With the wound still gaping Brian Cody was yesterday asked to pinpoint what had happened to Kilkenny 24 hours previously.

"First of all, we have no excuses. We're not going to try and come up with reasons why or whatever. Every year the best team wins the All-Ireland final and Cork have proven themselves to be the best team."

It makes sense. Cork are the best team in the land. Kilkenny got their just rewards after an inconsistent year - unlike the previous two campaigns when they suffered far less hardship, even in the cold of winter.

Continual hurling wears even the strongest men down and although this Kilkenny lot are still young they have been drinking from the well for a long time. They will come back as take DJ and James McGarry out of the mix and the average age is 24.

"We won the championship the last two years, we also won the league in the last two years," Cody explained. "Right through those years we were genuinely playing good stuff. This year's league we weren't really playing at any stage.

"We played very well against Wexford in the league, probably our best performance. In the championship against Wexford we weren't what we'd like to be. It wasn't there, the way you would like it to be there.

"Okay, we got back and we regrouped. We had an easy game against Dublin, who were under-strength. We hit a real high for the Galway game. That was a terrific performance.

"First game against Clare; flattish again, you know? Not playing as we would like to play. First 20 minutes in the replay against Clare I thought we were absolutely outstanding but then it kind of dried up."

So it went on until Cork put them to the sword. Through all the slog, however, Cody saw a positive: a team off-colour yet hanging in to the bitter end through spirit and determination.

"I suppose at the end of the day we went to the final hurdle. It's an achievement in itself. It's no solace now but we went as far as we could. But on the day we had no ifs, buts or maybes about the game. Absolutely, Cork deserved to win.

"You can talk about games turning on incidents or whatever but with all matches one team takes it by the scruff of the neck at a particular time, or some stage of the game they get on a roll and drive it on. The last 15 minutes of play Cork got on that roll."

"I remember saying last year, several times, you get a run and you get your time to reap the rewards. You enjoy them and make the best part of them. We were definitely doing that but it comes to an end."

Predictably, there was no end-of-an-era speech. Time to go back and think. Still, Cody was asked about the future.

"I haven't a clue. I knew for certain after '99. I said it on the day: 'No way I'm getting out of here. I'm going again. Driving on'. Since then I've thought about it and this year I haven't had the slightest idea."