Murphy looks to future challenges

You get the whole range of emotions in the aftermath of a provincial final - from the pumping high of victory to the shuddering low of defeat - and yet such emotions never went to the extremes after yesterday's Leinster hurling final.

The self-satisfaction that came with Kilkenny's moment of victory will always endure, but it was suspended when manager Brian Cody had to rush out of Croke Park to attend to a family illness. Although Cody doesn't show much emotion at the best of times it was clear his thoughts at that stage were on anything but hurling.

Wexford manager Séamus Murphy thus walked into a surprisingly sombre Kilkenny dressingroom to offer his formal words of congratulations. Given the nature of their victory he had reason to believe they would be ecstatic. Yet the nature of Wexford's performance also brought some consolation to Murphy. His team had pressed Kilkenny every step of the way in a game Kilkenny were supposed to win without rolling up their sleeves.

"I knew this Wexford team was up for it," starts Murphy, who only requires the slightest of prompting before entering a long monologue. "I knew from coming up on the bus, and everyone approached the game with great confidence and self-belief. When they hit the pitch they were right for it, and played some tremendous hurling from the start. You cannot allow this Kilkenny team to get a start on you, because you know you'll be chasing it to the death.

"So I think we can take a lot from this, maybe some more belief and confidence, and add a bit more consistency to our performance. So hopefully this game will stand to us. There's a lot of hurling to be done yet."

Watching Wexford bolt into a 1-5 to 0-1 lead was particularly satisfying, and yet Murphy accepts his team couldn't quite sustain the pace until the break: "Yeah, I think if we did slip up anywhere it might have been the last 16 or 17 minutes of the first half. We'd done so well before that. I thought the referee made some dubious decisions after that. I've nothing against that because maybe they were the right ones, but little things like that in a game like that can make a difference. If we had a cushion of two or three points at half-time I think we really would have been in pole position."

Kilkenny captain Peter Barry then emerges to act as spokesperson for his team. Like so many of his team-mates, Barry improved as the game wore on, but he plays down the suggestion that Kilkenny had to dig a lot deeper than expected.

"Sure every game you play you have to dig deep," says Barry. "And of course we did. To win a provincial title you have to dig deep. I know we won well against Offaly but you still dig. I was little bit worried though, because it was our turn to come strong near the end. At some stage another team will always come back at you, and we were holding out. They could have got another goal there near the end."

Barry must have been thinking about a year ago, when Michael Jacob blocked his late clearance and scored the match-winning goal. Yet Barry was convinced history wasn't about to repeat itself, and there were no flashbacks. "No. Psychologically that's been thrown. We'd a lot of therapy and that, so we're fine now. But seriously, last year is gone."

He was, however, a little worried when Wexford started tearing into the scoreboard: "I thought there were a couple of points in it, but then I looked at the scoreboard and couldn't believe it. But I knew it was early enough and we'd plenty of time to get back.

"And the one thing about us is that we don't tend to panic. Maybe some day that will be our downfall, but we didn't panic today. We were being run ragged for a while, but at some stage you'll get your periods on top. And when that happened we took our scores and got back into the game. Still to me it doesn't matter about the result as long as you win, because when you come off the pitch after every game you know you've dug deep. You're still broken up and tired and you still want to go to bed."