Clare forward John Conlon says the bitter defeat to Cork in the Munster final was key to the Banner comeback which secured a dramatic draw against Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final.
With the clock deep in the red in extra-time, Clare substitute Jason McCarthy struck for the 62nd and final score of an enthralling game at Croke Park to ensure another day out next weekend.
Semple Stadium will be the venue for Sunday’s replay, but the game in GAA headquarters will live long in the memory as Clare snatched a draw at both the end of normal time and extra-time to secure a draw.
The All-Ireland champions will be disappointed that they were unable to push on from the nine-point lead they built-up in the first quarter, but the Banner were full value for the share of the spoils.
John Conlon took the Tribesmen defence for four points as he continued his rich vein of form and he does not believe that the extra game will have an adverse impact on the team.
"We’ve been through that in the Munster Championship with a game every week," he told RTÉ Sport.
"The bodies are tired, but Galway are the exact same. We’ll recover and get back into training and drive on for next week.
"We go through every scenario that could happen. We went through it during the week and said there would be mistakes and they might get a lead and we would have to work our way back into it and get a few scores.
"That’s what we did. Leading up to half-time we really drove on. We got it down to a few points and things started to open up."
The Clonlara targetman says that the experience of the Munster Final defeat to Cork, where the Rebels turned around a five-point half-time deficit to secure a second successive provincial title, played a significant role in Clare’s fightback.
"Things against Cork didn’t go well in the second-half and we said after the match that we had our chances, but we needed to be more composed"
"Lads started to move and use the ball well. We were getting ball in them that we weren’t maybe in the first-half.
"Things against Cork didn’t go well in the second-half and we said after the match that we had our chances, but we needed to be more composed. That was the word going through the team.
"You could see that at the end when we got the score."
For now, the 29-year-old is thankful to get another bite at the cherry against the champions.
"It was exhilarating stuff. We went through every emotion there over 90 minutes. We’re delighted to have another day at it. Neither team deserved to lose."
