"It's in them from the time they come out of the shaggin' cradle." Offaly manager Tommy Lyons was doing a good job in the corridor, out of earshot of his jubilant players. The dressing-rooms were no-go areas for journalists, but Lyons got his message across on the nature of your average Offaly footballer. "Offaly were never going to fear Meath. They fear no one when they get into a Leinster final, they never have and never will. I don't put that into them, it's bred in them from birth."

Sensing the threat of swelled heads, he was well into the process of bringing his fearless warriors down to earth before they left Croke Park.

"I don't think you can call Offaly a great team for winning one Leinster final. I think they have the potential to develop into a very good team. I think what we have is a squad of potential. They first flashed it against Longford in the first round of the championship. People who were there that day knew Offaly were going on the right track. "We man-marked today, we set out our stall, we were going to take each man no matter where they played, we were going to follow them. We ended up with Tom Coffey and Finbar Cullen playing in the full-back line. It was to our lads' credit that they kept believing and they were never worried."

Lyons is quick to shy away when the bouquets for the part he has played in the re-birth of Offaly football fly in his direction.

"I think managers get overstated. What the team did there today was to stick to the game plan. It's their game plan as much as mine. There was only about 10 minutes in the first half when we stopped playing to plan." Lyons admitted that his team was always going to need a good start to boost confidence. But what he saw was unbelievable.

"At 2-6 to 0-2, I think the lads froze, we couldn't believe it, we didn't know what to do and we actually started to pinch ourselves wondering if it was for real. We started to play the ball in a silly way rather than playing controlled football," he said. "Once we settled down after half-time, I didn't think we were ever going to lose the game. At the end of the day our lads have got energy levels way higher than anybody else," says a proud Lyons of his squad.

The last thing Lyons wants at present is for his team to be saddled with the favourites' tag against Mayo. Vinny Claffey, the team's near veteran of 10 championship seasons, talked for most of his colleagues on the subject. "Don't start making us favourites," he pleaded. Then, with tongue in cheek, added: "We are only a team up from Division Four you know."

The way his team had approached the match against the Leinster and All-Ireland champions did not surprise Lyons although he knows much more now about his players after Saturday's startling victory, than at any stage since having first been introduced to them last autumn.

A noteworthy factor was the manner in which his team could score more when on the ascendancy than that managed by Meath during their peak spells.

Offaly goalkeeper Padraig Kelly let us in on some of the Lyons strategy: "Tommy drummed it into us, if you're one point up go for two, if you're two points up go for five go for the jugular."

Down along the corridor, Sean Boylan was out-scoring all counterparts as the most gracious of losing managers. Earlier, Boylan had made a point of shaking the hands of all of the Offaly players when he visited their dressing-room. He told them: "We have had the sun on our backs for a few All-Irelands, now, it's your turn to get it on your backs for the big day."

Will Boylan be Meath manager this time next year? "I don't intend to be smart by saying I haven't even thought about it . My only concern now is for the lads inside (the no-go area dressingroom) who have given their all to Meath football and to me as a person. I am terribly grateful to them. I will make sure that they are all right and then we will proceed from there."

What had he said to his own players? "Ah, sure what could I say to them, they were great champions, they did their county very proud and did the association very proud."

Was the big recovery on for Meath when they got the deficit down to three points early in the second half? "Maybe so, but they (Offaly) hit back with two excellent points and they had us at stretch all the time.

"It was a wonderful performance by Offaly and a helluva game of football. I always felt we were in with a chance - even when we got the goal I still thought we would have enough time to come back. In fairness to our lads they never stopped battling right to the end of the match.

"I knew we were going to have a mammoth task," added Boylan. "We have had mammoth tasks against everybody."