How many lows must a team face down, before you can call them the champs?
The answer may have been blowing in the wind in Semple Stadium on Saturday night, as Clare salved two eight-year-old wounds at once: the wait for a trophy and the failure to beat Kilkenny in a knockout game.
The Banner supporters were more numerous and more vocal in Thurles, adding weight to the theory that an Allianz Hurling League title would be a bigger deal for Clare than a Kilkenny side who only occasionally permit the Bob O'Keeffe to leave the county, like an art museum graciously loaning out its old masters.
"It’s massive for us," admitted manager Brian Lohan, who has made Clare contenders but also seen them lose successive All-Ireland semi-finals to the Cats and Munster finals to Limerick. "It was crucial for us to get the win.
"You learn from disappointments. You’d have to say about our group that they’re a resilient bunch. They do stay working hard and sometimes you get the rewards for your work and sometimes you don’t. But tonight, if a league [only the county's fifth] is a reward, they got the reward.
"We’ve had to deal with a lot of disappointment from Kilkenny so we were very focused.
"You can’t beat winning. It’s an old saying but it’s a true saying. It’s great for the group, it’s great for hurling within the county."
Clare had been trailing approaching half-time but raised three green flags in 18 minutes, through Aidan McCarthy (2) and David Fitzgerald, to build a lead that Kilkenny could never quite claw back.
"I suppose the display wasn't all that brilliant, but good to get the result," said Lohan.
"Any time you're able to get green flags against Kilkenny is pretty good. There was good running, good movement, we finished the goals fairly well.
"Any of those scores are crucial scores. Our lads in the full-forward line were able to get in good positions, but there were dropped balls and balls fell out of our hands. I thought we were threatening enough."
Clare supporters flooded the pitch afterwards but captain Conor Cleary kept his speech brief and they were soon trickling away into the night.
There are bigger battles to come, not least the opening-round clash against the history-chasers Limerick in Ennis on 21 April.
Clare handed them a first championship defeat in almost four years last April but the Treaty reversed the one-point margin in the provincial decider.
"It’s about recovery now and seeing if we can get ourselves right for the next day," said Lohan, who added that the recovering Tony Kelly (ankle) had not been close to selection.
"He’s still working hard as he always does. We’d be hoping that he’ll get better and we’ll see how we go.
"The Munster Championship is so even, it’s such a tough competition, home, away, home, away, and real quality of opposition wherever you’re playing. It’s something to look forward to."
Kilkenny boss Derek Lyng was frustrated that his side had not made of their first-half superiority, hitting nine wides, but pleased they displayed their customary fight to the finish – if Eoin Cody’s 69th-minute penalty had hit the net there would have been just a point between the sides going into injury-time.
"I thought we showed a lot of character in the second half," he said.
"A lot of things didn’t go our way but we kept going. We left chances behind us as well. A lot of positives to take out from that, we didn’t give up the fight. A little bit of luck at the end, we could have forced extra-time.
"We should have [had more on the board at half-time] and that frustration can seep in. You need to be taking those chances especially in big games like this. The last day we were clinical, today we weren’t.
"We knew the [goal] threat that was there but they’re a very good team and broke onto balls there. I have to look back on it, it’s hard sometimes from the side-line but disappointed."
Kilkenny lost veteran forward TJ Reid to a hamstring injury in training on Thursday and his replacement Billy Drennan struggled a little but Lyng said the absence of the seven-time All-Star was "no excuse".
"Everyone is missing players and we have a number of players that are coming back. But I was very confident in the team and the panel we had. We’re always going to pick up one or two injuries.
"I thought we saw a good few players throughout the league, we got to the final and found out an awful lot about players. We have players to come back and we were within a puck of the ball at the end. So there are plenty of positives to take from it.
"There are lads who maybe didn’t have the best of days today but they’ll have better days for Kilkenny."
Antrim could feel the brunt of Kilkenny’s frustration in the first round of Leinster in a fortnight’s time.
"We fell short today and I think we would be frustrated with the chances we left behind and maybe how we conceded.
"We just have to take learning from it and make sure we bring it into the championship."
