There's a Cork jersey. A Wexford jersey too. Both clash in colour and in class with the local togs but here and now is about dreaming. It will never be about any more but dreams are enough.

There's also a Derry jersey.

Its occupant is doing a line with one of the other fellas sisters, said he'd give the hurling in this part of the world a go and sure all are welcome.

With three clubs in the county, all are always welcome.

And in a way they're glad there aren't too many more tonight. They train on a fivea-side astroturf pitch, tucked in behind a leisure centre, slinging inaccurate pucks the short distance from one end to the other. It's a space that's easily filled.

"A lot of the guys would be off with their colleges at the moment, " stresses Glancy in between various drills. "We don't worry about them because we know they're doing their bit of work and we'd train on a Saturday so we'd see them then. But I think there is a fairly strong core group of players here and they are very young. It's really a small group of people involved all the time but we're in it for the love of it.

"We enjoy it and it keeps us all going, even if we are about five or six quality players short of making a final in the Nicky Rackard. If we were missing two of our three main players we'd be in trouble.

We don't have an awful lot of back up. But we play and without these people it just wouldn't continue. And I like to keep involved because there are some really genuinely good hurlers and I'd want to keep it going for them alone, so they can compete."

They compete, never going anywhere, happy to be where they are.

Last Sunday Tom O'Hanlon finally had enough.

Kilkenny 0-1, Wexford 5-17.

He trudged into the dressing room and told the players how he felt. It wasn't their fault but he warned them that if this were to happen again ahead of the 2007 under-21 football championship, they need not bother. If the first phone call came the week of the game, hang up. All his life he'd given everything for the sake of his county but pissing into the wind is only a challenge until you realise there's no way to stay dry.

"Dick [Mullins, Kilkenny senior football manger] came to me and asked would I get involved with the under-21 team. But I'd been there and done it all. I was involved first in 1986, I was involved at all levels up until about two years ago as a selector with the seniors, younger squads, there was one year I was a selector for every age group we had.

"So Dick approached the county board in early December, asking would they do something about the 21s. But up until a month ago no one did and there was a bit of a panic at this stage. How hard they looked, I don't know, but that's another days work but they asked Dick to take it on for the sake of getting a team.

The week before the match they called a trial. On the day 14 out of 80 contacted turned up. During the week I managed to get a few more but it's just not right to put a team together like that to play inter county anymore. I did the same thing at minor for three or fours years before I realised and left it there.

"And to be honest I have to put my hand up at this stage and say I wasted hours and days and weeks and years in Kilkenny football. It's just that I always liked the football from when I was young, not that I was any great player, I just tried to help young guys who enjoyed it so much. But it's just that way. It's great at younger levels, guys are enthusiastic at training, mad to play football.

But that changes up the line here in Kilkenny. Dick barely has the fourth best football team at senior. He's not dealing with any of the top drawer players. A guy told me over the phone that the club team were after playing a senior football match in the county and he just remarked the two lads who are going in to train for Kilkenny were the worst two players. Only that they are training with the county they'd have to take them off."

Even so they train away occasionally. If the league reverted to four divisions they'd even go back for more but for now poor efforts are hidden in the shadows. At club level there are still 450 to 500 matches a year. It takes nine matches to win a club football title. Burning down the house to get the flies out of the kitchen, but maybe practice will bring them back some day.

It's nearing 10 o'clock and the cold triggers a memory for Kevin Glancy. It was like this in the 80s, league games on ice rinks in Glencolmcille in November. No matter how primitive it may seem now, he can always find solace in worse. "Things improved but the schools have to be looked at. There was a coach but I don't know the politics of it, but he left and was never replaced. So as it is we're just hoping every year that one or two guys come through and we've been lucky enough with that.

"And for the guys that are here, well the GPA have made a huge difference. It woke the county board up in a way that they are aware of entitlements. When the GPA was formed, the gear started coming. Now we never demanded anything before that so it might be unfair to say that we weren't getting anything because we didn't look for anything. That was never really an issue. But now we get a track suit, kit bag, hurls, helmets, a polo shirt or something like that. Lads are happy enough. And then there's all the mileage and meals after games. Things like that.

"And we deserve it because we take it seriously. We're still representing our county no matter how minor people think this is. We still go out and play for Leitrim and that matters to me and that matters to these fellas here. It's our county. If you don't train, you won't play, just like anything. It can get as heated before and during and after games as much as any other matches. Just ask these guys if they take it seriously."

There's a flicker into darkness and a roar. "Ah for f**k sake could they not give us five more minutes."

Today's game in Monaghan can't come quick enough. It does matter, despite how little the rest of us might care.