Wexford are playing down any significance attached to the absence of hurling manager Liam Dunne from training earlier this week
Dunne, who has been in charge of Wexford for the last four-and-a-half seasons, has been out of the country on a break for the last few days but has missed just one scheduled session in that time.
They host Waterford in a league quarter-final in Innovate Wexford Park on Sunday, having only scraped into it courtesy of a late Shane Tomkins point that gave them a narrow victory over Laois.
Dunne oversaw a session last week but the players were then released back to their clubs over the weekend to allow them to concentrate on local league games, Wexford sources have explained.
The manager missed Mondayâs session at the Centre of Excellence in Ferns which was overseen by coach Willie Cleary with assistance from Tom Mullally, the Kilkenny man who has been helping out with the minor team, and the teamâs physical trainer Gerry Fitzpatrick.
But Dunne last night confirmed that he will be back at the helm for tonightâs session in advance of Waterfordâs visit.
It is not clear if Wexford County Board officials were aware of Dunneâs absence.
Wexford have struggled in Division 1B, beating just Laois and Kerry, with losses to Clare, Limerick and Offaly.
Indo Sport
I dont know do i even want to go to the park on Sunday.
a 0-28 to 1-13 thumping from Waterford and a football team with nothing to play for. sigh.
Iâm sure Martin Storey was delighted to see the fucker who tried to amputate his arm.
Johnny p there too?
Andrew Shore (hamstring) and Podge Doran (broken finger) are out of Sundayâs game.
Everyone else is apparently available other than long term injury victim Shaun Murphy.
Not much expected of us this weekend. I just hope for a performance from the lads. Hopefully after the game there are some signs of encouragement before the dubs game. Any word on a team yet?
Big Dan isnât taking it lightly anyway
If they have any ambition they should be going out to batter Wexford into oblivion and go onto the next game. Kilkenny used to do some of the false platitudes too but then go out and win by twenty points.
Any hurling men have the inside track on whatâs going on with the Wexford hurling team? Anyone got any information from knowledgeable hurling men?
Handy enough semi final for us now after we win tomorrow
Another fantastic cutting piece of journalism from the Peoples best journalist and friend of the forum.
There are a couple of things thought I dont agree with about it.
In it, he says the clubs âsaw fit to create a second levelâ. Iâm not entirely sure where he got this information from, but as someone who is involved with one of these clubs who apparently decided this, I can say for certain we were highly pissed off to be shunted into a second tier of the premier. We requested to be in premier hurling and football, and the premier football has 8 teams in a straight up league format, but the premier hurling was split in 2 with the A group guaranteed at a minimum a quarter final spot and the premier B having to fight it out for 2 quarter final spots.
Brendan also says that the premier semi final will be that teams 4th championship outing. He probably should have checked out the fixtures, as there are 6 league games in the premier hurling, not 3. That in itself is quite annoying, as the premier teams are only playing against another 3 clubs for the entirety of the league, and most probably the championship too, so its not exatlty a great format for playing different sides. But there are more than 4 games being played.
Brendan also is highly unsatisfied with the amount of amalgamated clubs. I unfortunately disagree with his view point on this too surprisingly. For years, clubs would field teams, particularly minor ones with a heap of players who had fuck all interest or else were far too young to be playing minor. Just because a team fields on their own does not necessarily mean its better. Our minors are amalgamated this year. If we really wanted, we probably could have fielded on our own, but it would have meant playing 14 year olds in 13 a side games in division 4. Same for the club we amalgamated with. Surely it is better that the 2 clubs combine and give the players a higher quality and grade to play at, and the players at their own age group focus on that and improve there. It also helps for county players. We have a few who are involved at the county minor set up in football and hurling. Is it not better they play at a higher level and improve rather than playing 13 a side games in a crap division and doing fuck all the better themselves? Obviously having too many amalgamated clubs would not be good, but if a club doesnt have the numbers, what can it do?
I do think there are clubs who are amalgamating for no reason but to win trophies and medals and arent doing it for the betterment of their players. They are getting rid of the fringe players of their own clubs and longterm wont help them. But there are also many clubs who have no option but to amalgamate and do so to ensure players at their age group get good games and field team who can be competitive. Clubs who can keep the numbers ad field on their own should be commended and know they are doing great work to retain numbers. But if there is no numbers to retain, then there are very little other options.
Having amalgamated clubs does fuck all to hinder county teams. It actually should improve them to be honest, and he should only look at the structures in counties like Cork and Kerry where divisional sides, a bigger version of amalgamated clubs, works very well to ensure lower grade quality players get exposure and games at the highest level. Is it better to have teams barely fielding teams and scattered down the lower divisions or to amalgamate and concentrate the quality at the higher end?
The numbers were always shit, but lads used to play for the sake of it. Now that they have more options and choices in life, they dont bother playing when they get bored of it. The ones who are dedicated and interested and wanting to play at the higher level has remained the same, and to be honest, the number of higher quality players is probably improving, but that is a totally unmeasurable thing so not exactly factual.
Finally, to state that Piercestown being a âsmall rural parishâ providing successful underage teams as a bad thing is firstly completely disrespectful to the club and secondly a bit of a dumb statement. The Martins have done fantastic work in their infrastructure with their grounds and their coaching. But they have a massive populated catchment area. The expansion of Wexford town has helped them greatly with numbers, much like Glyn and Shels have also had a similar infrastructure investment and great underage structures. Both also have the advantage of being pretty much part of Wexford town too though and getting population that way. I always felt Crossabeg should be another club benefiting like those 3 have, but never did. They seem to be getting places in the last year, so maybe they will push on now too. But to call St Martins out as being a typical rural club is shite. The population of the parish would dwarf many other rural clubs. Granted, there is a whole lot more to success than numbers, but when he is using Enniscorthy as an example of failure with population and trying to pass off St Martins as a success with being small, then I would call that one out.
All in all, it was a fairly shit piece. I agree that the premier hurling set up is a load of gash, but its not at the request of the clubs involved as he states again further on.
Brendan is an idiot. I canât believe you spend ages typing a post in response to his drivel.
Itâs more interesting to note that Martin Breheny is now a journalist with the people as his article is replicated ver batim.
Or is Brendan feeding the indo and they print it under a different name?
I was just writing while watching the barca/real game. I suppose reacting to wind up merchants is stupid, except I donât think Brendan is on a wind up or writing provocatively.
Brendan was feeding the Indo for a long time I thought? Most of any insignificant âscandalâ used always make itâs way to the Indo from him.
Heâs a hypocritical cunt so he is. Used by Dunne, Devereux and whoever else for political spin.
In other news, you may have noted that I bought a Smart TV recently. @Rocko also advised that I buy a casting dongle. I think this may have been superfluous.
Itâs a pain in the whole to screen share on it and thatâs all I really want to do. Any views?
What do you want to watch on the TV? Streaming live sports or watching downloads or Netflix or the likes?
I think I told you to get a casting dongle or a Smart TV. Not both.
Youâve logged in as Mac.
I want to watch Sky Go on the telly.
You did not. You said also. Now I have a dongle dangling out of my smart TV.