Trust those tricky old Cats to spoil a good story. Just when this Leinster final tries to lift off, just when Wexford seem to lift their game and their opposition lose a man, the Cats go back to the well and raise a flood.

Wexford are hit with 1-6 without replay and the purple and gold quickly fades out of Croke Park. By the end it looks as if no one will be left to see Kilkenny lift their Leinster title. Still, Brian Cody won't quite write it off as another convincing win.

"Far from it," he says. "I suppose it's often happened in the past that when a player is sent off it tends to work against the opposition. Although Wexford came at us very strongly after that, for whatever reason, the play seemed to open up and we got the goal. We took control then.

"But still you never know what will happen in those situations. We did impose ourselves on the game from then and, in fairness, our backs were very good. People usually talk about our forwards but our backs aren't bad either."

Better, though, to talk about the forwards. For a start, Charlie Carter. Forgotten over winter and yet here he is getting better with age. A nod past 30 and scorer of seven points from play, more than he's ever done in championship hurling.

"Well the magic stick there helped. But I suppose a few of you thought I was gone. Sure I was only hiding for a while. I'd be small in stature and I wouldn't be one for mixing it on heavy pitches. I like the top of the ground and the fast ball. 'Horses for courses', as the man says.

"But sure I wouldn't be getting those scores unless the boys were working hard from one to 15. Henry broke two or three balls for me and DJ broke two or three balls for me and I just put them away."

It was a game that leaves Wexford with much to think about. Have they anything else to show us this summer, or was that the best they can do? Larry O'Gorman has clear opinions on both.

"Kilkenny were like wasps today. They stung us before we got the chance to knock any of the sting out of them. But we'll get back to training and try to get our minds around it. "We've got over defeats before and bounced back but we still have passion and have hunger.

"Maybe we put too much effort in the last couple of weeks, trying to get over today's game. Maybe we left a small bit behind us but we know it's still there and we know what's still in the tank.

"And that's not the best Wexford has to offer. We were standing tall coming up here and all of a sudden you're shot. That wound will heal, no doubt about it. If people say us training then they'd know the effort we put it. We're not out there to get some sun on our backs."

All suggestions on how to beat Kilkenny are now welcome from the rest of the country. O'Gorman smiles and tries his best.

"Maybe Houdini could come up with something. If he could we would certainly appreciate it. It's only when you get ahead of Kilkenny that they might beat themselves.

"When they're ahead they'll never beat themselves. It's like trying to open a big, hard nut shell with your teeth. It's very hard to crack it and if you can't do it one day you might get another crack at it another day.

"If we could have a got a goal early on I think it would have really set us on fire. Sometimes we took the easy option but Kilkenny seem prepared to take this punishment if they want a goal. I mean you have to be prepared to loose a bit of skin off the knuckles if you want a goal, and today sometimes we took the easy option."

Manager Tony Dempsey is also a little short of words when trying to describe the depth of the blow: "We'd be pretty disappointed, sure.

"At half time I felt that we had contested every ball and played fairly well. And I thought the standard of hurling was very good. The first half didn't worry me, genuinely.

"But Colm Kehoe was a huge loss because I felt he was playing it very well. Larry Murphy was also a loss and we had already lost Kenny Furlong at the last night of training. That can make a difference.

"But on the day Kilkenny were super. They were a different team in the second half.

"The sending off very often lifts a team. And it seemed to open up the game. We then lost our shape but it's not that easy to get goals against Kilkenny. That's it. They're going to take a lot of beating."