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Replying To countyman2022: "1. KK
2. Galway
3. Dubs
4. Wexford
I am not quite sure how you could put Dublin ahead of Galway considering the considerate ease in which Galway beat Dublin by in Parnell Pk last year. I know they had the flash in the pan result against Limerick, but Cork game showed their real level." Its all about Burkes. Donal was missing for Dublin, while David and Daithi might not be there this year. Or will be another year older. David scored 3 points from play in that game, and at important times.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 14/11/2025 11:01:37
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Replying To Pikeman96: "I both agree and disagree with your "controversial" statement. And my disagreement might make what I say even more controversial!
I fully agree that Wexford people in general are not the great hurling supporters they think they are, and that what we have instead is a massive bandwagon that likes going to Croke Park, but nowhere else.
I'm thinking of things like how Wexford Park generally has less than 10,000 in it for a match in the group stage of the Leinster Championship, or how we'd generally have only around 6,000 to 8,000 in Thurles for an All-Ireland quarter-final. But as soon as we'd get to Croke Park, there'd be 30,000 or more Wexford people there, clapping themselves on the back for how they're part of such "great" support.
And even with Croke Park - thinking back to Leinster Final day 2019. One thing that always grated with me was the videos went around of the huge crowds of "great" Wexford supporters who were queueing to get in about 20 minutes ahead of the senior final. These "great" supporters didn't bother going in earlier to see the minors play their own Leinster Final. They'd decided to instead have an extra hour or two at home before heading to Dublin at all, or having an extra couple of hours in the pub after they got there.
Where I disagree is I don't believe supporters have "abandoned" the team, and that's because it was always this way. It's not as though we used to always have big crowds at everything. Even going back to 1996, and the massive crowds of "great" supporters that swelled as the year went on - there were only about 15,000 people in Croke Park that year for our first round match v Kilkenny.
We've a massive bandwagon when things are good, but we don't have great supporters through thick and thin." Absolutely not. There weren't even 2000 Wexford supporters in the Park the afternoon we lost to Westmeath in 2023.
And the only 2 games we won in the League this year I could count the other Wexford people I saw at both games put together on the fingers of my 2 hands. And I wouldn't have needed the thumbs.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 14/11/2025 11:05:37
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Replying To StoreysTash: "It is very difficult to see where or how the improvement is going to come from if we lose those players.
I only saw my own club in the championship but I didn't hear about anyone tearing it up.
Maybe we can unearth someone but we're really in big trouble if we lose even some of them. Who are the up and coming players who aren't travelling, injured or not wanting to commit to it?" Sure enough I did, forgot Oisin Pepper. I left out Niall Murphy as there are rumours he's not committing. Seriously underrated hurler, who looked like he got scapegoated after the loss in Corrigan when it wasn't him gave the ball away in the 1st place. In any case he's not a cornerback, he's probably the next best 3 in the county after Jippo of the younger lads around, possibly with the exception of Dara Kehoe.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 14/11/2025 11:10:00
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Replying To ExiledInWex: "Honest question, who is replacing those players in the squad? I would hazard a guess that they won't be of the same standard?
Leinster is winnable but if you have me 20 quid now I wouldn't put it on Wexford at any odds. I just don't think Wexford are close to winning it. I believe Kllkenny are still the top dogs, we are number 2, Galway are 3.
Wexford with a full squad might be in the mix, I thought your bench was poor enough last year and would be threadbare without half the names mentioned Wexford are way off it.
You also need to think about this from players perspective and controversial opinion follows.
Supporters have abandoned the Wexford hurling team. Why would any of them bother going to all the effort to play in front of 5-6k people in a championship match in Wexford Park? Wexford fans are as big a bandwagon as Cork in reality, only show up when big games in Croke Park. Couldn't even sell out Wexford Park when fighting for their lives to stay in the Liam McCarthy Cup and needed all the support they could get. I'm not saying Dublin support better, its not, but Wexford people view themselves as better supporters than they are. You'd think the way Liam Griffin and Gizzy talk Wexford people eat breathe and sleep hurling, the reality is far from it.
Just how I see it in truth. Hope to eat my words in 2026 because I want successful Wexford also." Well, I suppose a year is a long time if you've a young enough squad, would guess most of the improvement would have to come from younger players, be they players who have been given game time in recent years or be they players with no real experience
So you're talking….
