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Wexford Hurling Thread

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Replying To Viking66:  "Not wanting to be negative but some of those lads, excepting the lads who are now only 21/22, will be hitting their prime years aged 24/25 next year. Most didnt really kick on in their second or 3rd season this year. Next year we need them to make a big step forward, or otherwise we will have to draw the conclusion that they arent Senior intercounty standard and likely wont ever be. Hopefully we have some lads in their mid/late 20s return to the panel to offer some leadership, and hopefully the lads who are that age in the current panel stick around, the Recks, Donohue etc.
And hopefully lads like Eoin Whelan and David Codd who didn't get a real shot at this year come back fully fit and firing next year.
Also hopefully some of our decent u20 team from this year can step up also. Apart from the up to the age lads with potential, Lads like Quigley, Carley, O'Brien, Nolan, and Donohue who will still be u20 next year might be worth bringing in also.
As regards the u20s other lads who played this year but will still be u20 next year include Fanning, Kennedy, Moore, Reilly, Dunne, Ryan, Hyland and O'Connell Byrne. So thats 13 lads who played this year who will still be u20 next year. Add in some of this years better minors, and some of the better lads off our u19s, and we should have a decent u20 team next year."
We'll have to see, I'd say the lack of S&C work done a few years ago has come back to haunt us, a lot of those lads from the U20 teams in 2022 and 2023 were behind on their S&C work so it was always going to take time for them to get to the level needed (If at all)

Hopefully, Patsy gets a full pre-season and league into him next year, I'd say not having him for most of the year was a big enough loss, Cian Byrne another one who needs a full pre-season and league, just never got going at any stage during the year, had a very stop-start year and it showed on the pitch

Thought Richie Lawlor was ok for the most part, Conor Foley needs to up it alright, hasn't kicked on from 2024, fairer to judge Darragh Carley when he consistently plays in a position that suits him, Jack Redmond had a tough enough Championship, needs to up his speed and the speed of his hurling

Tbh, we had too many older players, too many younger players, and not enough players in their prime, was just a mess from the start of the season and we were probably asking too much of the younger players tbh, hard on a player when they're thrown into a situation like that, see a team like Cork who have a lot of good players coming through but because they were so strong in the first place, the younger players had to earn their way into the team, a lot easier to blood young players into a team when you have an established team like that and can thrown in a few young players alongside a solid core of experienced players in their prime, we were very far removed from that situation

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1312 - 24/05/2026 19:11:30    2675120

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Again, Offaly are driven by one underage team and one underage team alone, I wouldn't say they really fixed anything, just happened upon a very good team out of nowhere"
They have fixed plenty but u obviously dont want to see that. 2 U 20 Leinster championships 1 U 20 All Ireland. 1 Minor Leinster Championship and thats just Hurling. In Football 2 Leinster Minor titles and 1 U 20 Leinster title and 1 U20 All Ireland title but they have fixed nothing. We are in complete denial how bad we are down here and i dont like saying that.

Bryson (Wexford) - Posts: 52 - 24/05/2026 19:14:03    2675121

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Replying To Formertownie:  "Are the dev squads detrimental to underage hurling .
Squads of say 45 for hurling and 45 for football . Who are nt permitted to play in development leagues u16 or 18 . Leaving clubs without big numbers at a stretch across 2 ages to to fill teams fo dev leagues .
If u cant field teams how can you keep players playing.
I see a couple of walkoves or concedings in football dev finals . Not necessarily related could be exams school trips etc .
But if 90 players are taken out of equation for dev leagues cant be good for clubs and intensity in those games .
Club players go backwards . Dev squad players get better . Come back to clubs and play championship and can dominate as club players standards dropped .
Which has the knock on of dev squad players get complacent as they don't have to try as hard their standard drop. It's all related . Go back to dev squads and year on year they drop their standards of skill/intensity level as they dont get challenged enough at club level . It's a recurring cycle .
Our drop in underage age intercounty competiveness is related to the expansion of the intercounty underage championship competition . Which affects club championship which then affects stands of dev squads .
Theres Too much emphasis on intercountyy at underage.
Should not take away from club"
I am beginning to think they are. Or the very least it ain't working for Wexford. Last 10 years of players going onto play Senior intercounty, numbers or quality is not there. To all the Club players left behind, they don't get any quality hurling sessions unless you get Minors and Juveniles to train with the Adults? Good and Bad there too. It ain't easy picking a road to go down, the one thing I am nearly sure of is that we should try something different for 3 years and see where that brings us, we gotta be patient kids there is no magic wand. The County is crying for something to cheer about, it's not easy where we at. What about an Inter District competition for u14s, u15s and u16s. We get people from the district to take over a team and get some money behind to hire good coaching, S&C ,set it up as you were setting up a county side. We would have 3 years of raising the standard of coaching, implementing S&C, working with chaps that may not as gifted as others but the type of player that would really blossom if he's a part of these teams. All players play at their own age group. 4 District teams would pull in 80-90 players for each year. Run it Professionally, no half arsed approach, County Board role in behind you for funding etc. Everyone play one another and then semi 1 V 4, 2 V 3. ..Issue 1 is working around Schools and Clubs depending on what's in place already for them. Pick the right time of year, layer it with past intercounty or Current Intercounty players. Get them the proper introduction for Adult hurling??? We need schools, Clubs, District Officials and County Board to buy in?? What ye think?? You are getting 3/4 chaps from most clubs or more depending on their numbers. What you think FormerTownie??

