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As with any defeat the whole script is to be tore up and everything is wrong. This was a bad bad defeat no one is going to shy away from that. These days are well gone where a wexford team goes to kk and gets hammered out the gate. When i saw the big back room team i was happy that alot of people were involved. Joyce is a defense coach and this is his first job but the harm was being done further out. I think wexford midfield got 1-5 between them and when ran at kk were in trouble. Theres a big lack of pace there and its dissapointing it wasnt targetted more.lets not forget kk were very sore losing twice last year to wexford and that was very evident on Saturday. They wanted goals. I will give them that they have hurlers coming. This team will improve and id expect a much better performance the next day. These lads are only chaps and are learning everyday. No point lads coming on here slating them either behind fake names. Arm around the shoulder can be better than a kick in the arse Slowandshortsighted (UK) - Posts: 39 - 02/04/2024 00:32:39 2535095 Link 0 |
"No point lads coming on here slating them either behind fake names." What difference does it make if they use fake names or not, Mr/Ms Slowandshortsighted? Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2643 - 02/04/2024 09:33:39 2535119 Link 0 |
Righeto, did you see the evidence and merit in that 5 months of training on Saturday? You talk in a later post about them all needing S&C work, why was this not being done over the winter? You can get a lot done S&C wise over a winter, although proper S&C work takes longer. You say we were "all over the place on the pitch" in a later post. Why was this if they had 5 months of training in advance like you said they needed? U20 is the last age for off the cuff hurling. You need to win your own ball, individual battle at that grade. Having a million tactics, etc at that level is not needed. To me, based on the team I saw it sounds like management realised they had a weak panel and decided to throw a very young Wexford team to the wolves and hide behind the "next year" excuse. But that does not tally with several of them playing in the final v Offaly last year either. That for me is completely unacceptable from any management team. BTW - if you think "Junior B AFL" is what I am playing, I will have you know 2 of my team mates from last year now on Rookie AFL contracts. Make of that what you will. StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1777 - 02/04/2024 09:36:28 2535120 Link 0 |
We should also remember we lost to both Dublin and Galway in the round robin last year and ended up losing a Leinster final we could and probably should've won. U20 grade throws up some unexpected results. Westmeath who are being talked about as having a good team this year and were close to beating us last year drew with Meath at the weekend.
HurlingBuzz (Wexford) - Posts: 527 - 02/04/2024 09:55:26 2535123 Link 0 |
I was at the Meath v Westmeath game. Westmeath started like a train and were 9 points up at one stage. They got a soft enough penalty and a couple of line balls that led to scores that should have gone the other way. (Won't dwell on it too much but the ref didn't give Meath a lot). Westmeath didn't show in the second half and Meath came at them and clawed it back and to be honest, could have won it. Inaroundthehouse (Wicklow) - Posts: 10 - 02/04/2024 10:53:04 2535137 Link 0 |
I'd love to know how the management "threw the team to the wolves". It's an easy accusation, but you haven't provided any evidence for it. In terms of the make-up of the squad, I'd love to hear of lads who should be in there who aren't. I know this age group reasonably well, and I don't know of any players who could be involved who aren't. Some lads chose not to commit, as is their perogative, it's a massive commitment to play for your county. My understanding is that the net was cast fairly wide at the start of the season, with a series of trial games. This is common across all age groups. There's been a continuous S& C programme with this development squad, and all development squads, during their underage journey, Kilkenny were bigger, but I think the big gap in development may well be in the schools programme. The game got away from Wexford in the third quarter, but this Kilkenny team have been dishing out beatings to others in the phony war that is the pre-championship round of challenge matches. Was the result disappointing? Yes, it was . Was the performance below-par? Yes, it was. But there's been no lack of effort or preparation, there never is. One isue might be the lack of game time these lads have had at adult. We once were playing U-21, with lads hurling club adult from the age of 17. Now lads have to be 18 on 1 January to Play adult, and must be no more than 19 on 1 January to be eligible for U-20. Many of these lads have only one season at adult level, Simon Roche has none at all. Charlie Rourk is still only 17, a super talent, 6'5 and strong as a horse, but he can't play adult until 2025. If you want to find the core of the problem, you need to look at broader structures, not at individuals wendellgee (Wexford) - Posts: 29 - 02/04/2024 11:22:25 2535146 Link 1 |
