After games you never know what lies on the other side of a dressing-room room. On Saturday in Thurles, the long mournful silence in the Clare quarters was broken briefly by a round of applause and suddenly the Clare players burst out, heads down and hurrying towards their bus. Their ashen faces were as comprehensive an illustration of sporting grief as we have seen in many a summer.

And from the Offaly dressing-room nothing but happy hooting and the business of the roof being raised. Ger Loughnane made his way to into the centre of their giddy circle. Silence. Again, what to expect?

"What a difference a week makes," said Loughnane, looking around wide-eyed and wired. "I was in here last week commiserating with you. Here I am to congratulate you on behalf of every hurling person in Clare. For your tremendous display today and your deserved win today."

Loughnane's generous grace goes down well. After a summer of carping and controversy, argument and dispute his mission here is to close the accounts. The easy and honourable fraternity of hurling is restored.

"If you hear anybody from Clare complaining about anything," he said, "they do not represent the Clare hurling team or real hurling followers in Clare. The better team won today and we wish you the very best of luck."

And with the last applause of the season ringing in his ears Ger Loughnane departs.

Stephen Byrne is new to this commotion but every game embellishes his reputation further. A series of wonderful saves on Saturday were what determined which dressing-room was the winners' and which was the losers'. He can't digest the whole thing yet.

"I didn't expect it to happen this year. People were down on us for a long time, even at home, even our own crowd. It took the display against Clare the first day to bring them back to life and only because of them last week we wouldn't be here today.

"Everyone knows what went on after the Leinster final," said Byrne. "Fighting, arguing, everything going on. We had to lift ourselves up. Michael Bond helped us get it right. There was life in that team and it just had to be got out of it. We started to hurl a bit more in training. More ground hurling, a bit of shooting practice. Even with the goalies out of the goals the lads were still shooting, running in and shooting to an empty net.

"That never happened with Babs, never."

If Offaly have reinvented themselves in the space of the summer, one of the architects has been Brian Whelahan. His influence can be gauged perhaps by the magnetic way in which he draws every journalist in the room towards him as soon as he comes through the door.

"To come out on top in Thurles," he says gasping, "nobody gave us a chance coming here, our fitness would let us down they said. We proved today that we have great heart and in the end of the day, heart is what wins games. You know it is just an unbelievable feeling to come off the field today. Thousands of Offaly supporters who have come here, thousands of Clare supporters who are going home disappointed after a long year. An unbelievable feeling.

"We were very up for it today," said Whelahan. "Another bite of the cherry after being very lacklustre. We knew there wasn't going to be another day for us. We were back in training on the Sunday with one thing in mind - to come out here today and come out on top. There is great character in this team."

In the corner quietly absorbing this latest twist was Joe Dooley, the only other member of the Offaly team to have played a championship game in Thurles before Saturday. Memories of 1984 were effectively erased by a team performance graced by Dooley's own magical touch. Five points from play. A windfall.

"There is lot of room for improvement," said Joe, none too giddily. "We missed a good few scores, conceded frees and handy scores, Kilkenny will be favourites for the final - they were the best team we played this year so far. We have a lot of work to do. Kilkenny are the best team we have played this year."

Such was the growing theme in the Offaly dressing-room. So great was their sudden admiration for Kilkenny that the All-Ireland final would be worth while just for the privilege of being on the same pitch.

"Kilkenny are the form team," proclaimed Michael Bond just refuting those who thought that beating the All-Ireland champions in the game of the year might make Offaly the form team. "They are the team to beat this year, you saw how they played against Waterford. They were always in control."

"We are at a big disadvantage having only two weeks. We have to come down, we have won nothing yet, not even a Leinster final."

Offaly may be no-hopers but Bond knows what he is doing. Offaly trained last Sunday and were together five nights last week, once to form a guard of honour at Paudie Mulhare's father's funeral. Experience and adversity is welding them together.

"I don't know the final score but all three games were low scoring," said Bond. "I knew they would be because the backs in both teams are really excellent. The fact that we were playing with five up front, even four up front most of the time, it was hard on our forwards, they had a lot of chasing to do. They worked though, they played the way they were supposed to play."

Johnny Pilkington arrives in looking like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, hair mussed by every Offaly hand which could reach him, skin sallow. Another day in the sun for this charming man.

"Things went bad, very bad in Offaly for a bit there in mid-term. We had to prove it to ourselves. I suppose the stance that Offaly supporters took last Saturday, well for the first time in the jersey, we had to do it for them, it wasn't about us anymore. That's where that came from."

Pilkington is the oddest fellow. They wonder half the time if he is interested in hurling at all, yet with Birr and Offaly he is central to every plan laid. When Babs Keating had to be prodded out onto the plank it was Pilkington who unsheathed the sword first.

"I didn't take a stance," he said, playing it down as usual. "I criticised Babs Keating. I was wrong probably to do it in public. Michael Bond came in and he gave us the confidence. He told us we were as good as any team in the country. We were down on ourselves over three or four years."

Outside in the waning afternoon Clare people are still gathered morbidly around the team bus. The players' lifeless eyes stare out at the throng. Gaiety seems inappropriate.

Anthony Daly is tending to the gear and permits some words to be extracted. The thoughts come in short disconnected bursts.

"We'll have to try and bounce back. They are a great Offaly team, two brilliant saves by the goalie. Some days they go in.

"We won two All-Irelands in four years and if somebody had told me that four years ago I would have said `thanks very much and fair play to you'."

So Clare headed off. Thanks very much. And fair play to them.