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Wexford Hurling Thread

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Replying To Slowandshortsighted:  "Talking to a friend who was at the practice match in carlow. Granted a practice match. He was to send me on what he think was the team. Conor foley at 6. Oisin pepper,wickam,French.corey. he said kk gave half a game to richie reid,deegan, donnelly and shane murphy who would be deemed near starters. Two missed penalties would of put a better completion on the scoreboard. He said kk won by about 14 points but they had someone like John donnelly to come on and get a few points. Everyone in the county knows this is a rebuild especially if jippo and conor mac don't commit. The most optimistic wx supporter is dreading the day lee retires. The show will go on without him but its important as many players can be blooded this year. Div 2 will give keith the chance to blood players and it won't be the cut throat of div 1. Dublin and clare will give management a idea where the team is going. The friend was a bit dejected driving back to wexford after a bad enough beating but finishing in the top 3 something that hasn't happened for a few years has to be number one target. The players aren't there at the moment but underage hasn't exactly being that successful. Kk at least were getting bet in u20 and minor finals. Daveys team was backboned by leinster u21 winners Liam dunne had started to blood so I'd be calling on the county board to go back to the start and try win leinster at minor and u20"
Based on everything I am hearing from home Wexford's first target has to be to not get relegated in league or championship.
Might sound alarmist but its a fact. I think Wexford have been off the pace, not helped by non-commitments and there is only so much Rossy can do if players won't give it. I'll not judge any player for travelling as I have loved my time abroad before I move home this year.
But I hope Wexford beat Kildare in the opening round but hands on heart who would be confident of that right now?
How many Wexford players are playing Fitzgibbon this year, compared to the Munster counties, Galway, Kilkenny and Dublin even?
We just are not producing the hurlers and underage results have shown this bar 1 good minor team that beat Cork and lost narrowly to Clare we have beaten nobody of any significance at underage in years.
These are the facts and this is where we are. Negative - yes. But more realistic than negative.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1943 - 15/01/2026 13:47:48    2651162

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Let's not get too carried away about a meaningless challenge game in January.
The real business starts in the league.
The young inexperienced players will learn from each game and hopefully some of them will have improved sufficiently to make the first team.
Maybe the plan is to rest Jippo,Chin and Mac until the later rounds of the league so as to keep them fresh before the championship begins. As all three are prone to injury its probably the right tactic.

Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 581 - 15/01/2026 14:01:45    2651168

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Was just looking at an article in the paper about Wexford's demographics and it said that the GAA's model expects Wexford's population of the 6-11 age group to fall by 25% by 2040; that seems a bit hard to believe? Can certainly understand certain areas in the South falling but you'd have thought that that would be counter-acted by growth in the North. Thought the county's population was slowly growing on the whole and didn't think it was all older people coming down to live here either

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 779 - 15/01/2026 14:14:13    2651172

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Was just looking at an article in the paper about Wexford's demographics and it said that the GAA's model expects Wexford's population of the 6-11 age group to fall by 25% by 2040; that seems a bit hard to believe? Can certainly understand certain areas in the South falling but you'd have thought that that would be counter-acted by growth in the North. Thought the county's population was slowly growing on the whole and didn't think it was all older people coming down to live here either"
That's an odd one alright but there would be a considerable number of Dubliners who'd retire here, not to mention family sizes are smaller and parents are waiting longer to have kids

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4140 - 15/01/2026 14:28:29    2651173

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "Based on everything I am hearing from home Wexford's first target has to be to not get relegated in league or championship.
Might sound alarmist but its a fact. I think Wexford have been off the pace, not helped by non-commitments and there is only so much Rossy can do if players won't give it. I'll not judge any player for travelling as I have loved my time abroad before I move home this year.
But I hope Wexford beat Kildare in the opening round but hands on heart who would be confident of that right now?
How many Wexford players are playing Fitzgibbon this year, compared to the Munster counties, Galway, Kilkenny and Dublin even?
We just are not producing the hurlers and underage results have shown this bar 1 good minor team that beat Cork and lost narrowly to Clare we have beaten nobody of any significance at underage in years.
These are the facts and this is where we are. Negative - yes. But more realistic than negative."
Our 14,15 and 16 teams have been excellent the last two years.

