Emotional Davy rages at referee

Relieved. Raging. Ragged. Davy Fitzgerald conveyed a bundle of emotions having seen his team steal a draw from a game almost snatched from them.

So furious was he with referee Brian Gavin’s performance that he refused to mention the Offaly official’s name: “If you look at the first half — should we really have been up more than two? There is only one fella you should ask that and I won’t mention his name. We should’ve been up more than two.”

He wasn’t satisfied with the suggestion everything had been put right by the additional time provided for Gavin in which Domhnall O’Donovan’s point earned Clare a second day out.

“No. No. The only answer to that question is no and leave it at that.”

Fitzgerald wasn’t budging much either on Gavin handing out a yellow card to Shane O’Neill either when replays showed the Cork full-back had struck Darach Honan across the top of his helmet.

“I’m not going into that. It was a good hurling game. Anyone with a pair of eyes out there would know what the story is. I’m not going into it.

“Cork are a good team, fair play to them, they are a good hurling team, they went down four or five points. They kept coming back. Fair play to them. My hat is off to them, the way they hurled out there. The two teams gave everything they had. I’m not going to say one bad word about Cork. Not a hope.”

Having said that, he would have despaired had Clare not taken something out of the game after monopolising much of it.

“I think we were the better team. It would have been a travesty if we lost. I think ye seen that yourself outside there but are we happy to get the draw in the end, being a point down a minute and a bit into injury-time?

“Yes I was.”

He continued: “It just showed what character, it showed what steel is about and I am so proud of my guys. Whether they win, lose or draw the next day, I don’t give a damn. Anyone watching would have seen an example of boys giving their heart. There was a lot of tough things going against them. I won’t say unfair. I could. But a lot of tough things went against them and they still came back for more.”

Fitzgerald admitted he feared the worst when he saw O’Donovan winding up to strike towards the Davin Stand posts in injury-time.

“Nine times out of ten in training, it goes wide (for him). But you know what, wasn’t it some thinking by our goalie (Patrick Kelly) straight away after the point to put it down that side. Like, everything we had worked for, our dreams, were on the line. The only time we were behind in the whole feckin’ game. I mean, I could not believe it, that we were behind. Because I didn’t think we deserved to be. And when he got it... hats off to him. Donny has got a bit of stick over the year and... fair play to him. He came up trumps.

“We had some laugh when we went in (to the dressing room). I would say every one of the boys are laughing because they know what he’s like in training. We’d be telling him to just hit it into the square! But I’m delighted for the young man.”

Davy took heart from how Clare bounced back from each of Cork’s goals.

“You think about it: three goals there in the second half and we still didn’t get beaten and we score none.

“No matter what happens I’m so proud of them. They’ve been going out week after week, playing U21 and senior, pushing it to the limit. I couldn’t say enough about them.

“Will they get up to that height the next day? It will be extremely hard because the U21s will knock a lot out of them next week and then you got to bring them back up again.

“In saying that, it wouldn’t surprise me. These guys don’t know when to quit. But it will be a big ask. If you ask me straight now Cork probably have the initiative going into it.”

That game against Antrim in Thurles on Saturday complicates things for Clare.

“After an All-Ireland, it is unreal how you feel. Win, lose or draw. Like, this is going to take them days and then they have to try to get up for next Saturday. And then they have to come back down again.

“Like, Cork are going to be laughing at the fact we are still in the U21 and we have to go again. But, you know, things have been pushed against us all year, as they were out there today, and we are still there. We are not gone any place yet.”

If Fitzgerald was laughing with O’Donovan he had to cheer up Podge Collins who, despite giving another spellbinding performance, was cursing himself for missing the goal opportunity from which Cork worked the ball down the field for Cronin to find the net.

“Podge is inside beating himself up over one. I said to him, I said: ‘Podge, are you serious?!’ That man was unbelievable out there today, so he was. And he inside beating himself up.”

Taking goal opportunities will be on the menu for Clare in training over the next while. “Definitely, Cork threatened more goals than we did today. But 25 scores in an All-Ireland final isn’t bad either.”