Ger Loughnane drew the reporters in a huddle around him in the Clare dressing-room. His players were already hurrying towards the bus, his fellow selectors gathering up the knick-knacks which the team had left behind. Loughnane was radiant, though, infused with the life great games of hurling give him.

"Don't always be looking at the end result lads," he said, "enjoy the road a little. That was one of the greatest spins you could have there today. Good road, breathtaking scenery, the lot!"

He was right. The second of yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland quarter finals has thieved the breath away. It was an epic to store with any the game has produced and if Loughnane's side could be deemed lucky to still be alive, they deserve their shot at a replay by dint of their extraordinary comeback.

At one point in the second half yesterday they were nine points behind and struggling. Nine minutes later they were level and thriving. The music stopped not too long afterwards with the sides level again and the replay takes place back in Croke Park in seven days' time.

This was a hurly-burly game which will take time to unravel. Clare began with Ollie Baker at midfield and he lasted the 70 minutes without apparent detriment to his ankle. They finished with Jamesie O'Connor arriving in as a substitute, transfusing his team with new life, and allowing the revival to be completed.

Jamesie's right forearm is a long train track of stitch scars just now, the legacy of surgery on the break he suffered against Tipperary six weeks ago. Early last week Ger Hartmann, the well-known physio, rang Ger Loughnane from London where he had examined O'Connor and told Loughnane that Jamesie could go 15 minutes maybe without damage if the need was dire enough.

Loughane stuck Jamesie's name on the list of six substitutes just in case.

"It held up for me," said O'Connor afterwards. "I was willing to go in. I hadn't too much confidence in it, I'd done a little bit of striking in the week, but my striking wasn't great today. It will be seven weeks next week and it should have come on better again."

By then the question marks will no longer be hanging over Jamesie O'Connor and Ollie Baker, but over the Clare team as a unit. They are a side who famously need a long runway before they can achieve full take-off. This year they have looked tired against both Tipperary and Cork and yesterday, for half the game, they looked a little jaded too. What they can do in the space of a week to secure a semi-final place for themselves will be intriguing.

For their part Galway will have lost the element of surprise, but will travel back to Croke Park knowing that they possess the equipment to stretch and rattle Clare. The quarter-finals which before yesterday were won by an average of nine points have already provided some of the best drama of the summer.

Dramatic was scarcely the term applicable to Offaly's win over Antrim in the curtain-raiser at Croke Park yesterday. Whispers from the north had it that the peaceful summer in those parts had been conducive to this Antrim team being the best prepared to come to Croke Park in years. They lost by 22 points.

A John Ryan goal early in the game was supplemented not long afterwards by another from Johnny Pilkington and by the time Billy Dooley added the fourth early in the second half the game was dead.

Expensive might be the term Offaly will apply to this quarterfinal as they prepare to face Cork in a few weeks' time. Bad injuries to Hubert Rigney (suspected broken leg) and Kevin Martin (rumoured to have lost the top of his finger) will represent a severe disruption to their defence for the semi-final.

All in all, two games which produced a lot to think about and ramifications which will ripple through the rest of the summer.

For those who wonder if teams prefer the back-door route to success yesterday's traumas would appear to have provided a definitive answer.