In Wexford, 1996 is the glory year, the reference point, the time that stands bathed in gold as fallow season follows fallow season. In a way, the colour and emotion behind that Wexford sweep makes their championship run seem as if yesterday and many of the key players, from Martin Storey to Rory McCarthy are still there. Joachim Kelly also remembers Wexford's year very clearly but now that he finds himself on a pitch beside the faces who wrote that tale, he tends to see it differently.

"In a way, 1996 is a long time ago," he says. "It you think about it, Clare were only just coming strong then and now after last week, you'd have to say that that great team has reached an end of sorts. "I constantly tell the lads now to forget about the '90s. It was a great time for hurling but it's over now, it's a new decade and there is no point in constantly turning to the past," he says. And yet people browse through the Wexford line-up for tomorrow's semi-final and just assume that it represents an attempt to wring one last drive out of a side that's running on empty. Sure, there have been changes - Chris McGrath makes his summer debut after an assured league season, Darragh Ryan is entering only his second season of championship fare and Declan Ruth has just two years of summer experience behind him. But elsewhere, the names are unchanging - Storey's inter-county tales date back to the mid-1980s and he has shared most roads with Tom Dempsey. And the core of the team that won the AllIreland in 1996 remains.

"Well, all I can say to that is that I myself hurled on until I was 37. You see a hurler like Johnny Leahy perform as he did last week and forget that he has been around a fair while now. Joe Dooley had a brilliant year for Offaly there in 1998. Put on the TV and you see guys like Lothar Matthaus still playing for Germany. There are a lot of examples of fellas who perform at a consistently high level even at the later stages in their career and the likes of Martin and Tom are doing that for us. Now, I know it can't stay stagnant, every team needs young lads coming through. But you don't go the other extreme either."

Since the league ended, Kelly has resisted travelling to various grounds on the challenge game parade, opting instead to work on specifics. Although they were competitive during the league, their overall record was average, with narrow losses such as the one against Waterford in Walsh Park. After a similarly thin defeat by Tipperary, Kelly found himself lamenting Wexford's habit of conceding scores as soon as they manufactured their own.

"I would hope that the main difference between our team now and how we were in the league would be in our ball sharpness. That's what we've concentrated on, a lot of quick ground hurling. I think we had begun to reach a good level of fitness by April, so after that it was about coming up to speed in terms of ball work," he says. No one is better versed on the attributes of Offaly hurling than Kelly, one of the banner names when the county made its breakthrough in the 1980s. As he sees it though, knowing his county inside out doesn't give him any particular advantage.

"For the purposes of this game, I have just being trying to divorce myself from the fact that I'm an Offaly man. In terms of knowing their game, well, it's no secret that they have incredibly talented hurlers, as good as they come. Knowing their game and trying to prevent it are different things. But I think that the game itself will be tense, these are two teams that have come up against one another each summer for the past six years. They know each other's strengths." Whereas Offaly famously exist beyond the limits of comprehension, Wexford have been cooped up this past two summers, most cruelly in 1998 when Offaly snatched the Leinster semi-final at the death. What would constitute a successful summer for the team now? "Well, it would be great to win a Leinster title again," says Kelly.

"The thing that strikes me about Wexford hurling is the enthusiasm for the game. I was at the Rackard league final a few nights ago in Bellefield and there must have been 800 people there cheering the youngsters on. It was a fantastic sight. And you know, the men who train those youngsters put as much in as any inter-county manager. There is great time for the game here and the Wexford supporters are incredibly loyal. Jeepers, they'll fill Croke Park for this game. So it would be great for them to see the team get a bit of a run again this year."