Carey makes case for defence

Behind the door, they are red-faced and happy in a contained way and quietly making a case for the defence. DJ Carey opens the debate and subtly steers conversation away from his own sorcery.

"There wasn't an awful lot spoken about our defence before this except to say that it wasn't as good as that of other teams. Well, I thought they were marvellous today," he enthused.

A goal and three points for DJ in the company of Liam Doyle, the goal a flash of emphatic brilliance. He talks it all away with a shrug.

"We knew we wouldn't match Clare in the physical department so we wanted to keep moving and hopefully pick up the breaks and luckily enough it worked out for us. We were reasonably happy in the first half - I felt that Clare had done an awful lot of hurling to be going in level."

This was a rare afternoon, one which had seen the fabled Clare half-back line creek and stumble. DJ, though, would only attribute the 2-14 scoreline to the breaks of the game. Declaring that the Kilkenny forwards had troubled their opponents just isn't in his nature.

"It certainly didn't look that way," he says. "The Clare backs looked like they were revelling in it. We went into the early lead and then they were totally on top for the first half. Thankfully we just managed to pull away in the second."

Inside, Brian Cody, red-faced and clutching his heart in mock alarm is echoing Carey's words.

"They just closed us down. We knew at half-time we needed to open it up a bit, try and get the ball in quicker. Thing about Clare is that they have brilliant hurlers as well as being strong. But in that second half, well, we had lads just chasing and chasing, blocking, hooking. We really worked to make it happen. Two minutes into overtime, then I said to myself we've it won now."

He catches breath and considers Carey's goal which put daylight between the teams again with 15 minutes remaining.

"It was a goal that outstanding players score when their back's against the wall," he says.

"An out-of-this-world kind of goal. Fellas can talk about DJ and ask is the urgency there or whatever. It's just that he is one of those few players that down through the years are capable of doing it. I've seen him do that so often at training."

As a lull threatens to end the conversation, it is pointed out that Kilkenny's defence was, well, extremely good. Cody explains why this was so. "Well, that's because the defenders are good. That's the thing. I wouldn't want to go picking individuals but they were out there playing a wonderful team today and, yes, they did really well."

Canice Brennan, resting on a bench, is also gently reminding his audience that Kilkenny do have flesh and bones filing out the first seven shirts.

"Our team is supposed to be all about forwards. But it isn't just that. The midfield was very good to-day and Jim McGarry did extremely well in goal. That man in front of me (Pat O'Neill) came in and gave another All Star performance again and everyone worked hard."

Three months ago, Brennan was out on peace-keeping duty in Lebanon. A far cry from an hour marshalling the gangly, slippery Niall Gilligan, who was sometimes Clare's lone flicker of light at full forward.

"Yeah, well, there were times there to-day when I'd have preferred to have been back out in Lebanon with all that shell-fire coming in," Brennan says wryly.

Across the room, Charlie Carter is reflecting on what was a mystifying adventure for him. On bleaker days, he all but carried this attack and yet today, while his colleagues hurled under a rainbow, Charlie hit barren ground.

At one stage, he scampered across field to plunder a ball and raised a fist as the ball soared for a first score. Somehow, the sliotar tailed away.

"I couldn't believe it. I'd hit it and was thinking `thank God, I'm off the mark' but then I saw the umpire and didn't understand what had happened. But, ah, we are just delighted to be back in an All-Ireland again."

Silence as Ger Loughnane enters the room.

"Last year," he begins, I heard Denis Byrne say on TV sometime in the winter that Kilkenny were going to win an All-Ireland. Kilkenny don't make idle boasts. You deserved to win and win by more. We have always looked to Kilkenny - that's the standard to live up to. You are in an All-Ireland final now, it will be a great game against Cork and sincere good luck from everybody in Clare."

But there is little talk of Cork just yet.

"We needed the few scores today," offers Brian McEvoy, who scarcely put a foot wrong over the hour, whipping over four points from play.

"It was very fast, physical and very warm out there today. But we were fit as we have ever been. We never trained as hard - last year's All-Ireland defeat was really heartbreaking so we said that this year we'd give it a real big lash."

Last words from Cody.

"We had lads out there playing the very best in the country and we just worked and worked and worked. In the end, it paid off. We won't think about Cork just yet, that's for another week. It's nice just to have this."

Still, here is a rookie manager, shooting for the big one. He considers his position with a smile.

"Yeah, I think I'll retire - immediately," he laughs, like he knows the job's not even half-way done yet.