Atkinson took the frees in the recent challenge game hammering against Limerick D. Great reaction from Bonnar on South East Radio after that one. I rolled eyes when I saw that was the case but Mac pointed out he was accurate enough from them for UCD. However, my eyes rolling was because it was a sign he was being persisted with for a starting place. Jacob can knock over frees and so can the great Jim Berry. Fuck Clonard. Aaaaggghhh.
Atkinson has been takign the frees in recent games.
He was awful poor from the play the last day, so he wouldnāt even want to even think of missing a free on Saturday because its the only reason he is there
I see Wexford are evens at +9 on Paddy Power, fook me
Utter shambles today. Does anybody want to review the season for the Wexford senior hurlers? Is it a real achievement in itself to have sealed promotion back to Division 1? Iād prefer some proper championship displays myself even though itās fashionable to state that getting promotion was more important.
It was really demoralising today. I question everybody to be honest. The collective effort from the players wasnāt good enough and itās not new either. Someone else pointed out our trend in the last decade or so to go out on the back of an absolute hiding. We were clearly outclassed in some of those games but we accepted defeat too easily in others and today was another case of the latter. Why make all the sacrifices for the last 8 or 9 months only to go out so limply? Iād expect the team to battle to the end but they didnāt. I wonder if the players can honestly say they prepared and trained as best as they possibly could. From what I know, I donāt think some of them can.
I didnāt have any hope over the past few weeks. You canāt read much, if anything, into challenge games but losing by 10 points to Limerick recently and Bonnar saying it was to be expected because they were sharpening up ahead of the Cork game was a bit of a warning. Itās a Limerick team minus practically all of their best players for fuck sake. And then I saw the team selection on Thursday night and was alarmed at how poor our forward options were. Of course, this wasnāt helped by the manager either. He dropped Nicky Kirwan, the best forward in last yearās county championship, from the panel at the end of last season. Yet Mossy Mahon was playing corner forward and he was a fringe player 5 years ago out the field and is not a recognised corner forward, like Kirwan. What do some players have to do to get dropped? Jim Berry came on and did well, admittedly when the game over, but it was also on the back of a good display against Waterford recently yet he wasnāt given a chance from the start.
Iād question Bonnarās judgement in a lot of areas. Staying with the actual squad make up; heās persisted with some players despite repeat disappointing displays and heās also given a lot of chances to lads whoāve displayed a questionable attitude. Thereās a couple of players whoāve been on the squad, dropped for indiscipline and then been brought back and let go again and shit like that. And yet he discarded committed lads like Mick Jacob, Nicky Kirwan and a couple of others. Why did he drop Eanna Martin? Itās not as if we have a lot of lads standing out at Fitzgibbon level.
I canāt really be arsed going back over Bonnarās tactics for specific games in minute detail but allowing McCrabbe to hurl as the spare man last year in the Leinster semi-final was ridiculous in the extreme. He didnāt even have Travers sweep from a central position as the spare man in that match - he played the entire game in a traditional corner back position with nobody to mark while McCrabbe had the freedom of the park out the field. The set up against Galway recently was all wrong too, with Atkinson wing forward, Mick Jacob full forward and Banville in the corner and so on. His decision making and reading of the game just seemed to be completely lacking, which surprised me given heās won 2 All Ireland senior medals. The failure to change anything during the Division 2 League Final defeat to Offaly last year was alarming too. There was actually one spell in that match where he wasnāt even watching the game for 2 or 3 minutes - he was facing up to his selector in the stand and trying to communicate with him via hand signals after a walk-talkie malfunction. Iāve now just remembered the capitulation in Belfast too, which was painful to sit through. Thankfully I wasnāt at the game in Carlow this season. There was just a general indecision during games and when thatās combined with questionable team selections and tactics and a doubt about squad commitment then itās not a very positive recipe.
In fairness to Bonnar, we had a couple of good displays under him; Offaly in the championship last year and we were fairly promising against Clare in the League Final this season but itās completely unravelled since then. Heās brought through some young players too but itās overall been very, very disappointing. Iād try to get Liam Dunne to take the job. Heād add a bit of steel and balls to things anyway.
EDIT:
BULLET POINTS
- Bad season, not saved by League promotion.
- Playersā effort questionable.
- Manager not up to the task.
- Liam Dunne needs to take on the job as Wexford senior hurling manager.
It doesnāt matter who you pick for manager - that Wexford team/squad is too fucking small and too physically weak.
Some of them would be physically stronger if they did all the training properly.
Iām looking forward to the footballersā game in Galway on Saturday and I give us a chance. I think we shape up decently against Galway in terms of style and personnel and I think we should be able to get enough possession to test them. I expect the footballers to give it a right good go as theyāre a completely honest and committed bunch and they have a good manager*, who will have a tactical plan and heāll also get the players to believe in it.
- I have revised my opinion of Jason Ryan again - itās silly to be inflexible with your views.
the footballers seem to be far more together as a group than the hurler, that is they actually seem to get on.
any one making the trip?
kitty o sheas for one o clock on saturday.
Yes, Jugs, cesc4 and I will be making the trip to Galway. We are considering going to the game too.
Any news down at home on Niall Murphyās injury? Itās very important we get him back and a shame he was out for the Dublin game.
