A lot of pride and passion

In the chaos of the Newtownshandrum dressing room stands Ger Cunningham, cool as the night and his broad smile the only visible connection to the high of winning a first All-Ireland club title.

"I can't put that into words," says the team coach. "It just means so much to the people of that parish. To the old men and women and the young kids, who live and die for the game. I don't think there's another place in the country like Newtown, and they should be used as a template for other villages.

"And I mean I still haven't come to terms with winning the county final. So I've no idea when this with hit me.

In a year, or five years. Who knows."

Back amongst the chaos the team captain John McCarthy is holding the lid of the Tommy Moore Cup, the body of which is already missing in action, and he starts making sense of it all.

"We were very, very relaxed coming in. But you know I don't think either of us played particularly well. I think the speed made one big difference, because we did have the pace.

"But for Dunloy to lose four must be desperate. But I suppose Munster and Cork is an extremely competitive championship. But if this team has it in them they can come back. But we'll face the bus home now for three or four hours or whatever. So you can imagine how lonely that would have been if we'd lost. It's a pity now we didn't bring the Karaoke machine because we'll be singing something on the way home."

Later, out of the Dunloy dressing room, emerges manager Sean McLean. "I'm getting used to this, eh?" he says raising a smile. McLean is in his second year with Dunloy and has lost only two championship games - both All-Ireland finals.

"Well I'd say about half our team hurled. Mostly the defence. But the forwards just hit far too many wides.

"Many of them easy scores. And that gave Newtown a lot of hope. I mean Greg O'Kane has never had a worse day in Croke Park. Same with Paddy Richmond. And Liam Richmond. So when you hit 15 wides you don't win All-Irelands. Simple as that. But I really feel for them. They don't deliberately miss."