AFTER all those years of blinking when the stakes got too high, Wexford's hurlers showed in yesterday's Guinness Leinster semifinal that the acquisition of a couple titles has indeed steadied their nerve.
When the smoke had cleared after a rapid fire final 15 minutes, the champions were still standing after a furious Offaly comeback failed to bridge a gap that had separated the teams by varying distances for all but three minutes of the match.
They can - and in a muted dressing room afterwards indicated that they had begun to - question how they let comprehensive dominance wither away to the point that the result remained in question during an extensive and gripping period of injury time. Tom Dempsey was glum after an afternoon of seven wides including three scoreable frees, but he also managed three points from play as well as one free.
Yesterday, even if the evaporating lead was a reminder of times past, there was a new resilience in the manner they disputed the closing exchanges - right down to a significant cameo in which substitute Eamonn Scallan won a ball in the very zone where a Wexford error four years ago had planted the seed of a famous move that blossomed into a last minute equaliser for Kilkenny in a Leinster final.
Their defence was committed and soaked up enormous pressure in the closing stages, with debutant Eugene Furlong giving a hugely impressive account of himself, notwithstanding a first half slip that allowed Billy Dooley in for a goal.
Centrefield was quick to the breaks and kept the team going forward while the forwards - and particularly last year's captain Martin Storey, who had an outstanding match - punctuated Offaly's closing bursts with scores of their own which maintained the lead at around three points.
In final refutation of their jittery past, Wexford were stabilised by an outstanding display from goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry.
Offaly's troubles are now daunting. The team still relies on players who although still young in years have done an awful lot of hurling. None of the newcomers gave outstanding displays and unless an injection of fresh talent is shortly forthcoming, the county will face a major rebuilding programme with fewer and fewer of their 1994 All Ireland winning team around to assist.
There will be relief that the team didn't get wiped out, as was threatened in the 33rd minute when they fell 10 points behind, but there was also despondency that they ended up coming so close without quite catching the champions at the end of a match which saw them give away two soft goals and shoot 17 wides.
The big question mark over Wexford was whether they had enough of the hunger that helped propel them to last year's All Ireland, their first in 28 years. Whereas there will be more searching tests of their desire in the weeks and maybe months ahead, the evidence of this first defence was positive.
They opened up with more energy and purpose than Offaly. For those looking for signs of terminal decline in the midlanders, there was a fair bit of gloomy evidence. Vulnerable in central defence and scattered at centrefield by Larry O'Gorman's dynamism and the penetrative striking of Adrian Fenlon, Offaly were most unhappy up front.
Deprived of John Troy's orchestrating presence at centre forward, they tried to improvise with Joe Erritty and hope Troy found some space for his lethal striking powers in the corner. It didn't work because when Troy isn't fit enough to make the 40, it's asking too much to expect a telling contribution from him elsewhere. Any chance of one emerging was dismissed early by the excellence of Colm Kehoe at corner back. A move to full forward failed to spark Troy and he was replaced after 48 minutes.
Only two of the selected Offaly forwards managed to score. Billy Dooley capitalised on a mistake by Furlong to round off some good buildup work by Johnny Pilkington with a goal in the 34th minute. Dooley's brother Johnny was the one success story of the attack, scoring seven points, four from play, over the afternoon but even he would be unhappy.
Offaly's first setback arrived in the 10th minute with the score standing at 0-2 to 0-1 in Wexford's favour. Gary Laffan, the shadow of whose menace was beginning to fall on Kevin Kinahan, forced a 65 out of goalkeeper David Hughes. Liam Dunne's 65 dropped into the square, was misjudged by the keeper and ended in the net.
It was the beginning of a nightmare sequence for both Kinahan and Hughes. With some fine point taking from both sides moving the score to 1-5 to 0-3, Laffan struck again. Having completed a good block from the Wexford full forward, Hughes allowed the ball to pop up and Laffan goaled the chance.
With Offaly shooting wides with suicidal abandon, Wexford looked like wrapping up the match by half time with a third goal. This time Hughes was powerless, but Kinahan got cleaned out as Laffan beat him to Storey's long, dropping ball and finished to the net. (Things got better for Kinahan in the second half and he curbed Laffan's influence and forced his man out to the corner but, symbolic of his afternoon, no sooner had he managed to beat Billy Byrne comprehensively to the ball than Storey snapped up the loose clearance and pointed).
As with last year's Leinster final, Offaly responded immediately as Billy Dooley nipped in for a goal and by halftime Wexford's lead was down to six points, 3-6 to 1-6.
The texture of the match didn't change in the third quarter as the teams shared four points to leave the margin at six, but in the 59th minute the match ignited after Johnny Pilkington launched on a solo run from centre field and struck a goal, maybe with the aid of a deflection. Wexford's lead was down to 3-9 to 2-8. Brian Whelehan followed immediately with a solo of his own but hit it short and Fitzhenry cleared.
Michael Duignan was causing Wexford problems after his switch to full forward and the end game was reminiscent of Offaly's All Ireland win over Limerick as they swarmed at Wexford and began shooting points. The difference was that Wexford were returning fire and in the frantic conclusion were outscored by only four points to three.
