Banner will come back even brighter

Darach Honan’s assessment of Domhnall O’Donovan’s €3 million point was to the point: “Fair fucks to him, in fairness.”

But how it came down to the corner-back not known for his shot-taking, how it came down to Clare having to scrap the draw is the great wonderment from this game.

Cork’s sheer stubbornness combined with a warped Clare half-back line might be reasoned as the cocktail that gave the impression Davy Fitzgerald’s side had become drunk on the successes they had all over the field prior to the last 15 minutes. As much as Clare’s character was obvious in their ability to recover from all three second-half Cork goals, the resolve of their opponents in sticking with them when they were malfunctioning or being forced to malfunction in most departments was that bit stronger.

This was a day when Clare dictated almost everything from the outset when they scrapped the sweeper tactic they had deployed to such good effect in the semi-final against Limerick to O’Donovan’s equalising point.

Captain Pat Donnellan was instead stationed in midfield with the superb Conor Ryan pushing back to left-half back, where he ruled the skies. By acting unconventionally in adopting convention and going 15-on-15 which was supposed to have worked in Cork’s favour going by some observers, Fitzgerald had gained the upper hand in ensuring the game was played on Clare’s terms.

“Did we have no sweeper today?” he offered with a wry smile. “We just picked different things. We could be back with a sweeper for the next day. You don’t know what will happen, I’ll have to have a look at it again.”

As anticipated, Brian Murphy took on the mantle of shadowing Tony Kelly but lost marginally on points. We mean in boxing parlance, not on the one he scored to his marker’s three.

Conor Ryan may have shipped a couple of points to Seamus Harnedy but his assault on Anthony Nash’s puck-outs was awesome.

Clare were clearly hitting Cork where Cork hoped to glean a lot of advantage, and without it they looked short of answers.

Cork, a year older on average than Clare, weren’t like Limerick and overawed by the occasion. Just overruled.

“The young lads, especially like Tony Kelly, it really doesn’t affect us,” said Podge Collins. “It’s just another game, that’s the way we look at it.

“You’re not paying attention to the occasion, I know it’s the All-Ireland final but you’re trying to just play the game, get on with it and afterwards you can enjoy all that.”

It was a different brand of performance by Clare compared to the Limerick one. More straightforward. Refined. Wides killed their neighbours last month but Cork, posting just three and none from play, were economical because they were forced to be economical.

If we thought they would be the team hardest on themselves after underperforming, we were put back in our box following the game when Fitzgerald spoke of Collins kicking himself for missing his 63rd minute goal chance.

Here was a 21-year-old who had picked off three points, one of them of outrageous quality, and won five frees within scoring range. But he wasn’t the only one critical of himself either. “I failed to get a goal,” said Honan.

Yet in the hours following the game, Dónal Óg Cusack threw out a question into the Twitter ether about the vast amount his county had coughed up: “Have Cork ever conceded more than 24 points in a championship game?”

Honan anticipates Cork will want to improve. But they don’t have exclusive rights to that sentiment, he warned. “I think we have potential to be better again. We’ve definitely played better games in the past. I think we definitely have things that we can work on and they’ll be worked on over the next couple of weeks.

“It’s a weird feeling. We had it but we also almost lost it. Both teams will probably be thinking they’re looking forward to another crack.”

Afterwards, he was surprised to hear the game fixed for Saturday fortnight and not Sunday, September 29. “I’ll have to get the Friday off work, I suppose,” he shrugged.

No big deal was the message. Yesterday’s game sure felt like one, though, in the schooling of a Clare team that are only getting better.