I might be a bit tone-deaf given the general tenor of the discussion on here, but I don't feel as bad about this defeat as some other recent ones (2018, 2021, even the 2018 U21 final). And it's impossible to know either way, but I reckon this won't shake the players or management as much as those previous defeats. They will be extremely frustrated, for sure. They didn't perform to their ability except in patches, some crucial sideline calls didn't work out, and in general Clare were able to play the match on their own terms. On the run of play Clare should probably have won in normal time. But - and I freely admit I may be totally arseways on this - to play like that and have the grit to force extra time and take it right to the wire seems a better way to lose than blowing a six-point lead down the home stretch or being utterly outclassed and scarcely landing a blow.
It's worth trying to keep some perspective as well. The season as a whole was too up and down, but it was still a hell of a lot better than how things looked like panning out after the Waterford game, or Clare down the park. And the team has come on considerably from last season. From the outside, it looked like they struggled to close out tight games, being too prone to allowing the opposition to dominate for long stretches - they had lost four such games on the bounce, and again yesterday, but they have won two epics as well, including knocking out serious opposition for the first time since 2013. And sure, you don't get any trophies for that, but in terms of a team's development (especially a team who have not won any trophies) that could be huge.
Look at Clare - Lohan is in his fifth season (the first two of which saw little enough achieved on the field of play), they lost many big matches in that time (and sometimes his selections and decision-making during games didn't help), but they improved under him, built a settled side which was tweaked when required, and (with a bit of luck) things fell right for them. There's a lesson there perhaps - there's no sure-fire route to success but good players, good coaching and time to improve and learn from mistakes seem like pretty good building blocks. I think Cork have the first two anyway, and hopefully the right lessons will be learned. It's not where we want to be, but it's probably the best place we've been in for nearly twenty years.
