Half-time talking calmly whips up a storm

All-Ireland SHC/Semi-final: The Kilkenny dressing-room empties swiftly. When a team has momentum there is no stopping them even when it comes to pulling on the old shirt and tie, writes Tom Humphries.

Brian Cody is missing. DJ has been taken hostage by RTÉ. The Kilkenny players who come out in a rash if they stand near journalists have fled. Just two redheads left.

Henry Shefflin first.

"Finally the goal came for us. I thought for a while it wasn't going to happen but Eddie's (Brennan) goal was the turning point. To be fair, Brendan Cummins is a top-class 'keeper. So are James McGarry, Donal Óg Cusack, all those guys. You need to be getting in fairly close to be putting one past goalies like that. I was delighted for Eddie."

The specifics of who scored what are of little interest today. It's like asking Lazarus what sort of trousers he was wearing before his resurrection.

"Hurling is funny," says Shefflin. "It can turn on small things. At half-time we knew we were bunching and we had missed a few chances. We told ourselves calmly we needed to up the tempo. Our backs stormed into it after that. Lot more ball coming into the forwards after that."

Another All-Ireland final tilt with Cork. For Shefflin the 1999 game between the two sides has been the only fly in the ointment of his career so far. He knows enough, though, not to start talking Cork down. Cork will be doing that for themselves.

"Obviously Cork had an unbelievable win here. They scored well, and they've scored well all summer. It'll be a 50-50 game. In 1999 we went in as favourites and Cork took it from us. We won't make that mistake again."

Peter Barry echoed the thought. Cork won't be able to hide behind the underdogs tag. Memories are too fresh.

"It's strange the things you remember, the things that hurt you. I remember more from 1998 and 1999 when we lost than from 2000 or last year when we won. We didn't perform on the day in 1999. Today we only hurled for half the match. There's enough reminders. We have a lot of work to do. Cork are very good."

The thought that Kilkenny consider themselves to be the unfinished article may be a little scary.

"We had to stand up and be counted for the last 35 minutes." says Barry. "It could have finished for a lot of us today. And the younger lads it would have hung over them. 'When it was put up to them they didn't rise to it.' That sort of thing.

"So half-time was a turning point. I felt we were second to the ball and struggling before that. The backs being pulled out of position and the forwards were cluttering. Everything we didn't want happening was happening. We said if we didn't change we'd be sitting at home watching the All-Ireland on telly."

Part of the change came through DJ Carey getting the first two scores of the second half - 65s which he might expect to get but morale lifters all the same.

"DJ gets scores and other teams say they hurt them more. When DJ scores he lifts us all. We all came in as young lads and DJ was there, and he's still there. We try to match him. When he scores we're lifted, when he speaks we listen. That's how it is."

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Kilkenny is their endurance. Barry knows why: "It's just a group of lads who enjoy it, who like having the laugh, who enjoy training. Whatever else is coming with it, we take. I remember one thing about Eddie Brennan is that he was taken off against Tipp last year and Charlie was coming on and he stuck his fist up to Charlie and said come on. Not many lads being subbed would do that. We try to build such an intensity in training that it rivals matches. There's no club rivalry there. We work each other hard."

The doors to the Tipp dressing-room are open. We wander in and gaze at the grief. It feels awkward, we have just watched this team stripped bare out on the field.

Michael Doyle is sitting in a corner like a beaten boxer: "They gave their all. It was like ping pong out there. We needed a goal near the start of the second half to go three or four ahead and they got it. They took over after that. It was like a runaway train. I'm proud of every one of the lads. We have 33 in the panel and I'm proud of every one."

He sits and muses over it all. No adequate explanation appears.

"In the first half Pat O'Connor pulled us back for a quick puck-out which was vital. We'd scored a goal and he pulled us back. But they hit us with a whirlwind in the second half."

Whirlwind. Runaway train.

Brendan Cummins has been at the centre of it. He was sober about it all.

"It's a pity we fell short, by a long ways, in the finish. I don't know where it went wrong. Maybe their experience around the middle. They took off and won ball all over the place. They were bound to get through eventually. Myself? I was making up for the league final where I missed a few. As a goalie I can't complain. As any goalie will tell you, some days you can stop flies.

"Kilkenny came at us last year and scored three or four points. Today they were going for goals. We lost a few breaks and they kept coming. They were maybe more intense this year. Those boys looked like they haven't been fed for two weeks. They kept going and going. Driving and driving. More and more intense. We knew at half-time a surge would come from some direction. Just didn't know from where."

Surge. Whirlwind. Runaway train. The lexicon of the game.