Anthony Daly: Before we went back out Loughnane blocked me from getting past him. ‘Men needed now,’ he roared

Anthony Daly recalls the fear, pressure and war cries of Clare's 1997 All-Ireland final win – and why Cork must learn from it now

HOT PURSUIT: Liam McGrath of Tipperary is hooked by Clare skipper Anthony Daly. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

In February 1997, Eílis and myself booked our wedding for the third Saturday in September. Unusually, the All-Ireland hurling final was fixed for September 14th that year. Of course we were hoping that Clare would lift the Liam MacCarthy. We weren’t thinking beyond that date, of possible replays or anything else, so we just locked in the date of September 20th in the calendar and let everything else take care of itself.

It was only around the time of the All-Ireland semi-final that I started to think more about the wedding. It wasn’t that I wasn’t thinking about it but we were going well with Clare and the All-Ireland final was around the corner. “It’s six days before the wedding,” Eílis reminded me at one stage.