We’ve been here before

The last time Cork and Clare faced each other in championship with the Banner having won silverware the previous year was the 1999 Munster final.

Back then, Clare were going for a third provincial title in a row and also had the motivation of righting the perceived wrong of ’98.

Instead, a young Cork team seeking to end a nine-year trophy drought — as is the case now — managed to upset the odds, Joe Deane’s goal crucial in a 1-15 to 0-14 win.

One of those winning his first medal that day was Cork wing-back Wayne Sherlock, and he recalled a team conversation led by Brian Corcoran as being pivotal.

“We were going up against fellas who had won All-Irelands in 1995 and ’97, fellas who were almost heroes to us,” he said.

“A few nights before the game, though, Brian said to us that we had won U21 All-Irelands and as a group we had never lost to Clare, so why should we fear them? That comment set our stall out.”

With Corcoran the only member of Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s team to have previously won a Munster medal, in 1992, motivation was certainly not lacking.

“It was a massive occasion,” Sherlock said, “right from the start and the parade, when there were a few words had between our players and theirs.

“The way us younger fellas looked at it was that this was another stepping stone, we had won at U21 and now we wanted to win another medal. Fourteen of the 15 starting hadn’t won Munster so it was a case of ‘We’re not coming off this pitch until we’ve won one’.”

While Joe Deane’s first-half goal provided Cork with a platform, a dogged Clare — without the injured Jamesie O’Connor — hung with them and Sherlock cites a missed Clare free in the second half as the pivotal moment.

“David Forde had a free on the 20m line,” he said, “and I’d say if he had had 100 balls he’d have put 99 over.

“When he missed, we almost had to double-check but then we drove on again and rallied, Ben [O’Connor] went down the wing and got a great point and we won by four. It was huge in terms of our development, and that gave us the confidence to go on and win the All-Ireland.”

Those views are echoed by Barry-Murphy, who must try to replicate the feat tomorrow.

“We had a very young team but we were a coming team,” he said.

“Clare had probably been around a few years, in fairness, and every team comes to the end of its cycle. They also lost a key player in the Munster semi-final, Jamesie O’Connor, who didn’t play in the final, which was a big help to us, let’s be honest about it.

“They were the team that had set the benchmark in Munster, having won All-Irelands. I knew that, once we beat Clare, we were serious contenders. That game certainly gave us the belief to kick on from there.”