"I OFTEN wished when you'd be sitting at home looking at the All-Ireland on the telly after getting bet in a Leinster, final and maybe a League final and you'd say to yourself, `well, will we ever be feckin' up there?'. The greatest moment for me was when I walked up, before I ever got the cup (after the Leinster final) and looked out and saw Wexford people where you'd normally see Kilkenny and Offaly people, Cork, Clare or Tipperary. But these were actually Wexford people there cheering us."

Martin Storey's reflections on a lengthy wait indicate something of the frustration that was dispelled this year when Wexford broke out of Leinster for the first time in his long and distinguished career that can trace itself back to the days when, aged six, he would be brought to county training sessions by his godfather, Jimmy Prendergast who hurled for Wexford during the nearly days of the 1970s when three All-Ireland finals were narrowly lost.

Mick Jacob, of the same era, was another influence in his local club Oulart-The-Ballagh which has since developed into the most powerful in Wexford.

It has been a frustration sharpened by his parallel status as one of the country's best forwards, apparently imprisoned in the under-achieving embrace of a county that could never quite get it right on the big day.

This year's triumphant progress, to date, has seen Storey travel a similar road to that walked by all great individual talents before they experience collective success. His natural instincts have had to be subordinated to a team plan. In the past, the number of shots attempted by him had a fair bit to do with the uncertainty of his colleagues.

Now he still attempts more than anyone else but there is less panic about, and less dependency. Storey himself is modest or blase about the captaincy that he took on this season after Oulart retained their county championship.

"It's a lovely honour that we won Leinster and I got the cup but again it doesn't actually add any pressure. I don't find it any different, I mean I'd be one of the lads who'd always be shouting and roaring anyway. It's no great difference.

Wexford manager Liam Griffin has, however, seen a great change in the player. After fraught beginnings which included Storey's clubmate and predecessor Liam Dunne as county captain - Dunne was stripped of the captaincy for playing in a club match before last year's championship meeting with Offaly - the manager and the present captain enjoy an easier relationship.

"He's part of a team and a changed man, deep down. I've been delighted with him and he's delighted he's the captain; it's forced him to look at things differently.

"He's not mad about authority and sometimes that could easily be interpreted as malicious, you know he shoots them off the hip. I think he does want to be agreeable but you could have conflict with him if you wanted. When I came in, I thought he was a bit a loose cannon you'd never know when he'd go off but now I'm very fond of him and see him as having a presence, which I didn't originally."

For his part, Storey has always been irritated by the gloomy questioning that has been part and parcel of being a losing county's most recognisable personality. He has always been inclined to bemoan Wexford's bad luck, particularly in 1993 when they lost both League and Leinster finals after replays.

Now he credits Griffin with bringing two crucial ingredients to the team a sense of confidence and self-belief plus a sense of unity and team spirit.

Storey's effectiveness as a player has also been helped this year by an operation to repair a groin injury which painfully inhibited his hurling for the previous 18 months. His performances this year have registered both improvement and development, according to Griffin.

"We would have developed a role for him as we went along. For a long time he was very much a lone player up front. He's changed completely and in my view is a far more complete player, prepared to do the donkey work.

"I think his individual role is more effective. He's not nearly as predictable. Forwards who do the same thing all the time get copped-on to quickly. He's come from being very good to being numbered among the great forwards. Martin Storey would have got on any Wexford team that left the county - on any team - and that wouldn't always have been my opinion.

Storey's tendency to feint outside his man but cut inside has been noted but Griffin has noticed other elements of his game that have changed subtly for the better.

"Not trying to pick up every ball, for instance, being very conscious of playing to a team plan. Even instinctive players need a plan. Martin's more comfortable with it now and has adapted to it, well. He's been very consistent and there's been days when he played well and it wasn't said, when he's been happy to move the ball 15 yards because that was the right ball to play.

Against Kilkenny, it was Martin that blocked down John Power in the dying minutes when they were looking for a goal. He was at midfield then and he came back and dived in to block. He's been more aware and got through a lot of unseen work."

In the dressingroom, after that landmark victory over Kilkenny, Storey made the point that he wasn't exactly sure why he was never used as a midfielder except at club level and in tactical switches during county matches. Griffin is aware of the possibilities offered by the player's versatility but unsure of the benefits of deploying him in the centre.

"That's probably an instinct with him. Martin Storey is always being man-marked. Midfield is looser and gives him greater scope but I think the forwards is where he's best for Wexford. We've moved him there (midfield) twice this season. It was a success against Kilkenny; it wasn't against Dublin. He can be a bit loose in the middle but we could do it again."