Whatever slight glimmer of hope or remote outside chance Antrim might somehow take out Clare in this under-21 showdown probably ended in Croke Park around 5pm last Sunday.

Had Clare beaten Cork, rather than drawn with them, the large contingent of Clare players involved here might well have found their focus on this game distracted by the celebrations that would inevitably have followed; likewise, had Clare lost to Cork, those same players might have been distracted by the commiserations that would followed.

Instead, as they seek back-to-back titles in this grade, and a third in five years, Clare’s focus will remain absolute – if anything strengthened by the notion that nothing whatsoever is won, or lost, yet.

Senior players
Indeed Clare manager Gerry O'Connor calls on nine of the 26-man panel that formed Davy Fitzgerald's senior match-day squad last Sunday, including that hugely-talented quartet of starters in David McInerney, Tony Kelly, Colm Galvin and Pádraic "Podge" Collins. For Antrim therefore it's a more daunting prospect than perhaps initially envisaged, as they contest their first All-Ireland final in the grade, and indeed as the first ever Ulster representatives.

Yet the talk from the Clare is inevitably and perhaps justifiably cautious, given Antrim did take out an equally fancied Wexford in the semi-final – the team who had beaten Kilkenny in the Leinster final. Clare captain Paul Flanagan, who wore the number 26 shirt last Sunday, although didn't feature was adamant that all talk of last Sunday's drawn game in Croke Park is on hold

“Obviously it’s been a very busy week, moving from one All-Ireland to the other, but it’s brilliant, and all you’d want to be playing at this time of the year,” he says. “But I think the mood is very positive. Last Sunday was a game that was very much in the balance, for both teams, and it was always going to be that way. Anyone who’d called it before the game wouldn’t have said there was going to be more than a few points between us and it turned out that way exactly.

"The experience, personally, was brilliant as well, different to anything I'd experienced before. Especially running out before it. It's a really big occasion and something you just have to get used to."

Development
The next day, however, is today, and Flanagan believes that success with this under-21 team is every bit as important as success with the Clare seniors two weeks from now: "This under-21 team has been extremely important in our development. You've so many players coming through from the under-21s to the seniors, and we want to keep it that way. It's been our only focus really this week."

For Jackson McGreevy, the Antrim captain, the sense of history of being in an All-Ireland under-21 final is tempered by the reality Clare will start as overwhelming favourites: that’s a challenge that can only be met in one way.

“We played well against Wexford,” he says, “and hopefully we can get a performance against Clare. It was definitely a surprise when we won (beat Wexford). We had been struggling for numbers in training that week but we got the lucky goal at the start and that’s what we needed, the bit of luck.

“We still have a few players on the panel that lost against Clare, last year. They didn’t want to go down against Wexford and get the same treatment we got every year. We stuck to our job but we were surprised we were even in the game at half-time. Our preparation wasn’t what you’d expect from a team that was playing an All-Ireland semi-final. But we stuck to our job.

“But we have to be realistic, Clare are hot favourites. In Antrim, we have less than 20 players, in total, who have prepared for this.”

Clare make one change from the team that beat Galway in their semi-final, with the injured Aaron Cunningham replaced by Cathal Malone.