A LITTLE over nine months since the county won the All-Ireland in such memorable circumstances, Wexford's hurlers begin the arduous but potentially brief task of defending their title when they take on Offaly on Sunday in a revisitation of last year's spectacular Leinster final.

Wexford have changed manager in the meantime and Rory Kinsella, a selector on his predecessor Liam Griffin's management team, is facing into his first championship match in charge after a League campaign which saw the team struggle to pick up momentum.

"I suppose one of the things I should have anticipated," says Kinsella, "was the incredible interest there'd be in Wexford's performances after the All-Ireland. A few bad results and you're suddenly hearing about `the demise of Wexford hurling'. I should have anticipated more interest from the media. Being a manager, you find the buck stops with you and the media are onto you more often. But I've enjoyed it.

"It has been a great honour to be involved but it would have been very easy to opt out and say `cheerio' when we'd won the All-Ireland and Seamus (Barron) and Liam (Griffin) had to leave for personal reasons. To an extent I'm on a hiding to nothing. Win and it's just last year's team, lose and it's your fault."

Kinsella defends his team's recent form. "Our League record wasn't as bad as our final position suggests. We lost to Kilkenny by only a point, to Offaly by a late goal, to Limerick by two points - no more than a puck of a ball in any of those games. The team was competitive, more than a record of four points from seven games suggests. It was disappointing to go down but not a huge disappointment."

He was happy with the new NHL structure which saw the League begin in March and conclude its regulation matches earlier this month.

"Overall I thought the League was tremendous. There was incredible excitement at our matches, particularly with us being All-Ireland champions. The weather was excellent and there was top-quality hurling in very good going with excellent turnouts. Some teams had to play League and championship matches one after the other and that's something that could probably be sorted out."

Wexford's campaign had been expected to be better. With competitive hurling not getting underway until March, there had been plenty of time to celebrate the first All-Ireland in 28 years and go on an extensive holiday to North America. Kinsella realises the traditional alibi for champions doing badly in the following season isn't available and anyway, he disagrees with much of the pop psychology on the subject.

"I'm not going to use the All-Ireland final as an excuse. Not having done much between September and January meant that we had a good bit of heavy slag and gym work to do when we started back. But this was the same as a lot of other teams. Limerick started at the same time as us and they reached the semi-finals."

Opponents Offaly have had the benefit of two championship matches, an easy win against Meath and an unexpectedly tight squeak against Laois. Despite not having had any championship outing so far Kinsella says he doesn't see the disparity as a huge advantage.

Wexford's team is unlikely to change radically according to the manager. We've tried out a good few. There hasn't been huge change - George O'Connor has retired and Rory McCarthy is in doubt, so there'll be some. Seven new players have been brought onto the panel, a good few of last year's under-21s, but the turnover isn't going to be dramatic.

Last September's All-Ireland opponents Limerick bowed out of this year's championship, defeated by Tipperary last Sunday.

Was Kinsella surprised? "No. I was very impressed with Tipp the day we played them. Limerick have had a long two years and had to stay up for an extended period. Tipperary were determined not to let it slip."

Was there not, however, a chilly warning about the contrasting fate of teams from year to year?

"Absolutely. And when you consider that by six on Sunday, there'll be only eight teams left in the championship and with no disrespect to the Ulster counties and Roscommon, realistically five, it's frightening. It's going to be a long summer for everyone else."

The big question is to what extent Wexford have picked up form in the last few weeks. There won't be the same opportunity to develop stealthily now that they are champions. Kinsella is happy that they are ready.

"They're hurling well now. Because you've won an All-Ireland, everything's compared to the first Sunday in September. Don't forget our first round against Kilkenny last year was not a classic and neither was the next against Dublin. I feel we're going better than that - but we'd need to be."