LEINSTER CLUB SHC FINAL:WHATEVER ABOUT the 11 weeks waiting around for their AIB Leinster club hurling final, O'Loughlin Gaels have at least benefited with the return of midfielder Maurice Nolan. And the person most relieved about that is O'Loughlin Gaels manager Michael Nolan, who also happens to be his father.

Sunday’s showdown with Wexford champions Oulart-The Ballagh was twice postponed due to the freezing weather – which means neither team will have played competitive hurling since their respective semi-finals back on November 14th.

A few weeks before that O’Loughlin Gaels secured their first Kilkenny title since 2003 by beating Carrickshock in the county final, but it was during that game that Nolan picked up a leg injury that would have ruled him out of the Leinster final, had it been played as originally scheduled.

“He’d a broken bone, a small bone, in the bottom of his leg,” says Michael Nolan. “It meant he hadn’t played a competitive match since the Kilkenny final, so wouldn’t have been involved before Christmas. But luckily he’s back with us now in time for Sunday. So we’ll be at full strength, thankfully.”

Nolan – like his counterparts in Oulart-The Ballagh – has had to deal with the extended break, not helped by the seasonal excesses that usually are Christmas and the New Year: “We just took a full week or two off over Christmas,” he says, “and only really got back into the training on January 1st. But I think they’ve been going well since, and I think everything is back on track. The main hope now is that it won’t be postponed again. It could be cold enough again this weekend.

“Championship hurling, of course, is different, and it’s all about the team that shows up on the day. Whoever does that will win. We can’t really say what our form is going into this, and neither can they, because it has been so long since we played championship hurling. So it really is 50-50 going into this.”

There was nothing much wrong with O’Loughlin Gaels in their Leinster semi-final in November, when they survived a serious challenge from Dublin champions Ballyboden St Enda’s. It took extra-time and 36 scores to sort out the teams, but O’Loughlin Gaels eventually emerged winners, 1-21 to 3-11, and were able to enjoy the short walk back from Nowlan Park to the club house across the road for a celebratory evening.

It was something of an epic, and forced the very best out of the Kilkenny team, including their captain Martin Comerford and the likes of Brian Hogan, Mark Bergin, Brian Dowling, “It was a big win for us,” confirms Nolan, “and we were very relieved to come through. But we know Oulart-The Ballagh will be just as big a challenge again. And we know as much about them as they know about us, because we’d have played each other a lot already in practice matches and over the summer the last few years.”

Nolan has been joined on the sidelines this season by Andy Comerford, who was part of O’Loughlin Gaels’ first and only Leinster club hurling title win in 2003. After three seasons as Kildare senior hurling manager, Comerford joined the backroom team at Loughlin Gaels this season, and has obviously made an immediate and positive impact. “Andy does bring great experience. It’s his first year in with me, and we’re happy to have him. He does more of the physical end of the training, and I look after the rest of it. But he’s been a good addition.”