Spuds&GAA (Wexford) - Posts: 36 - 24/05/2026 19:32:22    2675128

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Replying To Bryson:  "They have fixed plenty but u obviously dont want to see that. 2 U 20 Leinster championships 1 U 20 All Ireland. 1 Minor Leinster Championship and thats just Hurling. In Football 2 Leinster Minor titles and 1 U 20 Leinster title and 1 U20 All Ireland title but they have fixed nothing. We are in complete denial how bad we are down here and i dont like saying that."
They haven't fixed plenty in hurling anyway, it's just one team, the same team basically won Leinster U20 two years in a row

Their Minors lost by 7 to Westmeath and by 6 to Antrim in the shield, their Minors last year got absolutely destroyed by Laois, their U20s got absolutely annihilated by both Dublin and Kilkenny, no Offaly school operating in their own right as an A side at either Junior or Senior level, and it wasn't as if they were that competitive at either Minor or U20 in the years before Screeney

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1312 - 24/05/2026 20:23:31    2675150

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Replying To Spuds&GAA:  "I am beginning to think they are. Or the very least it ain't working for Wexford. Last 10 years of players going onto play Senior intercounty, numbers or quality is not there. To all the Club players left behind, they don't get any quality hurling sessions unless you get Minors and Juveniles to train with the Adults? Good and Bad there too. It ain't easy picking a road to go down, the one thing I am nearly sure of is that we should try something different for 3 years and see where that brings us, we gotta be patient kids there is no magic wand. The County is crying for something to cheer about, it's not easy where we at. What about an Inter District competition for u14s, u15s and u16s. We get people from the district to take over a team and get some money behind to hire good coaching, S&C ,set it up as you were setting up a county side. We would have 3 years of raising the standard of coaching, implementing S&C, working with chaps that may not as gifted as others but the type of player that would really blossom if he's a part of these teams. All players play at their own age group. 4 District teams would pull in 80-90 players for each year. Run it Professionally, no half arsed approach, County Board role in behind you for funding etc. Everyone play one another and then semi 1 V 4, 2 V 3. ..Issue 1 is working around Schools and Clubs depending on what's in place already for them. Pick the right time of year, layer it with past intercounty or Current Intercounty players. Get them the proper introduction for Adult hurling??? We need schools, Clubs, District Officials and County Board to buy in?? What ye think?? You are getting 3/4 chaps from most clubs or more depending on their numbers. What you think FormerTownie??"
Would be great if we fund it properly.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19780 - 24/05/2026 20:43:17    2675157

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Questions on both teams today. Another game were so poor in for a large chunk of the game in. Outside of the Kilkenny win on day 1 we have more questions than answers. Likewise for Wexford today, how did they not win that game?

CillTormoir (Galway) - Posts: 613 - 24/05/2026 21:01:07    2675160

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Replying To Bryson:  "They have fixed plenty but u obviously dont want to see that. 2 U 20 Leinster championships 1 U 20 All Ireland. 1 Minor Leinster Championship and thats just Hurling. In Football 2 Leinster Minor titles and 1 U 20 Leinster title and 1 U20 All Ireland title but they have fixed nothing. We are in complete denial how bad we are down here and i dont like saying that."
Fair play to them, but all they've achieved is based on one team that were lucky to beat us. We're competitive most years.

Now that the Rossi era us over we need to take stock.

What has actually happened in the last couple of years?

Decent teams at 14, 15 and 16.

Minors were decent in 24, shocking in 25 and better in 26. Should have beaten cork but didn't. So what. There are good hurlers on that team.

