Anthony Daly: Have Cork lost their Munster mojo? PS: GAA must stop pairing quarter finals

Then again, could you blame them? It was still only the middle of the day. A lot of those people had long trips home to make with young kids. There was still life left in the day by the time they did return to Cork.

Even Pat Ryan admitted afterwards that a lunchtime start effectively militates against a more competitive match. The football crowd will argue that the two games on show on Saturday didn’t live up to all the shouting the hurling crowd did about the timing of both fixtures. But there are ways around that.

Why not play one game at 4pm in Portlaoise and the second in Nowlan Park at 6.30pm? Ok, TV scheduling dictates what does happen but you’re guaranteed to have a buzz in those places. We all see how atmospheric the venues are in the round robin, especially in Munster. That was even obvious last weekend in the football when Hyde Park was rocking for the Dublin-Mayo game.

There’s a totally different vibe too when the first match is throwing in at 1.15. I picked Shane Dowling up in Limerick as we were both on ‘The Saturday Game’ live so we pulled into Dr Morris Park at 11.10am. The gates weren’t even open in Semple Stadium by that stage.

The TV box was right beside the town end terrace where the Cork supporters were gathered and, while they did bring big numbers, there was still plenty of space. I suppose a lot of those that did stay at home expected Cork to get the job done. They did but there wasn’t a whole pile of difference between what they produced on Saturday and what Cork had shown against Offaly above in Tullamore seven days earlier.

A lot of that credit is due to Dublin – like it was with Offaly – and it was a sweat for Cork down the home straight. It would have been extremely interesting if one of those late Dublin high balls were flicked to the net. Even at that, Patrick Collins had to make a great save from Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing, and Cork had to survive some mad goal-line defending.

Cork had completely sat back at that stage and Eoghan O’Donnell and Danny Sutcliffe had pushed up and gone for broke. It was a very encouraging end to the match, and where this project is under Micheál Donoghue, with the way Dublin stayed fighting to the final whistle.

For Pat Ryan though, this was a real concern. Pat has to be worried with how Cork have lost what they had in Munster. I know Rob Downey cried off beforehand but I thought their half-back line really struggled. Mark Coleman was peripheral, Ciarán Joyce looked off the pace and Tim O’Mahony only hurled a handful of balls. That certainly won’t do against Limerick.

When it came to picking the man-of-the-match, nobody from Cork stood out like Conor Burke did for Dublin. That was a testament to how well Conor did but it is also a reflection of Cork given how dominant they were for so much of the match.

Ahead of meeting the ‘Green Giant’ – who certainly won’t be jolly after Cork beat them in Munster – Cork will only have about three proper sessions to get themselves right. Can they? They’d certainly like to have generated more momentum that they did on Saturday.

Eoin Downey and Niall O’Leary were Cork’s two best defenders. Shane Barrett and Declan Dalton were their two most influential forwards and Patrick Horgan was dangerous but the fact that Alan Connolly has no score from play now in his last two games – against Offaly and Dublin – is a worry. That almost sums up the concerns Pat has to address now in the next two weeks.

At least Cork are there, just like Clare are back in another semi-final against Kilkenny. I was very frustrated at half-time with how Clare had surrendered the initiative when ahead by 0-12 to 0-5 after 24 minutes. If that was Limerick or Kilkenny, they’d have turned the screw and the match would have been over by half-time. Yet Wexford were level just a handful of minutes later.

It was all the more annoying again with the manner of how Clare conceded the goal and the black card to David McInerney. I don’t know what Adam Hogan was thinking. Tony Kelly’s points just before the break were crucial to arresting that slide and Wexford’s momentum but the biggest turning point in the match was the sending off of Rory O’Connor. Rory’s first yellow card was harsh but it probably was borderline a yellow. The second one was pure stupidity. Rory can have no complaints. He had to go. He was a massive loss because Rory was playing so well.

What will kill Wexford when they look back on this season is the realisation that they should have been in the Leinster final. They would have been if they hadn’t switched off in the dying minutes against Dublin, and against Antrim in Corrigan Park. If they had made the Leinster final, they could have actually won it. Even if they didn’t, it would have put a totally different slant on their season. Instead, their summer just petered out.

Clare were the better team, even outside of the sending off. Clare played reasonably well for 20 minutes of the second half. Shane O’Donnell was sensational again. Conor Cleary was outstanding on Lee Chin. TK's radar was back with 0-5 from play. Hogan was good outside of his mistake for the penalty. Conor Leen and Davy Mac were impressive. So was David Reidy, who showed he should have started in the Munster final. Aron Shanagher brought something new to the attack as well, especially in the first half.

It wasn’t all milk and honey either though. David Fitzgerald must have been one of the most frustrated players coming out of Thurles afterwards. He made a couple of brilliant runs through the centre and nobody picked him out. At one stage, Reidy hit a wide from over his shoulder when, if he’d lifted his head and popped the ball into Fitzgerald, it would have been a stonewall goal.

Still, Clare again showed the resolve which has been the hallmark of this side. After losing three Munster finals, Clare don’t want to have to face the apocalyptic prospect of losing three All-Ireland semi-finals in-a-row, but they can’t think that way. Their only focus now is addressing what did go wrong in the last two years – and what they need to work after the last two matches this year – and go about rectifying it.

Clare have nothing to fear. They beat Kilkenny in the league final. When the players who didn’t play were doing their running session in Dr Morris Park afterwards, Ryan Taylor was in the middle of it. Clare have more options now than they had before the Munster final. Darragh Lohan didn’t even come on. Shane Meehan did. Seadna Morey and Paddy Donnellan were left out of the 26.

As I pulled up outside his house in Caherdavin, I said to Dowling, ‘Last Four’. That’s it now. Three games left. Hard to believe. But what a weekend to look forward to in two week's time.

Can’t wait. Just cannot wait.