At eight o'clock in the morning this past January 1, the Clare hurlers gathered on the exposed shore of Spanish Point, just outside Milltown Malbay. After a savage workout that at some stage had them all on their knees, the players formed a huddle.

The session was meant to end there but then Diarmuid McMahon piped up, "We'll do one more [run] for Cork."

It was the prompt for more purging. Even then Clare had one team as well as one prize in mind. They don't just have a lot of wanna. They want Cork.

It was fitting that the urging came from McMahon; no other player personifies how this team has evolved and improved under Anthony Daly. Clare enter Thurles today not just believing they've prepared as well as they ever have in the postLoughnane era but that, with the possible exception of the sides of 1998 and 1999, the county has never had as exciting a forward line.

Johnny Callinan, one of the finest forwards the county has produced, maintains previous Clare forward lines were grossly under-estimated. "The forwards in '95 and '97 seemed to get a forensic examination over and above any other forward line. People forgot that every other county was struggling to find a set of forwards. I find that an extraordinary phrase, 'a set of forwards'. With the possible exception of Kilkenny for maybe a year or two, no team this past 10 years has found a 'set of forwards'. I can only think it was because our backs were exceptional that the forwards came in for such scrutiny. Even at that I'd slag Daly, 'God, the forwards had to bail ye out again.'" As respectful as Callinan would be of Clare forward lines of the past decade though, he confesses to particularly liking the look of the current one.

Coming out of Cusack Park two months ago after seeing those forwards run up 2-17 from play on Offaly, he couldn't resist texting his clubmate Daly with another one-liner:

"Be careful or people will call us attractive."

"God bless us, but there were even patterns being played by a Clare forward line that day, " says Callinan.

"There's this perception that because we have all these tall fellas that we're a robust team who just knock fellas out of the way but that day and throughout the league the forwards showed they have finesse as well."

Truth is, they had it for some time. The problem, Jamesie O'Connor reckons, was that they lacked something else.

"The one thing we had in our forward line from, say, '95 to '98, was balance.

Kilkenny have shown that you're not going to win an All Ireland with six out-and-out ball players. That's why they had John Hoyne there and that's why we placed such value in guys like Conor Clancy and PJ O'Connell who put in Trojan work to create space for the likes of myself to add the finishing touches.

There was a period there in the early part of this decade where we might actually have had too many hurlers and not enough dogs. The balance wasn't right. I think we might have that balance now.

"To win a championship game now you have to be hitting 20 points, minimum.

Whether that's 1-17 or 2-14, you have to be aiming for that kind of score. And as maligned as we were, in '97 we consistently hit that target. In last year's [All Ireland] quarter final against Wexford, we hit 1-20. It was the first time since '98 that we scored 20 points against one of the top eight or nine teams and the first time since '99 that we hit 21 scores. In this year's league we approached or hit that target regularly. On paper at least, we now appear to have the firepower."

One reason might be the team's size. All six players named to start upfront today are over six foot. "Before in Clare, our overhead hurling had been practically non-existent, " points out another of Clare's better forwards of yesteryear, Tommy Guilfoyle.

"Now we have half forwards who can win first phase ball."

Then there's been the individual development of those forwards. Two years ago McMahon was a ball-winning midfielder, too prone to poor decision-making and ball striking to be an inter-county forward. He's one now; in this year's league he averaged three points a game.

"Diarmuid has been an absolute revelation, " says Callinan. "I don't know if he ever heard the stick he got, but two or three years ago there were fellas down here laughing at him. He's a model of just what a fella can become if he applies himself and doesn't give in to this 'Sure we don't have the forwards' talk."

Tony Carmody's game likewise has gone to another level this past 12 months; in his last six competitive starts he's averaging four points a game, more than any other half forward in hurling.

Nugent is another good for two or three scores a game.

Suddenly Niall Gilligan doesn't merely have support; for the first time in his intercounty career he's been pressed to make the starting line-up.

That kind of pressure was probably what he needed.

After carrying the forward line in 2004, Gilligan seriously under-performed last summer, especially against Cork. Word from the Clare camp is that his form and mood has picked up significantly this past month.

So has Alan Markham's.

Last month behind closed doors he rattled three goals past Galway. Today he's expected to line out at full forward, with Tony Griffin moving to midfield, Brian O'Connell going to wing back, Gerry Quinn to the corner, Frank Lohan to the edge of the square and Brian Lohan to the bench.

Markham is considered to have the hardest shot in Clare. The county has never put a goal past Donal Og Cusack in championship hurling. Today that must change.

In their five games last summer, Cork scored the same number of goals as their opponents. Their success lay in out-pointing those opponents. To beat Cork, you must score goals. Clare feel Markham can deliver at least one.

He nearly must. Because today Clare themselves must deliver. Callinan is adamant about that. It's seven years since the county contested a Munster final. The county needs the flags and bunting out in Ennis in June and July again rather than making a late appearance towards the end of August. The players need it.

"I bumped into PJ O'Connell during the week and he was saying that when they'd beats a Cork in May or June, it would give them this huge lift and they'd all of a sudden say, 'You know, Loughnane with his bullshit might just be right.' We've had some decent runs since then but it's always been a recovery mission. In 2004 after the draw against Kilkenny it was 'We showed there we're not as bad as we looked against Waterford.' Last year it was that we didn't look as bad as we did against Tipp. Sunday has to be about more than making up for last year's semi-final."

O'Connor suspects it is.

During the week he met Tony Griffin, someone who has put his famed studies in Nova Scotia on hold for the year. He also bumped into Tony Carmody. Their physical and mental condition struck O'Connor.

"Even though they're still only in their mid-20s those guys appreciate this is a crossroads in their career.

Like Anthony probably won't be back next year and neither will [Brian] Lohan or [Colin] Lynch. Even Gilly has been there since '97; that's a long time. Realistically Clare will be going into another transitional period after this year. If it [an All Ireland] is going to happen it has to be this year."

They have a lot of wanna.

And maybe with it, the forwards too.