Waterford hurling boss Liam Cahill was left disappointed and disillusioned in Semple Stadium when his side missed their chance to proceed to a Munster hurling semi-final.
Brian Lohan's Clare team hit 21 shots wide of the mark but still came home with a four-point cushion to book a place with Tipperary in the semi-final.
Working with a depleted panel on players, Cahill opted for Conor Gleeson in place of the usual Conor Prunty and handed Callum Lyons the onerous task of man-marking Tony Kelly - a plan which did not work out as he would have hoped.
Clare's aimless shooting was not a worry by the time the full-time whistle blew as The Banner had control of the game from the off and despite Waterford's late surge, Lohan's team were well-deserved winners, with Cahill lamenting that it could have been far worse.
"We could have been beaten by a lot more to be honest, we arrived as flat as, well one of the flattest performances of my reign here - just bitterly disappointed."
"I can't really put my finger on it, to be honest."
"To be fair to Clare I'm not taking away from their performance, they brought what they had to; to win in Munster Championship hurling and all credit to them but we definitely didn't bring the energy that we're accustomed to, to be honest."
The Clare attack was spurred on by the imperious John Conlon who surged forward from the half-back line all day. He and Tony Kelly had a day to be remembered for Clare and created endless headaches for Waterford's defence. Waterford under Cahill have normally had one term tied to them - work rate - but in Thurles, that common trait was missing as they struggled to get up to the pace that Clare were setting.
"We found it very hard to win the breaking ball in the middle of the field. When we went to try and take it on and break the lines a little, we failed and passes to the man's hand didn't go to hand.
"There was a movement on our puck outs, but when you're looking in at a flat team it's very very hard to try and make the positional changes to correct these things because we tried desperately to get energy on the field."
With a ten-point advantage at one point in the game, Lohan's team looked to be out of sight and uncatchable, but a late Waterford surge made for nervy watching for those in the Burren.
Four unanswered points from Waterford along with their other scoring saw them narrow the deficit to 3 points, with a goal looking likely for the first time since throw-in. A late free-in for Stephen Bennett into the goalmouth raised blue and white hopes across the county, but the Clare defenders and the rarely bothered Eibhear Quilligan gathered and found space to survive. The laterally that came from the Suirsiders was more akin to what this team have shown over the past 12 months and Cahill was happy to see them not throw in the towel.
"I will give the lads credit, they stuck right in near the end you know, they kept hurling away and you know, maybe one or two little chances they're near the end brought it back to three points and going down to home straight, you wouldn't know what might happen."
"When you're clinging to them kind of things against a team with the quality of Clare and their backs up, you don't usually come out the right side of it."
Well noted before the game got underway was the absence of several key players - players with All-Stars and All-Star nominations. Prunty, Barron, De Burca et al were all absent from the team sheet and while not making excuses, Cahill noted that it's hard to deploy your regular game when the regular components are missing.
"It's hard to replace them, but we've tolled hard around the club scene in Waterford. I really felt we had a good strong panel and we still have a good strong panel assembled and I know we were without them guys through injuries, but I felt that guys stepping in to take on the mantle today we're well equipped to do it, but yeah, the long and short of it is experienced players like that are hard to replace"
Hopes of Munster glory are gone for another year, and while the team was already set to take the long route this year (beginning in the quarter-finals) they will now have to take the scenic route if they are to find themselves back in Croke Park in the late summer months. A lackluster performance against a team that offered so many opportunities means the manager will have to think long and hard about who starts the next crucial game and asked at full time if jerseys would be up for grabs, he was assured of his answer.
"They have to be. I have to throw everything at this now."
"I'm going to look at it really stringently and rigorously because ultimately, you know, we had too many lads failed today. Just too many players failed today for my liking."
"I have 37 on a squad and they're all putting in great work, and it's very hard. I had 11 guys training earlier this morning - that train really really hard and they must be looking in at that to say 'what have I to do to get into the squad' so I'd be rewarded any player that can put their hand up over the next fortnight or three weeks to a qualifier because at this stage I have nothing to lose and I'm going to throw everything at it between now and then."
