I remember going into an exam and just as the paper was being handed out I thought to myself, I'm goosed here today.
I knew it before I even opened it up. I did not have the work done, I barely had the book for it to be honest.
When you are that lost in an exam hall you try to lock onto someone who feels equally as lost in the forest of this exam as you do in an attempt to make yourself feel somewhat better.
I found that soldier and every now and again we gave each other the eyes up to heaven glance as if to say what are we doing here?
The mandatory time to stay had elapsed. I scribble down an apology to the corrector of what I had put them through in trying to make sense of this and a promise to try harder in the repeat, I actually did this would you believe.
I came out and went straight to my brother in arms who looked as lost as I did for the post mortem or lack thereof. I said 'oh Jesus, that was brutal' and ever the optimist, he said, 'I actually don’t think I did too badly'.
I could only burst myself laughing and this was proven right when the results came out.
What has this got to do with anything that will take place at 3.30pm in Croke Park?
It’s often said that you can’t get cleaned out in the parade but what it does offer you is that final moment to look around, take it all in and know that when that ball is thrown in, like the paper being handed out, that you are ready to answer whatever question is about to be asked in the next 75 minutes.
That is a beautiful feeling to have and when you know that every lad in that line and over underneath the Hogan Stand is feeling the same way that really is a powerful thing to have.
Each team will try something different to get that extra 1% pre game. It might be a video clip with some motivational music, a message from someone special.
I can recall one of the most powerful things for me was as we left the hotel to head to Croker.
There was an envelope left on your seat in the bus and inside was a line or word of what everyone on the panel and backroom team thought of you as a person and a player and just how much you meant to the group.
I read it and shed a tear. A big 1% for sure and while it may not have had the same effect on the entire group it really hit home to many and I still have that envelope at home.
You wonder what Clare or Cork might do to get the juices flowing. Maybe they don’t need to do a thing, horses for courses as they say.
Onto to the throw-in and the most important man in Croke Park for that split second will be the referee - human like the rest of us and the players, he too will have the butterflies in the belly and may have struggled to wolf down the porridge or the pre-game pasta.
The throw-in will be manic but it does help with keeping the half lines on both sides back behind the 45 because before there could have easily been 16 lads going in for the throw in instead of the four midfielders.
I have witnessed it myself as a player and now as an analyst some players swapping the hurley after the throw in for the good stick, afraid it may go with those first few wild pulls.
The hurleys I saw looked like they had just been used that morning for hunting cattle, only one thing on the mind there and as John Kenny of D’Unbeliveables would say, "pull hard, hard into your man, they’re no relation".
This will be helter skelter for the first few plays, lads trying to settle themselves with that first touch. Lads anxiously just throwing it up and getting blocked down or hooked.
I would say the highest number of hooks and blocks could well be within that first five-minute period where all the players are trying to find their way in one of the biggest games of their lives, trying to do the right thing whilst blowing heavy and waiting for that second wind to kick in at any moment. Such is the ferocity of an All-Ireland final in front of a packed house.
Come minute 12 the game should have settled down, most lads will have had a touch by now and the game will have found its flow.
So how might Cork go about this and how might Clare use this "underdogs, the world is against us" tag to drive them on to a whole game team performance which we just have not seen from them yet this year in the championship?
There will be battles all over and to match them up man-on-man this really is going to be a tough game to call.
So I have whittled it down to three potential match ups that I feel could decide where Liam MacCarthy resides for the next year.
Conor Cleary v Brian Hayes
Brian Hayes is in flying form and when Cork look to go route one and long it is Hayes that is the focal point and this worked brilliantly in the semi final where he won the ball or it broke to the onrushing Shane Barrett.
He dominated Sean Finn in many of these battles and I feel Clare just have to go after this guy and who better than their full-back man mountain Conor Cleary to do so.
He loves a good battle, he has the physicality but the guy can really hurl too and he will be a serious test for Hayes.
But with the way Cork play with the three inside and everyone else flooding back and attacking at pace it may not have to be the long high ball in but rather looking for a patch of grass in the 50 yards of space should Clare’s half-backs follow back on Harnedy or Deccy Dalton.
Cathal Malone v Darragh Fitzgibbon
Fitzgibbon is in the form of his life, claiming 22 points from play in the Championship, a phenomenal return from a midfielder in any era.
I actually though Ryan Taylor would have got the nod to detail Fitzgibbon from the start such was his influence on the semi-final when he came on but it looks like Lohan is holding him in reserve for that impact off the bench if and when needed.
Cathal Malone has been a warrior for this Clare team and if he can go as hard as he can for as long as he can and curb the influence of the Chareville man well then he will have more than done his job for the team and let Taylor in then to finish the job.
