and no, we're not blaming them, we're simply saying "bah" very loudly . . . had to go and stick some football match in between them. If anyone is looking for the Tribune at around 3pm, try Quinn's. Rant over.

One hopes for his own peace of mind that Brian Cody didn't pop over to Nowlan Park for the Offaly/Wexford semifinal three weeks ago, the danger being that he might have been lulled into not a false sense of security but an apparently true one. Wexford 0-9 Offaly 0-8? In June? On a bone-hard pitch? Please.

It was emphatically not such stuff as McCarthy Cup dreams are made on, except that Wexford folk don't dream of McCarthy Cups in early summer. What much of it was, however, was such stuff as is calculated to give Kilkenny plenty of it today. And that's even before we add, as previewers of meetings between this pair are obliged to in order to fulfil the terms of their contract, stock phrases like "always rise it", "sight of" and "black and amber jersey" to the mix.

Besides, remember that had the one-point margin gone in favour of the losers rather than the winners, we'd be expecting a slaughter of the innocents today. Because it didn't, we're not. Logical? Not in the slightest. But Kilkenny/Wexford clashes aren't always bedfellows of logic.

The lesson to emerge from Nowlan Park was that while the Wexford forwards don't have the heft to go to town, their defence has the nous and the hurling to prevent Kilkenny going to town. Allowing for Offaly's deficiencies in attack, Declan Ruth has never looked more commanding, Richie Kehoe was a revelation on his championship debut, Diarmuid Lyng should in future not be given any jersey other than the number seven, Malachy Travers hurled more obvious ball than usual and Doc O'Connor, for all that he resembles a giant liable to be taken to the cleaners any minute by some nippy little forward, never sinks. In attack young Stephen Doyle, who accounted for a third of his team's total, handsomely justified his advance publicity. But Des Mythen's absence is a blow of a magnitude that Kilkenny could shrug off whereas Wexford cannot.

Limerick's meltdown has left the National League final worthless as a form guide. On the plus side for Kilkenny, Michael Rice, their big find of the competition, has recovered from injury, Cha Fitzpatrick is in sparkling form and expect Henry to do some duty at full-forward; his siting there will give him scope to drift out to the corners and leave space inside. (Very Cork, that. ) But Richie Power has lost his way and badly needs to produce what he's capable of if called on. For the manager to field Donncha Cody, moreover, is both to make an easy target of the son and to fashion a rod for his own back.

Because every championship match of significance this summer is played in the shadow of Shandon's steeple, the real issue today surrounds not whether Kilkenny win, or how much they win by, but the mobility . . . or lack thereof . . . of their defence. The Cork half-back line is not their concern just yet.

The favourites, despite the bizarre look of their selected forward line, by four or five.

After a struggle.

KILKENNY J McGarry; D Cody, JJ Delaney, N Hickey; J Tyrrell (c), J Tennyson, T Walsh; D Lyng, R Mullally; E Brennan, J Fitzpatrick, M Rice; M Comerford, E Larkin, H Sheffiin

WEXFORD D Fitzhenry; M Travers, D O'Connor, K Rossiter (c); R Kehoe, D Ruth, D Lyng; E Quigley, C Kenny; R McCarthy, D Stamp, PJ Nolan; S Doyle, R Jacob, M Jordan

LEINSTER SHC FINAL KILKENNY vWEXFORD Croke Park, 4.00 Referee D Kirwan (Cork) Live, RTE 2, 3.45