AFTER the sturm und drang of the closing 15 minutes, dressing room reaction was low key. Offaly manager John McIntyre told the winners that he had come from a "devastated" team. "What can I say? We let in two soft goals and were playing catchup hurling the whole game.

Had he considered making changes at the back during the first half? "Everything is obvious afterwards," he replied, "but we had chances. But for that save from Fitzhenry, the result would have been different. A lot of people had been saying that that team was gone but they came back with everything."

The future? "My appointment is open ended. I'd say it'll be reviewed now," he said before heading back to his team's quarters.

In the winning camp, Tom Dempsey's reaction was less satisfied than the generality's but he was even more relieved after having an unusually bad day with the placed ball. "The frees went astray and the boys got me out of trouble. The wind made freetaking difficult and so does a slightly wet day".

Johnny Dooley had problems as well The backs played really well but if we'd lost I'd have felt mainly responsible.

"The players were very motivated for this. We felt we weren't been given credit for being champions. It's not that we weren't given credit when we won but everyone seemed to think we wouldn't be capable of defending the All Ireland. We're still hungry."

Manager Rory Kinsella was also relieved in the wake of his first "championship match in charge. "We dug deep when we needed to, when we were under pressure."