The same dressing-room that two weeks before had Cork singing was now weighed down by the silence of defeat, and Larry Tompkins was in the thick of it.

For the Cork manager, there was nothing to be gained by any explanation. "It's over, and that's it," he said. No sympathy could heal him, not even the offering that right now Meath are the hardest team in the country to break down.

"Any team in an All-Ireland final is tough to break down. The got the breaks on the day, fair play to them. There were just the better team. You just have to get the breaks, we didn't get them. It's been a good summer with a great bunch of lads, and they can all hold their heads high. That's the important thing."

Not finding the points when it mattered was Cork's ultimate downfall but none of the players were making excuses about the conditions, not even full forward Don Davis. "To be honest, the pitch was in great condition," he said.

"And that had no bearing. I still think it was right there for the talking. Right up to the last kickout there was the goal in it and we were still hoping to find it.

"I don't think any Cork player gave up out there. It's the way you get the rub of the green on the day. Meath deserved the victory, but we still put it up to them."

The one big lift should have come from the inspiration of Joe Kavanagh's goal, yet that was let vanish from Croke Park along with the dreams of a football-hurling double. "I thought it would put us on top more than it did," said defeated Philip Clifford. "I thought we did a good enough job at the start of the second half but maybe we peaked a bit early. We were on top but they didn't crack and then picked off the scores that keep them ahead.

"It's still been a great year for Cork and at the start of the year we would have been happy enough to get this far. It's a big disappointment sure, but hopefully we'll be back soon enough."

In opposite corners of the room, Kevin O'Dwyer and Sean Og O hAilpin each paid tribute to the other man's woes. "I feel sorry for Sean more than anyone," said Barry. "Some people weren't giving him the respect as a full back but he gave a display out there today that any full back should be about. But it is hard for all of us to take. We're not saying we're better than any of those players but we definitely did the same hard training since last January and it's hard to go back at this stage with nothing in your hands."

His own heroics in goal had almost saved the day, but Meath refused to let them take a firm grip. "They seemed to be getting the ball more from our mistakes. In the first half I had all the room in the park for my kick-outs but in the second they just closed up the whole area. We're all at fault. We stayed together all year and we put our hands up together that we didn't play well enough to win." O hAilpin threw back the compliment. "I owe a lot to Kevin, and I thought we could rally it after that. We didn't take it and Meath started to play after our goal rather than us. I thought the goal was the break we needed, but you just can't prepare too much for a team like Meath."