By John Harrington

There’s a reason Kilkenny’s Richie Leahy hurls with the freedom and lack of fear of a youngster playing in his back garden.

His attitude is that hurling is a game that’s there to be enjoyed rather than one to be overly analysed or stressed about.

So when you ask him what he’s favourite position his, he just shrugs his shoulders as if that’s a question he’s never even thought about before.

“I don't really care once I'm getting the ball,” says Leahy. “Anywhere I can get the ball, I'm happy.

“You have to enjoy it, that's what I’ve learned. You can't just go out and get nervous for a game. I want to go out and enjoy my hurling.

“You just love going out and playing hurling whether it's for your club or the county U-21s or seniors.”

Surely though it was daunting to join up with the Kilkenny senior hurling panel for the first time, share a dressing-room with men who were previously childhood heroes, and try to catch the eye of a living legend like Brian Cody on a training pitch?

“Realistically you don't even think about what you're doing, you're just doing it,” says Leahy with a shrug.

“So you still don't really know what you're actually achieving until you're done hurling.

“At the moment I'm just happy to be there. I'm not even thinking about what I'm actually doing. You know that kind of way? I'm just hurling.”

Leahy is almost bemused when you try to delve into his psyche and explore the motivation levels and behind the scenes effort it takes to make the grade as an inter-county hurler, especially in Kilkenny where the bar is set so high.

It’s not something he’s ever really thought about, because for him hurling is simply a way of life.

“I suppose it is,” he says. “You go into the school and you and all of your friends are bringing in their hurls.

“The plan is you go and get your hurls and then you go out and puck the ball around and then go in and study again. Maybe after school you'll go puck the ball around again.

“We're just doing it. We don't know anything different, because that's what we just see. We don't see what's going on in other counties. We're just doing what we do.

“We're just going pucking ball around. We're basically training ourselves pucking over and back and getting the touch in. That's just helping us when it comes to games.”

It’s surely because of that sort of attitude that history doesn’t seem to weigh heavily on the shoulders of Leahy and the other new faces in the Kilkenny team.

They’re following in the footsteps of giants, but don’t seem in any way unnerved by that prospect.

If they were, they wouldn’t have blossomed so spectacularly this year as a new look Kilkenny team silenced their doubters by winning the Allianz Hurling League.

And they won it in the sweetest way possible too, by beating their great rivals Tipperary in front of a huge Kilkenny crowd in Nowlan Park.

“It was lovely,” says Leahy. “It was surreal, now, after that game, just seeing the crowd out on the pitch and everyone slapping you on the back and saying 'well done' and shaking your hand. It was unbelievable, like.

“I didn't really soak it in until afterwards. When you're literally watching it on TV the next day you're just like, 'Jesus'. The crowd that was at it was unbelievable. I hadn't even noticed the crowd beforehand.”

When Kilkenny lost their first two matches of the League against Cork and Clare the general consensus was that they were in a period of transition and wouldn’t be one of the front-runners for the Liam MacCarthy Cup this year.

Their League Final win proves that assessment was wide of the mark.

Leahy’s generation of hurlers look determined to leave their own mark on the history books, but you won’t be too surprised to hear him say their mindset is a little bit more prosaic than that.

“We just have our heads down and we’re playing the game,” he says.

“We’re not really conscious of what was going on around us. We’re just trying to get our game right and be able to win every game.

“Everyone fights for their jersey. We're not thinking too far ahead into the future because you mightn't even be on the team. Your aim is just to try to get the jersey and hold onto it as long as you can.”