Clare's hurling trainer, Michael McNamara, recently attended a wedding in a different county. He was approached in the bar by a man who correctly identified him before continuing: "We've a fella in the club who models himself on you. He has us running up hills and across fields at six in the morning. It's killing us and you're the b****cks that's to blame."

McNamara's role in Clare's hurling renaissance has left plenty of players gasping and cursing, but, as the mastermind behind the county's legendary levels of fitness, McNamara is familiar with the minutiae of the team's physical progression. Ahead of Sunday's Munster semi-final against league champions Cork, he disagrees that the workload will shorten careers and lead to burnout.

"I don't agree with the theories that players can't keep going because of the physical demands. Material demands are more likely to cause a strain and end careers early. There's no reason why the body can't be kept in shape for 10 years between, say, 19 and 29.

"The young body and mind can go as long as it wants. Top athletes are at the top for around 10 years, and their training is a lot more sustained than ours. It's mostly mind over matter, getting the mind right.

"We took over the panel on the 2nd of September, 1994, and they've built up strong bodies. We're fairly experienced at this stage as a (management) unit. We know when to stop, when to start, when to increase the pace, when to stop for a few nights. When you get mind and body working properly, there's no problem except injury, and we've been fairly injury-free.

"That's not by accident," he continues. "Part of a long training session would include maybe an hour of flexibility exercises. Part of our jobs as management is to look out for any weakness and to stop fellas damaging themselves.

"It's generally not the first injury that does it, it's the second occurrence. So it's up to us to spot if there's a problem, because players often won't own up. It might be coming up to a league match and the whole thing's about togging out and playing for your county, so players can be reluctant to mention an injury for fear they'll miss out on a chance to play and that they mightn't get the chance again."

One perspective of the high levels of fitness and the harshness of the training regimes is that they represent a subjugation of the mind and are important more for what they indicate about a player's character and resolve than for the physical benefit they impart on the pitch. Accordingly, keeping players interested in the sessions is an important part of organising the routines.

"The famous `variety' is important," McNamara says, "and I try to vary it as much as I can. I could step out and do 200 different training sessions. I can also change direction from five-mile runs to something short and snappy, and never let them know what's happening next.

"I remember Anthony Daly saying that he was never sure whether to eat a bowl of soup or a full meal for his lunch because he wasn't sure what the evening's session was going to be like. We also have the ability to change in midstream if a session isn't going well. We'll just nod at each other and change things around."

After winning the All-Ireland in 1995, Clare were beaten a year later at the end of an epic match against Limerick. Players and management have learned from the mistakes of their first championship defence.

"The team wasn't fit in '96," says McNamara, "wasn't ready for the championship. Three weeks before, I was doing three-hour sessions to get them ready and that's crazy. I now know an unfit, fresh team is better than a fit, tired one. Recently all we've been doing is sharpness work, three or four-yard sprints, hurling skills. They're extremely fit this year, but the problem with our fellas is inconsistency.

Clare hurling boss, Ger Loughnane remains banned from the touchline for Sunday's Munster championship clash against Cork. At last night's meeting of Munster council, chairman Sean Kelly asked the Clare delegates to relay the news to Loughnane.

The chairman explained that following the suspensions imposed upon Tipperary's Len Gaynor and Loughnane for having made incursions on to the field in last year's All-Ireland final that unlike Gaynor Loughnane had failed to write to headquarters offering an explanation for his actions.

As a result the ban imposed upon him still stood.