These summer months are the only time when Mick O'Dwyer appears as more than just a rumour, when there is flesh to the legend. Here he is now, arms folded, beads of perspiration trickling freely and his face breaking into a million contours of glee. Oh, this one was sweet for Micko.

"I thought it was a marvellous game of football," he says in that persuasive, lilting air of his.

"It took an almighty effort from our players, but I mean Kildare have been threatening to play like this for many a long day and they did it today so we'd just be hoping that they continue to play like that in the months ahead."

Kildare don't care about fashion or form. This is what Micko tells us when he reminds us all of how his boys have been portrayed this season. All their failures have been pinned to their the history of wanton wastefulness which yesterday they made a mockery of. They shot points like naturals. Micko's expression creases into mischief.

"Well, I suppose it wasn't bad for Kildare because all ye scribes continue to write Kildare as the team that can't score and they are supposed to be whingers and supposed to be toothless and all these kind of things. But I think they proved out there today that they are great players. And 'tis unfair for any critic to go on about that stuff - they have been training for the last four years and sacrificed all their free time to achieve this level of fitness."

But there is a chuckle behind the admonishment and Micko drifts away with a vehement "I'm happy."

Free time. The Offaly camp is glumly contemplating an unwelcome chunk of it. Tough times, when you rifle a couple of beauties past your opponents with the game still young only to find yourself lost in a desert.

"Kildare got three points before halftime which gave them a sight," reflects Pauric Nolan. "Six points would have been a far greater challenge but they really got stuck in after the break and dominated it." In the immediate aftermath, isolated sequences dance around his mind. The scoreless spell is but one sticking point.

"It hurt us and yet we went for a goal before half-time when we should have had a point and the Kildare goalie made a brilliant save off Bernard (O'Brien). We actually had chances and they all count at the end of the day. But overall, Kildare might have been the better team. I think someone laughed at me here when I said Kildare were one of the top four teams in the country. You could see out there that they are," he shrugged.

And for the vanquished?

"We're a young team," he says. "I certainly think there is a great future here. I've certainly enjoyed working with the lads and if I'm asked back, I'd say I'll give it another crack."