`A lot of ghosts laid to rest'

Sean Og OHalpin stands wrapped in a towel, those soulful eyes wide and wonder filled. "DJ," he exclaims, trying to make sense of the silly statistic.

"Someone said to me all right that he hadn't got a score. DJ equals three points at least, like, on a good or bad day. Someone told me but I couldn't believe it. Ah, but he was breaking a lot of ball, you know, making space or whatever. We were dealing with great forwards and knew we'd get it tough but that's the best way to have it . . ."

The words spill out with the ferocity of a juggernaut and as usual, he is shooting answers like it's the final round of Mastermind, with unpredictability his chosen subject.

Reflections on distant relatives: "Don't think they saw it in Fiji. Still in the dark ages there, they're still on the wireless. We'll send them a tape but they'll be delighted, like."

He passes on nothing and switches his attentions to his manager.

"It's Jimmy Barry-Murphy I'm most glad for today. People don't realise the flak he takes down in Cork. It's like being manager of Brazil. That's how it is down in Cork. It's probably the same for Cody in Kilkenny. But, Jimmy like, God, even Ger Loughnane doesn't have the pressure he does," he tells you, sniping a breath before sending us plummeting into a whirlwind history lesson.

"Like, Jimmy's whole life revolves around hurling and his father, like, his grandfather, all played for Cork. Think of it.

And Jimmy was captain of Cork in '82 and '83 - against Kilkenny - and came home with his tail between his two legs. He said to us it would be a dream to come here and win. And to win by a point is as good as 20 million points."

JBM is over by the exit. On golden days, he was Pele with a stick, lithe and adored. You see him now and little's changed.

Still slim and fresh eyed, twinkling at this latest diamond in Cork's superb and enviable heritage. They fell on the bright side of a one point scoreline, and the champ, he's telling people that he felt it would be that way.

"Kilkenny were marginal favourites. Marginal, that's all they were. I thought we had a great chance today. People were entitled to tip Kilkenny, they had the experience and there was the feeling they could score goals easier than us. But in fairness we finished the stronger team and could have won by three or more points if we'd taken our chances."

Still, there were scary moments in the midst of this curious end to the century, times when he peered through the forbidding drizzle and got spooked."

"Course there were doubts," he admits.

"Every time the ball came towards there forwards, there were worries. And when we went four down, well it was very hard.

When we stuck Kevin Murray on, it was in the hope of getting a goal, we thought we needed that to win it then. But it was a vindication of the policy we implemented after we were hammered by Limerick in 1996, a radical overhaul in youth policy to get Cork back to the top."

And how sweet it must have appeared to see those kids blossom in the rain, Timmy McCarthy and those searing runs, Seanie McGrath, whippet and maestro in the corner.

"We missed a few in the first half, I personally missed a lot," recalls McGrath, dressed only in a thin gold chain, smiling and disarming as ever.

"But that happened me against Waterford and the head dropped a bit. Today I knew if I kept plugging away, the scores would come. The first point I got was probably the best. And you could feel it turning then, big time. Just knew we weren't going to lose this game."

Wayne Sherlock is ready to disappear into the evening, giddy and content.

"Hard game," he gasps. "It wasn't happening for them, like Brian (McEvoy) had a few go wide that if they'd gone over could have meant a different game for me. But thank God. It was looking bad when we were four down. All I remember is that DJ had a chance which didn't go and then the crowd got behind us. It turned after that."

One by one, the young winners are slinging their gear across shoulders and disappearing into the Cork hordes in the tunnel behind the dressing room. Too young to consider the magnitude of it all right now. Jimmy Barry-Murphy, though, remembers the lost hours spent arriving at this point.

"A lot of ghosts were laid to rest out there today," he says quietly.