Jim Telfer is the man for Wexford
Iām all for a bit of flexibility Bandage, you should be commended for your self analysis.
think this game is a bit too soon for mutley, i can state this as āi know someone close to the panelā
Yea iāll be headin, iāll be keepin an eye for Bandage too so i can give him a few slaps 
Looks like they might be missing Nicky Joyce and Michael Meehan, who were their top scoreres in the league, so that can only be good
Iām not sure about Liam Dunne either Bandageā¦
His fuck up against Galway minors 2years ago or whatever it was still annoys me.
from what i hear meehan is out. ankle ligament damage.
meehan confirmend as out.
getting a real sense of apthy fomr galway, wexford team to be named tonight after training.
Hitting galway tomo night for the warm up, mon the yellowbelliesā¦
From wexfordgaa.ie:
SENIOR FOOTBALL LINEOUT V GALWAY ANNOUNCED
The Wexford Senior Footballers travel to Pearse Stadium in Galway on Saturday next 10th July to contest the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship (Qualifier - Round 2). This game gets underway at 2pm. with Jimmy White (Donegal) appointed as Referee. Extra time will be played if sides finish level.
The team is unchanged from their last outing to Ruislip where they had a comfortable win over London. There is one positional change with Redmond Barry moving to centre forward and Matty Forde playing at full forward.
Team: 1. Anthony Masterson, 2. Joey Wadding, 3. Graeme Molloy, 4. Brian Malone, 5. Adrian Flynn, 6. David Murphy, 7. Aindreas Doyle, 8. Eric Bradley, 9. DaithĆ Waters, 10. Colm Morris, 11. Redmond Barry, 12. Shane Roche, 13. CiarĆ”n Lyng, 14. Matty Forde, 15. PJ Banville.
Subs: Jason Russell, Damien Carter, David Walsh, Conor Carty, Kieran Kennedy, Michael Furlong, David Fogarty, Brendan Doyle, Ben Brosnan, Collie Byrne, CiarƔn Deely, Pat Naughter, Paddy Byrne, Dylan Kehoe, Stephen Banville.
Stephen Banville is called into the panel. He adds to the options anywhere from midfield to the full forward line.
2 or 3 years on from George OāConnors appointment and are we really any further developed? Maybe this man was right after all. In about 7 or 8 years weāll be lucky to get out of the bottom division in football.
A chara,
With reference to the article in last weekās Peopleā about the revamping of the G.A.A. coaching scheme in the county, I would like this opportunity to comment.
The County Chairman, Ger Doyle, says in the article that we must have the backing of everyone in Wexford for this, and we donāt need dissenting voicesā. Later in the article he says he is not a dictator, so hopefully he will allow one dissenting voice.
At the moment we have Michael Kinsella, George OāConnor (who is in charge of who?), Jimmy Furlong and Joe Kearns operating exclusively in the hurling arena, with just Luke OāHanlon keeping an eye on football. Luke also has some hurling duties, such as the ASH School of hurling and Primary Schools indoor hurling as part of his brief.
Under the new scheme, three of the seven full-time coaches will be involved in hurling only. The other four will share hurling and football duties. With the pre-dominance of hurling people in the higher levels of the coaching structure, I doubt if people from a footballing background will be appointed to any of the coaching positions, and if they are it will be just a token appointment.
If you wonder what I base this assumption on, just look at the Coaching and Games Development committee appointed last week which is almost exclusively a hurling committee.
In his tenure as Co. Secretary (a job in which he excelled), Michael Kinsella sat on numerous committees which came forward with proposals to promote and develop hurling. I never remember Michael devoting the same energy to football initiatives.
Will Michael as the new Coaching and Games Director now devote half of his new workload to the development of football on the county? One of his priorities, and that of the County Chairman, must be to solve the imbalance that now exists in terms of coaching staff involved in football and hurling.
Not only must Luke OāHanlon be allowed to continue concentrating on football predominately, but he must have the assistance of at least one other coach exclusive to football. Other areas that our new Coaching Director could become involved in would be increasing the number of football summer camps (two to one in favour of hurling at present), provision of Level 1 coaching courses in football, and stating a case for bringing of the All-Ireland FĆ©ile na Gael Under-14 football festival to Wexford.
What is happening at the moment is a bare-faced attempt to rid the county of football and bring us into line with our neighbours Kilkenny. This is an insult to the dedicated Senior footballers who recently defeated Longford in the National League and the young Good Counsel players who defeated St. Patās Navan. These players and all the other Gaelic footballers in the county need to know that the groundwork is being done to support their efforts.
Luke OāHanlon did a magnificent job on revamping the football development squads and organised some excellent coaching clinics, but unfortunately there are blinkered people in key positions who see this as a threat to hurling - with the result that next year Luke will no longer be a full-time football coach.
Clubs and Co. Board reps. are going to have to start asking questions as they are being consulted less and less about big decisions in the county. Even the key Management committee would have known very little about Paul Bealinās departure or the buying, selling and buying of land for training facilities.
Some people have a very loose interpretation of what democracy means.
Finally, with the present set-up in the county there is a danger that football could be wiped out, but a word of warning - if you fail in your efforts to revitalise hurling, will it have been worthwhile getting rid of football and leaving the county a wasteland for Gaelic games.
Yours in sport,
Paud Moriarty,
Paud Moriarty should retrace his family lineage and row in with the Sarsfields. He will be welcomed with open arms.
I really donāt know what the story with the coaching is Mac. Are they all working in a vacuum separate to each other and without any clear policy or directive?