AN end-of-year sunshine holiday had to be cancelled when his team won through to next Sunday's Leinster Special Club Junior Hurling Final, but St Sylvester's manager Padraig Duffy has no complaints – as long as they win!

The Malahide men booked their place in the decider with a 1-11 to 0-9 win over Greystones at the weekend, and now host Offaly opposition in the shape of Edenderry for the provincial crown.

But having never won an adult county title – let alone a Leinster one – until three weeks ago, many of the Sylvester's players and management team had made other commitments for early December and have now been rushed into making contingency plans.

'I'm missing out on a holiday to Tenerife with a few mates for this,' revealed Duffy. 'They're going without me now.

'But never before have we played in a Leinster final and we're going 20 years, and so I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to be in one.

'It's not just me though. Loads of lads are rearranging work and coming back from holidays early and there's not a word about it. They're loving it.

'We weren't thinking about Leinster at the start of the year. We were thinking about winning our own county championship. After that we reassessed things and decided we wanted to give Leinster a go.'

Lining out for the final next Sunday will be a tall order for St Sylvester's, as this will be their fourth consecutive weekend in action, with the quarter-final against Ratoath going to extra time and then a replay. But Duffy will be offering no excuses about tired legs if the result doesn't go to plan.

'A match every week is what you want. It's better to be playing than training and we should be getting fitter the more games we play.

'We certainly won't be beaten for fitness or fighting spirit.

'I believe Edenderry have Cillian Farrell in their panel who was on the Offaly teams in the 1990s that won two AllIrelands, and they are going to be a strong team with good hurlers.

'But after that we won't be worrying too much about them. I haven't had a chance to see them play and we will take them as we find them on the day.

'We'll certainly be going at it with both barrels.'

Sylvester's have no injury worries ahead of the final, and there was no word at the time of going to press over the eligibility or otherwise of Andrew Richardson, who was sent off in a recent Under-21 match.

Sunday's final is due to go ahead at Broomfield at 2pm, although the ongoing bad weather could see arrangements changed at short notice.

- Marcus CAVAROLI