The two managers were quick to praise the standard of football on display at Croke Park yesterday. Mick O'Dwyer described it as "classical" football, while Páidí Ó Sé saluted the lack of "blanket-style defending" that Ulster's finest so regularly employ. Still, the Leinster final lacked the ultra-competitiveness of a Tyrone or Armagh contest.

O'Dwyer was first of the two Kerrymen out to face the questions. Smiling broadly, he had little problem with the final score. He was disappointed with his side's performance but happy to be back in the mix for next week. In particular, he was pleased with the way his team reacted to the slight tweaks he introduced at half-time.

"We really came into the game just after half-time. There was some woeful wide kicking by some of our players. I'd be given a tanning over that type of stuff. You know, kicking the balls up in the air like the way fellas down in my part of the country did 50 years ago. We should have been working the ball in for scores. I tell you, tactically we'll have to change to beat these fellas."

He had no problem talking to whoever was interested, even a man singing the virtues of Tyrone. "Bring them on," replied O'Dwyer, although they would have to lose next week's replay to meet them.

As the Westmeath players began filing onto their team coach, one man obviously caught the eye. Rory O'Connell came off the bench yesterday before half-time and his aerial presence around the midfield almost tipped the scales. He is fast becoming a household name over a disciplinary incident that refuses to go away. At least he could focus on playing yesterday.

"Just trying get my feet back on the ground and get ready for next Saturday. I don't feel too bad. The second half I felt good. I was always focused on it all week, nothing was going to distract me. So, looking forward to the replay."

Ó Sé finally emerged from the dressing- room under the Hogan Stand, while his team waited on the coach. He surely realised the freedom of Mullingar was just a couple of plays away. He may not have been as pleased as his former mentor but there was little cause for complaint. He opted for the positives: "If anything else it's going to tell them that they are right up there with the team that were supposed to be hotly tipped to win out this year's championship.

"There were periods there in the second half when Micko was saying this could be the end of it for him. There was a period when we lived dangerously, the opening 18 minutes really, when they came at us from the middle of the field and they created an overlap. But we were with them all the way."

All well and good but the feeling Westmeath had their golden chance cannot be ignored. Maybe they are not quite ready to accept the Delaney Cup.

"You're coming off a situation where Westmeath have played Offaly, Dublin and Wexford and they gained a lot of experience in those games and today as well. It's still a learning process for Westmeath. For the next day it will be the team that recharge their batteries the best. We feel we are in a good, athletic, physical condition." And what about the decision by referee Pat McEnaney to blow the whistle exactly on 73 minutes, when the three minutes of added time could not have elapsed as play had been halted for Laois wing back Paul McDonald to get treatment.

"I didn't pay much heed to it," said Ó Sé. "Pat McEnaney is a very fair ref. You know he's played the game himself and he has a good feel for it. I think sometimes you have to show a bit of humanity in those situations."