Moloney: These are Clare’s greatest ever group of players

Clare joint-manager Donal Moloney hailed his three-in-a-row Munster winning charges as the finest crop of hurlers to ever don the saffron and blue.

The Banner retained their U21 provincial crown with consummate ease, and Moloney said the potential of this group must be translated into senior All-Ireland glory in the years ahead.

“For a county like Clare these are different times, these aren’t normal type of situations or celebrations,” he said.

“What we must do is make the most out of it. We need to ensure that these guys realise their full potential not just at under 21 level, but at senior in the years ahead. It is not often a final will go like that for you, but we knew coming into it that the guys were really in form.”

Moloney added: “Of course we would love to add another All-Ireland, we are focused on continuing on while we have the talent available to us. We wanted to do achieve the three-in-a-row and I am delighted that we did. “It was an awesome first half, they are probably the best group of players we’ve ever had in our county.”

Cork manager Pat Kenneally lamented the visitor’s poor start which handed the initiative to the favourites.

“The general consensus is that this is one of the greatest U21 teams we have seen in the modern era,” he reflected.

“Having said that, we thought we had a team that could at least compete. We were hoping for a good start. We got a good start against Waterford, we didn’t get it here.

“We knew it was going to be an uphill struggle and they got better and better as the game progressed. We held it together some bit for the first 20 minutes of the second period, but the last 10 minutes everyone knew the writing was on the wall.

“The shock for us was that be it high ball, low ball, be it out loose or in tight, they were bigger, faster and stronger. That is a very unusual combination to have in one team. We have a fairly big team and yet they were dominant in the air throughout. They were dominant in the rucks. There was no facet of their play where there was a weakness. We knew if they got into their stride they were capable of doing this and unfortunately they did.”