Only logging on with my fancy phone now so didnât see your message. Weâre 8-7 down at half time in a pretty dire game. 5 points from Roche, 4 frees, and 2 good ones from play from Naughter. We were 7-3 down and Boccyâs already in for Waters. Not getting a lot out of Flynn and Byrne and some ladâs got 3 points off Andy Doyle. In truth, the ref is giving us some decisions and the free count is 17-5 in our favour. Iâll post a couple of updates during the second half.
whats your source padjo?
This sites pretty good for scores
Good man Bandage, no suprises where the weak spots are anyway
cheers sport
10-7 now. Decision making of some players is really poor.
11-7. Morris for Collie. Last point came from a terrible give away from him when we were attacking. Not suprising heâs been hooked.
11-9 now. Two quick ones from Roche, 1 from play. And another free just now. One in it.
12-11 now. One from them now. 2 in it. Walsh getting roasted. Ten left. Free for us now. One in it.
Theyâre two up. Malone sent off for second yellow. Couple of minutes left.
Theyâve tagged on another few points. 17-12 in the end.
Looks like we are gettin a trimming now
Bollix anyway. We have played these lads numerous times over the last ten years and i canât ever remember beating them. Thanks for the updates all the same Bandage. This division is going to be a cunt to get out of. I can see us winning 2 of our last three games and then relying on other results to go our way. Not starting our best 15 against Louth is probably going to haunt us. Come championship we desperately need all the injured lads back cause three or four of the current team just arenât inter-county standard
cheers men,
id like a report if any of ye are bothered in doing it.
Iâll post something in more detail tomorrow. Only two forwards scored and we just didnât have enough threat. In fairness, that forward line tonight was too weak physically plus a few of them donât want to fight for the ball. Youâre not going to get a pass into your chest in 5 yards space at inter county level. Wadding was excellent again. Both Murphys good too at the back. Decent effort from Bradley who got a point too. Not much to shout about up front other than Rocheâs dead balls and a couple of good moments from Naughter.
Just in relation to a comment earler on this thread re stephen nolan throwing in his lot with Boden and Dublin, was chatting to him at training during the week and he said he no longer has time for hurling or training so he will just be playing some Junior stuff with them. never thought Iâd hear him say it. the lads in Ireland must need some serious help with the ladies.
Good interview here with Fitzy-apologies for the formatting but ye better read it cos it too me feckin ages-
Famously courteous, he is a few minutes late. Damien Fitzhenry walks in and sits down, explains he was driving down through Enniscorthy when he met Adrian Fenlon, one of the 1990sâ most brilliant midfielders. Fenlon was on his way to train Minors and stopped for a chat. Two former colleagues, two former greats, feeling the need to talk on a damp cold evening. It never ends. Outside, the current risks a speeding ticket as it piles past the Riverside Hotel.Wexford and Slaney. Heart and Hand. The Model County of the Pikemen. Something survives. Fenlon was excited about a couple of his Minors.
Outside, in the dark, Vinegar Hill. Inside, in the heat and light of the long lobby, is a quiet spoken fighter, ready and willing for what comes next. And so we start. DamienFitzhenry declines tea or coffee. âThe dinner is not long finished,âhe says.
No second thoughts about retirement?âNo regrets, none at all,âhe affirms. A precise moment came. A few years now, he has nurtured youngsters in his hurling school. âI was taking two groups in my home pitch at Duffry Rovers,â he says. They were finishing up the session when the Wexford panel arrived for training. The moment flicked on: âI was watching Wexford do the warm up and I knew the time had come.ââ It was a few days before he told Colm Bonnar. That evening, Fitzhenry tidied up his gear, talked a short while with the lads and their parents. Then he headed home with a realization he had not brought in the gate. âGer Cunningham,ââ he replies to the obvious question. The Cork goalkeeper was the one most admired in younger days. Still is.
And half-back, a position in which he himself was auditioned? âWe were trying different things in 1995,â he recalls, when asked about a brief stint in the spot.
