"I'd need good luck telling my wife I was going to be that man!" laughed the 34-year-old father of one and primary school principal.

Among the 11-strong list of 'requirements needed from players before we sign up for 2024' was that no-one goes on holidays or touches alcohol between June and October, that they all sign up to a pre-Christmas running programme and that they log everything they do on a tracking app, presumably for management to review.

"I am kind of hoping it's not true, that document," said Bergin. "Sure it's not healthy, it's not healthy at all. You have to treat players like adults as well and there has to be that respect there. Hurling is so, so important, as is football and everything else, but there is a life outside of it too."

The funny thing is, some may have expected new O'Loughlin Gaels manager Brian Hogan to come down hard on his players with a similar no-nonsense set of rules after a disastrous 2022 championship.

They coughed up three goals to Mullinavat in a Round 1 fixture and were beaten by a point, their season over before it had really begun.

Hogan, a seven-time All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny, eschewed the autocratic option in favour of a more democratic and inclusive style of leadership.

"He set out a plan and put it in place, he was very, very fair to us," said free-taker Bergin. "If weekends off were needed, or a couple of weeks' holidays, there was no issue and I think that really brought people together. Once the real stuff started in August then, we were full steam ahead. It was absolutely super, how the management approached it. To be honest, I couldn't speak highly enough of him."

O'Loughlin Gaels, based next to Nowlan Park in Kilkenny city, met Mullinavat again this September and beat them in a quarter-final, took out Bennettsbridge in the last four and then overcame a storied Ballyhale Shamrocks team. It all seemed like a bit of a shock, particularly as Ballyhale are All-Ireland title holders. After that, with Ballyhale out of the provincial picture, the narrative was that Leinster was wide open.

O'Loughlin's have a terrific provincial record themselves though - the 2003 and 2010 winners have won 10 of the 12 games they've played in Leinster - and have made a beeline to tomorrow's provincial decider against Na Fianna with relatively comfortable wins over former champions Mount Leinster Rangers and Kilcormac-Killoughey.

Bergin's accuracy in attack, alongside county panellist Conor Heary, remains a given while corner-forward Owen Wall has pace to burn. But it's at the back where they really dominate with Kilkenny trio Huw Lawlor, Mikey Butler and Paddy Deegan comprising half of their defence.

"There's no strict tactics or anything like that, you just play what you see," said Bergin of their strategy. "That's how he (Hogan) is, there's no rules or orders. It's off the cuff. The lad in the best position gets the ball and that's it."

Opponents Na Fianna, who will be featuring in their first ever Leinster club hurling final, will fancy their chances. It's not Ballyhale they're facing after all. But Bergin will be stressing to his colleagues that this is an opportunity the Gaels simply must take. They might not get another one, as he well knows.

"We were well beaten that day," he said, referencing their dozen-point defeat to Clarinbridge in the 2011 All-Ireland club final. "We were in a good position in the first-half but they got a goal or two before half-time. It was bitterly disappointing. I was only a young lad at the time, in my early 20s. You think you might get another chance but it took six years to even win Kilkenny again and another seven after that to get here now. It's never easy and when you get your chances, you've got to take it."