Wexford GAA 2008

Sport
61

they certainly couldnt be any worse off for watching home and away because that performance yesterday was truely abysmal. bar the full back line (to an extent) not one player seemed remotely interested. as my old man said if the sight of the kilkenny jersey on your home turf doesnt motivate ya, what will? it was painful to watch.

Gizzy hauled off after 15 minutes and then put back on with 5 to go in full forward. Doc brought on in the first half and then replaced in the second half without striking a ball in anger. not alone did the players embarass themselves but so too did John Meyler.

We scored one goal with the wind in the second half. we did even manage a single point. i know we were up against the best yesterday but kk never even hit third gear, in fact they barely engaged second. it was pitiful to look at some of the wexford players yesterday. i travelled back from belfast for it and boy did i regret that decision.

it’s all well and good suggesting that we simply arent good enough but bad teams if properly trained organised and managed can do great things, for example greece in Euro 2004, and there are many more examples.

there is simply no excuse for that level of performance. None.

62

Can’t believe none of them suspected Henk. Clueless bunch of eejits.

What’s the story with Ciaran Lyng?

63

[quote=“therock67”]Can’t believe none of them suspected Henk. Clueless bunch of eejits.

What’s the story with Ciaran Lyng?[/quote]

Taking College life too seriously I believe

64

on a more positive note that was a great win for the under 21 footballers up in westmeath. and their reward is a leinster semi final clash with Wicklow in Aughrim after their shock hammering of Leinster champions and all-ireland finalists laois by 1-11 to 0-3 in portlaoise. they fielded 7 or 8 of last years team and i believe wicklow played for almost the entire game with 14 men.

65

Sets up a great local derby final alright Stevie G

66

Pretty defeatist stuff coming from John Meyler in the Indo today. We all know they’ve great players and huge strength in depth but that shouldn’t prevent us from competing with them and at least getting in their faces and making them work for every score:

Meyler admits to harsh words after thumping

Tuesday March 11 2008

JOHN Meyler has admitted that there was a frank exchange of opinions in the Wexford dressing room following last Sunday’s 15-point defeat against Kilkenny in the National Hurling League.

Wexford were totally outclassed once again by the All-Ireland champions and an angry Meyler locked his players in the dressing room for some time after the final whistle.

He explained: "We only got a goal in the second half, after five minutes, and didn’t score for the remaining 33 minutes of playing time.

"You might as well go home at that level because you have to be able to score for the full hour.

"We sat down afterwards and had a chat and we all have to up the intensity this week, both in training and in terms of honesty.

"Dublin will be a tough, hard match for us next Sunday and Kilkenny penalised us everywhere last Sunday.

"I have to say that our fullback line and goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry were outstanding and we didn’t concede a goal but I’m saying the same things now as after last year’s meetings with Kilkenny.

“They got 0-23 again on Sunday, similar to last year’s tallies and 1-5 for hurling is a poor return from us.”

Meyler added: "We exchanged opinions afterwards and now we have to tear into training on Tuesday night and then tear into Dublin next ‘’

Meyler had absolutely no complaints with the result against Kilkenny, who he described as “the best athletic hurling team of the last 20 years.”

He added: "Kilkenny brought on Richie Hogan, PJ Delaney and TJ Reid, one of the outstanding players of the Fitzgibbon Cup.

“John Dalton was superb for Waterford IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup and he wasn’t even togged off. Brian (Cody) has two players for each position and they simply cruised past us.”

Meyler also confirmed that centre forward Eoin Quigley, who came off injured after 16 minutes, will miss the next month of action with a quad muscle problem.

67

Mitch Jordan has announced his retirement. He was sometimes great and really inconsistent on other occasions but he was a good servant and I wish him all the best. From the Indo:

Model forward Jordan calls time on county career

WEXFORD attacker Michael ‘Mitch’ Jordan has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling.

Jordan (32) has decided to bow out after 13 seasons in the purple and gold and has informed team manager John Meyler.

Jordan made his championship debut against Westmeath in 1995 and the Marshalstown clubman was a member of the panel when Wexford famously captured the All-Ireland title a year later.

The versatile forward pinpointed 2004 as another major career highlight, when Wexford last captured the Leinster senior title by defeating both Kilkenny and Offaly in the same season.

“Unfortunately, I was part of a number of Wexford teams who lost senior All-Ireland semi-finals, but I have no regrets,” Jordan said.

"I was lucky enough to be part of the 30-man panel for the 1996 All-Ireland success and that was a huge buzz.

