Wexford GAA 2008

Bandage · November 2, 2008, 10:48pm

It was mentioned prior to your above post on the same page. Please pay attention. Taghmon played today in the Intermediate Leinster Club championship after winning their county final replay yesterday but were beaten by 6 points.

The_Puke · November 2, 2008, 10:49pm

good man bandage…i mentioned this yesterday…

thedancingbaby · November 2, 2008, 10:54pm

[quote=“The Puke”]good man bandage…i mentioned this yesterday…

[/quote]

there was a mention of your champions playing today…i am on about your champions NOT playing today.

keep up

LetterkennyMan · November 2, 2008, 10:55pm

The Wexford fixtures committee is a fooking joke. The SHC final was scheduled for 3pm preceded by the IHC final replay which went to extra time meaning the SH final was delayed until 3.30. Fooking ridiculous for what should be the show piece event of the year. Very tough for the players who were probably in the dressing room from 2pm. If they’re insisting on playing extra time in the IH final then leave enough of a gap to play it. It was pretty much dark at the end and it was a perfect day, had it been a wet overcast day it would’ve been dark by half time. Idiots.

Bandage · November 2, 2008, 11:02pm

[quote=“thedancingbaby”]there was a mention of your champions playing today…i am on about your champions NOT playing today.

keep up[/quote]

Read my post about the final yesterday. Please pay attention.

thedancingbaby · November 2, 2008, 11:09pm

[quote=“Bandage”]Read my post about the final yesterday. Please pay attention.

[/quote]

i usually ignore your posts bandage - what did you say ?

padjo · November 2, 2008, 11:19pm

[quote=“thedancingbaby”]the NOM manager was disgusted actually padjo.

he said it wasnt ideal for kilanerin but he said it showed a complete disrespect to the All Ireland club championship and to Navan O’Mahony’s.[/quote]

A dub worried about a meath mans feeling i’ve seen it all now.

Personally i would have liked to see Kilanerin tog out but as Jugs said the lads must have had different priorities

LetterkennyMan · November 2, 2008, 11:57pm

Fr Jim Butler in line to be the next Wexford manager. Coached Buffers Alley to a few titles years ago and won the Intermediate Final with Blackwater today. Wexford do need a bit of divine inspiration but i think more than a priest is required. A Bishop or a Cardinal maybe.

anon67715551 · November 3, 2008, 12:12am

Jugs
Pat Spillane

Location: Cupboard
Posts: 761
vCash: 440

Fr Jim Butler in line to be the next Wexford manager. Coached Buffers Alley to a few titles years ago and won the Intermediate Final with Blackwater today. Wexford do need a bit of divine inspiration but i think more than a priest is required. A Bishop or a Cardinal maybe.

A return for the prodigal Bishop Comiskey maybe !!!

Bandage · November 3, 2008, 12:24am

Good Dunne and Storey interview in The Sunday Independent today.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling/old-dogs-for-the-hard-road-1517458.html

Old dogs for the hard road

Forty-somethings Martin Storey and Liam Dunne are not retiring types, writes Damian Lawlor

FOR the last seven days, Liam Dunne has been getting physio on an aching knee, doing all he could to get right for Oulart-The Ballagh’s county final against St Martin’s this afternoon.

Dunne has endured rubs and stretches, passed the time in the cryotherapy chambers of the Riverbank Hotel, bathed in the sea’s salty waters, rested the knee and if he still can’t run on it this morning, he’ll take a painkilling injection to play. After a glittering career, the 40-year-old is still not satisfied, not yet ready to walk away from hurling. He plays midfield today bidding to win a seventh county medal.

Down the road in The Ballagh, Martin Storey, with four years more mileage than his old friend, spent the week in the knowledge that’s he’s back with the squad. Last year, for the first time in 25 seasons, he watched the senior hurlers get by without him and he hurled intermediate instead. It nearly killed him.

Yesterday, he played midfield for the club’s intermediate team in the county B final with his son Anthony, but this season is all about pushing for a place with the seniors.

“Last year, all I played was intermediate but it just wasn’t competitive,” he said. “I watched the senior final from the stands and said: ‘Christ, what are you doing here?’. I knew I still had something to offer and that’s why I came back. I didn’t come back with a bang or anything, but I’m fighting for a first-team place in our club’s best ever squad. I had a year without playing serious hurling and just wasn’t able for it.”

