Clare manager Brian Lohan celebrates with David Reidy, right
If you’re looking for a characteristic to define this Clare team, it’s resilience. They refuse to lie down. They just keep coming back. I thought in normal time they had pucked this game away, but when the legs were cramping, the energy fading, they reached deep within and found something more.
Both teams gave us an astounding game of hurling and credit to the man in the middle, Johnny Murphy, who struck a lovely balance between letting it flow and keeping control. The nature of the beast is that All-Ireland finals are cruel for one set of players and it was cruel to watch one come up short in extra-time.