The Páirc Uí Chaoimh dressingrooms are a claustrophobe's nightmare. Hot as saunas and lacking the room to swing a kitten. Jack O'Connor beckons the waiting media in and the clumping ambassadors of the fourth estate trample through the players sorting out the clothes and their kitbags. Any wonder they love us so? Jack looks frazzled. One of those days which a manager is glad to see the back of. Not much style or finesse. Plenty of work.

"It was a very tight game," he says, closing his eyes as he rounds up his thoughts. "We expected it would be very tight because that's a very good Cork team. I think they'd have beaten a lot of teams today.

"They started well, they had us on the back foot. We were lucky, I suppose, at half-time to be only a point down but we have been in this situation before. That's what experience is for. We just tipped away and it took a goal from Declan O'Sullivan just after half-time. It gave us a bit of breathing space."

A third Munster title on the trot for Kerry then. There must have been a small temptation to look beyond Páirc Uí Chaoimh at the big days out later in the summer. But no Kerryman ever overlooks Cork.

"Cork were as good as we expected them to be. They had a lot of pace in the team. A lot of teams won't fancy them in the qualifiers. This is a good team and they are on the right track.

"We basically got on top after 20 minutes last year. I told our fellas it would take 70 minutes this year. It took that and more. Even after we got the goal it was never safe. We could never get the fourth point to bring us home."

And for Kerry the early exchanges were marked by a certain tentativeness. Cork took advantage.

"A few of us seemed to be lethargic on the ball. We weren't driving with the ball. Cork's intensity took us a bit by surprise, I think. All's well that ends well. Any side Billy Morgan puts out won't roll over. Given the conditions their youth served them well.

"We were a bit trí na chéile at the end, there were fellas all over the place but the heat was taking it out of the legs. The heat out there had fellas out on their feet, we had to take them off.

"Cork had an awful lot of space in front of their full-forward line and I thought our backs coped very well. They were outstanding in that regard. We're lucky to have that pace. It was a day for character and battling qualities rather than style. Overall they played well - we just pipped them with the small bit of experience. They are young and they'll be dangerous later on."

They have county championship next weekend in Kerry. The All-Ireland quarter-finals are a month away. Nothing to do but wait and think for a while.

Tom O'Sullivan knows the break will be put to good use. He appeared in a vox pop in the match programme yesterday and declared his remaining ambitions: "to win another senior All-Ireland medal with Kerry. To win an East Kerry championship title with my club and to find a nice girlfriend." Good luck, boy.

"They were hiding behind the ditch for us," he said of Cork. "Billy had them hyped up and there wasn't much in the papers either about them. They played well. The fellas we were marking, we didn't seem to know too much about them. They came in from the under-21s. Our thing was to not let them score early so they wouldn't get a head of steam up."

But they got two points, Tom?

"I know. I know. There was a plan B though!"

In the big picture, with Armagh and Tyrone being locked in a death embrace, is it consoling to still have not used fifth gear much? He shakes his head.

"We peaked near enough in fairness. Most players went well. We have a strong bench. Great subs. Great back-up, huge competition through the panel. We were told who to mark. I was to mark John Hayes and Marc Ó Sé was to mark Michael Cronin and Mike McCarthy was to mark (Fintan) Goold and so on. Their half-forward line was going deep. We were told to keep going down. It can be dangerous."

Séamus Moynihan weighed in as regards the strength of the panel. Yesterday, remarkably, was his first start since the Cork game last year.

"I hadn't started since last year against Cork. I'm delighted to get back in again. Last year was a write-off. This year I tore the calf and was a little unlucky. Nobody on this panel has a divine right to a jersey. We're training tomorrow night."

Cork captain Owen Sexton stood outside the dressingroom. The air was fresh and still full of hope out there. He was preparing to go in and point his team's gaze forward again.

"No point in us thinking about today's defeat for too long. We just have to get the mindset right, train and do our best in the next outing. I suppose experience and confidence showed out there today. Kerry play as a team. When you think you have them they can find their way out of trouble. They're a cute team to play against." None cuter.