Wexford GAA 2008

Substitute the ‘u’ for an ‘i’ and you also have the description of some of the lads around here today

Honestly Fran, I’m not bitter - I just like verbally abusing people. The best crowd reaction I got was a few stares and laughs after Comerford’s neck high tackle on Travers when I gave it, ‘You Sir are a cunt.’ In fairness, there were several primary school children around our area so my use of the ‘c’ word was saved for special moments. Mol an ige and all that. Jugs and Stevie G displayed far more vitriol and choice language and I was embarrassed by them at times.

ah poor aul Fran. Disappointed ye aint getting the credit for your 65th Leinster?:slight_smile:

Dont think I commented on this game yet here, not a whole lot to add. Wexford put it up to KK in the first half, while they played poorly. And the second half they were unreal, aided by the fact that our lads stood off and admired their passing and shooting instead of getting stuck in.

For all the shite talk, KK will be hard to beat. Wexford showed that some sort of a gameplan may work, but you need to do this for the whole game. But who’s to say KK cant raise past any other teams gameplans? they just swatted Wexford away with contempt. I was expecting a beating in this game, and got it, and its strange not really having any desire watching a game. The first half, I was anxiously watching it, saying, mabe, you never know, but there’s a long way left. Young one said to me at half time ‘I thought you said Wexford would get hammered’, and I said ‘there’s plenty of time left for them to win by 20’. Its a horrible way to be thinking about your own county.

Anyway, we’ll leave that behind now. Onwards to the other Leinster final, and one I really think we can win. Call me delusional or whatever, but I think this is a real chance for us.

Starting to think about the football final now too in terms of tactics and team selection and how we match up against them man-for-man and playing style wise. I’ve said earlier on this thread how I’d like us to line up defensively and I stick by my Malone/Brogan, Wallace/Quinn and N Murphy/Keaney match-ups. I wouldn’t really quibble if Wallace and N Murphy swapped markers but I think Malone on Brogan is a must as he’s got the necessary pace and is also a good and disciplined tackler and is strong too.

We need David Murphy to hold the centre and not leave oceans of space in front of the full back. Limited physical contact on Dublin players is generally met with frees in scoreable areas in championship games in Croke Park so we can’t afford to have their inside line receiving the ball 20 or 30 yeards out, inviting tackles and getting cheap frees to convert.

Boccy Doyle did well against Laois, who started with two very tall midfielders who wouldn’t have the mobility or engine of someone like Shane Ryan. I think Sunday week might be more suited for Rory Stafford than Doyle as he has the upper body strength and stamina to match up against Ryan and would be a similar blocky and strong build to lads like Bryan Cullen. Howlin would take either Whelan or Fennell and Bradley, who did well at centre forward the last day, can drop deep as and when required. If one of Doyle and Stafford starts on the bench then they’ll be needed in the second half in any case.

I think our forward unit from the last day should be retained. IMO, Shane Roche’s searing pace is best used in an impact sub role for the moment even though he’ll be a certain starter in future years. I think Dublin’s collective physical strength around their half back line would negate his influence from the start but once the game opens up in the second half and space isn’t at such a premium then he’ll be a very good weapon to bring on to run at them from broken play.

We obviously need Red Barry on the ball but I expect they’ll have targeted him. If there’s a couple of men on him when he receives the ball out in the middle third to stop him threading balls through to Forde, Lyng and Banville then we need to have runners from the half back line and midfield showing for the ball for a popped handpass to retain the momentum of our moves. Those three need to display good movement, like they did against Laois, and I expect Banville will drift between the half forward and full forward lines trying to leave space for Forde and Lyng at times.

It goes without saying that we can’t realistically afford one of our trademark slow starts this time. In effect, it’s a home game for them and, though they’ve been brittle enough at times in the past, it’s fairly inconceivable that they’d lose a 6 points + lead to us. We need to be disciplined all over the pitch and strong mentally. There might be the odd period in the game where they get a run of quick points on us and start blowing kisses to the Hill or whatever but we need to be steadfast and come back at them again. We’ve shown all year that we finish strongly and don’t lack for fitness. They have the edge in experience of big games but we’ve shown collective spirit and will to come out the right side of several tight games this season. We have the players, we have the form and this year it seems we also have the belief.

Into these bastards Wexford!

never scored or never scored from play? How many games, that indeed is an amazing stat

After the disappointment of Sunday, us Wexford people always have another team to look forward to supporting, and this time it’s the turn of our Minor footballers tonight against Offaly in their patch-it will be 5 out of 6 teams in their provincial final if they make it and no other county in Ireland can match that stat.
The game on Sunday was disappointing even if we did open them up in the first half. Then Tommy Walsh tried his best to open up Gizzy Lyng and got away with it and Kilkenny pretty much pulled away from there.

I think Kilkenny should be put into a championship of their own to make it fair for everyone else. It should be Kilkenny and Kilkenny’s subs battling it out for silverware.

But for now-bring on the Huns of Ireland in the Leinster football final.