“We should have struck when the iron was hot then and kept the thing going, working at underage, and looking back, I don’t think that it was pushed hard enough.”

68

I can’t help but think we’re pretty much going nowhere when I see the team for Sunday in what’s essentially a relegation play-off against Dublin. I thought Willie Doran would get a full league campaign to establish himself at centre back and now he’s chosen at wing forward. We’re persisting with players that haven’t delivered in quite some time and continuing to try others that don’t look up to it. Colm Farrell makes his debut in midfield so it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on. There’ll surely be a backlash after last week and I know Dublin let slip another chance of an upset against a top side when Cork came back and defeated them on Sunday but I think they’re good value at 2/1.

Wexford (NHL v Dublin) -
D. Fitzhenry,
M. Travers, K. Rossiter, P. Roche,
R. Kehoe, D. Morton, C. Kenny,
C. Farrell, J. O’Connor,
W. Doran, M. Doyle, M. Jacob,
D. Redmond, S. Nolan, R. Jacob.

69

Dublin to win I think. Sky Blues hold no fear whatsoever of Wexford. When you look at the average age of the Dublin team too it’s about 24 I’d say so they’ve definitely the right idea of building for the future. If they don’t beat us this time-they’ll beat us in the championship. Trips to Kildare and Wicklow so for us next year

70

Most of that Dublin team would presumably be used to beating Wexford at nearly every age group. They’re a young team who won’t be as inhibited by the notion of being a tier below Wexford in the past.

Is it Dublin who are 2/1 Bandage?

71

[quote=“therock67”]Most of that Dublin team would presumably be used to beating Wexford at nearly every age group. They’re a young team who won’t be as inhibited by the notion of being a tier below Wexford in the past.

Is it Dublin who are 2/1 Bandage?[/quote]

Yep, Wexford are at home and are 4/9 with Dublin 2/1.

72

The Wexford jersey really does appear to have been devalued in recent years…

According to Wexford hurling selector George Sunderland, as many as twenty-two players who have been approached to join the Wexford panel were not prepared to do so for whatever reason.

“I have no idea why they didnt come in. but it is confusing for us, because we thought that every young fellah would want to pull on the purple-and-gold,” explained Sunderland.

“That doesnt seem to be the case now. What can we do if young lads dont want to play? Maybe their clubs should put pressure on them to play for their county.”

73

I think the main reason for lads not taking up invites to join the county squad relates to ‘tradition’ and the possibility of winning the big prize.

Young players from Cork, Kilkenny or wherever know they’re going to have the chance of competing in All-Ireland finals every couple of years on average and dedicate themselves to getting on their county squad and pushing for a place on the team.

On the other hand, I reckon there’s an element in Wexford of lads concluding that we’re not capable of beating the top three and deciding not to join the squad as a result. In other words, why devote such a considerable portion of their free time to a squad that realistically won’t win the All-Ireland?

That said, I can’t think of many lads who aren’t on the panel who’d improve us massively.

74

Limerick are good value to beat the Wexford footballers tomorrow at 13/8 imo. I’ve a nice wad on them in the vbookies!

75

I see we’re 8/13 and even though we’ve won our first 3 games I didn’t think we’d be that overwhelming favourites in the bookies for a tough away match. Limerick seem to have gone back a bit under Mickey Ned O’Sullivan but 13/8 represents decent enough value alright though I still think Wexford might take it by 2 or 3 points. We’ve named an unchanged team and have the likes of Ciarn Lyng, David Murphy and Paddy Colfer to bring in if required.

Going to stroll over to Wexford Park now in the next half hour to watch the hurlers and I don’t have a clue what to expect from them to be honest.

76

Christ, we are rubbish. And Dublin deserve a good kicking themselves as it’s really a case of shit now or get off the pot with them. Debutant Colm Farrell smashed home a last minute goal to salvage the draw for us against 14-man Dublin. Then in injury time their midfielder Simon Lambert in oceans of space missed from 60 odd yards with the breeze behind him and the ref blew up on the puck-out. In fairness to him he’d earlier in the second half got a majestic point from the sideline.

I didn’t see anything to suggest that we have a gameplan or are deploying any tactics whatsover. Some of the decisions from management left me completely baffled also and their use of the extra man at the end when we were trailing and needed to push on was quite bewildering too (they left Keith Rossiter in the full back line even though that’s our strongest sector).

