Hard man Mac happy to achieve his goals

MIKE MAC. He is a hard man and you wouldn't like to cross him. He ran those fellas up and down the hill night in night out without demur all through the 1990s.

They ran till they dropped rather then decline his orders. Still, there is a little bit of the ham in him. He leans back against the wall in the cool of the tunnel and surveys his interrogators and grins to himself. Munster hurling never seems to run short of good characters to come forth and serve as managers and quote machines.

Were ya worried a bit in the second half Mike? "I never worried as much in all my life," says Mike who told us the last day out he hadn't worried since he was sent to boarding school in 1963.

That's management!

"Limerick were coming at us with all guns blazing and they were picking off their points, as good teams do."

Clare lived through it, though, and Mike Mac gave them a rub down with some astringent context afterwards. "Limerick went down the old route last year and Limerick contested a Munster final and contested an All-Ireland final and then they hadn't a medal to show for it, so realistically we have two matches won and while it's marvellous to win them and be in the Munster final for the first time in almost 10 years, the reality of it is we'll have to play better than that to win a Munster final."

Good times back in the Banner.

Clare worked so hard for their breakthrough 13 years ago it still defies belief they threw it all away so casually. Yet, even in the lean times they have never quite faded from sight. Perhaps this is a corner turned. How did Mike Mac manage it where others failed?

"I suppose you organise your leadership. In that team there are leaders who hadn't come to the fore. You saw it today, some of them are there quite a while, some of them are only coming on stream. Mark Flaherty had, by his standards, a bad day at the office and yet he ran out to take the last free so you talk about leadership and fellas taking the gamble and fellas who want to win and these fellas could have went through their whole lifetime without winning a match the way things were.

"Just because we hit a purple patch doesn't mean we have to go away. We want that Clare jersey to be seen on big match days and marching on behind the band on sunny July days."

And ahem, the ticklish business of Limerick's charity. All four goals will be the subject of stern post mortems in Limerick.

"It was a very strange thing because we hadn't managed a goal in the league despite all the work we put into it. Even in training we were working really hard and trying to get goals and we were missing them so it's a strange thing that we have six in two matches.

"You know yourselves, goals win matches and we got the goals at vital times. If the goals came at those times at the other end the result would be totally different. We'd be back wherever we were again."

That place, wherever they were, haunts Clare. If Mike Mac found a romantic bone in his body he would have it removed without anaesthetic. He was realistic about this advance in Clare's circumstance.

"We feel we played well against Waterford, really, really well and it was always going to be difficult to reach those heights again, despite what people may have said about the Waterford team not trying or maybe not being tuned in. We know we played really well and now we know we didn't play as well as that today, and neither did Limerick, of course.

"We now know that there's a mixture in there of consistency somewhere which we have to go for and grasp and if we can grasp that level of consistency then I don't think we'll fear anyone."

Up the corridor, the face of Richie Bennis provided its own forlorn quote. Every question seems a little redundant when asked of a man so obviously hurt. Feelings? "I am very disappointed sure what other way could I be?

The wind? "It was a big factor. It becomes a game of two halves. I prefer rain than wind."

The goals? Bad? "They were very sloppy, especially the two in the second half. We were caught ball-watching, big time."

Penalty at the end you thought?

"Very much so. It would have made no difference because he was going to blow full-time. We also thought that one of their players got a yellow card and he just threw in the ball. If a fellow got a yellow card you would imagine there was something that would deserve a free."

Happy with the referee? "No I was not. I am going to get into trouble, but that won't bother me. I am not a bit happy with the ref. He ran off the field so he must have felt guilty about something."

Biggest disappointment, Richie? "The yellow card was the one aggrieved me most, big time. The one Clare picked up in the first half, where one of their players picked up a yellow card and he threw in the ball. One of our fellows got a yellow card in the second half and he gave them a free."

Richie's eyes keep staring into the middle distance.

We stare back at him.

Alas, poor Yorick.