Michael Dundon
Eoin Whelan
Darragh Kehoe
Cian Molloy
Conor Foley
Darragh Carley
Richie Lawlor
David Codd
Cillian Byrne
Tucker Kinsella
CBD
Cian Byrne
Simon Roche
Seán Rowley
Jack Redmond
And then you have the likes of Mike Kelly and Niall Murphy amongst others who have been in the squad before but might be given more of a chance now
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 711 - 14/11/2025 11:26:39
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Replying To Viking66: "In fairness we have plenty of them, from the 2 good u20 teams that came close in 22 and 23, some from the poorer teams before and since.
Lads who mightve played some part in championship last year but didnt on account of injury include James Byrne, David Codd, Dara Kehoe, Eoin Whelan. Other lads not starting on the 22/23 u20 teams Mike Kelly might be an option at wing forward from 2021, Cathal Parker, Eamon Wickham, Dara Farrell and Jake Molloy from the 2024 u20s, Simon Roche had a good club championship, Sean Rowley, and Cillian Byrne who played well against a physical Danesfort team, from this year's u20s.
From the 22/23 lads there's Conor Foley, Richie Lawlor, Patsy Molloy, both Cian Byrnes from Fethard and Rosslare, Jack Redmond who was 2nd top scorer from play in this years championship and a good free taker too, Corey Byrne Dunbar, Eoin Ryan if he commits, Michael Dundon, Tucker Kinsella, Dara Carley if he can find some confidence, Seamie Hagan and Cormac Walsh maybe?
Other non Senior lads include Colum Fitzgerald, Tadg Brohan has a bit of X factor up front, Jason Byrne and Aodhan Whitty from Craanford, Mossy Murphy is a really underrated player.
Probably left a few out, but there's a long list of lads who will be a year stronger than last season, have another years adult club hurling behind them, and might be able to do an Adam Hogan or Darragh McCarthy on it and make a giant leap forwards. Will take hard work, luck but most of all belief and confidence.
We badly badly need to get a good lead coach in place ASAP." Most of those lads are good club hurlers Viking...I am moving home next year and I would not be intimidated by half of them if I was to end up against them
How many of those do you think have the ability to be good inter county hurlers who are not on the team before now?
My list : Dara Kehoe, Eoin Whelan,Simon Roche, Sean Rowley, Jack Redmond.
On the topic of support, Wexford is a big bandwagon. But so is every other county.
StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1939 - 14/11/2025 12:18:30
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Replying To Viking66: "Sure enough I did, forgot Oisin Pepper. I left out Niall Murphy as there are rumours he's not committing. Seriously underrated hurler, who looked like he got scapegoated after the loss in Corrigan when it wasn't him gave the ball away in the 1st place. In any case he's not a cornerback, he's probably the next best 3 in the county after Jippo of the younger lads around, possibly with the exception of Dara Kehoe." Yeah, have said before myself that I think Murphy's been hugely unlucky in how he's been treated.
He'd nailed down a starting spot for the League last year and the first couple of championship matches too. Then up in Belfast, he was first taken off (probably harshly), but we were actually still winning the game at that stage. Eoin Ryan replaced him there and then in the changes for the next match (home v Galway, where we got back on track), Ryan was picked to start.
In fairness to Ryan, he did really well v Galway and on that performance deserved to hold his spot, but Murphy's found it hard to get any sort of a run at all since then, and I'd understand why he might not want to commit again if there's only the same sort of thing in store for him.
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3250 - 14/11/2025 13:26:34
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Replying To StoreysTash: "Most of those lads are good club hurlers Viking...I am moving home next year and I would not be intimidated by half of them if I was to end up against them
How many of those do you think have the ability to be good inter county hurlers who are not on the team before now?
My list : Dara Kehoe, Eoin Whelan,Simon Roche, Sean Rowley, Jack Redmond.
On the topic of support, Wexford is a big bandwagon. But so is every other county." Id put David Codd and James Byrne on that shortlist of lads who haven't played championship yet, who could play this year. Maybe some more by February or March. Some of the others wouldn't be Senior intercounty players this year for sure. All those lads are very young still
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 14/11/2025 13:34:48
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Replying To Pikeman96: "I both agree and disagree with your "controversial" statement. And my disagreement might make what I say even more controversial!
I fully agree that Wexford people in general are not the great hurling supporters they think they are, and that what we have instead is a massive bandwagon that likes going to Croke Park, but nowhere else.
I'm thinking of things like how Wexford Park generally has less than 10,000 in it for a match in the group stage of the Leinster Championship, or how we'd generally have only around 6,000 to 8,000 in Thurles for an All-Ireland quarter-final. But as soon as we'd get to Croke Park, there'd be 30,000 or more Wexford people there, clapping themselves on the back for how they're part of such "great" support.
