Conran makes strong case for a little more respect

Damien Fitzhenry stands in the Wexford dressing-room with four hurls carefully lined up beside him. We look on them as magic wands. Carved ash with the power to make a team Leinster hurling champions. Without them the background noise mightn't be so stereophonic.

"No, nothing different about them," he says, "Same ol' hurls."

The hurls that four times during the first half of yesterday's final kept the Wexford dream alive. Fitzhenry gives them a passing glance and then describes the feeling.

"Look, that's my job on the field, to go in front of the goal, and try to stop a few shots. It was just one of those days that I stopped a few shots. More days than not they go in past you and there'd be nothing about it."

A penalty is certainly meant to go past the goalkeeper. Corner back Malachy Travers is on the bench next to him and jokingly takes some of the credit for that stop. Fitzhenry responds by paying tribute to his defenders.

"We decided to take a man apiece in the second half. We were all over the shop before that, and that's why we were under so much pressure. And I thought we regrouped well at half-time."

Outside in the passageway manager John Conran starts up his tributes with Fitzhenry. "He was incredible," says Conran, remarkably relaxed for a man who'd just led Wexford to their first Leinster title in seven years.

"And I mean super. But then he's like that every day. I've been saying it for a long time that Damien Fitzhenry is the best goalkeeper in the country. Day after day he brings us out of the muck when we really should be going down. And he kept us in it up to half-time."

Conran then spreads his praise around. Paul Codd was always up their sleeve as the trump card and the likes of Declan Ruth and Adrian Fenlon gradually soared.

"There is tremendous character in this team. It's their third All-Ireland semi-final in four years, and people are still writing off Wexford hurling. I think we have to be acknowledged as one of the best in the country now.

"But the conditions were tough, and made it hard to play nice, cracking hurling. So it was about grafting performances. And experience is a great thing, and we've been at the wrong side of losing Leinster finals for a long number of years. Offaly, in particular, have been our killers on a number of occasions."

From here then to the All-Ireland semi-final. Might seem like an eternity: "We'll have a bit of a bazzie for a day or two," Conran admits. "And it is fantastic to win the Leinster final. But there is more out there that we want to do, and we'll get very focused on winning that semi-final."

One last tribute to Fitzhenry before departing the scene. John O'Connor comes in with the Leinster trophy, a fantasy reward after only his second championship match with Wexford.

"Without Damien we were dead and buried," he says. "Simple as that. He made some magnificent saves. But I mean you'd nearly expect that from him now."

O'Connor, though, epitomises the fresh confidence in Wexford hurling. Nothing to lose anymore. Time for some luck.

"It's great to live out a dream alright. Even if the cup is nearly as big as myself. And I'm a bit jammy, I know. But I'll take that too."

So to Mike McNamara, who stands gracious in defeat and warns that Offaly will only come back stronger from this.

"I think this team is on the rise again. But that means taking in these kinds of days. Our plan still is for the future, because we have a young team. And we needed everyone to play really, really well if we were going to win today. Most played up to form and some above it, there were a few little dips here and there.

"But when you get to the spaces of Croke Park, and come under the pressure that Wexford present, you must have reservoirs of strength. On a few occasions we didn't have that.

"And if you create goal chances in Croke Park you have to take some of them.

"And Brian Whelahan was lost at a vital time, with the match in the balance. And maybe Wexford felt they'd an upper hand after that."