BRIAN LOHAN CANNOT take much more of this, and yet still he does, answering questions about the kind of defeat that just squeezes the air out of everybody.

Naturally, people want to talk about one of the true heart-stopping moments and the one that sealed the game for Kilkenny. Eoin Murphy’s instinctive stop from a Peter Duggan effort that was hit early and high. The Glenmore man stopped it, and it’s not too early to chalk it down as one of the greatest saves in hurling history.

“Eoin Murphy always seems to produce those really, really good saves,” Lohan acknowledges.

“The standard of goalkeeping now, they’ve got so much pressure now with their puckout and their shot stopping as well. But some of these guys are just outstanding. A really good save from him. Unlucky from us, but it was kind of a half-chance for us. It was one of those that could have gone in, but we were a bit unlucky.  

“I feel for our team. They found it hard to get breaks there. So, yeah, it’s tough for our lads.”

At half-time, Lohan and his backroom took the scalpel to the Clare shape, taking off the extra defender in Séadna Morey, replacing him with Ian Galvin.

They took their time over the recalibration, being 0-15 to 0-10 down at the break. Kilkenny were back on the field and Clare left them there until a stadium recording of The Horslips had broken into the third verse of ‘Trouble With A Capital T’, before they fielded again.

Within twenty minutes, they scored 0-9 to Kilkenny’s 0-2 to move two clear. Then came Kilkenny’s goal in a moment of self-sabotage.

“Yeah, it’s a killer goal from our perspective. These things happen in hurling. It’s a tough game. A tough place to play out there and a tough to play against really good opponents.

“So, yeah. That’s the game.”

If Lohan was in the mood, he might have raised a few more objections to a refereeing decision or two from Colm Lyons.

One arrived on 45 minutes when they were surfing on sweet, sweet momentum. A Peter Duggan catch was only slightly spoiled by David Blanchfield’s hurl coming down on his left forearm. He sent the ball in and Mark Rodgers ushered it to the net. Lyons called the play back for the offence after having let previous offences play out with the advantage rule.

“Yeah, sure look, he had blown the whistle. But didn’t seem to get a huge amount from the referee today. Found it hard to get frees. Yeah …”

And when it was pointed out that the yellow card tally was 5-1 against Clare he just states plainly, “There’s a rule there that I can’t be critical of referees.”

But the tone overall is one of good grace, wishing Kilkenny well in the final. He makes a point of a small dedication to his players.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to be involved with them. They give everything, every day they go out. I don’t know if it’s redeeming now but they’re tough guys, they work really hard. Disappointed with how they played in that first half but then they turned it around. The game is 70 minutes. They did their best.

“They just do that. It’s kind of a given for them. They just work and work and work. Do what they can, while they’re there, while they have the jersey. They love playing for the county. They love getting in there working – they do so much work. And sometimes this game – you get what you deserve, you get rewarded for the work that you do.

“Sometimes you don’t. So I’m disappointed for them. But look, we’ll dust ourselves down and we’ll come back again.”