A TIP of a hurl and the width of a crossbar combined to set-up a second consecutive Kilkenny/Limerick All-Ireland final.
Forget the game of inches. This All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park yesterday was a game of millimetres.
Not for the first time, the headlines belong to Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy and those jaw dropping reflexes.
Bang on 72 minutes, with Kilkenny a goal clear, the Glenmore man, completely unsighted, turned the hurl in his hand to flick a marvellous Peter Duggan freestyle effort onto the crossbar.
The ebb and flow of the game left a feeling though, that even if Kilkenny had leaked a goal, Derek Lyng’s side would have mustered a response with one minute left on the clock.
But had they lost the next puckout, with one play left, who knows?
When Clare overhauled a five point deficit at the break to go 0-19 to 0-17 clear on 54 minutes, lesser teams might have crumbled.
But all Brian Lohan’s side had done was lay the foundations for a first All-Ireland final appearance since 2013 - and they knew it.
They still had to bring it home.
Then the real war began with sergeant major TJ Reid leading the charge.
Kilkenny went on to wipe out Clare’s lead inside two minutes with Paddy Deegan’s point followed by an Eoin Cody goal after Reid’s pass.
Eibhear Quilligan went short to Rory Hayes, who was turned over by Billy Ryan.
It wreaked of goal straight away and when that happens, Kilkenny rarely disappoint.
Then Reid whipped over a sideline, which Rory Hayes probably shouldn’t have flicked out of play with the Ballyhale Shamrocks maestro around.
Reid wasn’t done yet, swiping a Deegan sideline to coolly place Cian Kenny for a point.
Kilkenny were suddenly three up again on 62 minutes.
In six minutes Reid had a hand in 1-3. Talk about your big players stepping out of the trenches and going over the top.
Clare had one or two big players of their own with Duggan and David McInerney really taking the fight to Kilkenny.
On 46 minutes referee Colm Lyons felt that a Clare advantage was over and blew the play back for a free just as Huw Lawlor spilled a routine ball, which Mark Rogers snaffled up to fire to the net.
Unfortunate for Clare, but an understandable call by Lyons.
It was the Banner’s best player on the day, Shane O’Donnell who blew the game wide open, almost a decade on from the All-Ireland final hat-trick (2013) that turned him into the GAA’s reluctant poster boy.
Tony Kelly and David Reidy were involved as Diarmuid Ryan broke up the middle and fed All Star O’Donnell.
He took off, leaned into Tommy Walsh, who came across Cillian Buckley, inadvertently taking him out of the play for the Eire Og man to smash to the roof of the net.
Earlier O’Donnell had half-hit a half goal chance down Murphy’s throat, but second time round not even the country’s premier shot stopper could keep his shot out.
So what did Kilkenny go and do?
Hit three points in a row with Walter Walsh cleverly leaning into McInerney to draw a free, Richie Hogan shipping a dangerous looking head high hit from Ryan and Cody slipping Adam Hogan to point.
Then Duggan, who bludgeoned his way through the second half in his best performance of the season, had a half goal chance blocked.
(Brian Lohan roared his approval at one stage when Duggan thumped Billy Ryan to the deck in front of him, with the Clare man yellow carded).
Mikey Butler powered forward in stoppage time to feed Cody for a point, before Murphy’s phantom hurl denied Duggan, and Diarmuid Ryan popped over the follow up.
With chaos reining around the Kilkenny goalmouth and just seconds left, Ryan probably should have drilled for goal with three points in it.
Padraig Walsh put Kilkenny three clear again and Clare had one last chance, but Rodgers didn’t beat the first man as he attempted to lob a ball inside.
And there was time for no more.
The second half excitement levels were a million miles off a tepid first half.
Clare drafted Seadna Morey in for Ian Galvin from the start, playing as a seventh defender.
But Kilkenny had full control by the break, 0-15 to 0-10 ahead.
Richie Reid was sweeping with style at one end.
But Morey was struggling to get across to cut out ball after ball that came up either sideline from short puck outs.
Kilkenny were well schooled on how to negate the sweeper and unlike Clare they always held two, and often three, up front.
Clare did have eight different first half scorers, but could’t handle Cody.
He hit three first half points from play and won frees for two more with Rory Hayes the man given the onerous task of picking up one of the country’s top handful of forwards.
Clare might have switched markers as early as six minutes in with Cody winning two frees and pointing from play to basically account for Kilkenny’s first three scores.
He finished with 1-5 from play.
Clare switched Adam Hogan onto Cody at half-time, and the man just out of under-20s did extremely well until Cody cut loose late on with 1-2.
Later on Cody won a free for another.
He took off up the endline under the Canal End and Hogan took a swipe at him with Quilligan producing a second top drawer save on an afternoon when we were treated to a goalkeeping masterclass.
The Feakle stopper had already pulled off a sensational stop from TJ Reid on 16 minutes using his feet to deflect a low blasted effort up and away.
That would have given Kilkenny a 1-8 to 0-5 lead and it might have been game over with the ghosts of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final rinsing by the Cats coming back to haunt Clare.
Reid, of course, fired over the resultant 65 to punish them in some way.
Clare fouled too much - some of them rash tackles when they had their man bottled up - with Kilkenny as direct as ever in their hard running at the opposition.
Reid hit 12 points, including a sideline, from 15 shots at the posts.
He missed one free, was blocked once - how often do you see that - and dropped one short - another rarity.
With Kilkenny in control, the Banner shook it up at half-time and went man to man with a defender, Morey, taken off at the break and a forward, Ian Galvin coming on.
Clare duly won the throw-in and Kilkenny’s first two puck outs to score three times and cut the deficit to three points.
They would go on to score nine of the first 11 points of the second half to turn the game upside down.
Tony Kelly dropped deeper and was utilised more as a playmaker, pulling Butler out of his comfort zone as Clare really upped the ante.
But Kilkenny are rarely beaten when it comes to graft.
Conor Fogarty’s last gasp tackle on Mark Rogers on 23 minutes after Clare weaved an intricate pattern of hand passes up the middle, was pure Kilkenny, denying a goal.
It was telling how hard Clare had to work to carve out the opening with Fitzgerald and Duggan involved.
Adrian Mullen’s 12 minute block on Cathal Malone and resultant point was typical of their incessant work rate.
Kilkenny’s bench impact was sensational.
Cian Kenny was on the pitch a matter of seconds when he showed for a puck out and found Deegan for a 55th minute point.
His fist pump was pure Kilkenny, right up for it.
Kenny scored himself in the 62nd minute, while Walter Walsh and Richie Hogan both won vital frees and Padraig Walsh struck a point late on.
Leinster final hero, Cillian Buckley, without scoring, was nearly the best of the subs.
Overall, Kilkenny has just five wides to Clare’s nine.
The shooting. The bench. The hunting in packs.
Ruthless and relentless in every possible way.
Now they have Limerick fixed firmly in their sights.
