Wicklow GAA thread

People on this forum want Wicklow GAA to compete in as high a division in the league as possible and in the Leinster championship. We're probably never going to compete for an All-Ireland title but this doesn't mean that we shouldn't aim to win a provincial championship. Underage talent is an integral part of achieving this goal but we are underachievers at underage; this is a fact.

Wicklow haven't contested a Leinster minor football final since 1997 and we've only ever won one Leinster minor title in 1974 - fifty-two years ago and counting. To put our underachieving in perspective, Longford have won five Leinster minor titles, the latest being in 2024. At u-21/u-20 level, we've never won a Leinster title and haven't compete in a provincial final since 2002 which is twenty-two years and counting. For a county with Wicklow's population, this is an abysmal record. As other posters point out, we are top of tier 3 in Leinster, we might be able to compete in tier 2 but we are a long way away from tier 1. We were comprehensively beaten in this year's u-20 Leinster championship by Kildare and at minor level by Meath, which demonstrates how far away we are.

Our failure at under age grade is a collective failure. It is a combination of failures at schools, club and inter county level in terms of coaching and strength-conditioning. Unless we change, we are unlikely to bridge the gaps to the top teams. Louth who are a small county with a growing population have shown how quickly the gap can be closed if the right people and structures are put in place. The proof suggests we are still not getting things right in this regard which is hindering our progress. I admire people who volunteer to coach juveniles and I expect these volunteers would welcome some guidance as to how they can coach better players as the current methods aren't yield top class results.

wicklowsupport (Wicklow) - Posts: 2297 - 21/10/2026 11:41:03    2698094