The 28-year-old Bugler is the second oldest member of Davy Fitzgerald's largely youthful panel - captain Patrick Donnellan was born a month before him - and he has had to endure some disappointing days before becoming an All-Ireland champion.

Indeed, Clare's defeat of Waterford in June represented their first Munster Championship win since 2008, which was Bugler's second season at senior inter-county level.

But Davy Fitzgerald's faith in him saw him rewarded with an All-Star last year (Clare's first since Tony Griffin was honoured in 2006), and the wing back paid tribute to the Clare boss following yesterday's thrilling 5-16 to 3-16 victory.

"David Fitzgerald is an incredible man. It's hard to describe him, he's an absolutely fantastic guy," Bugler told Newstalk.

"What he has done for myself personally as a hurler...two years ago I didn't think I'd be back on the Clare panel but he gave me my chance. He's given a lot of lads their chance, Colin Ryan and others like that.

"Everyone knows him as Davy Fitzgerald the hurler. But behind the scenes he'd do anything for us. If you were having a little bit of a problem, he'd ring you and ask you what's the story. He's just an extraordinary man, a great, great man."

The Whitegate clubman could scarcely take it all in as he reflected on the jubilant scenes at Croke Park, as Clare celebrated their fourth All-Ireland senior success - adding to previous wins in 1914, 1995 and 1997.

Giving a sense of what it means to the players and the county, he commented: "It's absolutely incredible. To us, to every Clare man out there, hurling is more than just a game...it's a way of life, it's who you are.

"I suppose sometimes in life you can be very, very selfish in the choices you make because of the game, because of hurling. But you do it because you love it so much, because you wish and you dream of days like today. My dream's after coming true, I can't describe it."

Clare skipper Patrick Donnellan echoed those sentiments, saying it was 'a dream come true' and that the celebrations feel unreal - 'so much so that you can feel yourself doing it but you kinda feel disjointed from it'.

The Banner men had to dig deep to see of the Rebels' challenge in the second half, needing a goal apiece from Conor McGrath and substitute Darach Honan to seal the deal.

Donnellan, who has been deployed as a sweeper at crucial stages in Clare's 2013 Championship journey, admitted: "The way Cork were playing, they were just bombing high balls. It was a different game to the last one where they were playing it a bit short.

"The sweeper was going to work better maybe in the last five or ten minutes when it was getting a bit hectic. It was just about closing out the game at that point, we were about six or seven points up at that stage."