Look its easy to be critical and equally for people to be accused of being critical, hurling is easiest on the ditch and young lads at that age need to be protected. I see it first hand with my own chaps, one has to be pushed and the others go like a bat out of hell at it. My only point here is I feel for as long as I am living in Wexford (approx 20 years), Wexford underage teams (and Wexford in general) have under performed with the notable exception of the 3 x U21 winning teams (and the seniors in 2019). And even winning these were well beaten in All-Ireland finals and if I am not wrong lost to an Antrim team who came down to make up the fixture with the captain saying they stopped for a pick and mix. Underage success is not the be all and end all. But, it sure makes it easier if people have an attitude of "we're better than these, we beat them at underage all the time" and Wexford's record v Kilkenny is just the embodiment of that. I don't think anybody would accuse any management team of a lack of effort. What I think people might point to is whether the structures are in place for Wexford teams to be successful or not. For example, say what you like having only half the county in a position to play top schools hurling is just not good enough. Coaching courses a couple of years back the obsession was with winning 1 Leinster minor title with not a mention of getting their arses handed to them by Galway in the semi. I do not have the answers but I feel S&C of these teams is way off what all the top teams are doing (I appreciate work is ongoing to address this deficit), I feel the combined colleges has to be given another chance to work and I feel we need more full size 4G pitches to take pressure off fixtures so championships (at every level) can be given room to breathe and there is in my view nothing worse than looking at an underage final in October or November in the muck. Lastly, it would not be popular but I think if 12 teams in Wexford committed solely to either hurling or football, both games would be in better stead at county level. People can talk about the dual stars all they want, dual players win nothing in inter county any more. ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1250 - 02/04/2024 12:28:07 2535161 Link 0 |
Any news on injuries from the senior lads did they have a training camp at the weekend ? Now just 2 and a half weeks to championship . Tickets got for Corrigan park for the east terrace. Covered stand is sold out . Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 342 - 02/04/2024 12:50:38 2535168 Link 0 |
Heard from a reliable source that Dee won't have recovered in time to make the County team this season.
Selskarexile (Wexford) - Posts: 29 - 02/04/2024 14:16:50 2535187 Link 0 |
1-We have had a debate years ago about S and C Storeystash. Proper S and C work takes a decade or more. It needs to start long before a lad is u20. 2-Our u20 team only got together in December. We didn't even have a management team in place until the end of November. They've only had 3 and a half months together, and I use the word together loosely as for alot of that time they've been playing and training with their schools and colleges. For example the 2 Murphys, Farrell, Dylan Purcell and Robbie Delaney probably hurled more hours in training and matches with their opponents from Kilkenny Bill Hughes, Ted Dunne and Ivan Bolger than they did with their Wexford teammates this winter. 3-I agree 100% that management should shoulder most of the blame 4-it was you yourself that said in a previous post some months, or maybe a year, ago that that was the level you were playing at AFL. Congratulations to the 2 lads that got rookie contracts btw, tough sport and very competitive at that level. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13296 - 02/04/2024 15:22:42 2535206 Link 0 |
Using Dee would be a huge blow considering Oisin Foley is already ruled out. Hopefully we have everyone else available
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 342 - 02/04/2024 15:55:09 2535212 Link 0 |
There are the same broader structures as there were the last 2 years. The minor decoupling is a bit of a red herring. The lads up to the age at u20 this year played adult club last year. Most of these lads were in some class of Wexford squad the first half of last year, and the lads too young to play club adult played club minor, then they all played for their schools and colleges. The issues I have with management stem more from team rather than squad selection, and the positions some lads were selected to play in. And the shape of the team or team structure on the day. I watched the game back last night on clubber to see if I'd seen things wrong from the stand on the day. I don't think I did. The warning signs of what was to come were there to see in the 1st quarter when it was level pegging. Kilkenny created 3 or 4 goal opportunities, yet we persisted largely with 3 men inside, which Kilkenny didn't, and no spare man at the back, or even further forwards in our own half, which they had. Their spare man got on loads of ball we played forwards, and our inside 3 were largely wasted as they got no ball. There was very little encouragement to them to work harder when we conceded the short puckout, so Kilkenny had plenty of space to bring the ball out without getting turned over. Lee Chin, who was sitting a few rows down in