Banner old boys opt for patience

Match Quotes: "I'll go out the way we came in," said Ollie Baker pushing through the back door. Tom Humphries reports from Croke Park

The Clare dressingroom was locked and the word seeping out was that they were angry about the injury to Gerry Quinn which will rob him of his chance to play in next month's All-Ireland final.

David Fitzgerald passed through the gauntlet of journalists on the way to do an RTÉ interview.

"Did none of ye see the tackle on Gerry Quinn?" demanded Davy.

"Aaa sssshhh," said an offeeecial.

"Why? It's put him out of the game, so it has."

Clare are back and there's the whiff of cordite in the air already.

Cyril Lyons pays his respects to Ger Loughnane at every opportunity but Cyril isn't Ger. He has a different way, a quieter way about him. And he has left his mark. Clare don't play in the way they used to, whipping themselves up into a frenzy in the weeks before every big game. That stopped working when the legs began feeling old. Instead they think their way through things. They are patient. Less exuberant but more balanced. That's the theory, anyhow.

"It was just belief that got them through today," says Cyril. "We were in serious trouble in that first half. By half-time the game had turned around and we were one point up. Before that we were struggling to stay afloat.

"Alan Markham's goal was a huge boost and at half time we were very lucky to be in the position we were in. We've been in trouble before but it looked worse today. They had seven points on the board for little or no effort. It looked for a while as if we weren't going to get to grips with the game, but great praise to the lads. We have a good mix now, some very experienced players and some young lads, a good cross section and they all play for each other."

Early on when things were going bad and his forwards were missing in action was their a temptation to roll his eyes and just start hauling forwards off? "To be honest, early on where would you start? We were in so much trouble. What pulled us through it was Brian Lohan. If you look at Brian's performances over the last ten years, well I think they speak for themselves. Today I worried that our lads might fall back and Waterford would be flying it, especially when they started to blow us off the field. Brian Lohan lifted us and I thought Alan Markham was tremendous in the first half."

And the system. As the first finalists to have come through the qualifying system Clare were inclined to give the latest path to freedom their endorsement. "Last year after Tipp beat us we spent the summer wondering about what might have been," said Lyons. "This year we had the chance to regroup. I think it shows the folly of the old knockout system."

James O'Connor agreed. He had a quiet enough game yesterday by his own standards but the workload these days is shared democratically between the Clare forwards. "Winning games makes the difference to a team. And for us qualification has worked well and the draw has been kind. We got Dublin on the week after they were knocked out and we got Wexford the week after they went out. On Friday evening you know I couldn't see us being beaten today. If we played well at all I thought we had it in us. We have too much character in the team.

"After they'd scored their first four points I was looking around, though. Waterford looked so sharp and you'd wonder who had just had the last six weeks off. We have enough experience to know that teams will have periods like that. By half time the lads at the back had a stranglehold. They only scored four times in the second half. Only one from play, I think."

Brian Lohan sat nearby, chin resting on his hurl. Signature red helmet on the bench beside him.

He's captain now and chattier than he used to be but still not going to fill a full tape on his own.

"The opening few minutes, well you know it could go either way. I expected we'd start better but everything they hit dropped over for them. What was crucial was how we would react and how they would respond to that. It was a case of hanging in when they started like that.

"I noticed early in the second half they hit a few balls into the corners and they were overhit and after that they started looking for points from further outfield. They'd be pretty much 50/50. I don't know if they followed their game plan."

After five years away lingering in what looked to be Clare's twilight is he surprised to be looking forward to an All-Ireland final next month? The old Lohan would have bridled at the suggestion. Instead he just smiles.

"Yeah, I am surprised. We were very disappointed to lose to Tipp for the third time this year and after something like that a few of us thought that maybe we'd never get back. The draws fell right in the qualifiers. We got the best out of the system. If you had said to me on the day we lost to Tipp that we would make the All-Ireland final, I wouldn't have believed it."

And he sits a while, the greatest full back of his generation. Mellowed now except when he has a hurl in his hands and a full forward in his sights.