When Joachim Kelly explains that he isn't the type to be fazed by pressure, you're inclined to believe him. Down in the gym in Templemore, life ticks by as usual and doesn't really feel any different for him now that he is Wexford manager. The phone hasn't stopped ringing though and he is discovering that everyone wants to ask him about his new role.

"Sure what is there to ask?," he muses in that deadpan Offaly way and goes ahead and answers before the questions are asked anyway.

"I'll be straight open from the start and say that I'm not going to be affected by the pressure that comes with the territory now. The build-up to an All-Ireland final now is virtually unrecognisable to 10 or 15 years ago and the level of expectation has increased with that.

"I think that the burden on Brian Cody and Jimmy Barry Murphy this year was a bit unreasonable, to be honest. I think that around Kilkenny, there was a real expectation that the team would do it and that really placed the onus on the management team. All I can promise to do is develop the skills of the players that are in Wexford, train them, ensure they are fit enough to compete at this level and organise the line during games. After that, if we win, great. If we don't well, so be it, you just have to get on with things."

Kelly gave the Wexford offer plenty of consideration before accepting it.

"Well, clearly it is something that will be time-consuming but I have been involved with teams throughout my career and it is an aspect of the game I enjoy. I think there is much to be optimistic about in Wexford and don't really see it as a time for major rebuilding in the county. What we do need to do is find a few young fellas to bolster the existing group and blood them over the winter. But I'm sure that by next summer, Wexford will be ready to make a serious challenge in the championship."

After Wexford's escape against Dublin last summer and their subdued outing against Offaly in the Leinster semi-final, popular talk suggested that their party days were done for the time being. For three seasons, Rory Kinsella had gallantly stoked the embers of the 1996 spirit but it wasn't enough. The length of time the sub-committee took to draft a list of suitable successors only gave credence to the perception that it was a job which prudent men would shy away from.

"I think I'd have a fair bit of knowledge about the Wexford game from coming up against them over the years and talking to lads I'd know from the area," Kelly says. "It's a county that has always produced good hurlers, probably better than their record suggests. There are still plenty of fine hurlers to be found there.

"And the fans there are the best you could find, loyal without being demanding. I mean, the Clare supporters have been great for the game and I would obviously have a special fondness for Offaly supporters who have been brilliant to their teams over the years, but there is a special bond between Wexford people and their hurlers."

Kelly was previously in charge of Westmeath and his managerial experience is traceable from his time as an Offaly selector in 1995 through club stints in Limerick and Kildare right back to his native club in Lusmagh, with whom he won a county title in 1981.

As a player, he played centre-field on the Offaly team that confirmed the emergence of a new hurling order in 1981 and he was still at midfield when the county took a second All-Ireland four years later. He remains one of Offaly's most high-profile hurlers.

Kelly is as well acquainted with the breaks of this game as much as anyone and knows there is only one way to begin.

"Saturday morning in St Patrick's Park in Enniscorthy. I'm hoping to have my two selectors in place by the weekend and then we'll go along and have a look at the lads, have a chat with them. We'll take it from there."

And bring to where, precisely?

"Well, if you look at teams like Offaly, Clare, Kilkenny and Cork, they each won two All-Irelands during the 1990s. Wexford are still looking for one to follow on from 1996 but have enough of the players left to still do it. Another All-Ireland is what we'll be looking for."