It seems when Seán Óg Ó hAilpín speaks, he is struggling to get the words out. That is because he measures every word so carefully. No pointless clichés here, just some plain decent hurling speak.

Surely, though, when you ask him if he thought at one stage that Cork were going to lose, he would be forgiven for telling a white lie.

"To be honest I did. As a young kid, you are told to keep going until the fat lady sings but to be honest even in general play I felt that maybe this was not our day.

"Clare were hungrier to the 50-50 balls. We didn't seem up for it. You know at half-time every player was asked to dig deep within themselves. Show pride in the jersey, which they showed in the end."

Cork are back to defend their title on September 11th, but their captain still feels they need to learn how to carry the mantle of champions.

"I think it is a title this team have to get used to. The last two years we have not been used to playing with the title of champions - it's been Kilkenny and it just gets harder and harder.

"Everyone expected us to win and Clare came in in an ideal situation and there is no better team to revel as the underdog. But deep down inside, when the challenge was really put to us, we came out of it.

"Whatever about being favourites coming up, we didn't live up to the tag today. We were like a boxer on the ropes for a lot of the game."

This game seemed over with 15 minutes to go. Cork simply couldn't find the impetus to dig deeper than the supremely brave Clare men who refused to blink.

Then Cork manager John Allen did a strange thing. He took off two legends of the game in full forward Brian Corcoran and centre back Ronan Curran. Something no manager outside of Tipperary, Kilkenny or Cork would even contemplate.

"John Allen made crucial switches," said Ó hAilpín. "What with Brian (Corcoran) going off, he picked up a similar knock like he got against Tipperary.

"Ronan Curran leaving seemed to re-jig us and after the substitutions we started to get our game going and we got momentum going. That is when we started to play well and we knocked them for a few points in a row."

It was agonising to watch Clare lose a grip on the contest and with it hopes of a massive shock disintegrated. But it was great entertainment.

"The Clare fellas gave it everything, my heart goes out to them really. They really did deserve the result today but we just got it out of the fire," added Ó hAilpín.

"We really had to get into our reserves today, which every fella did, and I don't know where it came from. Pride maybe, I don't know. Happy to get to the All-Ireland final again."

Before talking to a relieved Ó hAilpín, Brian Lohan took a quick minute to express his feelings about what might have been.

What about the future, we asked?

"Ah, yeah. Next year is next year. We are desperately disappointed with how the result went, not so much with how we performed.

"We'll mourn for a while I suppose and then raise our heads again."

The ever-charismatic Clare manager Anthony Daly had a shower, did the television stuff and then came face to face with his last set of dictaphones for this year anyway.

The two-year term is up, though, so we were wondering if he will come back to impart more knowledge down the line.

"Brian Lohan should have hung it up four years ago," he smiled. "My term is up now. Drink a couple of pints now, regather ourselves and watch the club championship. I dunno. It's for another day.

"We were looking for the finish line with 15 minutes to go but that's human nature. Nice to have Neily Ronan and Wayne Sherlock on the bench at the same time."

Finally, to John Allen and the replacing of two senior players (with Ronan and Sherlock) that changed the contest.

"Out backs were to the wall. We had to make hard calls and we would have been crucified if we didn't make the hard calls. We were five points down. They were in the ascendancy still. It was either do that or throw in the towel and say 'look we are defeated'."