And even with Croke Park - thinking back to Leinster Final day 2019. One thing that always grated with me was the videos went around of the huge crowds of "great" Wexford supporters who were queueing to get in about 20 minutes ahead of the senior final. These "great" supporters didn't bother going in earlier to see the minors play their own Leinster Final. They'd decided to instead have an extra hour or two at home before heading to Dublin at all, or having an extra couple of hours in the pub after they got there.
Where I disagree is I don't believe supporters have "abandoned" the team, and that's because it was always this way. It's not as though we used to always have big crowds at everything. Even going back to 1996, and the massive crowds of "great" supporters that swelled as the year went on - there were only about 15,000 people in Croke Park that year for our first round match v Kilkenny.
We've a massive bandwagon when things are good, but we don't have great supporters through thick and thin." Do agree with you the whole best supporters in the country thing is nonsense, none of the counties in Leinster are supported well anyway, Kilkenny in particular.
Regarding Thurles don't know what it's like for lads living anywhere past day Enniscorthy and further up north of the county but it's a nightmare to get to and would say it's nearly feels like a home game for the Munster team we're playing, same with going to Cork, If we're playing Clare for example in Thurles it's a lot more accessible for their fans compared to of getting there. And putting it bluntly - we're only ever going to be playing QFs in either venue which is more than likely our Waterloo.
Look back to 2024, reasonably big crowd for the Dublin game, get bet in Belfast, poor crowd in for the Galway game, then about 10k Wexford people went to the last game in Kilkenny.
OpenStandWall (Wexford) - Posts: 303 - 14/11/2025 17:39:11
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ExiledInWex (Dublin) Every county has a bandwagon, are you telling me that Dublin didnt have more supporters in Croker for the Cork game? You are wrong with your top 4 in Leinster, its Kilkenny, Galway, Dublin, Wexford. There is nothing between Wexford and Dublin, we got a few things badly wrong in that game in Parnell last year. Looking forward to finally beating Dublin in 2026.
logger (Wexford) - Posts: 321 - 15/11/2025 07:34:08
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Replying To countyman2022: "Believe Molloy will be back. McCuckian, Dunbar not whilst mac most likely not." What's Mac got to do with thise two? Does he need to be in squad for those two to commit. If that was the case then forget them and move on.
WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 447 - 15/11/2025 09:18:13
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Replying To Viking66: "I would be too. But we are down that many players nearly every year at this time of year, so I'm not worrying yet. Also there are loads of lads who will get in training and try fill any spots on the team that may become vacant . Some will turn out to be better than the lads they are replacing. Some won't. No point worrying about all that now.
Right now the only thing to be worrying about is that we don't have a lead coach currently." Its hard not to worry though isn't it. I said this before and I still believe it, if we are down key players then we are not far off McDonagh. Its becoming a trend now of lads not committing.
Its their decision but its frustrating knowing that we have a lot of quality lads that just dont want to hurl for Wexford. Its the time.of year now when the supporter usually gets excited about the new year.....what have we got to be excited about.
Maybe a lot.of stuff on this forum.is not factual because if we believed every player mentioned that won't be committing then we'd be putting out the the u20 team to represent the county.
WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 447 - 15/11/2025 09:25:04
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Replying To OpenStandWall: "Do agree with you the whole best supporters in the country thing is nonsense, none of the counties in Leinster are supported well anyway, Kilkenny in particular.
Regarding Thurles don't know what it's like for lads living anywhere past day Enniscorthy and further up north of the county but it's a nightmare to get to and would say it's nearly feels like a home game for the Munster team we're playing, same with going to Cork, If we're playing Clare for example in Thurles it's a lot more accessible for their fans compared to of getting there. And putting it bluntly - we're only ever going to be playing QFs in either venue which is more than likely our Waterloo.
Look back to 2024, reasonably big crowd for the Dublin game, get bet in Belfast, poor crowd in for the Galway game, then about 10k Wexford people went to the last game in Kilkenny." I was in the old stand there were a few Wexford supporters that side. The other side looked like it was 3/4s Wexford. Overall attendance was up towards 20k so Id be guessing you are probably about right with the 10k.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 15/11/2025 10:07:31
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Replying To OpenStandWall: "Do agree with you the whole best supporters in the country thing is nonsense, none of the counties in Leinster are supported well anyway, Kilkenny in particular.
