Seán Moran finds Larry O'Gorman not backward about going forward to lead the Wexford attack in the latest Leinster final clash with Kilkenny

Larry O'Gorman is 34 and enjoying his 16th season as a Wexford senior hurler. A prominent member of the All-Ireland winning team of six years ago, he was chosen as GAA Writers Hurler of the Year for that 1996 campaign in which he had alternated very effectively between wing back and centrefield. It is five years since the county won the Guinness Leinster hurling championship but last year the team had an unexpected run to the All-Ireland semi-finals where they took eventual champions Tipperary to a replay, courtesy of two goals from O'Gorman, who had been moved to the forwards.

Since then he has become a permanent fixture at full forward, again scoring two goals in last month's Leinster semi-final against Dublin. He captains the team this season.

Despite an encouraging start, last year's Leinster final against Kilkenny went very badly for Wexford. Why? "It's hard to know what happened. We sat down afterwards with Liam Griffin and he asked our opinions. I said I thought we had done too much heavy, physical stuff and not enough hurling, particularly not enough ground hurling. I think the feeling was if we worked hard there'd be no excuse. But there was too much talk about Kilkenny, Kilkenny, Kilkenny. Maybe we were a bit brainwashed by the end. In the second half I felt we were looking around and wondering what had happened.

"I'd say Kilkenny don't worry too much about Wexford. They just think about the game they're going to play. But we were sitting down before that match talking about how we deal with this, how we deal with that and sometimes because of that your hurling goes onto a smaller page. We seem to be getting the balance better this year.

"Last year we changed the training pitch after the Leinster final because the Wexford Park surface was new and didn't move fast. So we moved to a faster ground and practised the simple things, striking, picking, relaxing, not getting too caught up. It instilled a sense of enjoyment."

The influx of young players last year improved the team. But is there a danger that early scores conceded tomorrow might demoralise the players? "We've worked on it, spoken about it. Not to panic if Kilkenny get early scores. We played Galway in a challenge recently. Ger Cushe (full back in 1996 and current selector) was saying: 'This is our championship, lads. It starts here. I want you to go out there and tear into them as if they were Kilkenny in the Leinster final.

"So we went out and by about 10 minutes we were 3-3 down. To zero. Barry Lambert got a free and we woke up a bit. We managed to get it level before they scored a couple in injury-time to win it. But it was a good challenge. Galway said they wanted a physical game. Things hotted up and all of a sudden we had a great game and we didn't panic when we lost early scores."

What's the mood like in the county? "The hype around it is getting bigger and bigger. A lot of the younger players maybe had doubts but more and more, the players are convinced. We're not just going up to march around Croke Park. There's a new panel and the under-21s have progressed.

"A lot of our momentum came from the Limerick match and a good few of the players involved haven't yet experienced a Leinster final against Kilkenny. The under-21s (who have beaten Kilkenny twice in the last two championships) gave a massive boost. A couple of them, I'd say, have hardly lost to Kilkenny and will have a lot of confidence going into it. People come up to me the week before the match:

- 'How will we do, Larry?' - 'I really think we have a chance'.

- 'Keep taking the tablets, Larry'.

"It's a question of belief."

How has he found the transition to being a full-time forward? "At club level I've played full forward or centre forward. Liam Dunne will tell you I've been known to score a few goals off him in challenge matches. At county level it's a different role, almost like getting a promotion. It's like you're an employee in defence working hard to clear ball but up front you get to take the big decisions. I enjoy it. People would have said to me I'm an inspirational type of player, that I could get a score when the team really needed it. Davy Morrissey says I can get the crowd excited, rise the team and the atmosphere. That's flattering but it gives you a great sense of satisfaction.

"People say 'Larry O'Gorman is good under a high ball'. But low or high doesn't matter. It's the challenge that matters. In defence, you catch the ball and drive it on. Now it's more complicated. It's not all about scoring; you have to block your man, don't let him clear decent ball. It can be frustrating. Backs seem to see twice as much of the ball. Play in the forwards is broken up a lot by frees. You have a guy standing right beside you, standing on the back of your heels and pushing a hurl into your neck."

What is a realistic target for Wexford this year? "Our League this year was about 20 per cent better than last year, although we didn't qualify. The goal for the year was to qualify for the Leinster final and win it. We knew there could be hiccups. Dublin under Fennelly had changed to a good quality team. Self-belief let them down.

"So for us it's not important that it's Kilkenny. We know the colour of their jerseys but we want to get our hands on Bob O'Keeffe (Leinster trophy). We're not going out to skin Kilkenny. We're going out to win no matter who we're playing. There are 15 Kilkenny fellas in front of us and our job is to stop them playing and match them point for point and score for score."

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody expressed reservations about the new surface in Croke Park. What was your impression? "I've been playing there since 1987 and it's a whole new field. It was immaculate. In certain areas it was bouncing a bit different. The floor was harder or softer in certain areas but the ball was moving well and everyone was quite excited about it."

Has the team drawn any inspiration from Waterford's win last week? "It could send out a warning to Kilkenny. But it was great to see. Waterford had an answer to every Tipp question. No, I remember 12 months ago after we lost the Leinster final. We sat back afterwards and Ger Cushe started talking to us. "We'll be back again," he said. "This isn't finished lads. We'll rebuild this and we'll be back."