OVER the past few seasons, Ballyhale Shamrocks have overtaken Birr as the dominant force on the Leinster club hurling landscape. In the same period, Ballyboden St Enda's have featured prominently among the chasing pack of pretenders.

Yet their paths haven't crossed -- until now.

This Sunday, the three-in-a-row champions of Dublin will enter the Cats' den for a daunting Nowlan Park joust with the four-in-a-row kingpins of Kilkenny. It's a huge ask for Liam Hogan's men but the prize on offer is a tantalising one -- a place in the Leinster final against unheralded opposition, either Tullamore or Clonkill.

One man is better positioned than most to judge the respective merits of Ballyboden and Ballyhale. Padjoe Whelahan managed Birr to a fraught one-point win over Boden in the 2007 Leinster club final -- and then a 12-point cakewalk against the same opposition in last year's quarter-final.

ONSLAUGHT

Birr had reached that '07 decider by brilliantly toppling Ballyhale the previous month. In mitigation, the then All-Ireland holders were minus Henry Shefflin and Cha Fitzpatrick through injury, and when battle resumed in last year's Leinster final the two All Stars were back and Shamrocks stormed out of the first-half blocks before surviving a late Birr onslaught to win by five points.

Here, surely, was definitive proof that Ballyhale were the new Birr of Leinster hurling, especially given they had already walloped the Offaly men by 1-20 to 1-8 in the 2006 Leinster final. Padjoe was merely a spectator in '06, and the galling image of their second-half collapse may well have played a key part in convincing him back into the Birr hotseat.

This year, for once, Birr didn't even make the starting line in Leinster -- ambushed in a county semi-final by a Tullamore side who went on to annexe their first Offaly title in 45 years.

That defeat still rankles with Whelahan, not just because they duly kissed goodbye to another Offaly five in a row but also because he "wouldn't have minded a crack at Ballyhale this year".

In a nutshell, he doesn't believe Shamrocks are playing with the same verve or consistency of previous campaigns. Their quarter-final win against Oulart-the-Ballagh was a memorable affair, but Ballyhale still had to claw back an early nine-point deficit to eventually prevail in extra-time. That came just a week after another taxing triumph against James Stephens to complete their historic four-timer in Kilkenny.

"From what I have seen so far, I think Ballyhale are not as good as other years. The backs are not as good. They have made a few switches. They are depending on two or three guys to carry them at the moment," he argues.

As far back as last February, speaking to the Evening Herald ahead of their All-Ireland semi-final against Portumna, Whelahan had identified Ballyhale's defence as their likely Achilles' heel.

Joe Canning and co duly capitalised, and the former Limerick boss is still not convinced. Previously, Fitzpatrick would track back from midfield to provide an extra half-back shield but Cha, he maintains, is "not playing as well as last year or the year before." Up front, there is no shortage of scoring potential but Whelahan still spies an over-reliance on the in-form TJ Reid for scores.

So far, so positive for Ballyboden -- until Whelahan declares: "At the end of the day it's down to hurling and I think Ballyhale have the edge. I can't see Ballyboden beating them."

His downbeat assessment may be partly based on events of last season, as opposed to the last month. He attended the '08 Dublin SHC final on a spying mission, with the winners facing Birr, and came away believing Boden "weren't as good as the year before". That impression was franked by events in Parnell Park, where Birr produced a first-half masterclass en route to a 12-point mauling of the shellshocked Dublin champions.

Sunday offers the first provincial chance for Liam Hogan and his players to exorcise that painful memory.

Yet Whelahan expresses concern about the dual demands placed on Shane Durkin, Simon Lambert and Conal Keaney, arguing: "You can't just drop a hurl, go play football for two weeks, and then pick up the hurl again." Perhaps even more so when you're playing the Kilkenny champions on their own patch."

Whelahan can't let the occasion pass without lambasting the contrasting schedule faced by the winners of Sunday's delayed Galway SHC decider between Portumna and Loughrea.

Ballyhale must win three Leinster matches to reach an All-Ireland semi-final while the Galway champions get a free pass to the last-four. "Next week they can throw away their hurls and they're into an All-Ireland semi-final," says Whelahan, who doesn't blame the individual clubs but decries the system as "completely crazy".

The solution? Bring all Galway teams -- club as well as county -- into Leinster's embrace.

"They changed one grade to suit the Galway seniors, and then Laois upset the whole jam tart by beating Antrim. I thought they should have done it for everybody -- minor, U21, senior, club, the whole lot.

"They (Portumna) are a good team, but it would be nice if they got more pressure put on them to win an All-Ireland," he concludes.

- Frank Roche