Wexford GAA 2012

Sport
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:rolleyes:

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Was nearly sure Meyler dropped him during the year KK hockeyed us and Skippy bate shite out of the Hogan Stand tunnell. Thought that was 07 or 08. He was brought on at 1 point with Barry Lambert either at half time or early in 2nd half.

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Folks,
would be very appreciative If somebody could point me to the Rory Griffin report he did on the state of hurling in Wexford in 2012…thanks

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[QUOTE=“Kid Chocolate, post: 1123631, member: 553”]Folks,
would be very appreciative If somebody could point me to the Rory Griffin report he did on the state of hurling in Wexford in 2012…thanks[/QUOTE]

Rory Griffin
Rory Griffin presented the findings of an investigation he had done into the state of hurling in the Elite Counties and also in Wexford and suggestions for its improvement in Wexford. Key findings and recommendations were:

  1. Underage players in Wexford do not get adequate playing time to develop their skills.

  2. While not specialising in one sport is a good thing up to the mid/late teens the overlapping of the football and hurling seasons militates against the development of skills in both codes. Tipperary have addressed this problem by playing their football championship first followed by hurling.

  3. Hurling skills need to be developed at primary school level. This requires the presence of good hurling coaches in such schools plus commitment from parents. In Kilkenny the County Board actively seeks to place hurling minded teachers in their primary schools. In addition to coaches in schools, local clubs must be involved in a relationship with the schools.

  4. Secondary schools in Wexford are not playing at the level needed to produce players of the requisite quality to develop into successful minor hurlers, a fact demonstrated by the lack of underage success over several decades. Joint teams comprising the best players from schools e.g. Gorey Community, Enniscorthy CBS and St. Peter’s, along the lines of the Dublin Schools, would address this problem.

  5. Age eligibility for teams is currently determined on a calendar year basis. Thus a boy born on 31 December is deemed to be the same age as one born on 1 January of the same year, even though there is in reality one year’s difference in their physical, intellectual and emotional maturity. Statistics from a variety of sports demonstrate that this “Relative Age Effect” (RAE) militates against the younger child, who tends to underachieve as a result. A solution to this would be to split the year into two or more age divisions e.g. January to June could be labelled Purple and July to December, Gold.

  6. Regional and Elite squads are imperative and close liaison between parents and coaches is necessary to ensure the appropriate level of support and encouragement for players.

  7. Dropout is a problem at present. One of the reasons for this is the unreliability of fixture lists, with matches too often being cancelled as short notice resulting in disenchantment on the parts of both players and parents. Research suggests that dropout levels are higher in dual clubs as a result of the conflicting demands of hurling and football. Separate seasons could help to resolve such conflict. They would also address to some extent the problem of “burnout” for dual players arising from having to play too many matches in close succession.

Liam Griffin
Liam Griffin (LG), Chairman of the Wexford Hurling Development Committee, addressed the meeting. He posed the question as to whether we want Wexford to go the way of Laois in hurling terms. Some years ago Laois were a tough team to beat; now they are not competitive. For a long period in the twenties and thirties of the last century Wexford were in that position. Without proper action it would be possible to revert to it.

LG has spoken to various people in other counties about what they are doing to develop their hurlers. Clare have to a large extent tried to replicate Kilkenny’s structures. This includes district, regional and county squads. Also in Clare their schools play at the top level of schools’ competition. LG said it was imperative that Wexford schools combine in order to get exposure to the right standard of hurling.
LG is strongly in favour of splitting the season between football and hurling. He also said that in Galway fixtures for the different grades e.g. Under 16, Under 21 etc. are arranged for different weeks, so that where there is player overlap, a player is not playing two demanding matches within a couple of days of each other.

St. Peter’s College
Robert O’Callaghan, President of St. Peter’s College described the facilities that exist now in the college. These include the Power Park Sports Complex which has 3 indoor alleys. A strength and conditioning room is yet to be completed. RO’C said that boys coming into St. Peter’s will get an opportunity to improve their hurling skills from 1st Year on, whatever their skill levels on leaving primary school.

Dave Guiney gave a brief report on coaching developments in Wexford. He also emphasised the importance of combining schools to get the best players from each one playing at the top level of schools competition.

