Fogarty credits training sessions

All-Ireland SHC Final Reaction from Kilkenny and Cork: Hunger has a thirst. A savage thirst, as the Kilkenny hurlers are proving. It's still there the morning after the night of an All-Ireland victory, and will probably last a few more days yet.

So before departing Citywest Hotel for their All-Ireland homecoming most of them are saying a quick goodbye to the bar. Aidan Fogarty, the RTÉ man of the match from Sunday's win over Cork, is about to join them when he's stopped for some further reflection. JJ Delaney, who missed the game through injury, shouts back at him. "A water, is it?" Fogarty nods in what looks like a sarcastic approval.

He's asked to describe the feeling - waking up as an All-Ireland champion with the man of the match trophy in your hotel room. Fogarty shakes his head. "It's just a great feeling. Unreal. The man of the match thing was a big surprise, of course. I was happy to be in an All-Ireland final, just getting my place. Of course I wasn't even thinking anything more than that.

"It's just something everyone in Kilkenny dreams of, hurling in an All-Ireland final. So it won't sink in until much later on, maybe when we get back to Kilkenny. But I haven't felt the Kilkenny fans enjoying a win like that in a long time. Maybe back in the 1980s, when I was up in the stand as a youngster looking down. So it meant a lot to the fans, and especially to the team."

The hunger, intensity, desire - whatever you want to call it - proved Kilkenny's greatest ally on the day, yet Fogarty reckons that just came naturally: "Sure the intensity at our training is unreal, with 33 lads there all fighting for their places. So if you can perform at training the chances are you'll perform on the day.

"I just said I'd try my best to win the first ball and after that it would take care of itself. But when you see every Cork player getting harassed, in their full-back line, and the same in their half-back line, three or four lads coming straight at them again, that rose every one of us."

Aged 24, Fogarty could be labelled an overnight sensation, but joined the senior panel in 2003, and made his first start against Dublin in 2004. Yet he was in danger of being bypassed again this year when injury ruled him out of the Leinster championship. He returned for the quarter-final against Galway and scored a goal. His 1-3 against Cork on Sunday will ensure he's never forgotten.

Nicknamed Taggy (he's older brother was known as Froggy . . . go figure) he now shares with Derek Lyng the honour of bringing the All-Ireland back to the Emeralds club in Urlingford.

"It took me a while to find my feet," he explains, "but there's so much talent in there, so many lads to pick from, and once you get your chance you just try to take it."

He's reminded that Delaney has that drink waiting for him, but before joining him Fogarty pays a quick tribute: "JJ gave a speech at half-time, and just to hear the words coming from his mouth was fantastic. He just said the simple things, like keep driving it on, but knowing he wasn't able to hurl after all the effort he put in all year long, that was such a big inspiration."

Manager Brian Cody has that natural redness in his face but it's clear he's enjoyed the celebration as well. He reflects on Fogarty's input: "We were waiting for Taggy to take off over the last while. He had a brilliant league campaign. He wasn't able to tog out until the Galway game. He's grease lightning, he's a super hurler and his accuracy is unreal. Any of the other lads will tell you that he's a nightmare to mark."

Cody admits it was the sweetest of his four All-Ireland wins as manager. "I would have to say it was, for lots of different reasons. The odds were stacked against us, and we were out of the picture for a few years. But we're back there now and it's savage.

"Everyone talks about Cork and their professionalism, and rightly so, but our lads were super fit and ready to go. They could have gone for another hour if needed. It's an attitude thing - the focus was there. I felt good before the game, all week really. I knew in my head for definite we were going to play out of our skins. Things won't go your way for whole games . . . but once the attitude is there to go for 70 minutes you'll have a chance and that attitude was there."

Yet the player who appears to have embraced the celebrations as much as anyone is James "Cha" Fitzpatrick. He revealed after Sunday's win that a head cold nearly forced him to miss the game altogether and that - combined with hunger having a thirst - has left him with not only a sore head. "Oh yeah, personally anyway, I'm fit to drop," he says. "But it still hasn't sunk in yet . . . it is an unbelievable feeling. Most of all that all the hard work has paid off."

Fitzpatrick got maybe an hour's sleep at best but there's no resting on this win, with the All-Ireland under-21 final against Tipperary coming next Sunday.

"Yeah, I can't go too mad. Tipp won the minor match there, so they'll be on a high as well. But it's another one to look forward to. There are eight under-21s on the senior panel, but it's one game at a time. In fact the way it is now it's one day at a time."

He turned 21 in January, and, incredibly, he's going for his second under-21 title to add to his two minor titles, and now the senior title. He should be well used to these sorts of celebrations. "I think this was special, though," he says, "maybe the fact Cork stopped our three in a row in 2004. And a lot of people said to me that in all the years of Kilkenny hurling they've never seen so many Kilkenny people on the field at the end.

"So last night was very special. I think a lot of people just didn't really believe we could win."