KEVIN MARTIN has enjoyed some great days and some grim ones against the stickmen of Kilkenny. In a few short days, we'll know which category the Leinster club SHC final falls into but -- in advance of the challenge -- one word springs to mind. Gargantuan.

This Sunday's O'Connor Park showdown (2.15) is the quintessential David v Goliath encounter. Ballyhale Shamrocks belong among the pantheon of club giants, possessing such decorated stars as Henry Shefflin, 'Cha' Fitzpatrick, the free-scoring Reids and Fennellys.

Tullamore, meanwhile, are gate-crashing the provincial party -- last month's Offaly SHC crown was their first in 45 years. Scary or what?

It is "without a doubt" the biggest challenge that Martin has faced in his two years managing Tullamore, yet he doesn't sound overly daunted by the prospect. On one hand, he readily accepts Ballyhale's credentials as a "serious team -- from midfield up especially, they are awesome".

But he also maintains that "Birr would be as good as Ballyhale any day. Last year Birr could have beaten Ballyhale". And last October, lest anyone around O'Connor Park forget, Tullamore beat Birr.

More of that famous ambush later; back first to the four-in-a-row Kilkenny champions. "It's not a big thing for me to play Ballyhale -- I played these types of players before. It's just for the younger lads, and the experience they will get from it," muses the recently-appointed Westmeath senior boss.

The hard part for Martin, however, is that he's still playing. So he must try and win his own individual battle while worrying about 14 others -- but not overly so, for fear of losing his own on-field focus. Hence, he will lean heavily on selectors Christy Geoghegan, Alo Lawlor and his brother PJ Martin this Sunday.

An All Star in his two All-Ireland winning years of 1994 and '98, Martin is older now (36), the legs aren't what they were, and his playing brief has evolved from the wonderfully athletic, even dashing, wing-back of yore to one of wily target man. As this historic campaign has developed, so too has Martin's playing role. The team had meandered through the group stages of the Offaly championship, drawing two games but losing three, safe in the knowledge that a place in the knockout stages was guaranteed.

RAGGED

They easily accounted for Ballyskenagh in the first do-or-die clash, but then St Rynagh's ran them ragged for the first half-hour of their quarter-final. "At half-time it was looking bleak. I think we were nine down," Martin recalls. "Then we just clicked in the second half, and it just lifted from then -- we were starting to hurl like last year."

Modesty obviously prevents the manager from mentioning his own role in their resurrection. He came off the bench after 37 minutes of the Rynagh's game, bagged their first goal, then supplied their second for namesake Shaun Martin. The local press described Tullamore's eventual 3-12 to 1-17 victory as a "miracle" comeback. For the semi-final against five-in-a-row-chasing Birr, Martin was initially of a mind to reprise his bench role. But with a stiff wind blowing down O'Connor Park, the sideline brains trust concluded there was no point bringing him on for the last 20 minutes if there was no ball coming in. Martin duly started for the breeze-backed Blues -- and finished the game, which ended in a famous 1-17 to 2-12 triumph.

He did likewise in the final against Kilcormac/Killoughey, scoring 1-1, and also played the full hour of their Leinster semi-final against Clonkill 11 days ago.

Surely, though, Martin never dreamed that a Leinster final was on their '09 horizon? "To be honest, no way!" he concedes. "I always thought we could win an Offaly championship alright, but we never really thought of a Leinster final. It's great that we are here. We got the rub of the green with a bye to the semi-final."

Last year, he points out, they were playing "serious hurling" before suffering a quarter-final KO to Kilcormac/Killoughey. Earlier this season, he purposely didn't train them hard in the knowledge that they'd still be around for the knockout rounds. That Rynagh's comeback was an obvious turning point -- thereafter he "knew they were coming right at the right time".

AUGURY

On the flip side, even though Clonkill are "better than people think", Tullamore's nervy three-point win over the Westmeath champions is scarcely a positive augury for Sunday's shootout with Ballyhale's heavy artillery, Shefflin and TJ Reid especially.

But as Martin points out, Kilcormac were hitting huge scores all year but only managed 0-11 in the county final. Clonkill went from averaging 1-19 to scoring 1-9. "I have no doubt, if our backs are on song as a unit, Ballyhale will get it hard to get scores off them," he predicts.

As their tallies suggest, the marksmanship of Shane Dooley and Francis Kerrigan is critical to the cause -- but Martin also saluted the team's overall fitness, describing his midfield duo of James Keane and Shane Kelly as "probably the two fittest men in the county".

Come what may on Sunday, Martin's next move will be into the inter- county arena with Westmeath. "They wanted me before the county final and I just said 'Lads, I am waiting 20 years for a county final. I will talk to you after'. I suppose it's not every day you get asked to manage a county team. But though I was not expecting it to come so soon, I said I may do it when the chance comes," he explains.

With the carrot of Liam MacCarthy promotion awaiting next summer's Christy Ring winners, the Offaly man believes this should provide ideal incentive for the likes of Darren McCormack, Andrew Mitchell and Brendan Murtagh. Even if Westmeath go the distance, however, their season should be over by late June -- so he plans to stay in charge of Tullamore "if the club want me".

Recession or not, here's one job that looks bullet-proof.

- Frank Roche