If anyone wonders what it really takes to win an All-Ireland title, I'd suggest an examination of this Clare hurling team - which embodies skill, physique and mental strength. It is as close as you're likely to get to the ideal.

So, how come Tipperary got to within a point of drawing level, and a John Leahy shot - which was saved - away from beating them? No team can be perfect and Clare's chink in the armour is probably their failure to completely put teams away. However, nobody could ever suggest they don't possess the killer instinct, otherwise they wouldn't have won their second All-Ireland senior championship in three years. Indeed, it was a tremendous day for Clare, winning both the minor and senior titles.

I hate the cliche, but it is particularly true in this case: yesterday's senior final was very much a game of two halves. In the first, Tipperary dominated while, in contrast, Clare did not seem fully focused on the job. In the second half, it was Clare's turn to dominate and, if that chink did enable Tipperary to threaten an upset in the latter stages, it is to Ger Loughnane side's credit that they still had the capacity to finish the task and win. In truth, the winning margin should have been at least three or four points.

Clare deserve their moment in the sun. Any side that beats Cork, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Tipperary again to win the Liam McCarthy Cup has proven itself. Yet, their first-half performance was completely out of character. In that period of the match, the Tipperary half-backs won an enormous amount of possession and, up front, Declan Ryan was winning a lot of ball and, importantly, laying it off superbly.

At that stage, what worried me, from a Clare point of view, was that they were playing the ball around in circles, making two, three or four passes when one direct pass would have been better. Also, a lot of their ball into the attack was sent in towards the corner flags. That was obviously an attempt to exploit the lack of pace in the Tipperary full-back line, but it didn't work the way they wanted it to.

The second half brought about a considerable transformation, a total contrast from the opening 35 minutes. The Tipperary half-backs lost the influence they had and it took Clare only 11 minutes to wipe out the half-time deficit of four points and then they went ahead: one point, two points, three points, four points, five points. Clare were hunting in packs, moving all over the place and had re-arranged their forward line, with the introduction of David Forde (who made a huge impact in the second half).

Yet, having said that, Clare were still putting some vital shots wide, shots they needed to clinch their victory. When you are so much on top but are shooting wide, upon wide, upon wide, there is always the danger that the other team can come back - and that is precisely what Tipperary did, when getting the two goals. Liam Cahill sneaked one goal and they were back in the game, then Eugene O'Neill got another and they were ahead.

After that, though, we saw just what Clare are made off. The manner in which they worked themselves into the ground was typical to them, and in those last few minutes we also saw their edge in fitness. And there were a series of incidents towards the end which demonstrated Clare's attitude. Ollie Baker's point after the goal, a great score, and then David Fitzgerald's save from Leahy which really defined Clare's resilience. A lot will be made of Leahy's miss, or, put another way, Fitzy's save. But Leahy only had a split moment to decide - shoot for goal or a point - and, even if it was mis-hit, it was still on target and demanded a truly good save from the goalkeeper.

Unfortunately for Tipperary, they were beaten by the narrowest of margins and people are going to remind them of what might have been. However, on the day, I think Clare were the better team.

There were some great individual performances, particularly from Clare players in the second half. However, overall, this was a squad win for Clare. Eighteen different players were used during the match - and every one of them was needed to fashion the end result. Still, it is a day the likes of Baker will always remember. Even in the first half, when Clare weren't playing particularly well, Baker was always in the thick of the action. And, in the second half, when his strength was so badly needed, he made tackle after tackle and was truly inspiring.

Fitzgerald also had a good game, although there was one stage in the second half when I wondered why he was searching for Baker virtually all the time with his puck-outs and, then, he changed and sent a long ball down the pitch and Clare got a point from it. You have to be flexible.

Jamesie O'Connor, I thought, was tied up in the first half but, then, Forde came on and O'Connor created a lot of space and also got some valuable scores. It was typical, really, of the way Clare played the game in the second half. But there were also some fine individual performances from Tipperary players. It is easy in hindsight to wonder about the decision not to send Mick Ryan out to mark Forde when he came on. It was a gamble, but the approach was probably taken that Mick is not the fastest player in the world and, if you leave Forde out there, he won't score goals. Again, in hindsight, Ryan probably should have played somewhere halfway between the full-back line and Forde. But Ryan also caught some fine ball and sent in a number of balls that resulted in scores, as well as gaining the ball some 30 metres from his own goal and sending in the ball that resulted in the 65 from which a goal came.

Leahy came and went during the game - but there were a number of times in the first half when he drifted in behind the Clare defence and his team-mates just did not see him. Tom Dunne had a really good game. No doubt, Tipperary will be very disappointed. They came so close, within a point. Yet, the better team (or, perhaps, squad because it really was a tremendous effort from all 18 players who were on the pitch) won - and any team which wins two All-Irelands in three years demands the respect of everyone in hurling.

(In an interview with Philip Reid).