Same story for the 20s. Could have had Galway in the 60 minutes who will most likely win the all Ireland.

Seniors were a dodgy penalty away from a Leinster final in 24. A dodgy penalty away from 3rd last year, and just poor on every level this year.

On the positive side, a lot of new players have gotten championship game time. Carley, Lawlor, Redmond, Byrne etc.

Whoever comes in now needs to get our best players playing. We need to be patient with them.

I can accept losing if you've done everything you can and are beaten by a better side. Sadly we've got everything wrong. S and C, set up, selections, tactics, everything.

I saw enough in Croke park in the league and the first half in tullamore and the park to know we're not as far off as we think we are.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4530 - 24/05/2026 21:10:14    2675164

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "Fair play to them, but all they've achieved is based on one team that were lucky to beat us. We're competitive most years.

Now that the Rossi era us over we need to take stock.

What has actually happened in the last couple of years?

Decent teams at 14, 15 and 16.

Minors were decent in 24, shocking in 25 and better in 26. Should have beaten cork but didn't. So what. There are good hurlers on that team.

Same story for the 20s. Could have had Galway in the 60 minutes who will most likely win the all Ireland.

Seniors were a dodgy penalty away from a Leinster final in 24. A dodgy penalty away from 3rd last year, and just poor on every level this year.

On the positive side, a lot of new players have gotten championship game time. Carley, Lawlor, Redmond, Byrne etc.

Whoever comes in now needs to get our best players playing. We need to be patient with them.

I can accept losing if you've done everything you can and are beaten by a better side. Sadly we've got everything wrong. S and C, set up, selections, tactics, everything.

I saw enough in Croke park in the league and the first half in tullamore and the park to know we're not as far off as we think we are."
If Dublin are the standard bearers in Leinster right now, then we wouldn't be that far off if we had a full pick

Problem is getting anywhere close to a full pick, I don't know who comes back out of those who were unavailable this year and that's before we even mention how many of those who are currently in the panel will be unavailable next year

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1312 - 24/05/2026 21:30:39    2675173

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Replying To Bryson:  "13pts up and lose by 8 what a shambles we are thats a 21 point turn around and should have been more a total shambles. If a few more of older lads retire we definetely in Joe McDonagh and thats where we deseeve to be at the moment. It can be fixed just look at Offaly but dosent seem to be the will to do anything about it in Wexford."
So now that you have proposed the problem, what is your solution?
"There doesn't seem to be the will to do anything about it". Really? I don't always agree with some posters on this board but I know one thing they are doing their best in their clubs to help.
I don't agree with everything the county board do as regard structures but they are trying everything to get us back up.
If you have the answer, have you told your club County Board rep to get it raised? Have you done your coaching courses and putting it into action?
As my father says "look at the replies to a Wexford loss on Twitter, you will never have heard of one of them from any club in Wexford yet there they are with all the knowledge on Twitter".
The county board are always open to any proposal. We look forward to hearing about your and what you are doing to help.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2066 - 25/05/2026 06:50:00    2675221

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ElGranSenor the issue is that we might find out in the next few weeks that Dublin might be the standard bearers in Leinster but not anywhere else.
It would be a start though.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2066 - 25/05/2026 06:51:49    2675222

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "Fair play to them, but all they've achieved is based on one team that were lucky to beat us. We're competitive most years.

Now that the Rossi era us over we need to take stock.

What has actually happened in the last couple of years?

Decent teams at 14, 15 and 16.

Minors were decent in 24, shocking in 25 and better in 26. Should have beaten cork but didn't. So what. There are good hurlers on that team.

Same story for the 20s. Could have had Galway in the 60 minutes who will most likely win the all Ireland.

Seniors were a dodgy penalty away from a Leinster final in 24. A dodgy penalty away from 3rd last year, and just poor on every level this year.

On the positive side, a lot of new players have gotten championship game time. Carley, Lawlor, Redmond, Byrne etc.

Whoever comes in now needs to get our best players playing. We need to be patient with them.

I can accept losing if you've done everything you can and are beaten by a better side. Sadly we've got everything wrong. S and C, set up, selections, tactics, everything.

