Tompkins gets all talkative on tactics

All Aboard. The Cork lads have a date with the 5.50 at Heuston Station, and for the first time all afternoon there is a hint of panic in the camp. County board men click fingers and point at wrists. They plan on watching the highlights by the Lee.

Reflections on what has passed then are traded on the run, breathless comments amidst a flurry of socks and discarded jerseys.

Don Davis, though, has been cornered - a novel experience for him on this day - and sits under a shower of recorders and offers his perspective on Larry Tompkins, tactician.

"Alex Ferguson is only trotting after Larry Tompkins," he beams. "Fionan comes on again today and scores 1-1 - I hope Fionan doesn't start in the final, the way he is going. "Ah sure, I dunno what to make of it at all. He takes off the best player we have all year (Podsie O'Mahony) and Fionan comes on and gets a goal and whatever else he got. Mad stuff altogether."

And across the room, the alchemist is painting a hitherto unseen aspect of himself. For so long this year, Larry Tompkins has cut an austere and almost misanthropic figure, a disciplinarian who dug a moat around his squad. Yet here he is, smiling, eyes blazing, the words gushing out. The way it used be in the last decade.

"I dunno, when you're a boy and you're growing up and you want to play with Cork, the biggest dream is getting to Croke Park and playing in an All-Ireland final. Now the dream is that they can go and win it," he breathes. "I'm glad and delighted for the lads that all the work we did over the past few years paid dividends today." Tompkins brought to the post of manager a singularity of purpose which was received frostily initially, but all that is forgotten now. This summer has meant vindication.

"Yeah, fair play to them," he says. "Maybe we were a bit tight starting the game, a bit of nerves or whatever. But we'd had a lot of motivation coming into this game today, we still had been written off by a lot of people even though we'd won a national league and a Munster title. But we stuck to the game plan and the lads have good character and it worked out for us."

In those torrid early minutes, when the Cork defence came unhinged through startlingly direct Mayo shooting, Tompkins had a bit of surgery to do.

"Well, they were changing all around the place - they were trying to take Ciaran (O'Sullivan) around in particular and we had to make alternative arrangements which worked better for ourselves really."

Moving Sean Og O hAlpin, who was having a fretful time trying to keep tabs on the no-nonsense James Horan, was a decision which led to the gradual suffocation of the Mayo attack. The affable Cork defender admitted his retreat to corner back was fine with him.

"I thought I might be coming off," he confessed, eyes wide at the prospect. Og speaks of such occasions like these with such kiddish marvel that it's easy to forget he is central to them.

"That was a really fine Mayo team out there today, lads who played in All-Irelands in 1996 and 1997. We hadn't been to Croke Park at this level before, so hopefully it will stand to us the next day."

O hAlpin might be advised to search for digs on the Jones's Road, so often will he be around these parts over the next four weeks. The latest Corkonian (if the first Fijian) to seek medals at both hurling and football.

"Ah, I'm not even thinking about that," he declares, palms spread as he gazes into the future. "We have the big one now in the hurling against Kilkenny, and it's gonna be tough like. Then after that we'll see if we can overcome the winners of Armagh and Meath. I mean, everything from now on is a bonus, like.

"But fair play to everyone in the football. Larry . . . Larry believed in everyone of us like, and maybe now we're paying him back or whatever."

He remembers Tompkins telling them at half-time to go out and run Mayo into the ground. "And we didn't exactly do that," he says, "but Fionan's goal was the end of it.

"And then Mayo missed a few frees," he continues with a grimace, "which would have made it closer. But Clifford got some great points and that was it."

Ah yes, Phillip Clifford. 1-4 for the captain and a peach of an assist to lay Murray on the second goal. And the kid's only 20.

Forget about any star-struck talk though; now, he wants to be first man on the train.

"We figured if we had a good spell in the second half we could maybe put them away. We were always just the one or two ahead, but scored at the vital times. It's unbelievable to get an opportunity like this at such a young age," he says hurriedly.

But there is little disbelief in his eyes. He races off towards the platform, happy and calm, and the likelihood is that we'll be hearing more from him before the winter's fall.