Offaly's dressing-room emptied quickly, the players departing hurriedly, wrapping their thoughts in the bitter disappointment that goes with playing well but still losing. For a team that has often played within itself and won it was a sadly ironic way to say goodbye.

Michael Bond, their manager for the last 13 eventful months, was presented to us for the first time as a study in defeat. He liked it little.

"We went asleep for five minutes at the resumption of the second half, lost four points, came back and went two points up and we should have held it."

He is grave of demeanour. Ah, shaken and stirred, we think to ourselves.

"Most of their points were scored from frees, were they?" he asks. A fair percentage he is told. "A very high percentage," he says. Have you a gripe?

"Very dubious frees now quite frankly. I told Dickie (Murphy, the referee) myself, I'd tell Dickie . . ." and he trails off incomprehensively, so we are not sure if he has told Dickie or will be telling Dickie.

Did you feel you deserved to win?, we ask, lobbing up one of those big chances at magnanimity which most losing managers like to pull down with both hands.

"Of course we deserved to win," he says tetchily, "even the last minute we almost sneaked a goal. I'm disappointed for the lads, for nobody else, they deserved to win it. Bar a couple of our players, I thought we were the fitter team, too."

For a team that conceded five points in the last eight minutes of the game it seems a perverse point, but it drifts into the ether.

Did the performance of his team answer a few critics today?

"We had no criticism to answer to anybody, it was just stupid reporters there talking. Nobody tells us what to do. Okay?"

And he walks through the knot of reporters and one imagines into the past.

John Troy is getting ready to leave. He stops to talk and is quickly asked about Dickie Murphy. Just in case Michael Bond's words are actually the birth of a movement.

"Ah a few bad calls," he says philosophically of two key incidents in which he was involved. "I'll claim innocence in my ones. The first instance, myself and (Diarmuid) O'Sullivan went for a ball and he kind of tripped me and he fell over me then and I got through and scored a point, but Dickie had it called up. It's hard to blame Dickie, I suppose conditions were wet. The other one was a pick up. I didn't pick it up. The free put them level. I hope they show it on television tonight. Maybe if we had held on to the lead for a couple more minutes."

And he grows philosophical about it. Offaly have had too many good years, sucked too much enjoyment from this game to exit sourly.

"But sure it's a funny game, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Cork deserves to be there, they are a good side at time the ball wasn't coming in quick enough. You can't have it perfect the whole time. We were unlucky in the last minute Paudie (Mulhare) was going to strike, somebody stuck a hurley in and got a block. We had our chances, we didn't play badly, and Cork played well. I wish them the best."