AS the captains are taking their seats in the elegant dining room of 18th century Dundrum House, Martin Comerford grins self-deprecatingly: "Never thought I'd be doing this when I was hurling with the Brother Pearses in London." But, he has come a long way. When Ben O'Connor, then 19, won his first All-Ireland senior medal five years ago, Comerford couldn't make the county U21 side that were, a week later, to win a consolation All-Ireland for Kilkenny.

Much has changed in the meantime, and since we last spoke with Comerford before the pivotal match against Wexford. Beaten by a last-minute goal, Kilkenny have beaten a vengeful path back into the final for the fifth time in six years. Rarely have they looked meaner. "When the ball went into the net," their captain says of Mick Jacob's winning goal, "I just couldn't believe it. It was a shattering experience but I don't think we deserved to win the game.

"I remember I was out half forward and the ball hit the net. When you saw Brian Cody fall on his knees behind the goal, the first reaction was to scream at James McGarry for a quick puckout and he just pucked the ball and that was it; Barry Kelly blew up the final whistle. So we didn't have a chance to reply."

In the dressing room afterwards Peter Barry tried to accept blame for the goal. It was his attempted clearance that had been blocked by Jacob. "Peter never let Kilkenny down," says Comerford. "It was just one of those things, a great piece of skill by Mick Jacob to block him and bury it at the same time, and Wexford had been doing that all day, blocking down and chasing, so it wasn't a fluke it happened. Maybe it was our destiny for that to happen.

"Peter was very disappointed personally. I didn't really say anything. Peter, being the man he is, stood up and said he was sorry but we weren't willing to accept Peter apologising; it wasn't his fault, it was our fault for putting ourselves in that position in the first place.

"Brian (Cody) was very disappointed, but he just said a few words (that) we're going to have to go the other way now, and you have a second chance, that's the main thing, unlike other Kilkenny teams in the early nineties and early eighties who didn't get a second chance. We were lucky.

"Even on the bus coming home, just the thought of Peter crying in the dressing room after the match was very, very emotional, but the bus was really quiet and nobody said anything. Some difference between winning and losing."

CORK have had their disappointments too. The Munster final defeat to Waterford invited criticism, a match they know they squandered. They drew Tipperary in Killarney and set about redeeming themselves.

Timmy McCarthy, dropped for the Tipp match, is an ideal example. Brought on in Killarney he scored a vital goal and, hey presto, he was a hero again. "Timmy gets lots of abuse but he does a fine job for Cork," says O'Connor. "It just shows how fickle the fans are; he got a cut on his hand and when he was going off there was a fierce roar, and when he was coming back on there was another roar. Whereas the week before they were probably booing him."

Is this upsetting for him? "No, not one bit. Timmy is the calmest man in Ireland. If you told him there's a bomb inside his pocket he'd just look around at you. No panic."

Tipperary was as hard and trying as they'd expected, the first match between the counties in Killarney since the fabled meeting in 1987. But it made them. "With five minutes to go that was still in the melting pot. I suppose the day didn't suit hurling either, it was fairly blustery and the place seemed to be bunched up a lot, it was fairly physical. I suppose that was the pressure teams were under, you're talking about real championship again - if you lose today you're gone."

MARTIN Comerford admits Kilkenny were in a "state of shock" after losing to Wexford, their first defeat in the province since 1997. "Things were very surreal around the Kilkenny camp at that stage. If we lost our next match we were gone. That game (against Dublin) stood to us, we got back the winning feeling, we were back on the road. I think we've improved with every match."

Kilkenny's problem isn't, like many other counties, a scarcity of resources; it is how they utilise their talents. Cody has managed, by force of personality and a driving ambition, to keep their focus sharp most of the time. He rages against the human tendency to slacken.

Comerford is one of his prototypes, honest and hard-working, as opposed to classically skilful. It isn't surprising to hear him talk the same language. "As far as I'm concerned hunger would be 80 per cent of any hurling match," he says at one point. "You know, the hunger to go ahead and win, the drive, the extra thing you're looking for to go beyond."

We are discussing the Wexford match. "We didn't have it that day, we weren't attacking the ball, even our better players, you know, JJ Delaney, Mick Kavanagh, Noel Hickey, in the backs, who've been carrying us for the last few years. Throughout the field, we knew we had to improve and we did improve."

After Dublin came the enigmatic Galway. "I think Kilkenny supporters were very apprehensive going into the Galway match, they thought maybe this was our last hurrah. We could sense it, that the county weren't too confident in us, so that was a huge motivational factor. Brian had us well tutored. I don't think any team would have beaten Kilkenny that day. From James McGarry up, we were on top of our game.