But many have tried this year and failed to stop Fitzgibbon because Cork have flipped the extra defender we’re used to seeing into deploying Fitzgibbon as an extra attacker with the way he attacks spaces and ghosts in around the oppositions 45 yard line on a frequent basis. Trying to keep tabs on him for all these runs is draining as we seen in the semi-final.
Cork played to their strength which was not to take into that minefield of contact and physicality but rather to use the space, find it and run at teams. Fitzgibbon is key to all this.
A quick one on this running and scoring machine. My club played Charleville in a challenge some years back. I had just finished the inter-county side of things and this young guy called Darragh was starting to make a name for himself.
Well, after he had about the ninth point scored off me I drew or tried to draw a stroke across him but he was actually so quick I swung and missed him and watched him nail the tenth point. It was at that stage I knew the inter county game was gone too quick for me!
Sean O'Donoghue v Shane O’Donnell
Like Fitzgibbon, O’Donnell is in the form of his life and really is unmarkable for a whole game anyway.
He is producing moments of brilliance in every match and the return rate from his possessions is top level, whether it’s scores, assists, winning frees or just holding up the ball or winning a sideline.
In the first half against Cork in the round robin this year O’Donnell had 11 possessions, he scored two points, had three assists, won two frees and a sideline.
He’s just in the zone and Cork will most likely look to Sean O’Donoghue to try and curb his influence on the game.
It’s difficult as O’Donnell will drift between the inside and half forward line and has a license to do so, so you must follow and what that will do then will leave some space in front of Rodgers and McCarthy with Rob Downey wondering will I follow Tony Kelly or sit here and protect these boys?
There will be great battles all over and the limelight could be easily taken by the player we speak about least in the build up but the winners of these battles will have a major influence on the overall result.
The first is the whistle.
The referee has a big job on the biggest occasion and Johnny Murphy will make mistakes like the players will but his mistakes will be scrutinized in far more detail than the many mistakes that will be made by the 30 players surrounding him.
I hope he will ref the tie as a standalone game and not have to worry about the assessors or the feedback from HQ when they convene again after the final to discuss his and the other officials' performance.
I'd like to see him let it flow if he feels it’s right to do so but also to get the big calls right whether that takes a second or a minute to confer to be sure about it because what’s on the line is just so massive that we all hope it is not decided on a call from the man in the middle.
The speed of the puckouts or how fast they are allowed to be taken will have a big influence on both keepers as they like to be snappy with the restarts trying to find that pocket of space.
Thomas Walsh was equally as fast with the whistle for a score as a wide in the semi-final between Limerick and Cork and this suited Patrick Collins to hit that space where Barrett or Fitzgibbon had already occupied before the opposition had time to think about the previous play.
No surprises if a few are called back early doors just for Johnny Murphy to lay down a marker to say you puck on my second whistle not when it suits you.
The other big factor will be the full house effect.
Playing in Croke Park for your club or school or county is a magical experience but this place plays differently when it is full.
The roar of the crowd when you come out onto that pitch is just spine tingling.
Nothing prepares you for it, no amount of noise being pumped into your training ground in the sessions leading up to it can replicate that wall of sound that hits you when you run out onto the field for a final, no three quarters or half full semi-final comes close to when the place is full and that noise just revolves around the colosseum.
For many of the Clare lads it will be their first time to experience that wall of noise whereas Cork have a big advantage in having that for their semi final, which was a full house and an All-Ireland final in terms of the crowd and atmosphere.
Forget about trying to communicate on the pitch, this will all have to be acted on instinct and knowing what your job is inside out as it will be too late if someone has to run over right beside you and roar at you to do it.
This all began a mere 13 weeks ago with 12 teams involved, 14 if you include the Joe McDonagh finalists. Both teams have got to the final after coming through the back door as it used to be known.
Cork have been in and out of this Championship more than any team in the history of an All-Ireland finalist, Waterford four points up against Tipperary into injury time, they win and Cork are gone, a controversial 65 call, but the right call none the less.
For Clare v Waterford, if it’s not given or missed Cork are gone, the pressure to get that result against Limerick that Saturday night in the Pairc, to be down by two with the last play and the sea of red behind the goal in front of Hoggie as he roofed it like he was out the back garden with the last shot before going in for the supper.
Cork have had luck on their side and I think when you combine that with the way they are playing now I feel Liam MacCarthy will be going back Leeside and how they will have missed him after 19 years. Enjoy it all no matter where you watch or listen in from around the world.
Hurling’s biggest day. The greatest sport in the world on its biggest stage. I can’t wait to walk out on level seven of the Hogan Stand and be able to talk about it all to people.
I can only compare it to a child being able to tell his friends that he got to stay up late to chat to Santa as he left the presents under the tree, had a quick glass of milk and give him a high five before he got on his way.
Just magical.
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final, Cork v Clare, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
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