We're fairly well represented at college level for a county that doesn't have a university as such.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4140 - 15/01/2026 14:31:27    2651174

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Replying To Magpie2:  "Let's not get too carried away about a meaningless challenge game in January.
The real business starts in the league.
The young inexperienced players will learn from each game and hopefully some of them will have improved sufficiently to make the first team.
Maybe the plan is to rest Jippo,Chin and Mac until the later rounds of the league so as to keep them fresh before the championship begins. As all three are prone to injury its probably the right tactic."
I could be wrong but id say Chin will be held back until the Dublin and Clare league games. Still think when we have our full squad later on in the year we wont be as bad as people fear. I see some other poster suggesting we could get relegated in league and championship . Id be shocked if it came to that. I am hoping we challenge for top two in the league and challenge for top 3 in championship. If we can be competitive in all our games and a couple of young lads really step up this year i'll be happy. Feel sorry for Keith I really feel if he had all players committing there is no reason why we shouldnt have been aiming to get back to Croke Park for a Leinster final

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 827 - 15/01/2026 14:49:51    2651177

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "Our 14,15 and 16 teams have been excellent the last two years.

We're fairly well represented at college level for a county that doesn't have a university as such."
You'd imagine that Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, and Dublin are over-represented at college level, the likes of us, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Clare are under-represented to various degrees

Like with Cork, they might have a very high share of lads in Fitzgibbon squads but how many of them are actually starting? The difference between them an us is that they've a lot of lads who were maybe the fringes of Minor/U20 squads or just below that level who go on to make Fitzgibbon squads (But not actually play that much)

I know Alan Aherne was writing about it and he seemed to suggest that the number of Wexford players playing Fitzgibbon this year was decent (And tbf, he isn't really biased, doesn't tend to be either overly optimistic or pessimistic)

Also have to acknowledge that we have players with college who are in the Ryan Cup rather than the Fitzgibbon, it's not the fault of the players that the colleges decided to operate at a lower level

Only have to look at Maynooth who had a few Wexford players but got absolutely annihilated by an admittedly very strong UL side, they probably should be a division lower than they are which would in turn reduce the number of Wexford representation (Maynooth's problems are a lot more than just Wexford's problems!)

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 779 - 15/01/2026 15:50:01    2651190

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "Based on everything I am hearing from home Wexford's first target has to be to not get relegated in league or championship.
Might sound alarmist but its a fact. I think Wexford have been off the pace, not helped by non-commitments and there is only so much Rossy can do if players won't give it. I'll not judge any player for travelling as I have loved my time abroad before I move home this year.
But I hope Wexford beat Kildare in the opening round but hands on heart who would be confident of that right now?
How many Wexford players are playing Fitzgibbon this year, compared to the Munster counties, Galway, Kilkenny and Dublin even?
We just are not producing the hurlers and underage results have shown this bar 1 good minor team that beat Cork and lost narrowly to Clare we have beaten nobody of any significance at underage in years.
These are the facts and this is where we are. Negative - yes. But more realistic than negative."
We have around the mid 30s mark playing Fitzgibbon, or playing for DIT and SETU Carlow, 2 of the favourites to win the Ryan Cup. That's pretty much as good as any other year. Galway, Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and Tipp would have more as they have more underage hurlers in total, its simple mathematics.
We would usually have more than Waterford, and around the same as Limerick and Clare. Again, to be expected based on playing numbers.
So not negative, just misinformed.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18008 - 15/01/2026 15:55:23    2651193

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "That's an odd one alright but there would be a considerable number of Dubliners who'd retire here, not to mention family sizes are smaller and parents are waiting longer to have kids"
The last two points aren't really exclusive to Wexford though, might be a thing that affects most counties?

