Tomorrow's Guinness Leinster hurling championship meeting of Wexford and Offaly will be the sixth in successive years. It is one of the most reliable indicators of the counties' respective standings.
Only in the magnificent 1996 final when Wexford won with a damburst of late scores did the script go against expectation. It nearly did last year when despite being badly hit by injury, Wexford came within a last-minute goal of winning the match.
Which is where we come in. Unlike many other pairings which can be legitimately questioned on the basis of how the teams have performed since last year, this is simply a championship match between two vastly experienced teams. Offaly are All-Ireland champions but face into the new season with an array of players unchanged in key areas for the best part of a decade plus a few injury doubts.
Wexford have got over the worst of their injury difficulties but have been beset by rumours of disharmony in the camp. These have been vigorously denied but the fact that a team captain and his players feel that they have to release a statement assuring everyone that all's well isn't the greatest of preparations for a crucial championship match.
The team has already had one championship outing, against Dublin who ran them to a point. A benign interpretation of this result is that Wexford, having established total control in the first half, took the foot off the pedal with nearly disastrous results. Looked at less understandingly, the performance suggested a team going at less than its best.
Offaly's injury list has led to three vacancies but the best guess is that Kevin Martin will be fit to play wing back and Joe Errity will be fit to slot in at centre forward. After that, it's between Billy Dooley and Michael Duignan for the corner-forward spot, depending on fitness tests.
No one should be too surprised by the outcome to this match. There's been little between the teams in recent years but at the moment, the mood favours Offaly. The team may be getting on and are always as capable of mediocre displays as they are of brilliant ones but they are also All-Ireland champions and will benefit from that status.
Little has changed on the team in the last year or so with the exception of centrefield where Ger Oakley and Paudie Mulhare line up together as a new partnership. Johnny Pilkington is on the wing, but will probably switch into the middle at some stage. Levels of fitness elsewhere are still to be gauged however.
That won't be a problem for Wexford, but the slow loss of morale may well be. Regardless of relationships within the panel, the team is growing old. A further year of influential performances is needed from Martin Storey, Larry O'Gorman and Tom Dempsey and it's Liam Dunne's first championship for two years since breaking his leg.
Neither Dempsey nor O'Gorman has been going that well, Storey has to be affected by a series of injuries which have prevented him training through the spring and Gary Laffan returns from injury with question marks over his match fitness. The announced line-up is unlikely to remain that way for long.
Robert Hassey played well last year at centrefield and is likely to move there while Storey and Paul Codd will probably be deployed in the positions where they did so well in last year's match - which is not of course the ultimate arbiter of form as Declan Ruth loses his place after an indifferent display against Dublin.
Despite Offaly's shortage of options and Wexford's greater resilience in recent championships, the All-Ireland champions' defence looks too strong for an opposing attack which has been performing somewhat below par and a team which has struggled to post a convincing performance this year.
The Teams
WEXFORD: D Fitzhenry; C Kehoe, G Cushe, S Flood; R Guiney, L Dunne, L O'Gorman; A Fenlon, R McCarthy; L Murphy, R Hassey, P Codd; T Dempsey, G Laffan, M Storey.
OFFALY: S Byrne; S Whelahan, K Kinahan, M Hanamy; B Whelahan, H Rigney, A N Other; P Mulhare, G Oakley; J Pilkington, A N Other, Joe Dooley; John Dooley, J Troy, A N OTher.
