It was as horrendous an incident as any player could imagine in their worst nightmares. This is what happened. Laois hurlers are playing reigning champions Offaly in the Leinster semi-finals on June 23rd, 1996. In the 25th minute, with the match already flowing beyond their grasp, Laois trail by 1-6 to 1-1.

Offaly full forward Joe Errity is gifted a chance by a goalkeeping error. His shot passes Ricky Cashin and crawls towards the empty net. Well positioned, Laois captain John O'Sullivan moves in smoothly behind Cashin to cover for the goalkeeper. He intercepts but somehow fumbles the ball and watches as it falls across the line - in front of over 30,000 people.

The following two years of Padraig Horan's tenure as manager were fruitless for O'Sullivan, who was unable to re-establish himself on the panel, although his club form earned a second county medal in 1997.

They were also pretty fruitless years for Laois hurling in general with a moral victory against Kilkenny two years ago followed a year later, against the same opposition, by the sort of beating which defied euphemism.

Even now, the player isn't entirely free to celebrate his recall, as an ankle injury is currently requiring constant ice-pack treatment, but he's confident he'll make the starting line-up this weekend as Leinster's newly installed preliminary round-robin gets underway with Dublin playing Carlow and Laois facing Westmeath.

O'Sullivan hasn't been allowed forget the lapse of 1996 and is well practised at recalling the incident. "I was captain that year and was going to play regardless of a back injury.

"I paid for it that day and I suppose made the whole county pay for it. I had done no ball work for about eight weeks. I was training in the swimming pool, keeping reasonably fit, but in hurling you have to have your eye in, it's so intricate.

"Covering behind the goalkeeper was something I did a lot and I was on the line when the shot was hit. I couldn't believe he'd hit it so badly. I almost started to giggle as I got behind it. When I went to catch it with my left, the ball spun off my fingers."

The immediate aftermath of substitution appeared to cast Babs Keating in a somewhat insensitive light but O'Sullivan acknowledges that his general game that day was more of a problem than the disastrous goal.

"A lot of people questioned Babs that day but I would have to defend him. Before going out on the pitch, he took me aside and asked was I fit. I thought I was two yards off the pace but said to him, `just give me a chance'. I was way off the pace. The way things were going, I'd have had my hand up to the line anyway."

Continually out of favour during Horan's management - even when he was invited back to training on the intercession of last year's captain Niall Rigney - O'Sullivan says: "The Horan years were black for me.

"I was flying it with the club but couldn't get back onto the team. I played in the league against Down but it was obvious I wasn't going to figure in the championship."

Padraig Horan's reign as manager came to an abrupt halt in March. Since last year's championship defeat, a number of established players had drifted away from the team. It became an open secret that they would return when the manager went.

Sean Cuddy succeeded as the new manager and another key appointment saw Pat Critchley take over as coach. Critchley was widely regarded as having been hard done by after a solid year's work was rewarded by a cancelled contract as Laois went for Keating. In the midst of a world tour when approached in March, he agreed to come back.

"He's a players' man," says O'Sullivan. "He knows Laois and he's Laois through and through. He's eccentric but a great motivator and an outstanding coach, whether it's basketball, football - he trained Eire Og to a Leinster championship - or hurling.

"When Babs came in, he took over a good system and the (1996) league run was the last kick of Critchley's team more than anything else."

More last kicks to come.