Joe Dooley's expression and mild nature suggest that he is much too passive for this game, but he has been personified Offaly's unprecedented re-awakening. After a few seasons of insipid, joyless afternoons, he is again making music with that wand, just as his team-mates have suddenly begun to sizzle with ease and no ready explanation.

"Yeah, I suppose I am fairly happy with my own performances, I have been playing fairly consistently all year. The ball has been running well for me and I have been able to pick off a few scores." As for the reason behind the team's revival, he just smiles and confesses to being in the dark, but he rejects the theory that it's just down to their intangible mind-set, that they are governed by an unlikely free spiritedness.

"Ah, I think all that is over-emphasised. No team goes out to perform poorly, you always go out to do your best. And there is no such thing as being able to turn it off and on in venues like Croke Park or Thurles."

So what happened? Did Michael Bond just wander into the picture and spook them into hurling?

"It's difficult to know what's behind the difference between winning and losing. It's probably a combination of things - players coming into form, confidence in our game and each other, all small things which add up. "Michael Bond has had a certain bearing on our turnaround, maybe by changing our style of hurling and concentrating more on ball work. Things have really picked up since the Leinster final, but I don't think there is any one explanation for it."

The tale of his own summer is more straightforward; he steadily improved to the point where he never looked better, roasting Clare in the decisive game, at times enhancing his moves with sublime technical flourishes. Joe the Gent, they said, back at the top. "Maybe the fact that we had lost to Clare in 1995 motivated us that little bit more, but basically we were just determined to show we could compete with the best. We were written off six or seven weeks ago and while it was hard to take, we knew we deserved the criticism with the way we were going. So it's nice that we responded to that." This Championship has already become precious to him, what with the memory of the series against Clare and Offaly's happy recovery from sour times.

"It's certainly the longest Championship I can remember. Yeah, it would be wonderful if we could win this now. Beating Clare was brilliant, although I know that they must feel very hard done by, thinking they were in a final one minute and to be out the next. But they took it very gracefully, as you'd expect from Clare."

And so things have come full circle, with an All-Ireland Final no one ever expected.

"Early on I suppose a final featuring a Munster team looked odds on. Kilkenny might have fancied their chances of being there, but we are a surprise to a lot of people. It will add to the day, playing Kilkenny, but it makes winning a tough proposition. I think Kilkenny have won a few All-Irelands before in their day."

(Profile: Keith Duggan)

The facts. . .

Club: Seir Kieran.

Age: 34.

Job: ESB employee.

Height: 6 ft.

Weight: 12 st.

Honours: All-Ireland SHC - 1985, 1994; National Hurling League - 1991; Leinster SHC - 1984, '85, '88, '89, '90, '94, '95.