He has watched them fall on successive Sundays, the same as the rest of us, half marvelling, half-aghast at the totality of defeat. Cork silenced in the first throes of summer. Clare, the survivors, the bandleaders of so many great seasons, gone too.

Brian Cody has watched like the rest of us and is reminded that it is in the early season that the snipers are sharpest.

"Without a doubt, the reality of the championship is fairly stark. Cork simply weren't supposed to lose at this stage. And even what happened to Galway footballers last week reminds us that teams have an ability to preserve their best performances until this time of year."

The Kilkenny manager knows too well that this is a perilous week. A first round Leinster tie against Offaly is about as tricky as the old sport gets. The battle lines between these two have become so worn in recent times as to be blurred. But last year's All-Ireland final between the two seemed to distinguish a definite future.

Kilkenny, it was reasoned, were on the threshold of a new era, imperious if not quite untouchable. Offaly had smoked the last out of the wonderful if slim collection of talent that had seen them winning two All-Irelands in the 90s and compete in two more. The wild bunch was finished.

And yet the whispers keep circulating. Offaly unveiled some new talent in the league. And all the great names will still be there on the match programme tomorrow. Age shall not wither . . .

"You know," smiles Cody, "people say that Offaly are always hard to read in that they have this wonderful ability to spring themselves after not showing too much in the league. And that's the way it is going into this match. It is a lethal situation for us to be in. But I think it is also crystal clear how they will be. Offaly will be at their best, they will be absolutely on fire for this match."

And previous years suggest that Kilkenny do not start so brightly after an All-Ireland winning year. In 1983, Cody played full-back on the county side that won the McCarthy Cup only to be stung by Wexford in the opening round the following year. A decade later, Kilkenny, champions in 1993, were felled by Offaly in their first serious championship defence.

"It has been said that we are not at our best at this time of year. Maybe. I think the same is true for every team in a way. Teams improve as they go along. But look, there is no great mystery about this match.

"We are talking about the teams that contested last year's All-Ireland final. We have played in the last three All-Ireland finals. Offaly have played in two and also in an All-Ireland semi-final. I think it is fair to say that two of the best teams around are coming up against each other in Croke Park, no matter what way the match goes. So there is no mystery, nothing to read into. These are two teams that are used to the big day, who know what this is about."

And he is, of course, right. It is just another 70 minutes between two contrasting teams tied by border. Anything can and will happen. The return of Michael Bond, the muinteoir, crisply polite and methodical, adds yet more personality to the occasion. The Galway man's upright demeanour, his quiet discipline, seems to work for Offaly. How significant is his return?

"I find that hard to answer for now," says Cody. "Michael has had tremendous success with Offaly and they became a tremendous force under him. But I think that any manager can only do so much, that the players are the be all and end all. Having said that, the vibes that are coming across from Offaly are that there is an awful lot of desire in the county this year to do well. You wouldn't expect anything different."

Last year, Kilkenny had a gentler run in to serious fare and Cody acknowledges that the magnitude of this tie with Offaly has meant a different approach to the championship. It has been a long 12 months for this most graceful of GAA figures and although tiredness follows him a bit more readily than it did when he first took over, his enthusiasm for games like this remains unblemished. The anxious part is now, the waiting.

Because it all feels right yet "you can never fully know until you take the field. You might feel happy enough but it isn't until the ball is thrown in and both teams are going at it and the pressures of the competition are upon you that you feel it."