farmer, father, dual All Ireland beaten finalist and now county-winning captain . . . got home at 4.30 the morning after the night before. He was up two hours later to calve a cow, he permitted himself the luxury of another three quarters of an hour in bed afterwards and he was up again to meet the day properly at 7.15am. It's the cattle who pay the bills, after all. Even when you've won your first Limerick senior hurling medal at the age of 36.

All those county finals McDonagh had attended in recent years, never once dreaming he'd be part of the occasion again. Last month he was, captaining Bruree against Patrickswell. On the formbook, it should have been Patrickswell's day. This, however, was a day that didn't adhere to the formbook;

Bruree won by a point to capture the title for the parish for the first time since Eamon de Valera was a schoolboy there. Literally.

A number of people have asked McDonagh about his state of mind the moment the final whistle sounded. Did the enormity of the achievement sink in? The answer is yes. "I knew immediately what we'd done, and even now the moment is fresh in the mind.

A great, great feeling. To be captain was an extra honour, but only a small part of it. If I'd been a sub and come on for the last 30 seconds, I'd still have felt the same.

"We had a fair amount of work done on our self belief.

We told the young lads on the team to hurl the match and not the occasion. We probably were that little bit hungrier on the day and we had that little bit of luck. A couple of small breaks, one or two frees that went our way and could have gone the other way." Perhaps, but champions make their own luck.

McDonagh, the father of two small children, had finally quit the intercounty scene two years ago at 34. It wasn't so much the age that had got to him as the weariness.

Every new season seemed to bring another Limerick crisis, and as one of the elder statesmen of the squad he found himself on the phone half the day, trying to firefight each fresh blaze. Back with Bruree, peace came dropping quick.

No worries, no pressures, no problem if you missed a night training due to farming commitments. These last two years with the club reacquainted him with a sensation he'd forgotten: the feeling of enjoying one's hurling.

Not that he genuinely expected to derive anything other than some more enjoyment in 2006. After winning Division 2 of the county league last season, holding their own in Division 1 and qualifying for the championship quarter-finals was the only target for Bruree.

They beat Patrickswell in their opening match but didn't put much meas on it because Patrickswell were understrength, their big names absent on Limerick duty. They subsequently beat Adare one summer's evening and they did put meas on that because Adare were not understrength. Now they had a serious scalp under their belts. Maybe, McDonagh reflected, they might be making progress. Little did he know, right up until the day of the county final, how much.

Since finishing with Limerick, he hadn't hurled in the redeveloped Gaelic Grounds.

Back there for the semi-final with Doon, he discovered that "the place had got a lot bigger while I had got a lot slower".

Fortunately he had the assistance of two galloping wingbacks in Dessie Lenihan and 17-year-old Shane Mullane.

They . . . Mullane in particular . . . did his running for him, he claims. He merely had to tell them where to run.

McDonagh may be being modest in that regard. "You know the film Master and Commander?" asks Bruree's manager John Tuohy.

"They're the two words that sum up Stephen. He was our master and commander. And yes, Dessie and Shane are young and fit, but Stephen's experience has taught him how to read the game. He has this great economy of energy."

The other obvious question to put to McDonagh also produces a response in the affirmative. Yes, victory in the county final buried the memory of his double Croke Park heartbreak with Limerick a decade ago. "Life moves on, " he philosophises.

"We played in those All Ireland finals. We were beaten in those All Ireland finals. It's simplistic to say that nobody died, but other teams lost two All Irelands as well.

"What I experienced with Bruree a few weeks ago made up for it."

MUNSTER CLUB SHC QUARTER-FINAL WOLFE TONES NA SIONNA (Clare) v BRUREE (Limerick) Cusack Park, 2.00 Referee J Ryan (Tipperary)