Diarmuid Devereux
Diarmuid Devereux (DD), Chairman of the Wexford County Board gave a wide ranging address to the meeting. Key points he made were:

  1. Wexford is a dual county, summarised by the strapline: “2 Codes 1 County. We can achieve.”

  2. DD has received three reports on the state of Wexford hurling; one by Ben Bernie, one by his own company prepared for him as Chairman of Coiste na N-og and the latest by Rory Griffin.

  3. The population of Wexford is 144,000, the largest in Leinster outside Dublin. The county has 49 GAA clubs.

  4. For DD the single biggest obstacle to success is the lack of unity and belief that we can succeed.

  5. Youth is the way out of Wexford’s problem. There is a need to train 25/26 year olds as managers.

  6. Wexford has the most indoor facilities of all 32 counties.

  7. Success was recorded in U.21 football in 2011 and 2012. Wexford’s camogie players are the best in the country and have been for some years.

  8. In senior hurling Wexford are just outside the top 8 and in the top 8 at U.21 grade. At minor Wexford are in the top 6.

  9. DD said that these rankings in both football and hurling suggest that Wexford has a problem but not a crisis.

  10. In hurling Wexford has 12 strong senior clubs, one of which will be relegated this year, which DD believes will be good for competition. There are also 12 strong football clubs.

  11. There are one thousand children under 12 playing in both codes. Wexford U.14 and Juvenile teams are in the top 6 in the country. Twenty five percent of young people in Wexford want to play hurling as their game of first choice.

  12. There is a strong Hurling Advisory Committee and also Football Advisory Committee in place, each with a four year mandate.

  13. DD described an 8 Step Programme which he regards as key to improving the state of Wexford GAA. Key elements in the programme are:

  14. Resources

  15. Key Committees

  16. Dual code equality but with different approaches

  17. Placement of key personnel e.g. teachers etc. This will require support from clubs.

  18. Target to achieve 25% participation at U.12 level.

  19. Address issues arising from treble games involvement. (Some players also play rugby and soccer.

  20. Extend the season to 12 months. (Kilkenny play their U21 hurling championship in winter.)

  21. Develop elite pathways in hurling and football.

  22. The county’s financial situation is improving. Creditors reduced from €625k to €351k between January and May 2012. However there remains a big income challenge e.g. to raise sponsorship by €50k per annum. A season ticket initiative offering silver, gold and platinum tickets with different privileges at prices of €100/€250 and €500 is to be launched.

  23. Match attendances are up but the statistics show that attendance at hurling considerably outweighs that at football.

  24. A district team (the best of four districts) will play in the Senior Hurling Championship in 2013.

  25. Five district development squads are planned with the aim of getting 140 players at U.14 and U16 involved.

  26. A combined colleges team structure is to be adopted.

  27. Marketing initiatives are to be undertaken as well as physical development of facilities.

  28. DD mentioned that Kilkenny get the same subvention from Croke Park for football as Wexford but do not use if for football. He also questioned the wisdom of having Galway and Antrim in the Leinster hurling championship.

  29. In summary DD described what he considered the key elements in what he termed “The Wexford Way” as being: Maximising participation in Gaelic games; sound and reliable fixtures plans and top class club based coaching.

Tony Dempsey addressed the meeting briefly. He stressed the importance of using district teams to give players from junior clubs experience at the right level. He also said that comparing Wexford with Kilkenny was invalid because of the scant respect shown for football in Kilkenny.

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Thanks MC

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Just on that summarized article about the report, the 21 points thing has a serious amount of inaccuracies as well as lots of things that never happened.

Point 5 has had on action taken about it.

Point 9 is wrong in football, and it was slipping when this article was completed and nothing was done to stop the fall.

  1. Would disagree. Especially at that time with Oulart being so dominant. 4 or 5 clubs at most.

  2. The HAC did some good stuff, but is pretty much dormant now. The football alternative did nothing at all

  3. Nothing implemented.

  4. Credit, pun intended, where it’s due. Did well to correct the fuck up of the previous reign.

  5. Pipe dream.

  6. There is north and south in some of the hurling squads. But that’s about it. Probably an unrealistic target

  7. Colleges team in hurling. And then a football one was thrown in because if hurling has one then football has to have one, regardless of the logistics and practicality of it.

  8. Bigger better stronger

  9. True point. Kk have entered teams in leinster football comps, got grant money, and didn’t participate then.

The only things to come out of the HAC report (which didn’t come for free or voluntarily) was the hurling 365 initiative in primary schools, the grant money for minors going to college, the colleges team, and a more refined underage squad set up. The 365 thing is a good setup and definitely worthwhile.