THE club championships frequently reward those in search of new angles. On Saturday at Nowlan Park, Rathnure launched what has the potential to be a memorable campaign. Being Wexford champions this year is a good start, but other matters also resonate.
The sad passing of Bobby Rackard a fortnight ago has given an emotional dimension to his club's subsequent progress and Rathnure's history in the championships - no club has lost more All Ireland finals, four - is bound to create an interest as they pursue their first All Ireland.
Kilkenny's Young Irelands - DJ Carey and all - are gone but strong challenges lie ahead. Laois champions Camross are next up and Seir Kieran from Offaly are still waiting out there, but Rathnure's well balanced team will be favourites to emerge from Leinster.
A small attendance of around 2,000 saw an entertaining match in lovely, mild conditions. Rathnure's inaccuracy and some top class goal keeping by Martin Carey kept the result at issue until later in the day than the run of play argued but the Wexford champions were deservingly comfortable winners in the end.
Two goals made the difference. The first came in the 18th minute. A move that ran the length of the pitch started with goalkeeper Ted Morrissey galloping out on what looked like one of those madcap Wexford solos of old - except this worked to perfection.
Holohan received and moved the ball into the full forwards where John Codd's incisive burst created the opportunity for Martin Byrne to hammer the ball into the net. It was sufficient to help Rathnure to a narrow interval lead, against the wind, despite a Young Irelands rally inspired by James McDermott's move to centre forward.
The match was evenly balanced until the 39th minute when after a few near misses, Rathnure struck again with Mark Morrissey finishing a long ball to the net.
Their forwards had looked more menacing from early in the match but in the second half, their defence played a significant part in keeping the right result on course. Veteran full back John Conran was in appropriately vintage form and together with Dave Guiney, restricted DJ Carey's contribution to virtually nothing. The loss of transmission from their most influential player was an insupportable burden for the Kilkenny side.
Coach Seamus Murphy was satisfied. "One of our problems all year has been mounting up the wides. I think we'd 14 last week. It's a bit more difficult to put up a high score in this weather and time. But we're happy, we've only had the week since our county final last Sunday. It was a concern just six days after and we lost the services of one of our top players Rod Guiney, a county player. After about five minutes he took a fierce knock on the hand and wasn't really able to take part."
Rod Guiney nursed his nasty looking hand injury and referred to upcoming opponents Camross. "They're not too bad. We played them in the (Carlow) elevens and they gave us an awful hammering."
For Guiney and his inter county colleagues, the road stretches ever on.
