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It would appear to me that Richie Lawlor has been unfairly treated. He really has been shunted all over the place since he first came on the scene a few years ago.
To the best of my knowledge he has played midfield, corner forward, half forward, centre forward, half back and centre back.
It must be hard on the lad to be moved around so much.
Personally I think he's better as a half forward but that's only my opinion.
Most on here would say he is not a centre back, struggles even against weaker teams like Antrim and Down.
I would say it would do his confidence no harm if he was given a longer spell in the half forward position.
I know full well that with the absence of players due to injury the selectors hands are tied somewhat so they are forced to play lads in positions they are not overly familiar with or are not comfortable in.
I think it was Doyler who said recently that Richie is a forward and is much better facing the ball.
I agree with that 100%.
Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 617 - 26/02/2026 08:31:05
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Replying To Viking66: "Agree about Jack Redmond. He scored 3 from play both the last 2 days. Hopefully he gets his chance in Ennis.
Im not sure how matchfit Whelan is, Id maybe start him wingback if hes fully fit and up to speed.
Not sure how match ready Kehoe is either.
Cillian Byrne would be another Id be wanting to look at in a game before the championship, but not sure how ready he is after his layoff either.
Assuming the 3 of them arent ready -
Fanning
______ Donohue C Foley
Lawlor Reck _______
______ Hearne
Darren Codd Chin Redmond
K Foley Roche Cian Byrne
Bring on Rory Higgins and Tucker last 20 minutes when the game opens up. But definitely give them both at least 20 minutes, like a rugby pre arranged substitution, maybe leave them in the dressing room after half time for a proper warm up, bit of contact, bit of fast stickers etc along with the usual stretching, finish off their warm up on the line for a couple minutes running, with 10 seconds sprinting intervals mixed in. Try have them as game ready as possible before they come on.
The 2 free slots in the backs between Dempsey, Carley, Wickham, O'Leary. Not sure which 2 without seeing them in training during the week before. Its not critical as regards position these days as that will depend on match ups anyway.
Rowley, David Codd, James Byrne, Banville or Wickham in the empty midfield slot. Again, whoever looks best in training next week.
Its very encouraging that its getting hard as a supporter to name a best team right now. Competition for places must be savage, and must be driving up the intensity during training. Some of the new coaching practices adopted this year seem to be helping that way too. The lads didnt seem to lack for fight up in Croke Park the last day.
All great things for Keith to have going on in the camp in the run up to Championship." Wouldn't be against Cian Byrne starting but would probably stick with Tucker. He's scored 12 points in 4 league games . Wasn't his best against Dublin but I think he deserves another chance starting
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 896 - 26/02/2026 11:06:55
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Replying To Magpie2: "It would appear to me that Richie Lawlor has been unfairly treated. He really has been shunted all over the place since he first came on the scene a few years ago.
To the best of my knowledge he has played midfield, corner forward, half forward, centre forward, half back and centre back.
It must be hard on the lad to be moved around so much.
Personally I think he's better as a half forward but that's only my opinion.
Most on here would say he is not a centre back, struggles even against weaker teams like Antrim and Down.
I would say it would do his confidence no harm if he was given a longer spell in the half forward position.
I know full well that with the absence of players due to injury the selectors hands are tied somewhat so they are forced to play lads in positions they are not overly familiar with or are not comfortable in.
I think it was Doyler who said recently that Richie is a forward and is much better facing the ball.
I agree with that 100%." Thanks be fair to Richie I'd say he'd start in the goal in Ennis if he was asked, but for me I think if we want to see the best of him that's further up the field
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4287 - 26/02/2026 11:10:02
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Replying To Afinestick96: "Wouldn't be against Cian Byrne starting but would probably stick with Tucker. He's scored 12 points in 4 league games . Wasn't his best against Dublin but I think he deserves another chance starting" I rate Tucker highly, but Cian is averaging 3.5 points from play in Championship games he started over the last 2 years. Probably the highest average from play out of all our forwards in those games. And I think with him being late back into the panel he needs the gametime more. I think we will need Cians scoring come Championship.
Also Tucker has always been a lad who can come on and play well nearly straight away, all the way up from underage. Would always get a couple points. Thats a rare gift in itself, some lads just arent as good unless they start.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 26/02/2026 11:42:08
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Replying To Afinestick96: "Wouldn't be against Cian Byrne starting but would probably stick with Tucker. He's scored 12 points in 4 league games . Wasn't his best against Dublin but I think he deserves another chance starting" Definitely but bar injury Byrne will be starting v Kildare. Was always bound to be a bit of a reality check for Kinsella v Dublin after everything he hit v Carlow went over. Learning from the tougher days is all part of it.
