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Wexford is a terrible county for "I know 15 lads who are better than anyone on that starting team". That is barstool talk.
I absolutely refuse to believe that any manager over a county team would put anything other than the best starting 15 on to the field. If you showed 10 of us a group of 30 hurlers, we'd pick 10 different teams.
Lots of players have "potential" but some just are not willing to commit and sacrifice to make it. In every club, in every county, in every sport. Wayne Rooney always says there were 3 better trainees at Everton. There are 2 of these in my own club whose idea of S&C is lifting pints but both are "potentially" top hurlers, definitely could be on the county u20 team but not bothered with the effort involved.
Is that what people mean by players being better?
I'm not saying players they should sacrifice everything for GAA but then you choose your lifestyle according to what you want to get out of the game. Because players who won't give you everything and won't make sacrifice to better the team are essentially no use to you at the end of the day.
ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1522 - 11/12/2025 12:12:35
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Replying To Paull: "Not going to mention names here but I am confident I could have picked 15 players 19 or 20 who didn't start v Laois that would be very competitive against the team that did start. Some of the players I am talking about did not even make their squad." Did they go to the trials? I know of a lad who did well in the Championship this year but didnt trial for the u20s in either code?
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17761 - 11/12/2025 12:47:44
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Replying To alwaysasub: " Replying To alwaysasub: "For the craic I said I would ask Chapt GPt whats the best format for Wexford hurling, to avoid any dead rubbers and to make every game meaningful, This is the proposal it had.
<b>Best Overall Format: 3 Groups of 4 (Most Competitive Until the End)</b>
Group Stage (3×4 teams)
Each team plays 3 matches.
Points: 2 for win, 1 for draw.
Top 2 in each group (6 teams) go to the County Quarter-Finals.
3rd-place teams (3 teams) go into a Preliminary Quarter-Final (playoff) to determine the final 2 quarter-final spots.
Bottom teams enter relegation playoff.
Knockout Structure
Preliminary QFs:
3rd A vs 3rd B
Winner vs 3rd C
2 winners join the top 6 seeded teams = 8 quarter-finalists
Quarter-Finals (8 teams)
Semi-Finals (4 teams)
Final
Why this is the best
Every team fights for something:
1st/2nd → automatic knockouts
3rd → still alive via playoff
4th → avoids relegation matches
Almost zero "dead" games in Round 3.
Balanced number of games: 3-6 matches per team."</div>Further to this, I dont know how the fixtures committee are going to fit in both minor and U21 championships, if you go back to two groups of 6, U21 will not be played until after the adult and minor is finished. So I have went if the format above was approved for this instance where both u21 and minor can be fitted in. Bit of a breaks here and there and you can add in another one or two if needed, maybe one for minors after eth bank holiday weekend as some players could have three games in a short space of time., this was done quickly so apologies for errors.
2026 Championship
27-28 June Hurling R1
1-July Minor Hurling R1
4-5 July Hurling R2
8 July U21 Hurling R1
11-12 July Break weekend
15 July Minor Football R1
18-19 July Football R1
22 July U21 Football R1
25-26 July Football R2
29 July Minor Hurling R2
1-2-3 Aug Bank Holiday Adult Break/U21 Hurling QF
5 Aug Minor Football R2
8-9 Aug Hurling R3
12-Aug U21 Football QF
15-16 Aug Football R3
19-Aug Minor Hurling R3
22-23 Aug Hurling Pre-liminary Quarter Final
26-Aug Minor Football R3
29-30 Aug Adult Break - Electric Picnic
2-Sept Minor Hurling Placement Games
5-6 Sep Football Pre-liminary Quarter Final
9-Sept Minor Football Placement Games
12-13 Sept Hurling Quarter Final / Relegation Semi Final
16-Sept Minor Hurling Quarter Final
19-20 Sept Football Quarter Final / Relegation Semi Final
23-Sept Minor Football Quarter Final
26-27 Sept Hurling Semi Final/Relegation Final
30 Sept Minor Hurling Semi Final
3-4 Oct Football Semi Final/Relegation Final
7th Oct Minor Football Semi Final
10-11 Oct Minor Hurling Final (Before Senior Final)
10-11 Oct Hurling Finals
17-18 Oct Minor Football Final (Before Senior Final)
17-18 Oct Football Final
24-Oct U21 Hurling Semi Finals (dependent on involvement in Leinster)
31-Oct U21 Football Semi Finals
7-8 Nov U21 Hurling Final
7-8 Nov U21 Football Final" That's not going to work Alwaysasub because we will be in an AISF next year............!!!!!!! How about that for positive thinking?!
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17761 - 11/12/2025 12:49:33
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Replying To Paull: "They played 7 or 8 boys who were 18 or less in that match. That was more than Cork,Kilkenny, Galway, Clare and Tip combined in their last games. No point in naming anyone here. That fact alone is enough to admit they got it badly wrong." True. 5 started and 3 came on. I agree, I think Id only have started 2 of them. Well maybe Carley too. But as I said, I wasn't at trials, or at training.
On a slightly different tack, and I know it would affect every county, but its a fact that there are lads who look way better in Ocober/November than they do in April/May/June.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17761 - 11/12/2025 13:00:31
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Like Paull, I'm not going to get into picking teams with hindsight or naming names either.