front of me, was the only person who seemed interested in this, and he shouted out to Luke Murphy his clubman a couple of times. Why did the management set the team up this way, why did they persist with it when the warning signs were there, and why weren't they offering more encouragement/advice from the sidelines? While there was a decent crowd it wasn't as if it was too noisy. I expected changes in set up at halftime but there weren't any. I watched the game with a lad I know on the Kilkenny County Board and he politely described our set up as "naive" and suggested at one point that maybe we were trying to keep our powder dry for the knock out stages. That's all well and good, but losing in that manner will not have done the players any good if that was the case. As regards selection I heard rumours that Farrell wasn't selected due to something that happened at minor. I really, really hope that that isn't the case. Byrne had played midfield for that minor team, but has been an inside forward ever since, and a very good one at that. Simon Roche has been one of our best backs the last while, but was selected at centre forward, maybe because he had played as a forward at minor. If we had of selected Byrne as an inside forward but played him predominantly around the half forward line as a midfielder, with 2 other lads working hard inside, and played our other midfielder a little deeper sitting back either in front of our back 3, or around 6 so the 6 could sit deeper as Damien does for the Senior team, maybe had Farrell around the half forward line playing as he did when he eventually came on as a target for longer puckouts, Kilkenny would have had way less space around the middle, and less space to run at our fullback line. On the longer puckouts we didn't always have players stationed at the quarters for the breaking ball, which Kilkenny then won most of. I know alot of the above is personal preference stuff, but senior intercounty and even club senior and Intermediate managers are setting up their teams along the lines of what I've proposed, it's the modern way, and seems to work pretty well. The Kilkenny u20 team set up along those lines as well btw. I didn't use the term "thrown to the wolves", but I do feel they let the players down somewhat. Maybe I'll go with the polite term "naive" and leave it at that. With lads like Whelan, Purcell, Chapman etc back, and maybe some selection and set up tweaks I'm still confident this panel of players can do well in the knockouts. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13296 - 02/04/2024 16:22:02 2535220 Link 2 |
They went up the country. They took a couple hours out to support the u20s in Nowlan Park.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13296 - 02/04/2024 16:51:04 2535227 Link 1 |
I was thinking that too but the worrying thing Saturday was the performance and body language, in that Galway game last year we played well and could have got something, we were poor against Dublin alright but didn't risk lads carrying knocks both in terms of not starting 4 I think and another 2 went off during the game.
TerribleFootwork (Wexford) - Posts: 1760 - 02/04/2024 22:43:51 2535288 Link 0 |
Speaking generally, what also needs to be realised is that the U20 grade teams, like other age graded teams, are a 'snapshot' of that particular year. How well a team does one year, can have hardly any relevance on how they do the next year, because of the player turnover due to age restrictions.
Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2643 - 03/04/2024 01:02:33 2535304 Link 0 |
Our 20s and 19s have been on the end of bad beatings in the last few days. Im not saying we should be winning Leinster every year but we need to remain competitive at every grade and the aim should be for 3-4 players to advance onto the senior panel each year after under 20. How are our u17s looking ahead of championship?
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 342 - 03/04/2024 09:56:55 2535330 Link 0 |
Going well enough. Lost to Limerick by just a point last weekend. Missing the 2 dual players and started slow. Were 12 points to 6 down at half time though Limerick had the wind. Competitive with everyone. Could do well if everyone is on top of their game.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13296 - 03/04/2024 13:50:08 2535370 Link 1 |
Good stuff. Hopefully they can have a good Leinster championship along with the seniors
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 342 - 03/04/2024 16:07:15 2535403 Link 0 |
Under 19s were heavily beaten again by Dublin 4-28 to 12 points. Have to wonder how we are that far behind at that age group , I know we have lads involved at u-20 but still not a good look I'm sure Dublin do aswell WexMurph (Wexford) - Posts: 211 - 03/04/2024 21:41:34 2535464 Link 0 |
https://kilkennygaa.ie/2024/03/u19-development-league/ https://kilkennygaa.ie/2024/03/29860/ Don't think any lads are on both Kilkennys u20 and U19 panels. They even have different managers. A few lads didn't commit to ours apparently. All the same the results have been very poor. I wonder are they setting up like the u20s? They have conceded 12 goals in 3 games, and have been hammered by Dublin, Offaly and Kilkenny. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13296 - 04/04/2024 08:22:13 2535490 Link 0 |