Given the past week of squabbling in Cork and Donegal, sometimes we need reminding that hurling and football are there to be played and enjoyed. Every minute of a career should be relished because there will come a day when you cannot do it anymore. Not that Dunne or Storey are giving in to the passing of time.

“Ah sure I’m inspired when I see a man 46 years of age togging out beside me,” Dunne jokes. “He says he’s only 44, but sure he has to be older than that! He was away last year and you could see he was cranky not being involved and, in all seriousness, it’s great to have him back. Storey’s still the best man I ever saw to catch a ball and we could need him at some stage today.”

While Storey has had to be content, well not too content, with a place on the sideline thus far, his performances on the training field this season have put down a marker for the others. In fact, having kicked a 40 fags a day habit five years ago, he is right up there with the rest of them in sprint training.

“I gave up the fags after retiring with Wexford,” he laughs. “Sure I had to look after myself once I stopped doing the heavy inter-county training.” Not that he has relaxed or anything. This summer he interrupted a family holiday in Donegal to be on the training field in Oulart for 9.0am on a Sunday morning.

Dunne, meanwhile, with the help of manager Kevin Ryan’s veteran-friendly training regime, has re-invented himself as a holding midfielder. “Basically I stand there and David Redmond runs all over the field for me,” the three-time All Star centre-back laughs. “I called to the sideline for water one day and a young lad ran into me. But I told him the water was for David. The poor lad was calving beside me after making his 150th run of the game.”

Storey has a different take on Dunne’s relocation. “He was brilliant in the semi-final against Rathnure. He marked Paul Codd and did more hurling than him. He’s still one of the greatest passers of a ball in the game; any pass he gives comes at an angle which means the forwards won’t get the hands cut off them. Liam Dunne was one of the best hurlers in Ireland over a 10-year period and still has most of those qualities. He’s only around 5’ 8” but I never saw him being destroyed at centre-back. Mind you, he’s an 'oul lad now, so he’d want to watch himself around the middle of the field."

Dunne started out with the club seniors in 1989, hurling against the likes of Tony Doran. Very recently, he marked Doran’s son Pat in a championship game and shook his head when he saw him. “I think they’re afraid to come near me,” Dunne smiles, “but that’s my reputation going before me. But I’m the one afraid of them now; sure I haven’t hit a lad since 2002.”

The two have sat together in the dressing room throughout their careers but though they’ve been close friends for over 20 years, the chat stops when they are preparing for battle. They get grumpy coming up to showtime. “Ah, he’d be odd like that,” Storey says, “you’d be chatting a bit but there wouldn’t be much change. He’s a gas man; the other day I rung him on the mobile, rung him on the landline, rung him on the work mobile but he didn’t answer any of them. I put it to him in the dressing room a few nights later, asked him why he didn’t take me calls and he said he was having his supper. What can you say to that?”

Although an ever-present for the past 25 years, Storey doesn’t push his weight around in the dressing room. Neither does Dunne. “Mick Jacob is our captain and what a year he’s having. We’d only be undermining him if we spoke, so we just encourage lads in training. Mick is more than capable of doing the rest. He lives and breathes hurling.” Last year Storey, who made his club senior bow at 17, guided the Wexford U16s to their first ever Arrabawn Cup. As an Oulart player, he started off trying to break the domination of Buffers Alley and Rathnure and now finds other clubs trying to topple them. “It was a psychological barrier as much as anything else,” he says. “They rarely lost and had a host of big names. You nearly went out saying ‘Jesus, how are we going to beat them?’”

They had great successes in the mid-1990s, though, and asserted their own grip on the local championship which ultimately handed Storey the captaincy of Wexford in 1996 after Dunne had been relieved of the armband for playing a club game without permission. "Any time Liam comes into the house he passes a photo of me with the Liam McCarthy Cup and says ‘that should have been me, you bollocks,’ his old pal laughs.

But the slagging went up a notch when Storey missed out on last year’s county final win. “It was my own fault,” he says. “I walked away and regretted it, they were not my team anymore and I couldn’t handle it. That’s why I came back. I wanted to be there, if needed. I got my fitness right and I’ve done all the training. It’s great being competitive and there’s a great buzz being involved.”

He’s back to his fighting weight of 12 and a half stone after reaching the unprecedented heights of 13-7 last winter. Usually, before he starts pre-season training, Storey embarks on a cornflake diet for two weeks. This time around, he lost three quarters of a stone when he stopped pumping weights in the gym so it meant the cereal diet was redundant. Dunne, meanwhile, hits the salads and chicken and pasta at this time of year and does everything he can to get his body right.