Am just pointing out that by all accounts, including your own, the U20 players with adult hurling experience behind them didn't set the world on fire this year. And in the manager's eyes at least, that adult hurling experience was worth so little to them that many others with no adult hurling experience at all were still ahead of them in the reckoning." I think our minor teams in 2022 and 2023 weren't as good as our 2024 minors.
Our 2022 minors got knocked out by Laois, I think the only tier 1 county they beat all season was Dublin, who were poor that year too.
Our 2023 minors beat a poor Offaly team, and Dublin again, but in the group stage, not knockout. And noone else except for Kerry.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17761 - 11/12/2025 13:11:03
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Like Paull, I'm not going to get into picking teams with hindsight or naming names either.
Am just pointing out that by all accounts, including your own, the U20 players with adult hurling experience behind them didn't set the world on fire this year. And in the manager's eyes at least, that adult hurling experience was worth so little to them that many others with no adult hurling experience at all were still ahead of them in the reckoning." I think our minor teams in 2022 and 2023 weren't as good as our 2024 minors.
Our 2022 minors got knocked out by Laois, I think the only tier 1 county they beat all season was Dublin, who were poor that year too.
Our 2023 minors beat a poor Offaly team, and Dublin again, but in the group stage, not knockout. And noone else except for Kerry.
Our 2024 minors beat both Kilkenny and Cork pretty convincingly, we were around 12 points up against both in both second halves, the latter in a knockout game.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17761 - 11/12/2025 13:15:37
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Replying To Viking66: "The 19 year olds hadn't played any adult hurling either. I agree though, the only 2 u18s Id of picked were Eoin Hughes and Paddy Quigley.
But then me and you don't know how lads were going in training....." Don't take this personally as it's more of a general observation of how people often say one thing when what they mean is another, and in this sort of context, it's important to have it right.
Basically, you can't make a sweeping statement of "the 19-year-olds hadn't played any adult hurling either".
Somebody who was 19 on 1st January last and didn't turn 20 until June (for example) would have been eligible for adult hurling last year, and would still have been 19 while playing with the county U20s this year.
However, you can say "This year's U19s hadn't played any adult hurling". They're the lads you mean, who would have been 18 on 1st January last, and therefore just out of Minor.
I know this is pedantic but it's an important point. Something similar kept being said in the debate about allowing second year Minors to play adult. People kept saying things like "the 18-year-old player should be able to play up".
What if a chap is still only 17 for his entire second year of Minor, because his 18tth birthday won't happen until December 31st????
Obviously he can play up as well, but on the face of it, the statement "the 18-year-old player can play adult" doesn't apply to him. That's why it's important to state such things correctly. People should instead say "second year Minors can play adult".
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3306 - 11/12/2025 13:38:40
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Don't take this personally as it's more of a general observation of how people often say one thing when what they mean is another, and in this sort of context, it's important to have it right.
Basically, you can't make a sweeping statement of "the 19-year-olds hadn't played any adult hurling either".
Somebody who was 19 on 1st January last and didn't turn 20 until June (for example) would have been eligible for adult hurling last year, and would still have been 19 while playing with the county U20s this year.
However, you can say "This year's U19s hadn't played any adult hurling". They're the lads you mean, who would have been 18 on 1st January last, and therefore just out of Minor.
I know this is pedantic but it's an important point. Something similar kept being said in the debate about allowing second year Minors to play adult. People kept saying things like "the 18-year-old player should be able to play up".
What if a chap is still only 17 for his entire second year of Minor, because his 18tth birthday won't happen until December 31st????
Obviously he can play up as well, but on the face of it, the statement "the 18-year-old player can play adult" doesn't apply to him. That's why it's important to state such things correctly. People should instead say "second year Minors can play adult"." I know what you mean, but everyone knows what I meant also. This year the only lads who were eligible for u20 who had played adult were the lads who were up to the age minor in 2022. Alot of our 2022 minor team weren't up to the age minors, and a large percentage of the lads who were up to the age minor in 2022 missed most or all of this years u20 competition, through injury or just not wanting to hurl u20, including some of the best players. And it wasn't a strong minor team to begin with.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17761 - 11/12/2025 14:37:39
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Replying To Viking66: " Replying To Pikeman96: "Like <b>Paull</b>, I'm not going to get into picking teams with hindsight or naming names either.
Am just pointing out that by all accounts, including your own, the U20 players with adult hurling experience behind them didn't set the world on fire this year. And in the manager's eyes at least, that adult hurling experience was worth so little to them that many others with no adult hurling experience at all were still ahead of them in the reckoning."</div>I think our minor teams in 2022 and 2023 weren't as good as our 2024 minors.
Our 2022 minors got knocked out by Laois, I think the only tier 1 county they beat all season was Dublin, who were poor that year too.
Our 2023 minors beat a poor Offaly team, and Dublin again, but in the group stage, not knockout. And noone else except for Kerry." Going around in circles. Basically ever other County that had a stronger minor team than us in 2024 could only find 1 , max 2 players from that team good enough to play U20 in 2025. We played 8. You can spin that whatever way you want to justify it. The end game is we were humiliated at home by a 14 man Laois (6 pts) who were subsequently annihilated by Kilkenny (14 pts). And on another point there were very little if any open trials. You basically had to be asked to trial. And I can tell you I know lots who were not asked. And plenty of them were regulars on Intermediate and Senior teams this year.
Paull (Wexford) - Posts: 234 - 11/12/2025 14:37:44
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