Casey: Players had the character to drive each other on

For four years in a row Dr Crokes have been kings in the Kingdom, and for the latter three they’ve ruled the roost in Munster.

But yesterday, despite being 1/33 favourites, they faced their most searching test from Clare champions Cratloe.

Relief was the overriding emotion from joint manager Vince Casey at the final whistle. “It was a heart-stopper. The bookies had crazy odds — we were playing the Clare county champions. Cratloe are a very good side and they really showed it. We just couldn’t get our hands on the ball in the second-half — it was a game of two halves really. We were brilliant in the first-half, won so much breaking ball, broke a lot of tackles, turned them over a good few times. The one negative thing was we missed six or seven shots we normally wouldn’t. We could have been ahead by even more than seven at half-time (0-10 to 0-3). In fairness to them though in the second-half we just couldn’t get our hands on the ball, they were running it out of defence and we couldn’t stop them, it was wave after wave.”