"You could say it's the last supper and whoever performs on the day takes the cup," declares Willie O'Connor, eyes creased as he cracks a smile.
Over 11 years, O'Connor has all but patented one particular image; that of a fiery, diminutive defender bursting free from a dustup in the corner and delivering a clearance with ferocious intent.
O'Connor is an inscrutable figure who makes it known that he doesn't suffer fools. For the purposes of a bit of peace, though, he is fielding questions on Kilkenny's PR night in Nowlan Park, dressed in regulation strip and throwing out half-committed answers coloured with off-hand cute hoorism. As we join him, he is considering the vagaries of time. He has long maintained that the intercounty scene has been drained of fun, that he hankered after the days when himself and the brother Eddie and big Christy Heffernan would travel from Glenmore for training in the back of a van.
After Kilkenny were scythed down by Offaly in last year's final, O'Connor wondered if he might let it go right then. Said he'd take time to think about it, but found himself on the road for the training ground when the new year rolled around.
"I said I'd see how I felt after a couple of weeks and started back with the lads, but I didn't really bother hurling for the league - we had a baby daughter, Michelle, and I'd a lot of things on my plate."
Unsurprisingly, he found that he yearned for the cut and thrust. By the league semi-final against Galway he was back in the heart of it.
"We were down after that day against Galway. Had to pick ourselves up and go on. Winning . . . it's like a carpet, you know, it covers over a lot of the cracks."
Are there cracks in Kilkenny? "Time will tell," he shoots back.
O'Connor speaks of Sunday with a furrowed brow, as if he is equipped to explain the breaks of the game no better than the rest of us.
"Ah, there is a bit of confidence there all right and John Power is back and Henry Shefflin is a new addition. Whether that will swing it for us, I don't know. I hope it does. Without them, we wouldn't be this far. You need a bit of luck but sure, you need a bit of luck even if you're just crossing the road."
On Sunday, he will face a player who embodies everything O'Connor does not; the lithe, gliding, easy-talking Seanie McGrath. It's hard to imagine Willie O'Connor being bothered too much by who he shoulders up to.
"No, when you go out on a field, there are so many things you can think about if you want to. Hopefully you get the first ball - but there is no point in being too `up' for claiming that first ball, because if you don't get it, well, where do you go then?" he asks.
So is this an admission of vulnerability? Could it be that the last of the gunslingers suffers from nerves?
"Ah, sure, I'm always suffering from nerves," he says, and damned if his eyes don't narrow. "Even nervous talking to ye lads."
Dead before we could even draw.
Willie O'Connor
Club: Glenmore. Age: 32.
Occupation: Sales representative.
Height/Weight: 5'7"/12st 5lbs.
Honours: 2 All-Ireland SHC (1992, '93); 5 Leinster SHC (1991, '92, '93, '98, '99); 1 All-Ireland Club SHC (1991); 2 All Stars (1993, '98).
