FOR the first time since the autumn, hurling will hold sway in the weekend's fixture list. The All-Ireland club quarter-final in London will feature Athenry and St Gabriel's, while in Waterford, the final of the Waterford Glass South East League takes place between Tipperary and Kilkenny.

This competition has been one of the subsidiary competitions running in the last couple of months to fill the gap in the calendar caused by the National Hurling League's re-organisation.

Both the South East League and the Oireachtas have given counties the opportunity to experiment with new players in a manner that even the old, pre-Christmas League - with the pressure on teams at least to avoid relegation - didn't really allow.

Among the interested observers of next Sunday's match will be 1995 All-Ireland champions Clare, who ran out winners of the Oireachtas by beating Kilkenny in the final. They had treated the competition as a good opportunity to combine some gentle conditioning with taking a look at new talent.

After losing their Munster and All-Ireland titles in the epic provincial semi-final against Limerick last June, Clare had a long break before picking up activities in autumn. It's been more hectic than expected, according to their wing forward cum midfielder Jamesie O'Connor.

"I suppose most fellas felt that with the League changes, they'd have a break until Christmas. But we went back and trained a couple of nights a week and in the gym. And the county board got a panic attack and scheduled a few matches for the 1997 League, so we almost ended up doing more work than in the past.

"Anyway, fitness levels have got to such a stage that you couldn't have fellas inactive for six months. We took the Oireachtas seriously, it gave us a chance to blood new guys which we wouldn't have had in the League.

"Our first match was against Kerry. They were just coming off the back of a bad beating and were terrible. Then we had a tough old battle with Laois, and the games against Galway, Waterford and Kilkenny were every bit as competitive as the League. Waterford went out to win it and we only caught them with late goals.

"We might have had four League matches before Christmas. We ended up with five in the Oireachtas. Galway weren't at full strength, Waterford though were close to their full 15 and Kilkenny put out a fairly strong team. In terms of blooding new players, we re very happy.

From a personal perspective, he sees the old League as having presented difficulties in terms of motivating players - the exception being the season before Clare's great championship run when the team deliberately targeted League victories as a way of rebuilding morale. A year later, it was all very different.

"Pre-Christmas in '94, we were coming back from a disappointment and the team had been inactive for two or three months. We were eager to get back and there was new management, which created a curiosity factor and meant that established players were looking over their shoulder a bit.

"Last year, though, was a bit of a disaster. We went down to Kerry and were beaten which meant we had to, get our act together in a hurry."

O'Connor feels that the demands of top-class hurling now require a certain flexibility together with a fairly constant level of fitness. He believes that the low-pressure atmosphere of the Oireachtas and South East League has allowed teams to build up slowly towards heavy training in the new year.

"The way inter-county hurling has gone, the days of fell as hibernating and pulling their boots out of the bag in March is gone. Teams have to use time wisely. Fellas in busy club campaigns, management can afford to give them their break, and others who need training on a regular basis can get it.

"I think there'll be seven or eight new guys involved with us next year. A lot of counties are going to find themselves operating squad systems. They'll be careful about over-using guys and maybe use more than the 15, 18 or 20 players we've been used to."