HOW OFTEN has Brian Cody been through this protocol: express relief at the victory and emphasise the need for improvement? Even after 19-point victories.

"They have fine hurlers throughout the field," the Kilkenny manager said of yesterday's vanquished opponents. "A couple of things can make a difference in a game, and they went our way. If they had sneaked two goals from those frees, different story, different scoreline.

"Everybody respects the quality of Dublin. Certainly I do, and I think there is no way there is anything remotely like 19 points between Kilkenny and Dublin. Dublin on any given day could beat us, it's that simple."

That day hasn't come in the championship since 1942 and the wait goes on for the Dubs, whose widely-touted promise seems farther than ever from realisation.

"We didn't have a game for a long, long time and it showed at times," said Cody. "The scoreboard didn't reflect the nature of the game by a long shot. We got an early goal and Richie Power's goal was the real clincher.

"They had opportunities right throughout the game so we're just happy to win the game, but we'll need a huge improvement for the Leinster final.

"Right throughout the field, really. We probably had a lot of wides we shouldn't have had, and then we should brush up on the hand ball as well, I'd say," he said about the three frees conceded for breaching the new rule on the hand-pass.

His response to Henry Shefflin's breaking of the championship scoring record was utilitarian.

"To be honest I'm more concerned about what he's going to do for the rest of this year. That's the only concern I have with Henry. Henry doesn't need me to talk about him."

His counterpart, Anthony Daly, looked a bit worn from the effort of having to endure the sight of his team getting comprehensively dumped by the champions on the sort of margin that Dublin had hoped was a thing of the past.

"It is hard to quantify it I suppose, a tough day at the office. It was a tough last 15 minutes watching it. Quantifying how hard it was? I don't know - it was as hard as any.

"It is very hard to be positive after it, but, sure, what do we do? We have three weeks to a qualifier and we have got to get ready. We'll get them back in Tuesday night and keep going, that's all we can do.

"Still, I wouldn't be that despondent either. I just think we are not that bad, we are not 19 points off the level.

"But sometimes when it goes away from you near the end the likes of Kilkenny will keep driving it on and adding on the scores. They could have had more.

"In fairness to Gary (Maguire, goalkeeper) he was outstanding. We had our couple of goal chances as well but didn't take them."