‘A special day and a special win’ – Diarmuid Ryan

The relief; the jubilation on the field when it was all over; the calm and satisfaction afterwards as Clare left Croke Park secure in the knowledge that they’d be back in a few weeks time.
These were the winning moods and personas displayed among the players as they went on their way after the glass ceiling of this All-Ireland semi-final stage had finally been cracked.
A first All-Ireland semi-final win over Kilkenny since 1997 and only a second championship win over Kilkenny ever; a day of atonement for the most recent semi-final defeats against Kilkenny; an All-Ireland final day out to look forward to on July 21.
“It’s a special feeling for sure,” said Diarmuid Ryan. “A special day and a special win but we’re going to knuckle down for two weeks and the All-Ireland final.”
As he spoke the reset had already taken place – the hoopla had died down, with Ryan and the rest of the players being the embodiment of that cautionary tale about semi-finals being just for winning and nothing else.
“We were saying in there in the dressing room,” said Ryan, “and All-Ireland finals are there to be won. There is no point in being unless you win it. It’s about enjoying this moment and coming back down very quickly.”
Of course, that Clare got to enjoy these moments at all was down to the second-half resurrection when the power of the collective finally helped produce a winning performance at this stage.
“We knew we just had to come up and do a job against Kilkenny,” said Ryan. “They had two over us in the championship in the last two years but you don’t concentrate on last year or the year before.
“You go out knowing every game is going to be different and every game is a game on its own merits.  We just focused solely on this. You can’t be looking forward; you can’t be looking behind,” he added.
That said, they could have been forgiven for looking behind after the first half because by that stage they looked to be in trouble and on the road to a third successive semi-final defeat.
“We knew ourselves that we didn’t hurl at all in that first half, but in the second half everyone just upped their work rate all over the pitch,” said the Cratloe man.
“The forwards were just incredible, the lads coming off the bench were very good, especially Ryan Taylor coming back after the year he’s had. He was phenomenal and we just got our scores. We trusted the process and it fell into place. We trusted our players and thankfully it worked out for us.”