First he announced the team that would be going to the papers; then he named the team that would be going to war. Ben O'Connor wouldn't be risked from the start. Cian O'Connor would. As the huddle broke up, virtually every member of it made straight for Cian to offer their congratulations, including his clubmate Brian Corcoran.

First they shared a handshake, then a joke. "Come here, " smiled Corcoran, "it's a bad sign when you have two Erins Own backs in the forward line."

That Cork forward line has long been a source of comic material, and more, the object of some serious derision. A forward line with Timmy McCarthy on it for eight years? A forward line that can win two All Ireland finals without a second forward scoring three points from play? Three-in-a-rows are not made of these. The more this Cork attack marches towards greatness, the less standing it enjoys.

Because the closer it goes to the three in a row, the more it's compared to the last forward line to win three in a row. Jimmy. Charlie. Gerald.

Cummins. Leary. Not forwards but legends.

"From number one to 10, this Cork team compare very favourably, even possibly ahead, of the team of 30 years ago, " Ger Loughnane wrote on the eve of the Clare game.

"But from 11 to 15 not even one of them would have made that team. [Joe] Deane and Corcoran would make the subs; the rest wouldn't even have been considered. This is the flaw that is going to scupper Cork's chances this year.

Their forwards just aren't good enough."

Though Deane made a case for inclusion the last day, Loughnane would maintain his argument still holds.

To get away for a third year with so many key players free from injury and with that forward line is asking too much.

Inevitably the law of averages will catch up.

Corcoran will offer a rigorous defence for that attack.

To appreciate this forward line, he says, you need to realise they don't think like a conventional forward line. It is precisely because of their adherence to the law of averages, to playing the percentages, that they keep on winning. Look back at the video of the Clare game: Joe Deane kills a Gerry Quinn clearance on his stick and dispatches it over the bar.

Niall McCarthy had halfblocked Quinn's clearance.

Later, Kieran Murphy deflects Gerry O'Grady's clearance and instead of travelling 60 yards it only travels 25, to Jerry O'Connor who duly points. Off camera, Corcoran runs over to Murphy to say, "That's your point!"

Because on this team, this forward line, it is.

"Number one, we really have the attitude that we're the first line of defence, " says Corcoran. "We try to make sure the opposition's defence are hitting ball under pressure so they're not able to pick out low ball into their forwards. Some forward lines are great when they're in possession but they don't want to chase back or defend or hook and block."

Then there's the puckout.

While this unit might not be the greatest or prettiest exponents of forward play, they've redefined it. "The day of just lobbing balls down on halfback lines is gone. So you need to create movement and you need guys who are fit and who can run. Timmy [McCarthy] is one of those guys. He has no problem taking a wing back for a run and opening up space for Niall and giving Donal Og [Cusack] options. Cian is the same.

He'll run all day for you."

It's that selflessness that Corcoran loves about Timmy McCarthy. All the time that people were claiming McCarthy's limitations were holding Cork back, Corcoran felt Cork's limitations were compromising McCarthy.

"I've said it all along, Timmy was always playing on the wrong wing. This is the first year in ages he's playing at 10 but it makes a huge difference going to catch a ball. When he had been playing on the left wing and outside his man, he had no way of guarding his hand.

If you can't protect your hand, you're not going to catch it. Now Timmy can protect his hand and catch.

The other thing about Timmy is the support he offers. I know if a ball goes out to the wing and it beats Joe and I have it, Timmy will be bursting through to take the pass."

Another point Corcoran wishes to make; there's a reason why Tom Kenny and Jerry O'Connor stand in with them for the national anthem.

"The two midfielders are part of our forward line. The whole eight is the attacking force."

Thinking of it in those terms, is there a better attacking force in hurling?

In parts of Cork, they reckon that attacking force could be even more formidable.

Especially in Ballyhea. Cork have a habit of winning games because they routinely win second halves.

They lose a lot of first halves though. Why invite the grind, the scare? Why not start Neil Ronan? It's almost been like the selectors have been waiting for Ronan to have a bad game and Kieran Murphy to have a good one. Even when their patience with Murphy snapped last week, Ronan was again overlooked.

Go back through nearly every game of that summer of '99. Two kids from north Cork were rookies and neither is playing particularly better than the other for the first 50 minutes. Then one of them is taken off; the other justifies been kept on by scoring a point. Neil Ronan could so easily have been Ben O'Connor. It's hard to believe that once Ben O'Connor could have been Neil Ronan.

It wasn't just a JBM thing.

In Tom Cashman's year in charge, Ronan single-handedly changed a league game against Waterford from midfield. The following week against Tipperary he was taken off after 25 minutes.

Donal O'Grady and John Allen have been similarly distrustful. Last year against Waterford in Thurles Ronan sacrificed his own game to create space for Deane; his reward was to be whipped off at half-time. While he is prone to taking the occasional ill-judged low-percentage shot, who doesn't?

In sport psychology they call the trend the coaches' selffulfilling prophesy. Where the Ronan example bucks that model is that the player himself has yet to conform to the coaches' expectations of him. Ronan sees himself as an All Star, not a supersub.

Corcoran can empathise with both Ronan and Allen.

His hunch is that Allen has mad the same calculation as the old Boston Celtics coach, Red Auerbach; if you start with your best players all the time but don't finish with all of them, then aren't you automatically weakening your team when you start making changes? Auerbach coined the idea and term of the sixth man. In Ronan, Allen sees hurling's ultimate 16th man; someone who will improve a team's level of play during a game, not just maintain it.

"Neil is possibly the most versatile forward we have, " says Corcoran. "He can play anywhere across either forward line except possibly centre forward. So if anyone is struggling, Neil can come straight in; there's no need for a whole series of switches. John recognises that."

Corcoran himself recognises something else. Whenever the team has been struggling, different individual forwards have stepped up. In the first half of the 2003 Munster final, against Tipp in Killarney in '04, it was Niall Mac. In last year's Munster final it was Murphy and Ronan. Sometimes it has been Corcoran himself, sometimes it has been Ben, and more often again, Deane.

Maybe Clare last month was Deane declaring that for Cork to win the three in a row, he was ready to resume the dominant role he had around the last time Cork played Tipp in Thurles, or maybe it was just his time to step up.

Whatever, he and Corcoran have always realised one thing. Individuals win games; units win championships.

And this forward line is a unit.