There is lots about Offaly hurling that is special and unique but within the tribe itself there are various stratas and class distinctions. The brahmins come from Birr and within their number are those who have won four All-Ireland club medals, an achievement unique in the game.

Birr are often depicted as being cool about hurling and passionate about the things that come with it. Their dressingroom yesterday told a different story. This was Declan Pilkington's fourth and it lit him up.

"It's great for us. Four All-Ireland club titles. We're a great team. We have to be beaten again now. It's too hard to retire now. I've been trying to get out of hurling but this makes it hard! It's a mystery really how we have the appetite,whether it's Pad Joe or the players. We just love the game of hurling. We'll have to be beaten now. We'll get beaten and then we'll all go together."

When that happens we might get some perspective on their achievement.

The club championships are a long and winding road. Birr have made the final five times since 1992 while backboning the county team also. Much of the passion that drives them comes from the Whelahan household and it's revered head. "Everything went to plan," grinned Pad Joe in the dressingroom afterwards. "Our plan was simple. Ground hurling. Fast ball. The last time Dunloy hit us in the first 15 minutes but this year we hit them."

For Pad Joe it was an afternoon of confinement banished to the stand as punishment. He yearned for the field and was still chafed about it afterwards. "It was very wrong to put me in the stand. That should never happen to any manager. Train a team all year, three nights a week and you get put in the stand, it's not right." Still, you were up and down like a yo-yo.

"Well you know my form. I'll probably get another ban for that. It's a fabulous feeling. Them boys need to keep hurling away."

Brian Whelahan stood in the middle of the dressingroom, another winners enclosure for him to grace. "We trained very hard for today. We took a complete break this week but he had grilled home the training before that. We worked hard."

We looked at Whelahan, such a familiar figure on these occasions. Couldn't help wondering when we'd see him here again. Would intercounty hurling lure him back this year?

"I don't know. I had a look up there today and I don't know. I'm not going to make a decision. I just don't know if I'll be seeing this place full again."

For a player with so much still to give it would be a pity if time proves Whelahan right, yet if it does it will seem proper that he should have said goodbye in the company of the confederates in whose company he grew to greatness.