Regarding Thurles don't know what it's like for lads living anywhere past day Enniscorthy and further up north of the county but it's a nightmare to get to and would say it's nearly feels like a home game for the Munster team we're playing, same with going to Cork, If we're playing Clare for example in Thurles it's a lot more accessible for their fans compared to of getting there. And putting it bluntly - we're only ever going to be playing QFs in either venue which is more than likely our Waterloo.
Look back to 2024, reasonably big crowd for the Dublin game, get bet in Belfast, poor crowd in for the Galway game, then about 10k Wexford people went to the last game in Kilkenny." Fully agree that Thurles is an awful place to get to from just about anywhere in Wexford.
But still, if the quarter-finals were played in Croke Park instead, you'd probably 25,000 to 30,000 "great" Wexford supporters there, even in spite of how the quarter-finals is where we normally come a cropper anyway.
But when they're on in Thurles, somewhere around three quarters of these "great" supporters don't make the effort to get there at all.
I remember back in 2022, when we were to play Clare there as part of a double-header with Galway v Cork. There was dismay when the games were fixed for Thurles. "Sure Wexford could nearly fill that by ourselves. People won't be able to get tickets".
But County Board ended up even having to send back unsold tickets from what I think was an 8,000 allocation, and total attendance there that day between the four counties was less than 35,000.
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3250 - 15/11/2025 11:20:38
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Fully agree that Thurles is an awful place to get to from just about anywhere in Wexford.
But still, if the quarter-finals were played in Croke Park instead, you'd probably 25,000 to 30,000 "great" Wexford supporters there, even in spite of how the quarter-finals is where we normally come a cropper anyway.
But when they're on in Thurles, somewhere around three quarters of these "great" supporters don't make the effort to get there at all.
I remember back in 2022, when we were to play Clare there as part of a double-header with Galway v Cork. There was dismay when the games were fixed for Thurles. "Sure Wexford could nearly fill that by ourselves. People won't be able to get tickets".
But County Board ended up even having to send back unsold tickets from what I think was an 8,000 allocation, and total attendance there that day between the four counties was less than 35,000." I think if there were 3000 of us that was all. The ground was half empty for our game when alot of the Cork lads left. And the Clare lads definitely willed their lads over the line in the last 10 minutes of that game, it was like being at the old Den back in the 80s.
And as regards getting to it Semple is a far better drive for me than Croke Park. My lads hate motorways as do I, boring in the extreme. Parking better in Thurles too, Croker on All Ireland final days involves parking in Glenageary and getting the train, although I did drive all the way in for the Football League final this year.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 15/11/2025 16:40:56
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Fully agree that Thurles is an awful place to get to from just about anywhere in Wexford.
But still, if the quarter-finals were played in Croke Park instead, you'd probably 25,000 to 30,000 "great" Wexford supporters there, even in spite of how the quarter-finals is where we normally come a cropper anyway.
But when they're on in Thurles, somewhere around three quarters of these "great" supporters don't make the effort to get there at all.
I remember back in 2022, when we were to play Clare there as part of a double-header with Galway v Cork. There was dismay when the games were fixed for Thurles. "Sure Wexford could nearly fill that by ourselves. People won't be able to get tickets".
But County Board ended up even having to send back unsold tickets from what I think was an 8,000 allocation, and total attendance there that day between the four counties was less than 35,000." It would definitely be fairer to have some AIHQFs in Nowlan Park
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 15/11/2025 16:41:56
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I see that Tom Mullally has stepped down as Carlow manager
Will be managing Naas next week against the Martin's
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 711 - 15/11/2025 20:06:16
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "I see that Tom Mullally has stepped down as Carlow manager
Will be managing Naas next week against the Martin's" He's been managing Naas the last few years
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 15/11/2025 21:11:01
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Replying To Viking66: "He's been managing Naas the last few years" According to carlow post. He's stepped away from 'Naas also.
Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 89 - 16/11/2025 16:39:30
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Replying To logger: "ExiledInWex (Dublin) Every county has a bandwagon, are you telling me that Dublin didnt have more supporters in Croker for the Cork game? You are wrong with your top 4 in Leinster, its Kilkenny, Galway, Dublin, Wexford. There is nothing between Wexford and Dublin, we got a few things badly wrong in that game in Parnell last year. Looking forward to finally beating Dublin in 2026." No I am not telling you that. That is why I said "I'm not saying Dublin support better, its not...." in my post.
ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1516 - 16/11/2025 18:53:13
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Replying To Carlowtothecore1: "According to carlow post. He's stepped away from 'Naas also." Ah ok. Presume he will finish the season with them though.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17606 - 16/11/2025 18:58:23
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