The fall-out of an All-Ireland final: a brightly-lit dressingroom, a trail of mud and water leading to the showers, banana peels and plastic bottles strewn across the floor and a lone player sitting in team uniform, cradling a broken hand and shouldering whatever is thrown at him. It was as though we had found him out, discovered that DJ Carey was only mortal after all.

"My memories of that day, well, very few really. We started off well and I remember having a good feeling when Charlie (Carter) got that early goal. It just went from us, we weren't caught on the hop or anything, we were all too aware of the kind of hurlers Offaly possess. And the only real thing I remember is the sight of them climbing those steps, lifting the cup. That's what everything comes down to."

In Kilkenny, they take failure to win All-Irelands with the same sort of dismay that other counties reflect on, say, a decade of first-round championship losses. They were patently stunned that day, even if Kevin Fennelly chewed stoically on a Mars bar, calmly allowing that the better team had won. And what of the affable manager in the peaked hat? In very few counties do men lead their team to an All-Ireland only to walk from the dressingroom for good after that match.

"That's possibly true," says Carey. "I suppose, though, from Kevin's point of view, the demands of the job were just too exacting. Kevin is a publican and runs an insurance business, he is extremely busy and I don't think anyone could appreciate how consuming training a team on a full-time level can be.

"I know he put everything into the job last year and loves Kilkenny hurling, but it is understandable that he is not back."

And so Brian Cody has stepped in and the machine just rumbles inexorably on. With longer days on the horizon, dry turf a realistic prospect and Kilkenny beginning to hurl with the sort of venom that creates shivers, it would seem that little has changed.

"Well, in a way that's the case," offers Carey. "I mean, the running is still the same, always has been. Doesn't get any easier. We have done very little ground work up to now, we were waiting for the sod to firm up and I think over the next month or so we will begin to sharpen up.

"From my own point of view, I am thankfully injury free at the present and am just concentrating on my fitness. Sometimes it is frustrating early on, your touch isn't what it should be, but you need the fitness because later on in the summer the kind of ball you'll be dealing with is totally different to now, quick ball, and you need the fitness in place to cope with that."

But even as the athletes begin to stretch themselves, Kilkenny have leapt from the hatches with unusual alacrity. On recent Sundays, they have posted significant letters of intent. After a sluggish start against Cork who overcame them 0-14 to 1-9, it's been all positive, as they beat Laois by five points, Waterford by four and put 3-14 past Tipperary.

"Yeah, we are going okay. To be honest, we are looking at the league in terms of the championship though. That's not to say that we wouldn't welcome making the play-offs, but we are not out gungho to win the thing, the summer is what we are gearing ourselves to. It takes at least five or six matches to build a team, strike a balance and try to make a run."

In the first hours of the league, it seemed as though Carey was to be re-invented as a midfielder. His time there was short lived.

"I think that lasted about 10 minutes. I was switched to half forward in the first game we played and I haven't been back there since and doubt I will be given the way the two lads are playing there at the moment." It's now almost a year since Carey went into brief retirement. Any regrets?

"Only in the way that I went in the first place. No, I've enjoyed it ever since, the hunger for the game is still there, training is good this weather. It'll just be a matter of putting the head down this summer. It's just so ferocious now, the competition I mean, how could you possibly call Munster? Or Leinster for that matter? There are so many good teams out there, it makes for interesting days ahead."