Drawing comfort from hectic game

All-Ireland SHC Quarter-final Anthony Daly pulls the brim of his baseball hat down and then on second thoughts lifts it and runs the back of his hand across his forehead. Half an hour since the final whistle and he still was sweating, still ordering his thoughts. Tom Humphries reports from Croke Park

"A draw is a funny thing" he says "You're neither happy nor sad. It's an anti-climax. You're preparing for the feeling of disappointment or elation and now you have neither." He pauses.

"Ballybrit is bollocks anyway!" And he laughs out loud.

Clare will be training on Tuesday evening. The horses will run without Dalo present.

"What harm." says he.

This epic, this 70 minutes of tortured bruising drama. Did he enjoy it. What imprint did it leave on his brain.

"I'll have to watch it again to see. I think we played with a bit of heart anyway." When Anthony Daly got the job we assumed that with the manager's teams as with the manager, "heart" would be the default setting. But then came May 16th, an afternoon which Daly now refers to the way American's refer to 9/11. All certainty got swept away. Yesterday though was a new beginning. Heart and a good deal of head. Clare did well tactically.

"We didn't change our plan when they went down to 14 men. We were behind but not hugely behind. We looked like we'd get the scores if we got the ball up there. Alan (Markham) was delivering long balls up. If we needed the scores desperately we'd have shoved him up to the forwards but all Kilkenny would have done was brought an extra man back with him. It would have virtually been the same thing. This rubbish about playing an extra man up in the forwards. The opposition coach will always just put a man with him. You have a loose man, you have to use him some way. Everyone isn't just going to go up to the Kilkenny half."

In the end it was Jamesie who closed the deal for a draw. Daly was clearly pleased for his old comrade but management jobs require diplomatic training.

"The (older) lads did their part but I think you'll find we got lots from the likes of Ger O'Grady, Andrew Quinn, Tony Carmody, Daithí O'Connell and plenty of other young lads as well. It was nice to see Jamesie getting the score. He's taken awful stick both from inside and outside the county and that guy has given everything to Clare. If Jamesie O'Connor was never on the team this year for Andrew Quinn, and Brian Culbert and Daithí O'Connell and all those young lads just looking at him the way he trains and the way he prepares, he's an asset to Clare hurling's future."

So to next Saturday. Minds racing already. Daly conceded that there is a chance that the red helmet of Brian Lohan might grace the occasion. Clare half thought of playing the legendary full back yesterday but the idea of perhaps having to withdraw him after 20 minutes with a recurrence of his hamstring trouble was too depressing. Maybe. Maybe. Clare's summer goes on. Their manager learning all the while.

"What did I learn today?" he says. "Well I began to doubt after the 16th of May. I really doubted myself and doubted some players. I got back and said no you can't doubt. It's reassuring that we can come up here today like that. We recovered a bit of pride last week against Offaly and I learned today that we are as good as teams that are out there but we have to play in a certain manner and a certain way. We have to play with fierce courage and commitment. That's Clare's way."

And down the corridor. Brian Cody's face beneath another baseball cap, his voice echoing the same themes. In the end it came down to character and commitment.

"It was hard going with 14 players. Fourteen against 15 is never simple. If we hadn't the spirit we wouldn't be going out again next Saturday. If we hadn't the spirit we wouldn't be doing what we've been doing for the last two years. Spirit is a huge part of what we are, our whole set up. That's down to the character of the players and that's savage."

Did he think his side were in trouble. After their systematic dismantling of Galway a fortnight ago Cody would have been entitled to assume that the corner had been turned. The nail-biting, heart-stopping days would be gone till August anyway.

"Trouble," he laughs "Yeah, all the time. If trouble means could we lose, yeah. Obviously the game could have gone either way. Twasn't simple out there. Clare really tore into the game. They played very well. They were really going strong. We were expecting it but you can expect things forever, it's when it's unfolding in front of you I suppose . . . Looking at it at times you'd say we were under severe pressure and looking at the scoreboard you could say we were never under severe pressure but losing Tommy Walsh was a tough one. Losing him was tough."

For connoisseurs of hurling tactics this was a fine afternoon. Clare had opened up with the sweeper. Alan Markham doing the cleaning duties between centre back and full back. Kilkenny had struggled for a while but opened the second half with a tactical flourish of their own. And the late penalty which Henry Shefflin had popped over the bar. Any regrets about not summoning up a goal from that situation? "No. I didn't even try to attract their attention. I just let the two lads (Shefflin and DJ) sort it out. I don't think I've ever told them how to do anything."

A fortnight ago Cody stood in a dressingroom in Thurles and reflected that the qualifiers at least provided a nice rhythm of playing a game every second weekend. He liked that rhythm. Now, whoever wins next weekend will face Waterford the following weekend. Games are coming thick and fast.

"It's going to take a fair bit out of teams for next Saturday. It was an energy sapping game. But I mean they are finely-tuned athletes. Both teams are very fit. I'll have no crib if we win next Saturday playing the next weekend."

Two teams still standing. No cribs from either.