This moment never changes, writes Tom Humphries. Ten, 15 minutes after victory when it's all finished and the speeches and hugs and high fives are done. The moment of quiet realisation.
The Cork players stood still and cool and soaked in the sounds of the victory bells, the cacophony of rebel yells still rolling in from the field. Looked into each other's faces and smiled. Rare moments that only a great team knows.
The beauty of sport is that there are always second acts. Cork didn't so much lose last year's All-Ireland hurling final to Kilkenny as much as throw it away with extreme force. They've lived with the regret since. Yesterday, in front of 78,212 witnesses, they purged themselves.
There were many who fancied them to do so, but always with caveats: if the weather stays fine; if they score early; if it doesn't get too physical; if they can hold their nerve down the finish. All wrong. Cork won by eight points and easing away. Kilkenny, the champions of the last two years, folded early. As the game went to the death each Cork score looked classier than the last, each white flag more mortifying than the last for Kilkenny.
It wasn't a game of immense grace, although the passionate physicality of it was leavened by some moments of improvised genius. The game hinged on one. On 55 minutes, the pre-eminent hurler of our time, Henry Shefflin, pulled fiercely and first time on a dropping ball just beyond the border of the Cork square. Donal Óg Cusack, the Cork goalkeeper sprung from Christy Ring's parish, Cloyne, reacted instinctively. The save didn't end it. The ball swept to the other end of the field. A Cork forward was fouled. Suddenly, Cork had daylight between themselves and Kilkenny.
"After that I felt that the Kilkenny defence was a little bit unhinged," said Cork manager Donal O'Grady afterwards.
Kilkenny's lacklustre performance suggested a residual tiredness from the efforts of the past few seasons. This was their sixth final in seven years and they suffered a body blow on Saturday night when Richie Mullaly, father of panellists Paddy and Richie Mullaly, passed away.
"We had a bit of pep and Kilkenny looked a bit tired," noted Cork defender Wayne Sherlock afterwards. "They had a few wides and they began to look downhearted."
Cork's win comes with a bumper package of bragging rights. Their win yesterday not only put an end to Kilkenny's drive for three championships in a row but also moves Cork to the head of the honours table with 29 All-Irelands won. Kilkenny have 28. A welcome boost for the fragile self-confidence of citizens of the southern capital.