I saw enough in Croke park in the league and the first half in tullamore and the park to know we're not as far off as we think we are."
We arent a million miles away. We are a few good players away. And better management.
Could we have beaten Kilkenny if management had set up the team differently and motivated the lads to fight harder? Definitely.
Could we have beaten Dublin if we had selected players in positions that suited them and got the lads to play the whole game like they did the last 15 minutes? Definitely.
Could we have beaten Offaly and Galway if we had Ryan and the 2 Recks on the pitch for 140 minutes? Very likely too, although it was good to see Kehoe, Martin and Molloy get good gametime yesterday. All 3 might kick on next year.
We will have some good lads coming up from u20, hopefully others will be better next year for playing this year, being another year older, getting another year of S and C and club adult under their belts.
And hopefully we get a few lads back. Id love to see some of the u21 band of 2018 get back together. Rory, Damien, Shane, Hearne, Carty, Oisin Foley, Gary Molloy, Conor Firman, Aaron Maddock, Darren Byrne, Rory Higgins, a fully fit Mike Dwyer, Rowan White, Stephen O'Gorman, the lads are still top club players. Seamus Casey and Joe O'Connor still playing well for their clubs too.
And get their manager in for a crack at top level intercounty management.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19780 - 25/05/2026 06:55:26    2675223

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Replying To Goreylad1985:  "May as well retire this forum now for the year as that's every Wexford hurling team done before a swallow has even hatched.

Just a shame we didn't beat Cork today. We normally get a few years value out of that ;D"
Well its not thanks to any Gorey players, Cian Molloy the only Gorey player on Senior / U20 / minor teams this year.
No contribution to the Wexford teams from a town of what 10,000 people? Bannow - Ballymitty contributed the same amount.
I think its time to have a look in house.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2066 - 25/05/2026 06:59:24    2675224

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "Well its not thanks to any Gorey players, Cian Molloy the only Gorey player on Senior / U20 / minor teams this year.
No contribution to the Wexford teams from a town of what 10,000 people? Bannow - Ballymitty contributed the same amount.
I think its time to have a look in house."
Its not just Gorey we need to find a way that New Ross, Enniscorthy and Wexford Town start to produce lots of players for us again along with the rural clubs

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1084 - 25/05/2026 09:50:04    2675246

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Replying To Formertownie:  "If you want to improve imo
Make the dev and underage squads more fluid . Carry thirty players max .
But if the players are nt reaching the standard release them and bring in someone who is showing well in club or school games I m not talking at the end of each year I am talking during the year itself .
It will give lads not in squads a reason to keep pushing and lads in the squad that little bit of if I dont keep my efforts up I ll be gone .
A regular review or assessment system . And more regular district games .
Of course the problem.being parents and connections of some players . You make it clear from the start panels are fluid and players out of form or are nt putting in the work going back to club amd will be continuously assessed and when they do improve bring them back in . And bring in players in form .
Of course for that to work you need proper competition which at present is non existent at the older underage groups ."
I think your suggestion in terms of dev squads etc is a good idea, unfortunately we are going the opposite way and diluting everything across the board.

Making squads should be a big deal, it should be an exclusive club something you strive for, but as an ex county player said to me recently whilst we were righting the wrongs of all things wexford GAA "its becoming like go games, sure everyone gets a go"

Its going to further drive the divide between club and county imho. We have players in squads through the age groups and the frustrations at club level are huge, all the work to get those lads to that level was done by the clubs, by the coaches at the club who done al, the courses available and put in the hours and are now told sorry theyre ours now, dont care if you struggle to field a team and its going to get worse.

The amount of times I've heard coaches in our club say "you'd nearly be better off if they didnt make it" when talking about squads.

Development squads are fine and necessary but thyere not the silver bullet answer, the resurrection has to come through the clubs and at rhe minute ckubs are just getting more and more annoyed at the whole situation.

Everyone keeps focusing on what other counties are doing, thats all well and good but we aren't like other counties, we have to do whats right for us and again imho we need our clubs to push it and be more engaged rather than getting more frustrated as things go on.

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1662 - 25/05/2026 09:50:31    2675247

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "We'll have to see, I'd say the lack of S&C work done a few years ago has come back to haunt us, a lot of those lads from the U20 teams in 2022 and 2023 were behind on their S&C work so it was always going to take time for them to get to the level needed (If at all)

Hopefully, Patsy gets a full pre-season and league into him next year, I'd say not having him for most of the year was a big enough loss, Cian Byrne another one who needs a full pre-season and league, just never got going at any stage during the year, had a very stop-start year and it showed on the pitch

Thought Richie Lawlor was ok for the most part, Conor Foley needs to up it alright, hasn't kicked on from 2024, fairer to judge Darragh Carley when he consistently plays in a position that suits him, Jack Redmond had a tough enough Championship, needs to up his speed and the speed of his hurling