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 779 - 15/01/2026 15:56:45    2651194

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "I could be wrong but id say Chin will be held back until the Dublin and Clare league games. Still think when we have our full squad later on in the year we wont be as bad as people fear. I see some other poster suggesting we could get relegated in league and championship . Id be shocked if it came to that. I am hoping we challenge for top two in the league and challenge for top 3 in championship. If we can be competitive in all our games and a couple of young lads really step up this year i'll be happy. Feel sorry for Keith I really feel if he had all players committing there is no reason why we shouldnt have been aiming to get back to Croke Park for a Leinster final"
I might be too optimistic but what the games this month have shown us is that we don't have much in the way of the depth once you move beyond our starting XV and the subs

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise when you consider the number of lads not playing Wexford for one reason or another

Get back the lads who started late and the lads who are currently injured and you're basically replacing lads who might be on the tail end of the subs come Championship but more likely on the extended panel or not in the squad at all, that should make a big difference in theory

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 779 - 15/01/2026 16:05:54    2651196

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "I might be too optimistic but what the games this month have shown us is that we don't have much in the way of the depth once you move beyond our starting XV and the subs

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise when you consider the number of lads not playing Wexford for one reason or another

Get back the lads who started late and the lads who are currently injured and you're basically replacing lads who might be on the tail end of the subs come Championship but more likely on the extended panel or not in the squad at all, that should make a big difference in theory"
Id say alot more than half the lads who have played so far won't make a match day 26 at all come the summer. But these lads need to see where the standard is, some might make it in future years given good coaching, games, and targets, kpis, for development, and hard work. Given more time to improve basically.
Some might have a look at what's involved when they are on the panel and give up, and others might get chances and management might decide they arent good enough, and maybe arent going to be either.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18008 - 15/01/2026 16:23:30    2651200

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Replying To Magpie2:  "Let's not get too carried away about a meaningless challenge game in January.
The real business starts in the league.
The young inexperienced players will learn from each game and hopefully some of them will have improved sufficiently to make the first team.
Maybe the plan is to rest Jippo,Chin and Mac until the later rounds of the league so as to keep them fresh before the championship begins. As all three are prone to injury its probably the right tactic."
Agreed on the first point. We're in a rebuild and not a whole lot can be done about it, one positive is we're not as far off Galway Kilkenny and Dublin as we were around the time Liam Dunne came in.

I do think with who is there at the moment we should get 3 wins from 3 vs Antrim Down and Carlow which is where the likes of Wickham and Rowley need to make their mark.

Not having to play either a Dublin or Clare until at least a month in to the league I think is a big benefit to us in terms of getting more experienced players back in to the fray and being able to play in those games, be surprised if Chin was back for the Dublin game, there is also a 2 week break between every game after Carlow at home Feb 7 which should help with that.

OpenStandWall (Wexford) - Posts: 317 - 15/01/2026 17:21:16    2651215

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Replying To Viking66:  "Id say alot more than half the lads who have played so far won't make a match day 26 at all come the summer. But these lads need to see where the standard is, some might make it in future years given good coaching, games, and targets, kpis, for development, and hard work. Given more time to improve basically.
Some might have a look at what's involved when they are on the panel and give up, and others might get chances and management might decide they arent good enough, and maybe arent going to be either."
Yeah, I don't think there's too much point in getting worked up about a practice match if the most notable players we had out were Conor Foley, CBD, Éamon Wickham, and Oisín Pepper. Saw some KK lads talking about it and they were the only players they seemed to recognise (If they're able to recognise Pepper, they have a good knowledge of Wexford hurlers so if they're not recognising many others, it probably goes to show the sort of team we had out)

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 779 - 15/01/2026 18:08:09    2651225

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Is Chin definitely injured? Or are they just bringing him back later?

