When Fergal Ryan leads Cork onto the field tomorrow, his most vivid memory of the last meeting with Offaly, exactly 12 months ago, will be an effective guard against any complacency. Offaly were the defending All-Ireland champions but injuries and a decline in form had lengthened their odds as Cork's young pretenders took the county's hurling prospects to Croke Park for the first time in seven years.

Ryan's name had been made in the Cork defence during the Munster campaign. Fast and aggressive, he plays from the front and had done so to great effect throughout the championship. His companion in the corner was, and is again tomorrow, Joe Dooley the only survivor of the counties' previous championship encounter, 15 years before. It didn't start well for him.

"The first 15 minutes, I remember Joe Dooley got two points. I was thinking, `Jesus, I could be in trouble here'. One ball he got 15 yards off me. He slipped in behind me and got a lovely ball from Brian Whelahan. I suppose I went out to play my own game and keep an eye on him. But by then I was saying, `forget your own game - concentrate on him'. It was his experience. He mightn't be as fast as he was but you have to watch him."

The intervening 12 months has altered the balance of the counties' relationship. Offaly are widely perceived to be in decline and have lost important players. Cork are champions and manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy expressed concern this week about what he saw as complacency around the county. He has been at pains to innoculate his players.

"I don't think it matters," according to Ryan. "They're still probably one of the best teams in the country. You'd expect to be playing one of the six or seven best teams at this stage and Offaly are still one of them. I think it'll be much the same as last year, it'll be on the day.

"You could also say that they have the experience of last year, having played against us. There'll be no element of surprise. We're approaching it in the same frame of mind."

In the wider scheme of things, Cork are the only team left in the All-Ireland race who have yet to play on the much-denounced pitch at Croke Park. Its reduced size and inferior quality, compared to Thurles, have prompted a flash-flood of criticism. Ryan is unmoved by the fuss - remembering how its stricter confines proved no impediment last year.

"I've only seen it on the telly. I haven't been on it but I've heard all the statistics. The pitch is the same for both teams. I found it alright last year, I suppose a tighter pitch will suit backs a bit more but the forwards did alright there last year."

If the last year's low-scoring All-Ireland is to be remembered for anything it will be for the quality of Cork's defence against the scoring machine which Kilkenny had been for most of last summer. This year, the personnel remain the same but last month's Munster final against Tipperary featured some uncharacteristic looseness and Ryan - a shoo-in for last year's All Star at right corner back - wasn't unaffected.

Eugene O'Neill snapped a goal off him and drew the second-half penalty which went unconverted.

"Three goals isn't great for any defence to let in and we gave away two penalties," says Ryan. "Maybe the day was always going to come when we'd give away a couple of goals but we weren't doing anything different. I can't pinpoint what went wrong. There were a couple of errors, mine included. I had a chance to clear and I didn't, hit it straight to Eugene O'Neill and he buried it.

"Maybe we were trying to play a bit more hurling rather than just concentrate on defending."

He is, at 28, both the father of the team and its captain. He is one of the few players of his playing generation to have survived the barren years between the Munster title of 1992 and last year's re-emergence. A minor in the 1990 All-Ireland final, he didn't make his championship debut until 1995 when Cork were the first victims of Clare's insurgency.

He identifies the National League win of 1998 as the turning point in the team's fortunes. Although Clare were to set an advanced championship test that summer, Cork learned from the manner of their failure and had time on their side. Graduates from minor and under-21 successes came on board and the championship challenge took shape.

Captaincy, he says, makes no difference to his game. He's aware of the need to "tongue-lash" occasionally but says his playing duties take priority. Pressure, he feels, is less than last year because the strain of trying to make a breakthrough is worse than the demands of success. It is an upbeat view which presumably owes more than a bit to the long and at times bitter apprenticeship he served in times of want.

"I wouldn't say I gave up hope. Every year, going out and losing, you'd think will I ever win anything. But the next year you'd start again and things weren't so bad. Then when you lost again, you'd be shattered but you'd go on. I suppose at times I lost hope but I always found it again."