When all around him, including DJ, were searching yesterday for the reason behind Kilkenny's defeat in Sunday's All-Ireland final, John Power was original.

The scene was at a Kilkenny table as the GAA hosted the four teams that contested the senior and minor finals. "What went wrong?," the questioner asked. "Nothing," retorted Power, "nothing really went wrong, we hurled as well as we know how. If anyone told me during the week that we would be four points up with 11 minutes to go I would have been very pleased. We had them nailed to the cross at that stage."

Power admits to having been "cut to bits mentally" when substituted by Brian Cody with five minutes remaining. He maintained that before he left the fray he should have been awarded a penalty.

Brian Corcoran, who curbed the Kilkenny man's menace effectively, said: "It was a day for defenders rather than backs, the ball was wet and the hurleys were slippy. Looking at the video you could see that whenever a forward got possession there were at least three defenders around him."

Corcoran has no regrets for not carrying on with the football team. "Maybe had we lost yesterday, I would be regretting that I hadn't got a second chance in two weeks time." According to most, DJ Carey's failure to score was a major reason for Kilkenny's downfall. It happened only once before, in the 1995 National League final. Sean Og O hAilpin was mainly responsible for lightning striking twice on the Kilkenny wizard; "I am a great admirer of DJ, he is easily worth a goal and three points at least to Kilkenny but all sentiment went out the window when he was standing between me and an All-Ireland medal. I think he got more ball than I did , he was a bit unlucky. We had reckoned that if we could keep him goalless we would be half way there."

O hAilpin returns to Larry Tompkin's football squad tomorrow evening to prepare for phase two of the coveted double in the final against Meath.

DJ Carey cannot really figure out what went wrong for Kilkenny. "Coming up we were confident but not overly so, we had trained well, we had no injuries. It just didn't happen for us on the day. When Brian McEvoy hit that point off a sideline cut and Denis (Byrne) added a point I thought we were in business."

County secretary Frank Murphy likens this youthful Cork side to Mick O'Dwyer's young Kerry team that shocked Dublin in the 70s. "Kerry built on that success in a major way," he said. He does not predict anything like a four-in-a-row for the present Cork team as proved the case with O'Dwyer's side because "there are so many good teams around now, back-to-back titles are becoming more and more difficult to win."

Murphy felt there was surprise in Cork during the build-up to the game with the way the media made Kilkenny such outright favourites, "despite our wins over Waterford, Clare and Offaly."

"The wet conditions were not going to be any great difficulty for us after showing such good form against Offaly in the rain," said Jimmy Barry Murphy, "It's now up to the county board to decide on future management. Our term is over at this stage."