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 779 - 15/01/2026 18:09:07    2651226

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Replying To OpenStandWall:  "Agreed on the first point. We're in a rebuild and not a whole lot can be done about it, one positive is we're not as far off Galway Kilkenny and Dublin as we were around the time Liam Dunne came in.

I do think with who is there at the moment we should get 3 wins from 3 vs Antrim Down and Carlow which is where the likes of Wickham and Rowley need to make their mark.

Not having to play either a Dublin or Clare until at least a month in to the league I think is a big benefit to us in terms of getting more experienced players back in to the fray and being able to play in those games, be surprised if Chin was back for the Dublin game, there is also a 2 week break between every game after Carlow at home Feb 7 which should help with that."
Agree with all your points

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18008 - 15/01/2026 18:50:06    2651232

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Replying To Viking66:  "We have reached as many u20 Leinster finals over the last 4 years as Kilkenny have. We have reached more since 2017 than they have, 5 to their 4.
Was much easier to win Leinster at u20 without Galway in it too, they only got let in in 2018, and Offaly were really poor back then also.
We only didnt finish in the top 3 in the Round Robin twice, the same as Galway. Both ourselves and Galway didnt finish in the top 3 once each in the last 2 years.
I was talking to a few lads who were at the game, from here and Kilkenny. We were poor enough. At the same time they started around 5 of their established championship team, Mikey Butler started also.
We would have been missing most of ours, with lads not back yet and lads like Lawlor playing Fitzgibbon or Ryan Cup, although it was good to hear that Cian Byrne got a half under his belt.
Did your friend say who started for us at fullback?"
Eh? 'We have reached as many u20 Leinster finals over the last 4 years as Kilkenny have. We have reached more since 2017 than they have, 5 to their 4.'

The real story is that we haven't won a SINGLE underage All Ireland since the 60s. That's the SIXTIES. And you're referring to a period when Leinster has been crap & in the last 15 yrs has won 2 underage AIs (excluding Galway). Coming second is losing

Those are the facts & no need to wonder why Wexford hurling is in the mire

TheBizBoy (Wexford) - Posts: 1 - 15/01/2026 20:34:34    2651240

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Replying To TheBizBoy:  "Eh? 'We have reached as many u20 Leinster finals over the last 4 years as Kilkenny have. We have reached more since 2017 than they have, 5 to their 4.'

The real story is that we haven't won a SINGLE underage All Ireland since the 60s. That's the SIXTIES. And you're referring to a period when Leinster has been crap & in the last 15 yrs has won 2 underage AIs (excluding Galway). Coming second is losing

Those are the facts & no need to wonder why Wexford hurling is in the mire"
I agree our record in underage AIs is #####. I never said it wasn't.
Read the post I was answering, the context was that our recent record at u20 was way worse than Kilkennys, which is just not the case.
As a province our underage record is exceedingly poor compared to Munsters if you take out Kilkenny. But then our hurling population is way smaller.
And as a county the 1960s are an outlier, we never won an underage AI before the 1960s either. We didnt even win a Leinster underage title before that.
We still managed to get together one of the best Senior hurling panels in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s despite this. 8 AI finals, 4 AI wins, with most of those players with no underage AI. We never won a Leinster minor hurling final until 1963.
In fact many of our lads who won those underage AIs in the 1960s, such as the lads on the 1968 Minor AI winning team, never won a Senior AI.
I agree underage AIs would be great. There are plenty of lads working exceedingly hard to try to achieve this, over the last few years our u14s, u15s and u16s have improved dramatically. We beat a Munster county in a knockout minor AI game for the 1st time since 1968 only 2 years ago. And beat Cork well, we were 12 points up after an hour of hurling.
We have to keep working, its going to take alot of people putting in alot of their time. We need more of these people to step forward and put their shoulder to the wheel.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18008 - 16/01/2026 08:32:23    2651263

