"When the bus gets back to ­Ballyea tonight it'll be officially Christmas there so we'll take it and we'll run with it."

Christmas has come early for manager Robbie ­Hogan and his Ballyea players.

"We all know how good Tony Kelly is. We see him with the county all the time. He's an incredible athlete and we just didn't have the legs to stay with him all the time."

Glen Rovers couldn't cope with the former 'Hurler of the Year' admitted captain Graham Callanan.

"One of the things we noticed was how much support we were getting all around Clare. When we came back against Thurles, the stands were shaking. We're not just representing Ballyea - we're also representing Clare. The support today and against Thurles was like a 16th player."

Ballyea captain Stan Lineen had the honour of lifting the silverware.

"Being honest, I thought a couple of our bigger guys didn't turn up today. Some days they deliver for us, some days they don't. We are not going to knock them. That is just the way it is."

Glen manager Richie Kelleher lamented their below-par performance.

"For a fella now that hasn't really trained since the county final (groin injury), he had a great game. He just goes out and hurls his normal game and forgets about the injury and got a few great scores. A Martin Comerford score is worth... it's a big score from our point of view and it just gets the crowd going as well."

O'Loughlin Gaels manager Aidan Fogarty heaped praise on the evergreen Martin Comerford.

"We chased the game and they went very unorthodox in their shape and we played on their terms. Something we don't like doing is pushing up the field too far but we ended up doing that. We got Brian Hogan moved out of the centre and I was saying to myself that we were doing the right thing but we just needed to take a goal chance and didn't do it."

Oulart-The Ballagh's Frank Flannery had no complaints.

"They're Kilkenny champions; they've form in the All-Ireland series before … they're going to be a serious challenge and we're not underestimating what's coming down the tracks. We've just got to get over today, recover as best we can, and look forward to that Leinster final in two weeks' time."

A final date with O'Loughlin Gaels is next up for Cuala manager Mattie Kenny.

"We are totally devastated but there's nothing we can do about it now, we'll just go a lick our wounds for the next couple of months."

St Mullin's manager PJ Delaney made no attempt to disguise his disappointment.

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