All-Ireland final 'definitely within Clare's reach' - Eddie Brennan

Clare got within sight of the summit on Sunday.

But in the end, Limerick's iron will got them one step further up the hill to win an incredible Munster hurling final.

In the aftermath, Banner boss Brian Lohan said that it would be "hard to recover from that, mentally and physically" ahead of an All-Ireland quarter-final meeting with Wexford or Kerry in a fortnight.

But Eddie Brennan, a four-time All-Star Kilkenny forward and former Laois manager, believes that Clare have firmly established themselves as the team best placed to stop the three-in-a-row - providing they can put the pain of that extra-time defeat to one side quickly.

"I think for Clare now, it's how quickly they can flush the dirty diesel out of the heads really," he told RTÉ Sport at the launch of Guinness 0.0's new GAA campaign.

"From a physical perspective, they'll recover and they'll get into the Atlantic and they'll get the body right. It's how quickly they get into a meeting room now. Because, the dangerous one for Clare is the next one. It's about how quickly they can get the heads tuned in because they have struggled with Wexford historically.

"They've obviously built themselves up so much for this Munster final that it will take a couple of days to get it out of the system, to re-calibrate.

"They won't know until this weekend who they're facing, so this is where the leaders of the group - and Brian Lohan - they'll be letting the rest of the team know that an All-Ireland final is definitely within their reach and that they should be afraid of no one after Sunday."

Brennan's native county won their third Leinster title in a row last Saturday but, much as it pains him to admit it, that final victory over Galway did not appear to be the same calibre of contest