Reinventing the formula

Those who've ever tried playing the same trick in quick succession can relate to the Wexford hurlers right now. It's hard to repeat the element of surprise, harder still, when the audience expect it. Wexford's last act in beating Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final was a triumph. Tomorrow comes the repeat performance.

Like the perfect sting, every plan and every move fell sweetly into place. Poor form hidden behind evolving tactics. Player intent disguised as player unrest. Finished with the great caper of a last-minute goal to bluff the six-time Leinster champions. All that was missing from that surprise party was an open bar in Croke Park.

In the three weeks since, Offaly will have revisited their every step. If Wexford are going to pull another fast one, then Leinster hurling must again be taken into the great unknown. Wexford's greatest hits, volume two.

"I have to say I would much prefer to be in Offaly's situation," says Wexford's Rory McCarthy. "It's just like old times really. Offaly lying there in the long grass waiting to pounce."

At the older and more hardened end of the Wexford panel, McCarthy still recalls the lean times before the prosperous. He played in Wexford's last two Leinster final wins of 1996 and 1997, but feels tomorrow's story has its best reference point before that.

"Well, if you go back to 1980s, Wexford beat Kilkenny in 1981 in a Leinster semi-final, and then lost the final to Offaly. The exact same thing happened in 1984. And again in 1988, after Wexford beat Kilkenny in the semi-final, and then lost the final to Offaly.

"So look, if history were to repeat itself, then we've done the job of beating Kilkenny, and then Offaly will beat us in the final. That's what history says. So we're there now to try and rewrite that."

Rewriting history, though, is only a small part of tomorrow's task. Wexford go to Croke Park with an almost complete reversal of fortune. Against Kilkenny, they were given no chance; against Offaly they have every chance. The game-plan against Kilkenny was a revelation; trying it again against Offaly brings obvious danger.

It's not about repeating the Kilkenny performance, more a repeat performance - surprises included. Doing that over three weeks as distinct from several months is the real challenge. It's only now the amount of groundwork that went into the Kilkenny victory is being realised: the brave management calls of John Conran; the tightly tailored training under Jim Kilty; the enduring fear that Kilkenny had to be beaten if Wexford wanted a season to remember.

McCarthy looks back on that countdown: "I know that going up to play Kilkenny, the feeling around Wexford and most of the country was that we were preparing for the qualifiers again. But there was real confidence in the team and in the whole panel. But I mean without that there's no point in turning up.

"We hadn't a good league run, there is no denying that. A lot of new lads were tried out, and I don't think that ever allows for a settled team. And we didn't have a settled team for any part of the league. So we ended up with a poor run.

"But I know John Conran wanted to give every member of the panel the chance to impress. That's the way a lot of teams use the league nowadays. But some players just didn't impress. So some of them took it upon themselves to leave, and others were just dropped.

"Still I don't know how word got around that there was some sort of bad feeling in the camp. Maybe a few of the lads that were dropped felt hard done by. But for the most part it was a very fair process. And the panel was certainly 100 per cent together coming into the championship.

"So it was all rumour really. Some of the people that were unhappy might have gone to the press, but I still don't know how it was, or what happened. But I do know a lot of the stories were blown out of all proportion. And we had the 27 or 28 members of the panel that were 100 per cent satisfied with what was going on."

Those rumours though were fuelled on the Friday evening before Wexford's last match in the league, the home meeting with Dublin. The entire panel were seen gathering in the Ferrycarrig Hotel and word got out that revolution was in the air. McCarthy, who is also part of the Wexford players' committee, is adamant that nothing ever came to a head.

"Again that situation was completely misread. We called that meeting purely to discuss tactics. Whoever let the word out that we were discussing something else obviously wasn't there.

"The real situation was that if we didn't beat Dublin we were looking at the play-offs to go down to Division Two. So it was essential that we beat Dublin and we wanted to talk tactics around that. Somehow a story got out to the press that the meeting was to get rid of the management. Which was 100 per cent wrong."

All along though Conran wasn't afraid to drop players where he felt form was dwindling. Declan Ruth, David O'Connor and, most divisively, Darragh Ryan all lost their places at different points of the league, and their form has sparkled since. It was as Liam Griffin recently remarked a classic case of "positive discontent" and it just added to the sense of expectancy surrounding Kilkenny's safe passage.

That alone though wasn't going to oust the All-Ireland champions. Tactically Wexford needed to hit Kilkenny with something different. Kilty's speed-and-agility training developed lightning pace and Conran devised a way of using it.

From Damien Fitzhenry's short puck-outs to the quick but gentle striking of the ball out the field, Wexford quite simply ran away from Kilkenny. Michael Jacob's late goal gave the eventual victory a dramatic air but it's overall execution was much more formulaic.

"We had worked a lot on our tactics," admits McCarthy. "I know we tried them against Galway in a challenge match about 10 days before, and in another challenge game with Cork. We changed them around a little but they definitely worked.

"And I remember we played Galway in similar challenges three out of the last four years, nearly always in Portlaoise. And each time we went up to play them we were beaten out the gate. But then this year it was different.

"But it just means we'll have to come up with something different again on Sunday to beat Offaly. Of course the surprise element is gone. I mean the cat is clearly out of the bag after beating Kilkenny. And I thought Offaly looked very good that day against Dublin. They seemed to play similar enough tactics, moving the ball low into their forward line, and their half-forward line plays out the field a good bit. So, as things stand, the tactics might well be quite similar."

There is room for manoeuvre. The 15 players that started against Kilkenny were selected for a reason, not because certain names were absent through injury. Those same 15 are due to start tomorrow, but the slightly premature nature of that announcement suggests it might be set for the match programme rather than in stone.

Certainly Paul Codd's shoulder injury and Larry Murphy's series of injuries meant neither was ever going to start against Kilkenny. Barry Lambert is due to start again despite fresh concerns about his fitness, and it would be more than a little surprising to hear the announcer in Croke Park tomorrow say "both teams line out as selected . . ."

Last Saturday the panel enjoyed a particularly rewarding 15-against-15 practice match, and it seems both Codd and Murphy are now a lot closer to starting fitness. For now, though, McCarthy is not going undercover into the team selection.

"We've six young, small forwards at the moment," he says. "So we had to devise something to beat Kilkenny. We knew we were planning without Paul and without Larry, which we did, because neither of them was fit to start last time.

"Those two mightn't have the speed of the other lads, but they would add some physical strength. But then we've really only had the week and a half of good training, because we weren't back out after the Kilkenny game until the Wednesday. That hasn't been a whole lot of time to change things around."

McCarthy at least is well settled at right-half back - a change from his more familiar role at either midfield or wing forward.

Yet, there are several uncertainties that remain. If beating Kilkenny was Wexford's peak. If Offaly are about to peak. If Wexford's confidence will be enough to balance the heightened sense of expectation.

"Look," says McCarthy, "all that Kilkenny match meant to us, purely, was that we'd won a Leinster semi-final. That's as far as it goes. I don't think it will be worth anything to us unless we go ahead and beat Offaly."

Not even the suggestion of perhaps playing Kilkenny again further down the line in the qualifiers is going to take McCarthy's focus away from Offaly: "We're not worried about any other game right now. If we beat Offaly then we're in the driving seat, just like Waterford are after beating Cork in Munster. And if we come out of this I feel we'll have the confidence to beat any team in the country.

"But look, if Offaly beat us then they're set up for the summer. So there's an awful lot at stake on Sunday."