Munster champions Cork have more to celebrate today with the news that captain Graham Canty's knee injury is not as bad as first feared.
Canty had to leave the field nine minutes into Cork's second half fightback against Kerry in the Munster final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday and it was feared he may have damaged his cruciate ligament, an injury that prevented him from taking part in the 2006 campaign.
A scan today, however, has revealed that the Bantry Blues player suffered medial ligament damage and should be fit for the All-Ireland quarter final in five weeks' time.
Cork boss Conor Counihan deflected all praise for the 1-16 to 1-11 win over the All-Ireland champions on to his players today.
"This result is one for a never-say-die attitude," Counihan insisted. "We could easily have crawled into a hole at half time and decided the game was lost, but these players are a very resilient bunch.
"Another team would have folded and accepted their fate, but those lads have a lot of pride in themselves, in their county and jersey and had a lot to prove to themselves after last year's All-Ireland final defeat."
And things could not have looked much bleaker for The Rebels at the break.
"We were down eight points at half time, had Nicholas Murphy sent off and lost our captain Graham Canty through injury," he reflected.
"They were massive obstacles to overcome, but as I've already said, these are an exceptional group of players who have been through a lot together, and I'm delighted we turned it around in the second half. It was something special I have to say.
"I knew that if we could pick off a couple of early scores in the second half the cracks would appear in Kerry and they did.
"Michael Cussen's introduction worked extremely well for us, as did James Masters and Fintan Goold. All three got on the scoresheet which is always pleasing when you make substitutions.
"They had been much maligned for their performance in last year's All-Ireland final on a day when nothing went right for them. I felt they couldn't be that bad having got to the final and they returned my faith in them by that kind of second half display.
"We now can look forward to an All-Ireland quarter-final but I'm very conscious that there is still a lot of work to be done. Our first half performance wouldn't be good enough to survive at that level."