A winter's damp still lingers beneath the old Hogan stand and the players don't delay. Darren Fay, mop haired and flushed, stops to lay another league campaign to rest. The big-boned defender was imperious to the last, crunching and swift as the occasion demanded. He seems genuinely dismayed that Meath are departing the league train so close to its final station.

"From my own point of view, I really wanted to win this league, I would have liked the chance to have played Dublin or Armagh in a final. It's not quite like losing an All-Ireland semi-final but there is a definite disappointment there, yes."

But it just wasn't happening for the Leinster team. Sturdy and biting though their backs were, their forwards registered wides that many under-12s would scoff at.

"Every game is different," shrugged Tommy Dowd, who ambled back into the big picture along with Trevor Giles in the second half.

"We went down to Limerick and couldn't miss against Kerry in pouring rain. Today, we couldn't put the ball over the bar."

Yet even if it was that simple, you sense that manager Sean Boylan won't be administering the remedial potions just yet. No point in losing perspective.

"Well, it is something you'd have to be concerned about, naturally, but you have to consider the performance of the Cork backs, they really left us with very little room. They deserved it.

"As for us, well, it's fashionable to say that the league doesn't matter, but you ask the 35 lads who have been slaving with us all winter if it matters and see the answer you get. You don't win that competition very often."

The victors also depart in a hurry. Indeed, the most elusive forward of the day proves to be Larry Tompkins, who manages to ghost past the microphones as he scuttles off to view the opposition.

It is left to Sean O hAilpin to peer through the gloom and act as soothsayer for the final.

"Well, we are one step away from a national title now and that means a lot. It doesn't matter who we play. I think Armagh beat us by a point and we had a good win against Dublin, but when we meet in a final, it's similar to a championship situation and we are going to treat it as such."

On a day dominated by defenders, one of the purest on show took time to praise the efforts of the front men.

"I really think our attackers did well also," says O hAilpin. "Any time a defender got the ball, there were options there for him and they started to click in the second half when it mattered. Lads like Podsie O'Mahony worked very hard as well, you know."

Cork goalkeeper Kevin O'Dwyer, who smothered a late toe-poke as time ebbed, stands at pitch side flashing a wide smile.

"Ah, I let a few slip earlier on as well, so if I'd let that through, I'd have been in right trouble. I was just in the right place at the right time," he says to sum up.

Mildly crestfallen, fairly happy, both teams trudge their separate ways.