Timbertony (Wexford) - Posts: 517 - 26/02/2026 12:44:24
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Reading post here my opinion is we have no full back,centre back or centre forward and full forward no solid spine to our team at all,no size to our back or forwards really!!! No real ball winner in the forwards bar chin but its all so predictable big physical man will just spoil him,might catch the odd one!!! For me we are still masking over things and to be honest getting away with it!!! Chin very limited when not on frees its to easy for teams to stop him considering we have no real other ball winner!!! Playing him centre back might not be a bad idea might contribute more to a game from there!!! I think the likes of tucker and carley are simply not good enough when it comes down to it and id put lawlor and donohue,codds and dempsey in the bracket now aswell!!! Massive transition going on and we have what we have but as rory jacob said are these lads goin to develop into real top hurlers i dont think so they are just your average county hurlers,good lads putting the shoulder to the wheel which has to be comended for little or no chance of actually winning anything!!!we find it hard to get over dublin,i think they are a better team than us slightly but i wouldnt be getting excited about them either!!! Odonnell is a serious addition felt he handled chin simple enough!!! I think clare will open us up big time!!!kildare obviously arent to bad have no fear of anyone which i like,the just seem to want to have a go which is brilliant,none of this rubbish of playing to not be hammered!!!
theboys (Wexford) - Posts: 297 - 26/02/2026 15:24:55
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Replying To theboys: "Reading post here my opinion is we have no full back,centre back or centre forward and full forward no solid spine to our team at all,no size to our back or forwards really!!! No real ball winner in the forwards bar chin but its all so predictable big physical man will just spoil him,might catch the odd one!!! For me we are still masking over things and to be honest getting away with it!!! Chin very limited when not on frees its to easy for teams to stop him considering we have no real other ball winner!!! Playing him centre back might not be a bad idea might contribute more to a game from there!!! I think the likes of tucker and carley are simply not good enough when it comes down to it and id put lawlor and donohue,codds and dempsey in the bracket now aswell!!! Massive transition going on and we have what we have but as rory jacob said are these lads goin to develop into real top hurlers i dont think so they are just your average county hurlers,good lads putting the shoulder to the wheel which has to be comended for little or no chance of actually winning anything!!!we find it hard to get over dublin,i think they are a better team than us slightly but i wouldnt be getting excited about them either!!! Odonnell is a serious addition felt he handled chin simple enough!!! I think clare will open us up big time!!!kildare obviously arent to bad have no fear of anyone which i like,the just seem to want to have a go which is brilliant,none of this rubbish of playing to not be hammered!!!" You posted something similar to this before our last trip to Clare last year. We won that game pretty comfortably. I was there. Both our counties will have pretty similar teams out again this year. We won up there in 2022 and 2021 also. Its only the League. While I don't think we have as good a team as they have for a high summer championship game, we don't have any reason to be fearing them in a League game.
As it is we have Jippo back for Championship who is one of the best 3s in the country, a better 6 than they have if we play Reck there, our 11 is only young but started 3 years at u20 up til last year, and is on a hurling scholarship at a Fitzgibbon Cup college, and has played well so far this year, or we will have Rory there come Championship if he comes back, and our 14 also hurled 3 years u21 as far as I remember and scored 2 good goals for us against 5 of Dublins starting back 6. Or we will have Lee in there. Thats a pretty good spine, and I wouldn't swap it for Kilkennys this year.
Kildares main target for the year was staying up in 1b. Its very important for their development. They have a good team. I hope they stay up. We will still beat them. Our current team won't take them for granted. And our younger lads have already shown 3 or 4 times this season that there's plenty of fight in them when it comes down to the last 5 or 10 minutes of close games.
While I doubt very much we will be hammering anyone in an AI final this year, equally we arent as bad as you are making out here.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 26/02/2026 18:17:19
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Replying To theboys: "Reading post here my opinion is we have no full back,centre back or centre forward and full forward no solid spine to our team at all,no size to our back or forwards really!!! No real ball winner in the forwards bar chin but its all so predictable big physical man will just spoil him,might catch the odd one!!! For me we are still masking over things and to be honest getting away with it!!! Chin very limited when not on frees its to easy for teams to stop him considering we have no real other ball winner!!! Playing him centre back might not be a bad idea might contribute more to a game from there!!! I think the likes of tucker and carley are simply not good enough when it comes down to it and id put lawlor and donohue,codds and dempsey in the bracket now aswell!!! Massive transition going on and we have what we have but as rory jacob said are these lads goin to develop into real top hurlers i dont think so they are just your average county hurlers,good lads putting the shoulder to the wheel which has to be comended for little or no chance of actually winning anything!!!we find it hard to get over dublin,i think they are a better team than us slightly but i wouldnt be getting excited about them either!!! Odonnell is a serious addition felt he handled chin simple enough!!! I think clare will open us up big time!!!kildare obviously arent to bad have no fear of anyone which i like,the just seem to want to have a go which is brilliant,none of this rubbish of playing to not be hammered!!!" Well that's the most negative post I've seen in a while. How about a bit of positivity? We're a really young, inexperienced team but they are showing some amount of effort. It may well be a dire season, but at least we're trying to build something positive for the future and personally, I find that more exciting than trying the same tried and tested players over and over and expecting different outcomes.
