kilkenny, they are a super team, but we are not too far away ourselves,” DavyFitzgerald says. “Some clown said it to me afterwards, is that the end of ye now? Well, anyone who took a look at that game would know that’s not the end of Clare. We are still going strong and our younger lads learned from this day. Kilkenny lost two All-Irelands before they won one, and our younger lads will have to learn from this defeat. They have to know what it is like to lose. We will rebound stronger again from this.”

In the early stages, as Shefflin and DJ threatened to annihilate Clare, Fitzgerald made one of those inspirational saves that have been such a characteristic of his Banner years. Relying purely on reaction, he forced Shefflin’s goal-bound shot over the bar. It was the sort of save that rallied Clare for years: “I thought we started reasonably well and then, out of nothing, DJ just got a break. I was positive it was going wide because Comerford was going for a point. Next thing, he pops up from nowhere and the ball is in the back of the net. That’s what he’s good at. He was playing in the right corner, he comes in from the left. Super, super goal and it got them the dream start. I thought we fought back well in the second half. We were six points down at half-time, we could have folded.”

It would have been so easy to fold. With ten minutes left, Kilkenny had still hit only one wide. They would end the game with three. An incredibly economical display of shooting that has you feeling their name was destined to be etched into McCarthy this year: “They missed nothing. It was breaking my heart, I was looking up at every ball and they were going between the posts. It was their day. And their second goal was typical of our day, it got a deflection, I got the tip of my hurley to it, and it went in off the post.”

Still, the Clare custodian knows he was witness to another chapter in the annals of DJ the Genius. “His touch was unreal, I wish he had been hurling all year, maybe he wouldn’t have been as sharp. I have heard about that guy getting a lot of stick, how can people give that guy stick. Awesome hurler.”

“There are players on this team we are going to hear a lot more from,” says Tony Griffin, with one eye on next summer. “The likes of Carmody, myself, Andrew Quinn and Plunkett have all come on leaps and bounds this year. Clare are far from gone and anyone who writes us off are going to be very mistaken.

“I think DJ and Shefflin got 2-13 between them, that in itself just shows what we were up against. I remember a cameo after that chance I missed, the ball was pushed too far in front of me, the ball was sent down the field and DJ, at his ease, popped the ball over the bar. When it rains, it pours, but we will live to fight another day.”

Cyril Lyons is in sombre, reflective mood. He realises that, on the day, Kilkenny were just too good.

“Three wides, lads, that tells its own story,” he sighs in bemusement. But, there was one stage in the second half when Lyons started to believe something could happen. They had clawed their way to within three points of the Leinster champions. Lyons was holding out for another score: “When we got it down to three, I thought if we could pull it back to two, we would be in with a great chance. At that stage, I think there was a throw-in given on the sideline, the ball broke to Henry Shefflin and it was four again. And then, there was a free, and it was five again. And you are trying to get back in the game again.”

There were Clare heroes. Seanie McMahon never gave up, Colin Lynch and Brian Lohan offered a decent end to wonderful seasons. However, for Davey Fitz, there was one main man for the Banner: “Gerry Quinn, lads. I saw that man on Thursday night and he could hardly hold a hurley. How he managed to play is beyond me. Pure will-power, that’s all it was.”

With such will-power, hard to bet against the Banner knocking on the door next summer.