It’s all been worth it although they do share a few regrets too, of course. Back in 1994, they took Birr to a replay in the Leinster final and saw the Offaly men prevail and win the All-Ireland. That they haven’t won a Leinster title in their era hurts, but a win today and they’ll be back on the trail again. Their opponents, Martin’s, have a steady record over the past four years, though, contesting two finals and two semi-finals in that time. They boast Gizzy Lyng, Eoin Quigley, Barry Lambert, Rory McCarthy and emerging talents like Tomas Waters and Paudie Kelly. Not simple.

If Oulart do win, it would be a fitting curtain-call for the careers of two of Wexford’s most gifted hurlers. If he doesn’t see some form of action before the campaign ends, Storey will surely call it a day, while Dunne says only he will know when the time is right.

“I listened to people telling me to retire from Wexford from 2000 onwards and then they told me to stay after 2003, but I went when I thought the time was right. It will be the same with Oulart. Maybe if the two of us could get a testimonial and get sent off on a holiday, they could get rid of us. If I’m honest, though, I can see the sun setting now.”

LetterkennyMan · November 3, 2008, 12:27am

[quote=“Boxtyeater”]Jugs
Pat Spillane

Location: Cupboard
Posts: 761
vCash: 440

Fr Jim Butler in line to be the next Wexford manager. Coached Buffers Alley to a few titles years ago and won the Intermediate Final with Blackwater today. Wexford do need a bit of divine inspiration but i think more than a priest is required. A Bishop or a Cardinal maybe.

A return for the prodigal Bishop Comiskey maybe !!![/quote]

Hey old man, learn to use the quote button!

anon67715551 · November 3, 2008, 12:30am

Have you no young lads down there at all Bandage, that these venerable fogies are still commanding places on teams?
I enjoyed the article but at their age? No wonder the Black and Amber are overshadowing ye.

padjo · November 3, 2008, 6:05pm

Draft football league fixtures for Wexford below, not a bad draw with four home games and three away. Tough division but if we can get results from our home games we should be safe and could even push for honors. Its going to be tough though, very tough. I can see Armagh itching to get revenge in the first game.

01.02.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 1

Roinn II
2.30pm Loch Garman v Ard Mhacha
2.30pm Fear Manach v Muineachn
2.30pm Corcaigh v An Mh
2.30pm Laois v Cill Dara

14.02.2009 (Sat)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 2

Roinn II
7.30pm Ard Mhacha v Laois
7.30pm An Mh v Fear Manach

15.02.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 2

Roinn II
2.30pm Cill Dara v Corcaigh
2.30pm Muineachn v Loch Garman

07.03.2009 (Sat)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 3

Roinn II
7.30pm An Mh v Laois
7.30pm Corcaigh v Fear Manach
7.30pm Ard Mhacha v Muineachn

08.03.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 3

Roinn II
2.30pm Cill Dara v Loch Garman

14.03.2009 (Sat)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 4

Roinn II
7.30pm Laois v Corcaigh

15.03.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 4

Roinn II
2.30pm Fear Manach v Ard Mhacha
2.30pm Muineachn v Cill Dara
2.30pm Loch Garman v An Mh

21.03.2009 (Sat)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 5

Roinn II
7.30pm An Mh v Muineachn
7.30pm Laois v Fear Manach
7.30pm Corcaigh v Loch Garman

22.03.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 5

Roinn II
2.30pm Cill Dara v Ard Mhacha

28.03.2009 (Sat)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 6

Roinn II
7.30pm Ard Mhacha v An Mh

29.03.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 6

Roinn II
2.30pm Loch Garman v Laois
2.30pm Fear Manach v Cill Dara
2.30pm Muineachn v Corcaigh

12.04.2009 (Sun)
Allianz GAA Football National League
Round 7

Roinn II [Final Round]
2.30pm Loch Garman v Fear Manach
2.30pm Laois v Muineachn
2.30pm An Mh v Cill Dara
2.30pm Corcaigh v Ard Mhacha

Mac · November 3, 2008, 6:22pm

[quote=“padjo”]Draft football league fixtures for Wexford below, not a bad draw with four home games and three away. Tough division but if we can get results from our home games we should be safe and could even push for honors. Its going to be tough though, very tough. I can see Armagh itching to get revenge in the first game.