It didn’t stop them.
As Cork and Clare prepared to sing Amhran na bhFiann before the Munster hurling final before a sneaky individual donning Clare gear ran behind the goal of Anthony Nash and stole his bag of sliothars.
Footage emerged from a supporter in the stand of the incident and it is there for all to see.
There are still questions raised asking if it was orchestrated by the Clare camp and one man that people may have thought could be behind the plan was Clare hurling coach Donal Òg Cusack but his name was cleared by former Cork and current club teammate Diarmuid O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan was on the latest episode of SportsJOE Live along with Lar Corbett to discuss the upcoming All-Ireland final but was pressed about the incident from the Munster Final.
“You’d be safe enough to assume that (Donal Og Cusack) had nothing to do with it,” O’Sullivan told show host Colm Parkinson.
“A couple of lads did (ask him) alright and in fairness, he was honest and said ‘No, absolutely nothing to do with me’”
O’Sullivan described the importance of the sliothars being stolen and how it could have been to get inside the head of Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash.
“The biggest problem there was dealing with (Anthony) Nash because he’s so focused, everything is perfection with him, his hurleys his sliothars,” the four-time All Star said.
“If you get a new bag of sliothars and you puck them around for a couple of hours they’ll wear down, they’ll wear perfect.”
At the end of it all though O’Sullivan recounted the tale. He was on the sideline that day and ultimately saw the funny side of it.
“I thought it was great craic because I saw this lad walking down the line and I didn’t see him doing it but I saw this fella in his Clare kit and his baseball hat and he was coming down the sideline and he was very sheepish and I said to myself ‘This fella’s after pulling something, there’s something after going on’ because he was very sheepy and he had a good look as if to see if we were going to react.
“Then at half time Nash was jumping up and down inside and I pictured your man straight away walking back very quietly, I actually thought it was brilliant.
“You do what you must,” O’Sullivan concluded.
It didn’t stop Cork coming out as victors by five points in a scoreline of 1-25 to 1-20.
Clare eventually apologised to Cork over the incident and that’s that.
You can watch the full SportsJOE Live episode below
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