"We would have taken a lot of criticism in Kilkenny after the Wexford performance. Sure, you're meeting the dogs in the street and they're saying you're going to win and you're this and Wexford are that and sometimes it gets through to the players. Kilkenny supporters would be like Kerry; they'd be expecting top-class performances every day. When you put on the black and amber jersey you have a huge responsibility and a lot of great players are after wearing the jersey and you can't really let them down.

"We tried to put our finger on the lack of hunger at the time. A vast majority of it is in the head - if you can have your head right, mentally tuned in, and the hunger; whoever has the most hunger will win on any given day."

Newtownshandrum is proud home to the All-Ireland club champions, thanks in large part to the outstanding form of Ben O'Connor. "There's nothing else down there," he states, "there's no soccer, there's no football. I suppose the nearest thing we have is the golf course in Charleville and there's not too many of us taking that up at the moment."

They used to register football teams as a means of getting more match tickets but when the county board fined clubs for not honouring fixtures that was scrapped. He says he "wouldn't have minded" playing football as well and did so up to U21 level. But they'd never have won an All-Ireland. They claimed a few football titles. "But it was pure running, like."

Sounds like Kilkenny.

Ben is working full-time in the hurley-making business with his father Bernie. From a family of 10, including seven boys, only one - on the distaff side - had no interest in hurling. Sister Paula will play for the senior camogie team in the All-Ireland on Sunday week. His twin brother Jerry has pinned down a place in midfield. Others are following on the assembly line.

It takes 10 minutes to make a hurl. Some go in the post, others are collected. All visitors stop and talk hurling. It's part of the process. "There was a fella who called from Glen Rovers who had Christy Ring's jersey he wore playing for Munster in a Railway Cup final in the fifties and he had photos as well, he'd a rake of stuff about Christy Ring, jerseys, socks, togs, just brought them in to show them to me. His son came down for a few hurleys so he decided to come with him."

Every hurler has his own requirements. "I'd be putting weights and that on my hurleys. A lot of fellas like light hurleys, I prefer a fairly heavy one with a good bit of weight on it. My hurley would be short anyway, I only use a 34, whereas more fellas say of the same height, weight and go as me, would be 35 or 36."

MARTIN Comerford lost out on a possible All-Ireland club medal when Newtownshandrum beat them in a replayed semi-final, a last-minute free from Ben O'Connor forcing the second encounter amid controversy. It hurt badly. His own form didn't rise to meet his reputation and with no team managing to defend their title in Kilkenny since Glenmore over 10 years ago, O'Loughlin Gaels may have blown their best chance.

His Kilkenny form this season hasn't touched the heights of the last two years, culminating in a wonderful performance in the 2003 final against Cork. The pressure for places, he says, means few can take their positions for granted. "Even Henry (Shefflin) comes into training 40 minutes before everyone else and is out on the field taking frees and hitting the ball over and has a lad hitting the ball back to him. He does it in Ballyhale himself when we're not training; it's no fluke that it's happening for Henry."

They pulverised Galway, proving there was life in the team, and a craving for further success. "You'd know with Kilkenny lads whether things were right on the day, even going up on the bus and on that day everything was spot on to avenge the 2001 defeat. Derek Lyng gave an outstanding performance at midfield, he nearly took the head off someone there in the first half which sent vibes out to the rest of us that Derek meant business on the day. Even Noel Hickey pole-axed one of the Galway players early on; when Noel does that you know he means business."

OF next Sunday's opponents, says Ben O'Connor, "they've a different style of hurling to Cork. Kilkenny would be more physical, very good for this hooking, flicking, little blocks, like. They're very tight. At the moment they're so physical in the air. Unless you could handle the ball in the air at the moment you're not considered for the team at all 'cos every one of them seem to be able to pluck balls out of the air. So I suppose they're tough that way and there's a no point trying to mix it that way with them 'cos you're not going to get the better of them."

Last year's setback has underpinned every minute of Cork preparation since. "As soon as the game finished we got into a bunch in the middle of the field, (and said) that we were going to work to get back to an All-Ireland final again. We're after taking the long way but we're there.

"Personally, I didn't go well last year so that's all in the back of your head. You want to be back just to show you can do it on the day. It's a driving force, makes you go that bit harder, when you're doing the physical stuff, out on your feet, dizzy, trying to get sick, and saying 'what am I doing this for?' It drives you on, you think of that and it'll keep you going. So last year's defeat is a big motivating factor for us really although Kilkenny are probably sick of people saying if Cork had taken their chances they'd have won."

"Finals are finals," comments Martin Comerford. "Whoever goes out in the right frame of mind is going to win. Cork were a bit unfortunate last year. It would be great to win it for DJ (Carey) in his last year. Maybe we can find it in ourselves to perform for him on the day. He's after carrying Kilkenny over the years with goals and work-rate so hopefully the younger players can stand up and do it for him."

Twenty eight All-Irelands each. Let battle commence.

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