WHEN Martin Storey leads Wexford into tomorrow's Leinster hurling final against Offaly, he marks the end of an encouraging 12 months for both himself and the county.

Free from the confines of Division Two, Wexford have already taken Offaly's scalp in the National League quarter final, a rare competitive victory, and followed it with a first championship defeat of Kilkenny in eight years.

A year ago, under the new management of Liam Griffin, Wexford were licking their wounds after failing to secure promotion from Division Two and having put in a poor performance against Offaly in the provincial semifinal. Rows simmered beneath the surface as Liam Dunne had been temporarily stripped of the captaincy after playing for his club Oulart The Ballagh in the week before the Offaly match.

Martin Storey, also a member of Oulart, hadn't played for the club but was carrying a debilitating groin injury which needed surgery but was finding it difficult to locate a suitably quiet date to facilitate surgery. After Wexford's exit, Oulart were going strong in the direction of retaining their county title in a campaign that took them all the way to a second Leinster final last November.

The problem for both Storey and Wexford is that he has for a long time been the county's most consistent hurler. By preference a midfielder, he is needed closer to the goal because his striking offers the attack more possibilities than anyone else's. Five points from play, some of them, breathtaking, against Kilkenny in the first round of the championship illustrates the point.

"His contribution to Wexford has been extremely good," says Griffin. "He was probably, more of an individual before but is now much more of a team player and has played a captain's role.

"He is a more rounded player now and there is more fire power in the forwards with emerging players. Martin's begun to realise that now. It has been difficult for him in the past to take on the amount of trust necessary in the rest of the team. Now he has more reason to be trustful."

Storey's own form has been considerably sharper since successful surgery, performed by former Meath All Ireland football winner Gerry McEntee. The procedure ended over a year's discomfort.

"There was a soreness before the Leinster club final in 1994," he said. "But I thought it was a torn muscle. I went to Dr Dillon in Carlow and he diagnosed Gilmore's Groin (a torn muscle from the lower stomach to the scrotum) so I had it checked with Gerry McEntee. He said yeah, it'll need surgery but that I could get up to six months out of it.

"When I started back, it wasn't too bad. It was niggling all the time and I struggled for a whole year before it flared up really badly. I was eating anti inflammatory pills and pain killers.

"I had trouble lifting my leg to strike the ball and couldn't turn on my left side to strike. I had to jump off my left for a ball rather than the right which would be normal. Things like that.

"Before a match I'd pile in the pills so that I wouldn't be sore afterwards. The soreness would set in by Tuesday but I'd be able to play. There was a risk I could get a strangulated hernia but you should be in hospital within an hour from most matches. I eased off towards the end of last year and had the operation on December 8th."

It was a propitious enough time to get the problem sorted out. Wexford had hurled profitably during the autumn and winter and were top of Division Two. There was, however, no quick return for Storey.

"I didn't realise how sore the operation would be I was doubled up. There was intensive retraining after the operation. I had a training schedule which wasn't easy. The day after, I had to walk for 20 minutes and then tour by 10 minutes and then four by 20 leading to jogging, sprinting and striding. It helped me maintain some level of fitness."

Having come back for the end of the regulation league campaign. Wexford's captain was on his way to recovery during the county's knockout run to the semi finals where they lost to Galway.

Manager Liam Griffin always maintained that enough was learned from the league campaign to strengthen his hand considerably for the Leinster first round against Kilkenny. Gradually the targets for the year had been met.

"Liam has a very clear mind when he sets his goals," said Storey. "We all sat down and talked at the start of the year. He's a down to earth man and outlined his plans and the commitment involved and told any one who had doubts that they could leave if they wanted.

We had a chat before the league and decided the major aim would be to get into Division One. We won Division Two and reached the semi finals.

"After that he said now, we aim for our second target which was to beat Kilkenny. He's brought good belief to us. Against Kilkenny, nobody outside the panel believed we were going to beat Kilkenny. But the actual, selectors and the 30 of us we believed we were going to win.

"We worked hard in that match. Kilkenny got on top, as would happen because you'll always go through a bad patch like Limerick last Sunday. If things don't go well for a spell, you have to deal with it.

Given Offaly's very obvious ascent of the gears in the Leinster semi final against Laois, pessimists will regard last year's championship, rather than this April's league quarter final, as the most useful precedent.

Then All Ireland champions Offaly were lack lustre and eminently catch able but Wexford's failings were familiar ones. "We missed a lot of chances," said Storey. "And that's always analysed severely when you lose. When teams win All Ireland titles by a point, no one takes any notice of 25 wides.

"You get fed up losing. Once you don't win, you have to accept it but there's no comparison between getting up after winning and after losing. I'd say we are unlucky not to have had success before now but it takes a long time to break through.

"Standards are set and levels of achievement. Promotion was achieved but I wouldn't put that down as an achievement. Not personally. We shouldn't have been there (Division Two) in the first place."

Tomorrow, in the county's fourth Leinster final in five years, Storey will be hoping to inspire his younger colleagues to the specific achievement that has eluded Wexford for 19 years.

Even without reaching that height, they will hope to proceed to at least the level where short term ambitions rely more on fulfilling potential and less on the law of averages.