Grafters rather than supermen

Clare v Tipperary: There is a code of conduct on these days. Ken Hogan emerged from the Tipperary dressingroom and, had he had a cap to take off as he made his way to the Clare dressingroom, he would have done so.

The atmosphere was funereal, and, as has been his way since taking over as Tipperary manager, he was low-key and sincere in his sympathies. In his goalkeeping days, Hogan was well accustomed to comfortable victories over Clare, but he must have been privately delighted and even surprised by how rudimentary this latest triumph was.

"It was a very important match for us. Definitely the two games against Limerick stood to us because it was very hard and physical again and the conditions were atrocious, lads. Our lads showed great bottle and heart when Clare brought it back to three or four points. We are not supermen unfortunately, but we keep showing honesty. We are slowly earning the respect of our supporters, but we have nothing won yet and are coming up against the All-Ireland champions the next day."

And that is at the heart of it. Tipperary and Cork is a return to the old ways of the Munster final, but the red shirts are champions of the land while in Tipperary, expectations were fragile going into this match. Whatever Tipp lack, Hogan promises, it won't be heart. From Eoin Kelly, so influential after moving to centre forward yesterday, to Lar Corbett, who broke the game open with a goal before leaving injured, Hogan underlines the abiding team quality.

"Yeah, changes work sometimes and they don't. But Eoin Kelly is a team player, all he wants to do is play for Tipp and he would go in corner back if he was needed. Larry has put in a magnificent effort trying to get back and he trained with us even at half pace. He scored a goal and made a goal today, what more could we ask?

"Then Micheál Webster battles away and goes for the ball and takes punishment - and he took a lot of it today. But he had his head up, he kept going and he made so much room for other players. He is a latecomer to the team, 26 or 27, this is his first year. Every player has his own niche and he doesn't look for any plaudits, he just works away."

Clasping an RTÉ crystal vase for his outstanding performance, the delighted Loughmore man stood in the rain and talked about the game. He had met Brian Lohan earlier in the league and reckoned the experience stood to him. "I sort of stood alongside Brian in that game and that maybe suited him so I felt if I could move towards ball I would have a better chance. Brian Lohan is one of the greats and I knew it was going to be a tough battle."

In the Clare dressingroom, Anthony Daly agreed that the rangy Webster had a good afternoon. "He did well now, in fairness. I saw him in the league and was impressed with him. He's a hardy boy, now. But I suppose a few balls go your way and suddenly you're a great man. If Barry Nugent had stuck those couple of goals away, everyone would be talking about him. I dunno. We felt at half-time we had done most of the hurling in terms of scoring chances, but you have to take them like.

"I think we had three or four at least. And when you are six down in that kind of game, fellas kind of lose the plot a bit and try running through players and what not. Ah, I'm not making excuses though. Tipperary took their chances, we didn't. It is going to be hard to pick it up from here. Gerry O'Grady has a suspected broken leg there and Barry Nugent is injured, but we will just have to get together and see what we can do."