Seán Óg Ó hAilpín strolls through the lobby of a Douglas hotel and every female head in the place swivels, the eyes coolly looking him up and down. It's not bad that a man currently appearing on the cover of Ireland's Own can provoke such an outbreak of ogling. Of course every male head turns too.

"Seán Óg, boy," they say approvingly. "Good man, Seán Óg."

Cork's captain straddles the hurling world in that colossal way. The epitome of the modern athlete, marketable, endorsable, articulate, graduated and organised, he harks back on the other hand to a more traditional era and different values.

He speaks respectfully and knowledgeably of the lineage of Cork hurling and the Cork captaincy. He gives interviews in English and Irish without thinking about the switch from one tongue to the other. Only the want of somebody asking prevents him from doing a media session through Fijian.

Without ever pushing it, Seán Óg has become an icon of the game. His hurling, as commendable in his early years for its honesty and its vigour as its natural elegance, hasn't been at quite the same pitch of excellence this year but, whole-carrying the burden of captaincy, he has added to his game the ability to take responsibility for the occasional score. Cork's last two outings have seen huge points from Ó hAilpín, scores which set the agenda for every other red jersey on the field.

That his first championship points ever have come at such times and in such circumstances is typical of what might have been expected of his captaincy, but Seán Óg is self-deprecating to a fault.

"Listen, when you look at the history books or when I go down to Na Piarsaigh, when I go and I talk to the old-timers, they'll bring up Christy Ring, Charlie Mac, Tomás Mulcahy, Tom Cashman and those boys. Why? Because they are previous All-Ireland captain winners for Cork. To be honest I'm ashamed walking down Patrick Street with these guys. They are absolute legends. Just to be mentioned in the same list as them would be an honour."

He has the weight of their legend a bit more firmly fixed in his mind now. He had thought that being a good captain meant being lucky when I came to the toss. The year has been a lot tougher than that. "Very demanding in ways." he says.

His input and his instinct in his years as a senior hurler have always been to keep the head down, to do the work, to say whatever had to be said and "then tog off and out the gap". This year he finds himself in meetings, talking regularly with John Allen, being a representative of the players along with Donal Óg Cusack and Brian Corcoran, and generally assuming some of the media and ambassadorial duties which a high-profile team needs to have tended to.

When you go looking for the trace elements which make this Cork team unique the same words come up again and again. Honour. Respect. Self-discipline. Old-fashioned stuff. A couple of sentences from Seán Óg are filled with these things.

Galway in the All-Ireland?

"Galway are different from Kilkenny. A different challenge. I suppose in a way we were sick of each other, ourselves and Kilkenny. Galway are a fresh challenge to us. We realise what we're up against.

"I went training the morning of their semi-final. I was looking forward to watching the game. I didn't enjoy a minute of their match. I watched it and felt like going out and training again that night. Any team that stitches 5-18 against Kilkenny you have to stand back and admire them. At our best we haven't done that. What they did to Kilkenny we find it hard to do on a good day."

You'd say the words are laced with mischief and propaganda but this is a man who trained on the morning after winning an All-Ireland medal. Self-fulfilment is a destination perfectionists never reach. Complacency isn't on the map. You know Cork have been doing more and doing different since SeáÓg watched the semi-final.

"After 1999," he says, "we failed to defend the title. Complacency killed us in 2000. We thought Offaly would give us a hard 20 minutes and we'd just pull away. This is different. We met on the Tuesday after Galway's performance and we spoke about it, looked through it. We never did that in 2000. We have trained for situations that Galway create. We didn't do that in 2000."

It's no secret in Cork that the panel were expecting, like the rest of the country, to end the summer with a game against men in black and amber. Perhaps a little of Cork's patchy form this season has been their way of preserving themselves for that battle. Now that they are looking at the same time, same place but different tribe, Seán Óg wonders why it's all such a surprise.

"If you go back to the under-21 days, we won back-to-back finals in 1997 and 1998 and it was Galway who pushing the hardest. You'd think that would have transferred quicker but times change and years change. Some players have more focus than others.

"Go back to the 2002 quarter-final when Galway mesmerised us (0-21 to 1-9). After that the last team you would expect to contest three finals in a row was us. Galway are doing what they would have expected to do."

Examining the scoreline Galway stitched into Kilkenny it's easy to believe Seán Óg when he admits to feeling uncomfortable watching it. Cork's full-back line has been consistent all year, but farther afield they have needed repairs.

"If Galway forwards are getting ball and doing damage the ball must be coming from outfield. Unlike old Galway teams they don't play the running game, handpassing, getting into alleys, etc. That had to be counteracted with first-time hurling. They play more Cork traditional style now. Let the ball do the work. That will be a challenge for us all."

This year, with its ebbing and flowing of form, has been something of a slow-drip torture for Seán Óg and he is attracted to the thought of putting it to bed, especially now that his beloved Na Piarsaigh have been bounced from the county championship,

"This year hasn't been as easy compared to last year for individuals of a team. That's as much down to the opposition we play. We've not been allowed to play as well this year. I look back 12 months ago and when you're the challenger you're more up for the game. Any challenger worth his salt is that way. This year we're on the back foot a lot and we find it hard to deal with.

"I'm hard on myself. I'd describe my form as below par to last year. I have tried to train as hard as last year but I started off with Eoin Kelly when he stitched six points on me. Compared to last year it just hasn't happened. I'm trying to leave it on a high note.

"There is internal pressure after a year like last year. You feel you have to do everything. You can't. If we finish with a win, if we do win, I'm happy. There's 70 minutes ahead of us. It will be the last 70 minutes we'll poc a ball this year. I'd like a good performance and a victory."

And a trilingual speech from the Hogan steps.