The dressing-room area in Pairc Ui Chaoimh is no place for claustrophobes, even on quiet days like this. As his players bored tunnels through the press corps to get to the door, Larry Tompkins stood and scarcely expended a smile on the mini shock of jubilation which follows a league title.

"Well winning it . . ." he mused. "You get to the last stages and the object is to qualify and get a few extra games. That's the thing. Out there today it was hard conditions, it was no different than playing last October. It was just unfortunate about the weather but it was competitive. When you get to this stage you don't want to lose. In championship football on drier ground we'd be sharper but that's the only difference. I'm sure Dublin didn't come down here today to lose."

And that was about as dizzy a quote as was to be extracted from either dressing-room. There is something unseemly about excessive celebration after winning a league title. It is akin to putting good results in the mock Leaving Cert on your CV. Teams say again and again that it's a national title, as good as the real thing.

Tompkins talked the talk a little but his mind was on walking the walk. His endorsement of his charges was firm but not gushing.

"The lads out there today haven't done anything wrong. There's a number of guys willing to come in, too. We have a big panel of 30 players and everyone of them has contributed enormously to this league victory today. If you go into the Dublin dressing-room the heads are down. It's hard to pick up the pieces again if you lose a national title. Hopefully this win will give our team a lot of confidence."

Ciaran O'Sullivan felt obliged to explain the conspicuous absence of popping champagne corks and dancing girls.

"We're happy enough. I don't think there is anyone in here with a National League medal already. The last time Cork won it was back in 1989 I think, so it's good to get a bit of success going. We'll see what comes, things seem fine right now, we are moving well and we have got a bunch of young fellas who are working hard.

I think that was obvious out there today. Once you have the right sort of drive and the right sort of commitment in a team you can go anywhere. We'll have championship on 30th of May and we are going to just take every step as it comes."

The circumstances of the afternoon weren't the things which little boys dream off. Long grey tracts of empty terrace, sheeting rain and a sticky pitch.

"Conditions were hard, alright. We played Dublin in the league not too long ago above in Christy Ring Park and conditions today were like that. We seem to get on okay in those conditions. In a few weeks, though, we need to be sharper."

Joe Kavanagh, one of the team's veterans, has seen so many days when Cork teams have come out and assembled themselves as something significantly less than the sum of their parts that the relief must have been palpable.

"We were confident enough I thought. We played to our potential. Going out we knew if we opened out and played the way we wanted to play we'd be there or thereabouts at the end of it. We're happy enough with it. We'd a bit to spare before they got that goal but I think time was about up at that stage anyway."

He was reminded of the early days in the Cork jersey when they would progress well through the spring, escape Munster with one bound and then come home from Dublin with their tails between their legs. Oh yeah. The memory hasn't dimmed.

"I think we used to have no hassle getting out of Munster back then, we used to save the winter up for facing Kerry and then we'd get out and we'd find All-Ireland semi-finals a stumbling block for us. The last couple of years haven't been kind but I think now we've a run going and it's not too long now to our own start in the Munster championship. Hopefully we could get through and at least look for a Munster final again.

"You could see that 15 going out in a few weeks time again when we play Waterford. There is a lot of competition for places and we're glad to have it. It's great to win again but the championship is the big one and that's what we are looking forward to."

And that was the epitaph for the league. It's great to win, but . . .