I think we only scored 1-2 from play over the 70 minutes and no points from play in the second half and that’s incredibly poor. You need to be scoring 2-15 plus regularly to win hurling matches and our last three league game returns have been 2-9, 1-5 and 1-10. That’s sorry stuff.

Peadar Carton was sent off for a second yellow for Dublin midway through the second half and we pointed the resultant free to go one ahead. Then they reeled off a number of good points over the last 15 minutes, including three in a row before our equalising goal, to go 0-15 to 1-9 up. Some of their players were pretty impressive but collectively they really need to start closing out games like this.

Our championship game in June will be very interesting but sadly we’re both operating a tier below the main players. The concern is they’re on an upward curve and we’re meeting them on the way down.

Ratings:

Fitzhenry 7 - No saves to make. Safe handling and swept up behind the defence.

Travers 6 - Cleared some decent ball and fought well but O’Callaghan knocked over a couple of points near the end.
Rossiter 8 - Another outstanding display. Dominated his sector and made a number of relieving clearances. Would be an addition to any other county team and Fitzhenry’s probably the only other current Wexford player you could say that about.
Roche 7 - Solid and efficient performance in the corner and has been very consistent since becoming a regular.

Kehoe 7 - Quite good again and one to build around. Great catch near the end and won the free from which the goal arrived and had previously seen off his direct opponent.
Morton 6 - Not very noticeable but his direct opponent wasn’t either.
Kenny 6 - Mixed the good with the bad. Has a tendency to clear balls out of play when a little bit of composure and a short hand pass would do the job.

Farrell 7 - Upping him up one for making the catch on the 21 yard line, shaking free and rattling the net for the equaliser but John McCaffrey probably got the better of him overall. Worked hard though.
O’Connor, J 6 - Prominent enough in the first half before going off (presumably) injured.

Doran 5 - Shunted from centre back to wing forward and didn’t make an impression before being replaced at half time. Strange team selection to begin with.
Doyle 5 - He’s a young player but I don’t see the makings of an inter-county centre forward in him. Not a consistent ball winner in the air or on the ground and not a regular score getter either. Didn’t trouble Toms Brady.
Jacob, M 3 - Possibly touched the ball 3 times over the course of the game but was inexplicably left on until for the full 70 minutes.

Redmond, D 7 - Two quick-fire points from play near the end of the first half and one was a real cracker. Starved of possession against the breeze in the second half but was left in the corner even though he plays most of his club hurling out the field before being taken off late on. Strange.
Nolan, S 7 - Won and converted a first half penalty after a good catch and run. Also won at least two other frees that he pointed but was called ashore early in the second half when other forwards were way, way more off the pace.
Jacob, R 4 - Knocked over a few frees after Nolan went off but he was shocking. Greedy and careless in possession and should have been taken off earlier.

Subs:
Dwyer 6 - Slotted in midfield and was busy enough but probably outplayed by Lambert for them.
Lyng 7 - Did well in the second half and was the only one of the half forward line who looked capable of winning primary possession.
Stamp 5 - Made his comeback from injury but didn’t see much of the ball when he went in full forward.
Martin - Not on long enough.
Doyle, S - See Martin.

77

Dublin are throwing away far too many games that they should be winning. We keep hearing about the great young players and how they have a winning mentality from underage levels but they get themselves in winning positions in nearly every game these days but still win about 1 in 5 of their matches which is patently not good enough.

78

That’s a fair point on Dublin and they really should have defended the equaliser much better. Farrell was able to go up, catch, land, wriggle free and strike from 20/25 yards out when they’d dropped 10 or 11 players back to defend it and surely someone should have made a block or hook to prevent the strike. They might get away with it this time as their scoring difference is 15 points better than ours and we’re away to Cork in our final game. As a result, we’ll probably join Antrim in going down to Division 2. To put it into context, Cork racked up 1-24 against Antrim today and we managed 1-10 a few weeks back.

Fair play to our footballers though, they came back from 8 points down early in the second half to draw in Limerick. 2 victories in their last 3 games will be enough for promotion now and the first of the remaining games will be a formality against Leitrim.

79

Fair play to the Wexford Footballers indeed, i can’t believe Limerick didn’t collect maximum points in this one however. Assholes.

[quote=“Bandage”]That’s a fair point on Dublin and they really should have defended the equaliser much better. Farrell was able to go up, catch, land, wriggle free and strike from 20/25 yards out when they’d dropped 10 or 11 players back to defend it and surely someone should have made a block or hook to prevent the strike. They might get away with it this time as their scoring difference is 15 points better than ours and we’re away to Cork in our final game. As a result, we’ll probably join Antrim in going down to Division 2. To put it into context, Cork racked up 1-24 against Antrim today and we managed 1-10 a few weeks back.