ââTwas short lived â and maybe destined to be so⌠You can take the man out of the goal but youâd be at nothing trying to take the goalie out of the manâŚ!â The youngest of 15 children, Damien Fitzhenry early went exactly where he was told. No need for the therapistâs couch. He won a Leinster title for FCJ Bunclody in 1992. For the club he has hurled â and will hurl â wherever needed: centre-back, full-forward. Duffry Roversâ relegation to Intermediate is a new challenge: âAfter a few years dicing with it the whole time, it caught up with us. Now everyone will have to pull.â
The club will get the focus intercounty duties previously made all but impossible. 2010 would be a good time to go back Senior, with Wexford having finally reduced the number in the top grade. Damien Fitzhenry agrees with the initiative:âThere are too many Senior clubs, to be honest. Only six or
seven are vying to be in the County Final. We would have gotten a few hidings off Rathnure and Oulartâ. We werenât at the required standard.ââ Will it rise? âIt will,â he states. âBut only if the structures are right.ââ He agrees that talent often lies below the upper echelons, Wexford and elsewhere:
âThatâs right. In â96, when we won the All-Ireland, we had lads not from Senior clubs. Those are the ones that have to be searched out and minded.â Changes? He has seen a few: âIn â93 youâd turn up for training.Youâd run a few laps, do a bit of hurling. All over in an hour and half.âAlmost two decades later, all haschanged:preparation,hydration,trainingsessions lasting beyond two hours between the coming and the going.
Off the field, away from the drills and the team talks and the match day routines, times and things have likewise changed. Damien notes: âThe person now thatâs tied in 100 per cent to the intercounty scene, as I was, knows what the commitment means. Club activities over 17 years, I donât think I was ever in on one of them.â A tinge of regret? âObviously, thinking back about it, a lot was missed,âhe reflects.âBut my sole thing was 100 per centWexford hurling and I was going to give it my best. Especially over the last while or so, Iâve been thinking about it. But it was worth it all.â
Team spirit,pride in wearing the county colours,the rewards being much more than medals and individual awards? No clichĂŠ?
âAbsolutely,â he says. âIâve been speaking to a fair few over the last few weeks. The most enjoyable aspect for me over the years has been to meet so many people from different counties involved in the GAA. No matter who they are or where they are from, when lads put on a county jersey, they want to win. I wanted to win for Wexford. But theyâre different lads off the field.â
The big question, so. What is Wexford? What does it mean? He emphasizes what the commitment expresses:âFor the last 20 plus years, definitely playing for Wexford was the main thing for me.â
Damien Fitzhenry continues, suddenly serious:
âI knew myself, when a new lad, a young lad, came into the panel. I knew if he was going to do what we wanted him to do.Youâd know after a week or two that he was there for the right reasons. And youâd know the lads who were there for the wrong reasons.â
Following John Meylerâs messy departure in late 2008, one voice resonated above the din, above talk of strike against an unknown enemy within the county. Damien Fitzhenry left for a short holiday, clear in his mind about what had been discussed in a panel and County Board review of the year.
He came back days later to a world turned upside down. âI came out publicly about it,â he states. âFor Wexford it was a disaster. The way John Meyler was treated was nothing short of scandalous. Iâve said it before but John Meyler was possibly the second best manager I played for in 17 years of Senior intercounty hurling. For a man who put so much into Wexford hurling to be treated that way⌠I just couldnât believe it.â
Was it hard to go public? âNo,âhe says quickly.âI was always one to speak my mind. No player that night stood up and said John Meyler wasnât up to the job.â
The Liam Griffin factor? Damien is sure of his gift: âWhat Liam brought was that everybody had to work together. Before Liam came, and I was only there a few years in fairness at the time, there was maybe an element in Wexford hurling where we were a group of individuals.â
He elaborates:âLiam brought that unity and he did it in different ways. Niamh, the sports psychologist, things like that. She stripped away the bullshit. All the little things, they all made a difference.â He still sees a role for this detail â with a caveat: âThe actual individual has to want it, has to have the skills and intelligence for it. When a player has that, stuff like psychology can add that extra bit.â
Is management a poison chalice? This retiree is unfazed: âNo, I donât think it is. Iâm only a few days gone but itâs something I would consider. Right now, Iâm coaching young lads in the schools, with FĂS. Itâs something I really enjoy.â
He has his convictions: âUp to ten or 11, the emphasis should be on fun and participation,building the core skills. If thatâs there, the rest can be added and developed.âHis ambition, simple and coolly delivered, is to help the young in their hurling journey towards the best they can be.