Play
D J Carey Never Scored Against Cork From Play

Stevie G and I shall be departing the capital in circa 1.5 hours to go down to Wexford Park for the minor match. It would be a wonderful achievement to reach Leinster Finals in minor, U-21 and senior but to be honest I don’t know how strong Offaly are. Anyway, hopefully there’ll be a decent crowd of Wexicans over in the park to support the lads. Gwan Wexford!

I stand to be corrected but I think Carey got a point from play after about 15 seconds of the 1992 final. Can any other anoraks out there confirm this?

Half time update from our reporter in Wexford Park:-

Wexford 0-01 0-05 Offaly

Wexford have the aide of a considerable gale in the second half and our reporter is predicting a Wexford victory.

This is the Leinster minor football semi final by the way, just in case any non-Wexicans are perving around here.

[quote=“Jugs”]Half time update from our reporter in Wexford Park:-

Wexford 0-01 0-05 Offaly

Wexford have the aide of a considerable gale in the second half and our reporter is predicting a Wexford victory.

This is the Leinster minor football semi final by the way, just in case any non-Wexicans are perving around here.[/quote]

Any word on the final score Jugs?

Aertel says Offaly 0-9, Wexford 0-2. Dunno if this was result?

There is pikeman…and it ain’t good!

Lost 9-2. Yes that’s 9 (nine) points to 2 (two) in 60 (sixty) minutes of football. Against Offaly. In front of a home crowd. There’s rumours the Offaly crowd tampered with the gale force wind after playing with it in the first half but that’s to be confirmed.

I don’t really know what else to say but i’m sure Bandage will post up some in depth analysis later.

In Offaly at the moment and the place is going nuts…

[quote=“Jugs”]There is pikeman…and it ain’t good!

Lost 9-2. Yes that’s 9 (nine) points to 2 (two) in 60 (sixty) minutes of football. Against Offaly. In front of a home crowd. There’s rumours the Offaly crowd tampered with the gale force wind after playing with it in the first half but that’s to be confirmed.

I don’t really know what else to say but i’m sure Bandage will post up some in depth analysis later.[/quote]

Oh dear

Could you blame them?? What a win away to such a strongly fancied Wexford team…restricting them to 2 points is some achievement!

Was at the game.The Ref was dire.Wexford failed to use the wind hitting pass after pass astray.Real dire stuff.Biffo’s used the ball much more intelligently and were in not for the WX goal the scoreline could have been worse as he made a number of fine saves.As usual the scoreboard was broken!

Well that was pretty shit. The two highlights from the trip down were the bag of chips in Frydays in Ferns on the way down (wasn’t that place formerly known as Ozzie’s Diner or am I mistaken?) and the stop for a (Tangle) Twister on the way up.

We played really, really poorly and didn’t seem to have a semblance of a gameplan or any method in our play. They had the strong wind behind them in the first half and we lined up with an orthodox six forwards despite our 'keeper’s kick-outs barely reaching our own '45.

They were physically stronger and winning most of the close-in exchanges and breaks and we really should have brought some of our forwards back to crowd things out. As it was they had plenty of space to hit their inside forwards, who missed a lot of chances. Only for that and a very good save from our 'keeper they would have been more than 5-1 up at half time.

I was hopeful we’d improve substantially in the second half, with the gale in our favour and a large home support behind our lads but we got worse if anything. We had most of the early play but resorted to kicking from too far out and from ambitious angles. The movement and workrate of our forwards also left an awful lot to be desired, and with the Biffs dropping two fowards back around the midfield and half back line area, our defenders had no option but to carry the ball forward and into contact due to not having any passing options.

On the odd occasion we launched speculative punts into the full forward line but invariably they either carried straight through to the 'keeper or were cut out by the defence. It was disappointing to see a lack of cohesion, fluency and any real teamwork to our play. The Offaly lads simply worked harder and I don’t know if it was nerves, lack of belief or what but our lads were flat and very much off the pace.

It was good to see all the senior team in attendance and getting behind the youngsters and Matty Forde and Colm Morris were both ‘Maor Uisce’ men during the game. A pity the lads played so poorly but the only consolation is we can have more time in the pub before the senior final on Sunday week now.

I’m not a huge fan of Larry Doyle, the manager of the minor team, but I was strolling out beside him after the game when a man approached and calmly said, ‘Larry, for the sake of Wexford football, please don’t manage any of our teams again.’ There’s a time and a place for talk like that and I felt pretty sorry for him and thanked him for his efforts with the lads (even though I was kind of thinking the same thing as yer other auld lad). ‘Jesus, strong words’, sighed Larry as I patted him on the back.

In short, we were scheidt. Kudos though to Sean O’Gorman in goal (lose the bicycle shorts though san), the entire full back line (especially Matt Crowdle in the corner), John Lacey at centre back, who carried the fight to them all through, and little Conor Carty had an excellent game at half back too. However, there didn’t appear to be too many future senior prospects on show.

2 fucking points - ah thats hilarious in fairness.

They were two excellent points though - a nice swivel and finish by Shane Bradley and a booming. long range free by Michael O’Regan.