THE LOCAL Wexford reporters were hanging on Damien Fitzhenry's every word. They laughed uproariously at his jokes. There was a palpable sense of relief that today wasn't the day when they had to ask their favourite son the hard questions.

The Leinster final on July 6th won't be that day either because nobody expects them to prevail. A valiant performance will suffice.

The QA was motoring along without much notable comment until John Meyler burst into the room with a greeting yelp for his two players, Fitzhenry and captain Rory Jacob. The lads split their sides at the sight of him.

The victorious manager was understandably in great form.

Everyone forgot what the question was. "I think I answered that for you," Fitzhenry added deadpan.

Meyler, who is trying to bring that Cork winning mentality into the Wexford dressingroom, took over proceedings. "What you are looking for in these guys is 70 minutes of consistency. You're not going to get it all the time.

"Even Brian (Cody) didn't get it in Portlaoise last Sunday. Then they picked it up and got a goal before half-time and away they went. This is going to take time and we've got to keep working."

Next up is the ever-daunting challenge of Kilkenny and whether Wexford can somehow raise their standards. "Ask me that at ten to five after the Kilkenny match.

"Dublin are trying to make the breakthrough. We're trying to make the breakthrough with Kilkenny. We're trying to get up to them and we have to keep the hurling going in Wexford.

"You can't expect to win a Leinster minor hurling (title) and six of them walk straight into the senior team. That's not going to happen. You still need Fitzy, You still need Rory (Jacob). You still need Rossi (Keith Rossiter). Young Redmond is 19 and PJ Nolan is 19 or 20, so we have fellas out there."

It's easy to label this Groundhog Day for Dublin hurling until you see the haunted stares of Stephen Hiney and John McCaffrey. They truly believed this would be the year they would test themselves in a Leinster final against Kilkenny.

Manager Tommy Naughton bluntly admitted the decision to chase goals so far from the finishing post was a sign of a team with much still to learn.

"We could have picked them off point by point. I thought there was plenty of time. Maybe there were some bad decisions made but that comes with experience and having been through it a few times. The big difference between Dublin hurling now and years ago is there will be a good minor team next year and the year after and the following year."

McCaffrey noted: "It was our goal to get to a Leinster final. We've got three weeks now to pick ourselves up for another massive game and get ourselves into an All-Ireland quarter-final, where we deserve to be."