Only the foolish could ignore this ambition. Talk of structures leads to George OâConnor and his team of coaches within Wexford, their dedication to the future. Praising the individuals involved by name, Damien insists: âWe have to have a plan, a three-year plan, with no stone left unturned. Unfortunately itâs 14 years since we won an All-Ireland. Thereâs 12- and 13-year-olds who donât remember that. They werenât even born.â He insists:âWe need people to come in now, people that young lads know, to be coming in and to be listened to. We need that plan. We need to build and build, and then make a serious onslaught at it.â
The hopes placed in the talented Minors of 2008 and â09 swerves the conversation. The question is why those teams, the first fruits perhaps of a rebirth, lost to Kilkenny when they had been impressive in the lead up to the Leinster Final and had mentors of Liam Dunneâs calibre involved. Damien Fitzhenry is clear, concise and brutally honest â and not just about Minors: âItâs about standards. Itâs about how high the bar is raised and what young lads think and feel. The standard set by the Kilkenny Senior team reaches down to the Minor grade and well below.â He feels Wexford were a bit unlucky to have Kilkenny so near when their neighbours became unbelievably good: âNearly every hurling fanatic in the country will tell you that they are the best team of the last 25 or 30 years. It does get in on fellasâminds.â
What happened in 2004? Damien spelled it out: âWell, we had decided as a panel of players after the few years before, where we rained high balls down on top of them and they gobbled them up, that there was no point in repeating the dose. âWe had two choices: to keep the ball moving and the forwards moving and keep rotating them, and then to keep the ball pucked into the space. They didnât know what to do with it,the same way they struggled when Clare brought Alan Markham back. But you only catch them once⌠You seldom get a second chance with Kilkenny.â
What is it like for a goalkeeper, looking out at such a team? âWorkrate,â he summarizes. âCarey when he was playing, the likes of Henry Shefflin and Eddie Brennan, no ball is ever dead. Some lads will say that if a Wexford player scores 1-3 in a game he will still be on the team three years later, even if was never to score again â or even make a score.â
Fitzhenry thinks everyone now accepts the Brian Cody doctrine: âThe truly strong panel means you justify your place, and thatâs how you keep it. If you donât â well, youâll end up sitting in the stand with me. Itâs about the system, about getting players to fit into that system and getting them to have the confidence to shine in it.â
Damien Fitzhenry played at the same time other great goalkeepers plied their trade. His admiration and respect extends to all: Cummins, Cusack, Fitzgerald, McGarry. To all, past and present. He becomes thoughtful on the subject:âThereâs a place for varying it, for short puckouts, other stuff. But youâre still the last man standing. Your job is to stop the other team from scoring. Thatâs your job.â
Is there a loneliness in it? Can your own performance, stopping bullets, ever stand above being on a losing team? His response is clear: âNo, you can get days where you keep out bullets and feel as bad as the corner-forward who didnât touch the ball all day. Or you should feel as bad. Itâs the team or itâs nothing.â
We are winding up, as night comes on outside. Did Damien Fitzhenry ever have dark days, bleak days where he thought: âOh jaysusâŚâ There is a sure response:âNo, Iâm not that kind of guy. The main lesson a goalkeeper has to learn is this: as soon as that ball goes past your hurl or your body, then itâs history. The next ball might be coming in 30 seconds later. âYou have to learn that. Some lads just have the grĂĄ for it in the first place. But itâs really important that a goalkeeper learns a ball gone into the net is history. Itâs the next ball or else the one will turn into the two.â
Wexford supporters have often despaired. The man for whom playing for his county was a journey he took without fear or favour leaves big boots to fill. And they will be filled. But in days to come, when a penalty needs burying, the undertaker will not amble up the length of the field and without fuss break the heart of the opposition. It will not be Damien Fitzhenry for the job. He never left training until he had scored the last one, be it one of four or of a dozen practice shots. So he was the one, more often than not, who made the short run and fired the bullet. Take comfort that some youngster somewhere will listen as the undertaker turned coach teaches the basics, instils the same passion and knowledge, brings the future by burying the past. If there is to be a New Model Army, the men and women for whom Nickey Rackard built a house could do worse than head for the foothills of the Blackstairs mountains. There they will find a man with the same broad shoulders and the same strong back.
And so, just as we finish up, a man passing by spots the recorder. âHe should have won ten All Stars,âhe nods. Damien smiles and stands up to leave. His frame matches his spirit. And off he walks down the long lobby, stride over stride, out into the Enniscorthy glimmer.
Pikeman the end of that second paragraph is a bit odd, think you have a few probs there still. Good article though.
Done
Pretty encouraging performance in Clare yesterday by the hurlers apparently, primarily because they were 10 points down and came back to get the draw. Canât make any real judgements what with not being at it but clawing back that deficit would appear to show a bit of spirit. Lyng seems to have been a class above and he needs to keep that going and really lead from the front now. We donât really have anyone above 30 knocking around now that Fitzyâs gone so Gizzy, Roche, Rossiter and Jacob need to bring the younger lads through. We still have a lot of work to do to even seal a place in the final but yesterday should add to their belief anyway.
Eoin Quigleyâs based in Cork with work these days and is apparently training with Sarsfields down there as heâs coming back from his cruciate injury. He was aiming to comeback around now so hopefully heâs still on course - it would be helpful if he could boost his fitness and get some sharpness back in some of the remaining league games.