Clare's Conor Leen times run of form perfectly to grab Liam MacCarthy shot

From bit-part player to the centre of attention, it has been a meteoric rise in a few short months for Conor Leen.

Clare bridged an 11-year gap with a thrilling one-point extra-time victory over Cork in yesterday’s All-Ireland hurling final.

The teams would be going again in a replay had Robbie O’Flynn’s late shot not sailed wide.

The Cork sub’s effort wasn’t helped by having his shirt pulled by Leen, who did just enough to put the attacker off.

"I definitely did [pull his shirt] and I’d do it again any day," an unrepentant Leen told RTÉ Sport on Monday morning.

"As a back, you play on the edge and you get away with it sometimes and sometimes you don’t and I did yesterday."

'Clare won the game... It'd be wrong to let it colour the whole game' - The panel assess the key moments in extra-time, with @DonalOgC arguing it would be wrong to dwell on the jersey tug on Robbie O'Flynn on the final play #thesundaygame #CLAvCOR #AllIrelandhurlingfinal pic.twitter.com/iN6iy5obut

Because of the timing of the incident, it garnered a lot of attention but it’s widely acknowledged that Clare deserved to get their hands on the trophy after a pulsating 80 minutes.

Leen’s story is almost as unlikely as his team’s, who having lost the last three Munster finals, crept up on the inside to beat Kilkenny in the semi-final before accounting for the Rebels, who had twice defeated the four-time champions Limerick.

The Corofin man impressed in the league but didn’t make the starting team when they opened their Munster campaign against Limerick despite being named at number 4.

Substitute appearances followed in the round-robin wins over Cork and Waterford before he got this first start in the victory over Tipperary.

From there, he didn't look back and played a