Hogan still haunted by ‘baptism of fire’ in 2004

YOU can’t get away from 2004, it seems, whether the occasion of Wexford’s last Leinster hurling championship win over Kilkenny is raised either by players from either side or in direct response to media questions.

Brian Hogan treasures the All-Ireland medal which he won last year — starting at centre-back but dropping back to the edge of the square after Noel Hickey went off injured — but he will never forget what happened four years ago.

It was his debut game, playing alongside Peter Barry, with his (O’Loughlins) club-mate Sean Dowling on the other wing. He remembers it as a “baptism of fire”. And, before Kilkenny got back to the All-Ireland final through the backdoor, he had lost his place. One year later he was again pushing for a place and didn’t have any better luck in 2006, but he never lost hope. “That’s just the way it is in Kilkenny. Every year is history and you’re hurling on your current form,’’ he said, accepting he was losing out because “the other guys were hurling better”. To the outsider, that might be hard to accept, but Hogan points out that the players readily accept the situation as it is — regarding it as an incentive more than a hindrance to making progress.