YellowShadeOfPurple (Wexford) - Posts: 64 - 26/02/2026 20:04:01
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Replying To theboys: "Reading post here my opinion is we have no full back,centre back or centre forward and full forward no solid spine to our team at all,no size to our back or forwards really!!! No real ball winner in the forwards bar chin but its all so predictable big physical man will just spoil him,might catch the odd one!!! For me we are still masking over things and to be honest getting away with it!!! Chin very limited when not on frees its to easy for teams to stop him considering we have no real other ball winner!!! Playing him centre back might not be a bad idea might contribute more to a game from there!!! I think the likes of tucker and carley are simply not good enough when it comes down to it and id put lawlor and donohue,codds and dempsey in the bracket now aswell!!! Massive transition going on and we have what we have but as rory jacob said are these lads goin to develop into real top hurlers i dont think so they are just your average county hurlers,good lads putting the shoulder to the wheel which has to be comended for little or no chance of actually winning anything!!!we find it hard to get over dublin,i think they are a better team than us slightly but i wouldnt be getting excited about them either!!! Odonnell is a serious addition felt he handled chin simple enough!!! I think clare will open us up big time!!!kildare obviously arent to bad have no fear of anyone which i like,the just seem to want to have a go which is brilliant,none of this rubbish of playing to not be hammered!!!" With everyone fit if you were picking our team tomorrow who's in it?
You're writing lads off way to quickly
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4287 - 26/02/2026 20:50:37
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Replying To YellowShadeOfPurple: "Well that's the most negative post I've seen in a while. How about a bit of positivity? We're a really young, inexperienced team but they are showing some amount of effort. It may well be a dire season, but at least we're trying to build something positive for the future and personally, I find that more exciting than trying the same tried and tested players over and over and expecting different outcomes." Don't worry yellowshadeofpurple he is known for it. Just waiting for us to fail. There is a few of them in the county unfortunately, just remember stumm or whatever he's username is, wrote up here that he couldn't control his laughter after Westmeath beat us a few years ago and it looked like we were heading for joe mcdonagh. We won't win in Ennis but we are doing OK with such a young team and we are missing a lot of players, who hopefully we will have back next year.we just need to keep working hard and find a few players and hold on to our Liam McCarthy status this year.
hunting (Wexford) - Posts: 1177 - 26/02/2026 21:13:33
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Replying To hunting: "Don't worry yellowshadeofpurple he is known for it. Just waiting for us to fail. There is a few of them in the county unfortunately, just remember stumm or whatever he's username is, wrote up here that he couldn't control his laughter after Westmeath beat us a few years ago and it looked like we were heading for joe mcdonagh. We won't win in Ennis but we are doing OK with such a young team and we are missing a lot of players, who hopefully we will have back next year.we just need to keep working hard and find a few players and hold on to our Liam McCarthy status this year." Honestly since last Saturday I'm feeling much more ambitious.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4287 - 26/02/2026 22:58:14
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Replying To hunting: "Don't worry yellowshadeofpurple he is known for it. Just waiting for us to fail. There is a few of them in the county unfortunately, just remember stumm or whatever he's username is, wrote up here that he couldn't control his laughter after Westmeath beat us a few years ago and it looked like we were heading for joe mcdonagh. We won't win in Ennis but we are doing OK with such a young team and we are missing a lot of players, who hopefully we will have back next year.we just need to keep working hard and find a few players and hold on to our Liam McCarthy status this year." On paper we prob should nt win in Ennis.
But we hope that this group keeps progressing and with youth on its side and throw in few more experienced lads its a good blend maybe slightly too many new blood but It's fresh and what we have .
its new and something that had to happen sooner or later as someone else said we needed the change to try progress albeit forced to a sense .
Let's hope we find our own unique style that might just negate any frailties we may or may not have going toe to toe with physically bigger teams wont suit us if we can't go through them go round them .
We might as well go for it try enjoy our hurling let them off and hurl with freedom and see what it brings . We all know the pressure will come before championship and over the round Robin series .