Tbh, we had too many older players, too many younger players, and not enough players in their prime, was just a mess from the start of the season and we were probably asking too much of the younger players tbh, hard on a player when they're thrown into a situation like that, see a team like Cork who have a lot of good players coming through but because they were so strong in the first place, the younger players had to earn their way into the team, a lot easier to blood young players into a team when you have an established team like that and can thrown in a few young players alongside a solid core of experienced players in their prime, we were very far removed from that situation"
Agreed Patsy Molloy has been a huge loss . Hopefully he can get a clear run with Gorey now and come back flying fit for the league next year. Was impressed with Stephen Martin yesterday thought he done well for his debut. Cian Byrne has been a loss too. The same as Cillian he needs plenty of S and C work but both have great potential. I genuinely dont think we are in the same place as we were under Colm Bonnar although results have been similar this year to his era. We have plenty of decent young players in the squad and if we can get some of the more experienced lads back there is still a squad there thats well capable of competing at Leinster level. Im really hope the likes of Lee , Jacko , Liam Ryan Etc stay on at least one more year .

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1084 - 25/05/2026 10:05:38    2675256

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "ElGranSenor the issue is that we might find out in the next few weeks that Dublin might be the standard bearers in Leinster but not anywhere else.
It would be a start though."
Yes, that's a fair point, I think our underage team need to improve a good bit to get to AI level but I'm not sure they'd have to improve that much to win a Leinster title

Like with Kilkenny, this is as bad a team as they've had in a while yet it's hardly inconceivable that they'd win a Leinster title next year

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1312 - 25/05/2026 10:08:07    2675258

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Had a look at the names on the teams who made the Rackard League A Final

No prizes for guessing which team had players with the surnames Quigley, Codd, Barron, Higgins, and Ruth playing for them!

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1312 - 25/05/2026 11:38:23    2675306

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Replying To countyman2022:  "
Replying To Pikeman96:  "<b>@Viking66</b> - I still maintain that it's lazy analysis because it ignores the fact that results weren't much different for several earlier U21 teams, whose players had indeed been allowed to play at adult grades while they were still minors. And that those earlier teams were often "bullied" en route to the defeats they suffered too."</div>Last 3 years - beaten in two Q finals and a semi funal. Previous 3 years beaten in 2 finals and lost to Kildare. Which set of results are better? Id imagine the ones where beat Kk and lost to them by a point. But you'll find something else to suggest different."
Great news you have made the leap to the sideline! Hope it goes well for you.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19780 - 25/05/2026 12:07:22    2675320

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Replying To tearintom:  "I think your suggestion in terms of dev squads etc is a good idea, unfortunately we are going the opposite way and diluting everything across the board.

Making squads should be a big deal, it should be an exclusive club something you strive for, but as an ex county player said to me recently whilst we were righting the wrongs of all things wexford GAA "its becoming like go games, sure everyone gets a go"

Its going to further drive the divide between club and county imho. We have players in squads through the age groups and the frustrations at club level are huge, all the work to get those lads to that level was done by the clubs, by the coaches at the club who done al, the courses available and put in the hours and are now told sorry theyre ours now, dont care if you struggle to field a team and its going to get worse.

The amount of times I've heard coaches in our club say "you'd nearly be better off if they didnt make it" when talking about squads.

Development squads are fine and necessary but thyere not the silver bullet answer, the resurrection has to come through the clubs and at rhe minute ckubs are just getting more and more annoyed at the whole situation.

Everyone keeps focusing on what other counties are doing, thats all well and good but we aren't like other counties, we have to do whats right for us and again imho we need our clubs to push it and be more engaged rather than getting more frustrated as things go on."
Maybe some lads see making a development squad or minor or u20 intercounty team as an indication that they have "arrived".
Would be better that they saw it as what it is, and stepping stone to making a Senior Intercounty hurler.
A lad who is 13 shouldn't have his goal as being making an u14 development squad. He should have the belief that hes going to win an AI with Wexford. All the hard work and sacrifice along the way from then on wont seem to be as bad then.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19780 - 25/05/2026 12:14:20    2675326

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Yes, that's a fair point, I think our underage team need to improve a good bit to get to AI level but I'm not sure they'd have to improve that much to win a Leinster title

Like with Kilkenny, this is as bad a team as they've had in a while yet it's hardly inconceivable that they'd win a Leinster title next year"
The gap at underage has narrowed appreciably at underage this year between Munster and Leinster. If we have a team capable of winning a minor or u20 Leinster title next year there's no reason they couldnt win an AI title.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19780 - 25/05/2026 12:16:29    2675327

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