Clare write the plot in sequel

As sequels go it was barely adequate. Clare replay Galway, and this time it's personal. All the fonts of Galway's excellence eight days ago were shored up. Ollie Fahy and Alan Kerins, big splurgers on day one, were hustled off into anonymity. Kevin Broderick was substituted. Clare finished the afternoon whistling.

All-Ireland quarter-finals are tricky stepping stones and neither Clare nor Galway could have relished the prospect of this turning into an epic struggle. Clare duly dusted themselves off after the extraordinary drawn game, which was this season's most shimmering adornment, and dispatched Galway in a manner which had everything except romance.

For the 32,560 people venturing out to a novel bank holiday Monday fixture the result had a forlorn inevitability about it from early on. Joe Cooney popped an early point for Galway which was negated a minute later and from there on Galway never led the game.

With Jamesie O'Connor restored to the forward lines and Ollie Baker miraculously showing no weakness in his long-suffering ankle, Clare were as balanced as we have seen them in a while. Elsewhere, in the forwards they were busy exhuming the heroes of 1995 with Clancy, McNamara, Tuohy, Hegarty and O'Connell all playing roles. Yet it was Niall Gilligan of the class of 1997 who made the difference on the scoreboard.

Gilligan finished with 2-3 from play. His goals either side of halftime sundered Galway's heart. After just 11 minutes Conor Clancy pulled down another in a series of high catches and fed Gilligan, who rifled to the net putting Clare four points ahead. Seconds later he scored his first point of the day.

Early in the second half PJ O'Connell scored a goal which put the lead back to five points and midway through the half an extraordinary goal from Gilligan ended the game. Attempting a point on the left wing he was blocked but turned and picked up the sliotar. Evading three tackles he appeared to lose control but suddenly pulled rapidly on the fleeing ball.

So rumours which had circulated in rowdy battalions about the imminent death from exhaustion of this Clare team were bounced out the door. Ger Loughnane, the one battery which never needs recharging, spread the good cheer.

"I told ye all along that we were very fresh. I told ye that the last day and I think people were saying he's only bluffing or something. We're really really fresh. We didn't do hard work early on in the year. We were off the pace the last day because we were a little too fresh. Once we got that game under our belt we were a way sharper. A way lighter, you go into a dressing-room sometimes and you feel a weight on everybody, we felt light today, ready for action like starting off at the start of the championship again."

Clare's rejuvenation will be put to the test in just two weeks' time when they meet the young pretenders of Kilkenny. Kilkenny, Offaly and Clare of the team's left in the championship have two All-Irelands apiece this decade. It won't have escaped any of teams' notice that the game will go a long way to shaping the way the last hurling decade of this century is remembered.

The conundrum lies in the calendar. Kilkenny will have had a five-week lay off since they dismantled Offaly. Clare have been nipping their team all season mending flaws as they have gone along.

"It comes down to the quality of players," Loughnane said "We have brilliant hurlers. In Croke Park you don't get away with it unless you have exceptional hurlers with great skill. They played some fantastic hurling.

"If you look at the team that finished today and the team in the Munster final there's a lot of changes from it. We believe in using players in form at the time they are in form rather than holding them on the sidelines. The real challenge is coming on Sunday week when we meet Kilkenny. You all know that and we know that."

In the aftermath the ritual inflation of the reputation of forthcoming opponents had begun. Loughnane, seeking to explain his own horses-for-courses policy in the Clare forwards, made a little detour in order to genuflect.

"It's something like this," he said "if you had six really outstanding forwards like Kilkenny have then you would settle on those six. We have eight or nine and anyone can be outstanding on any day and trying to pick out the six who will be outstanding on the day well that's the trick."

For Galway defeat was sorely borne. Since the inception of the quarter-final system in hurling they have failed to clear the hurdle. This campaign was marked by a bitter squabble with the media.

Yesterday Mattie Murphy, his energy for rowing all spent, stood in the corridor outside the team dressing-room and let the questions come.

"This was a lesson for any management," he said. "When you have Clare down, really you should put them out because if you let them up they're dangerous. They've proved that down the years. They've played badly and survived, we can play well and not win.

"We had a chance of putting Clare away the last day we were well the better team, there's a moral there. When you have them reeling make sure you get in the next punch and finish them off."

Galway's surprise dropping of goalkeeper Damien Howe on the eve of the game had excited interest. Yesterday in Croke Park all sorts of rumours swirled about the decision. Murphy was philosophical.

"Like everything else we made a call, right or wrong. If you're right you're up there. Wrong and you're down in the dumps. We'll get plenty of criticism. It was not a disciplinary measure. Damien has behaved impeccably, done everything we asked of him. He did suffer from shin splints, which would have impaired him slightly, but basically it was a selectorial decision." In the Clare dressing-room Loughnane paused finally to consider his preparations for the Kilkenny game. Videos and geometric planning? Consultations with meteorologists and cosmotologists? "Ah," he says, "it's paralysis by analysis in a lot of flippin' places. You shouldn't be analysing hurling at all, it's a simple game. Get out and play it and use a bit of method."

Two weeks' time and we'll know if the lightness in the method is madness or genius.