I m happy enough with our league to date and the fight they have shown under pressure .
Formertownie (Wexford) - Posts: 541 - 26/02/2026 23:14:41
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Great for those of us that can't make the long trip to Ennis on Sunday week, TG4 are televising our game against the Banner.
Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 617 - 27/02/2026 04:35:32
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Here's one for ye
Should we be encouraging the use of longer hurls?
Seems like young players have been encouraged to get shorter hurls over time
But you can shorten the grip on a longer hurl but you can't lengthen a longer hurl
Plus a longer hurl probably helps hooking, blocking, dispossessing, ground hurling, and general distance from striking
Think Seán Finn uses a 37 for example, might be something Limerick encourage
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 920 - 27/02/2026 08:33:07
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Here's one for ye
Should we be encouraging the use of longer hurls?
Seems like young players have been encouraged to get shorter hurls over time
But you can shorten the grip on a longer hurl but you can't lengthen a longer hurl
Plus a longer hurl probably helps hooking, blocking, dispossessing, ground hurling, and general distance from striking
Think Seán Finn uses a 37 for example, might be something Limerick encourage" Alot of the Limerick lads actually use shorter hurls than they should. They were one of the 1st counties this became widespread in. Hegarty, Gillane and Lynch actually use hurls 2 or 3 inches shorter than they should if you measure a hurl the old fashioned way.
https://www.skysports.com/gaa/hurling/news/30554/12718056/sean-finn-opts-for-position-specific-hurleys-in-game-of-inches
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 27/02/2026 10:23:39
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Here's one for ye
Should we be encouraging the use of longer hurls?
Seems like young players have been encouraged to get shorter hurls over time
But you can shorten the grip on a longer hurl but you can't lengthen a longer hurl
Plus a longer hurl probably helps hooking, blocking, dispossessing, ground hurling, and general distance from striking
Think Seán Finn uses a 37 for example, might be something Limerick encourage" I'd always have changed hurls depending on position to be honest.
Short and light for a forward. Ball travels a shorter distance and harder to hook without fouling.
Longer and heavier in the backs then for getting a bit more out of a strike and making hooking and blocking a little easier.
Justin McCarthy commented years ago how the narrower boss on a Wexford hurl was always a disadvantage but we've changed that in the last 20 years in fairness.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4287 - 27/02/2026 10:45:15
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Here's one for ye
Should we be encouraging the use of longer hurls?
Seems like young players have been encouraged to get shorter hurls over time
But you can shorten the grip on a longer hurl but you can't lengthen a longer hurl
Plus a longer hurl probably helps hooking, blocking, dispossessing, ground hurling, and general distance from striking
Think Seán Finn uses a 37 for example, might be something Limerick encourage" Sean Finn says he uses a 33 when playing 6. But I think you are right, and he has a point, it might benefit lads in the Fullback line to use a longer hurl.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 27/02/2026 10:51:43
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I see Clare have named there team to play Carlow . 3 or 4 new players but still fairly strong . John Conlon is on the bench I think he has been took off at half time last two games. Maybe still struggling with his hand injury perhaps . Also Shane O Donnell is not listed in the panel
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 896 - 27/02/2026 13:06:05
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Replying To theboys: "Reading post here my opinion is we have no full back,centre back or centre forward and full forward no solid spine to our team at all,no size to our back or forwards really!!! No real ball winner in the forwards bar chin but its all so predictable big physical man will just spoil him,might catch the odd one!!! For me we are still masking over things and to be honest getting away with it!!! Chin very limited when not on frees its to easy for teams to stop him considering we have no real other ball winner!!! Playing him centre back might not be a bad idea might contribute more to a game from there!!! I think the likes of tucker and carley are simply not good enough when it comes down to it and id put lawlor and donohue,codds and dempsey in the bracket now aswell!!! Massive transition going on and we have what we have but as rory jacob said are these lads goin to develop into real top hurlers i dont think so they are just your average county hurlers,good lads putting the shoulder to the wheel which has to be comended for little or no chance of actually winning anything!!!we find it hard to get over dublin,i think they are a better team than us slightly but i wouldnt be getting excited about them either!!! Odonnell is a serious addition felt he handled chin simple enough!!! I think clare will open us up big time!!!kildare obviously arent to bad have no fear of anyone which i like,the just seem to want to have a go which is brilliant,none of this rubbish of playing to not be hammered!!!" At least Rossiter is trying to address those issues. Benefit of being in the second division for the league is being able to try the likes of Lawlor at 6.
Timbertony (Wexford) - Posts: 517 - 27/02/2026 15:44:25
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