Fair play to our footballers though, they came back from 8 points down early in the second half to draw in Limerick. 2 victories in their last 3 games will be enough for promotion now and the first of the remaining games will be a formality against Leitrim.[/quote]

80

Here’s a detailed report from The Examiner compared to the pitiful effort in The Indo. We need to improve our discipline as we’ve had a number of men sent off in the campaign so far and eventually it’ll cost us, like it did in the Leinster Semi-Final last year. Hopefully Forde will be fit for the Leitrim game as according to Farmerinthecity they have the best full back line in Ireland:

Wexford snatch dramatic draw

By Michael Ellard

CENTRE-FORWARD Redmond Barry was the hero as Wexford sensationally preserved their unbeaten record in Division 3 of the Allianz NFL at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds yesterday.

A spectacular equalising point from Barry in injury time robbed Limerick of a victory they seemed destined to achieve in a remarkable match that saw three players sent off.

Wexford midfielder Eric Bradley was the first to go when he was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident shortly before the interval.

He was followed by Limerick corner forward Ian Ryan in the 54th minute, found guilty of a similar offence. Then Limerick’s other corner-forward, Stephen Kelly, was dismissed five minutes from the end of normal time after receiving a second yellow card.

Jason Ryan’s side will relish this result, while Limerick will rue the meeting as a lost chance to bag two vital points.

They dominate from the start and were six points to the good with 10 minutes remaining. Then it all went horribly for the Shannonsiders as Wexford bravely pulled it out of the fire.

Wexford, missing the influential services of Mattie Forde, ruled out with an ankle injury, were all at sea in the opening sequences as Limerick, brilliant in defence, and with John Galvin lording it at midfield, took command of the game.

It took a great save by goalkeeper Anthony Masterson to deny centre forward James Ryan in the first minute but, undeterred, Limerick piled on the pressure.

And they were rewarded in the fifth minute when full forward Dermot Phelan latched on to a breaking ball before flashing the ball to the net.

It was all Limerick as Wexford struggled all over the park. And the home side were 1-3 in front before the table-toppers got their name on the scoresheet with a point from wing forward Adrian Flynn in the 16th minute.

Limerick continued to dominate with Shane Gallagher, Johnny McCarthy and Andrew Lane excelling at the back, and with Ian Ryan in excellent free-taking form, they led by 1-7 to 0-3 at the break after Wexford had been reduced to 14 men.

Although Wexford upped the pace after the resumption, Limerick were still comfortably in control and led by six points before Ryan was given his marching orders with 15 minutes remaining.

Six points still divided them entering the home straight, and Limerick, despite the loss of Ryan, who had kicked a total of six points before his enforced departure, looked likely winners.

But, displaying great character, Wexford came storming back and were inspired by a great opportunist goal from Adrian Flynn, who leaped high to punch across from John Hudson to the net, with five minutes remaining.

Now it was Limerick’s turn to struggle and their cause was not helped by the red carding of Kelly after Wexford had reduced the deficit to two points.

But Limerick were reeled in at the death as Wexford earned a share of the spoils with Barry’s point-saving equaliser.

Limerick: D Phelan 1-0; I Ryan 0-6 (0-4f); S Kelly 0-2; J Murphy 0-2 (0-1f); J Ryan, A Lane 945) 0-1 each.

Wexford. A Flynn 1-1; C Lyng 0-3; S Roche 0-3 (0-2f); R Barry 0-2; N Murphy, B Brosnan (f), J Hudson (f) 0-1 each.

LIMERICK: M Jones, S Walsh, J McCarthy, S Gallagher, A Lane, D Carroll, P Ranahan, T Cahill, J Galvin, J Murphy, J Ryan, S Buckley, I Ryan, D Phelan, S Kelly. Subs. l O’Dwyer for Ranaghan (inj.); P Browne for Carroll; O O’Cruali for Murphy.

WEXFORD: A Masterson, C Morris, P Wallace, M Hanrahan, N O’Sullivan, B Malone, A Morrissey, E Bradley, B Doyle, B Brosnan, R Barry, A Flynn, C Lyng, S Roche, J Hudson. Subs. P Colfer for Brosnan; N Murphy for Hanrahan; C Byrne for Doyle; PJ Brambell for O’Sullivan.

Referee: P McGovern (Galway).