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As regards the Underage/Senior success its like a chicken and egg situation. We reached Senior AI hurling finals in 1951 and 1954, after winning Leinster in those years. We were in 5 Leinster Senior hurling finals in a row between those years. In 1955 we reached our first ever Leinster minor final. Maybe that period of Senior success encouraged the younger generation?
As I pointed out in my last post, we didnt win a Leinster minor title until 1963, when we went on to win the AI. We had appeared in 6 Senior AI finals in the previous 12 years at that stage, winning 3.
Unfortunately for us after our underage success in the 1960s, the 1970s saw Corks best ever Senior team, backboned by players who beat us in no less than 5 AI U21 finals in the 8 years after our lone u21 AI win in 1965, and arguably Kilkennys second best team ever. We won 3 Leinsters but no AIs. We fell back after that at all levels, until the lads of the early mid 90s came together. After that AI win there was a renewed buzz around hurling, a noticeable uptick in lads hurling hurling on the street especially in urban areas including villages, and we reached 2 u21 AI finals in a row in the early noughties, probably left the one against Limerick behind us.
Sadly for us those players had to contend with Kilkennys best team ever.
We fell away again.
Im not saying we as a county are quitters, but......

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18008 - 16/01/2026 09:41:57    2651273

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As regards the Underage/Senior success its like a chicken and egg situation. We reached Senior AI hurling finals in 1951 and 1954, after winning Leinster in those years. We were in 5 Leinster Senior hurling finals in a row between those years. In 1955 we reached our first ever Leinster minor final. Maybe that period of Senior success encouraged the younger generation?
As I pointed out in my last post, we didnt win a Leinster minor title until 1963, when we went on to win the AI. We had appeared in 6 Senior AI finals in the previous 12 years at that stage, winning 3.
Unfortunately for us after our underage success in the 1960s, the 1970s saw Corks best ever Senior team, backboned by players who beat us in no less than 5 AI U21 finals in the 8 years after our lone u21 AI win in 1965, and arguably Kilkennys second best team ever. We won 3 Leinsters but no AIs. We fell back after that at all levels, until the lads of the early mid 90s came together. After that AI win there was a renewed buzz around hurling, a noticeable uptick in lads hurling hurling on the street especially in urban areas including villages, and we reached 2 u21 AI finals in a row in the early noughties, probably left the one against Limerick behind us.
Sadly for us those players had to contend with Kilkennys best team ever.
We fell away again.
Im not saying we as a county are quitters, but......

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18008 - 16/01/2026 10:15:01    2651282

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Replying To Viking66:  "We have around the mid 30s mark playing Fitzgibbon, or playing for DIT and SETU Carlow, 2 of the favourites to win the Ryan Cup. That's pretty much as good as any other year. Galway, Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny and Tipp would have more as they have more underage hurlers in total, its simple mathematics.
We would usually have more than Waterford, and around the same as Limerick and Clare. Again, to be expected based on playing numbers.
So not negative, just misinformed."
Viking, the Ryan Cup is junior hurling. Call it for what it is. Its a bit like the Leinster Championship if we are all honest, a competition for also-rans at the moment.
The fact is, the Munster counties are churning out way more top hurlers than the Leinster counties are. This is an undeniable fact.
I don't doubt you that we have mid 30's playing Fitzgibbon and Ryan Cup but how many are key men on their team, how many are subs and more importantly how many are with the top colleges?
The top colleges do actively recruit the top hurlers in every county. You'd have to ask a question with SETU Waterford (10-15 yrs ago a powerhouse in colleges hurling) down the road why are our players not being enticed there? I'd be more concerned it is to with the real truth that our underage system is just not churning out top quality hurlers, whereas the Munster counties are. And I think underage results back this up.
Doylerwex it is good to hear our u14-15-16 are good, but then we have to drive on and win Leinster and All-Ireland minor titles with them. That is our 1st step back here, win at underage is not the be all and end all but it puts a strut in the step of a young buck and gives them belief we lack as a county at the moment.
Never underestimate the power of winning, but it HAS TO BE winning at the top level.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1943 - 16/01/2026 10:26:57    2651283

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