Phil Wilson A Great Dual Star for Wexford In the days before the All-Star system of gaelic games awards came into being, recognition of skilful individual football and hurling artists was a hit and miss affair with little regularity and cohesion in place. In 1965 the presentation of symbolic jersies to the best hurlers of the year was the way of things. Carried out in none other than the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, the awards ceremony was much appreciated by all the players present plus one. One Phil Wilson. A player of equal ability in both hurling and football, the Wexford wizard was sadly hospitalised at the time of the awards but he was nonetheless acclaimed by his peers for his undoubted talent and service to the sport. One of Ballyhogue and Wexford's best over the last thirty years or so, the Castle Street Enniscorthy based footwear shop proprietor played football and hurling at Senior level for the Model County and excelled at both codes over a ten year period and more. As a youngster, he exuded an innate talent for both hurling and football but his talent wasn't always rewarded as often as it might have been. With his native club, there were good and bad times. He appeared in three county finals at underage level and suffered the disappointment of defeat in all three deciders. Ironically for one so gifted in the skills of hurling, Phil Wilson honed his gaelic games skills in a predominantly football oriented club. Ballyhogue was and still is a stronghold of the big ball game and young Wilson took to the game like the proverbial duck to water. For his part, Phil was to graduate to the Senior intercounty football stage quicker than to the hurling equivalent. As a tearaway wing back he made his Senior county football debut against the Kingdom in the 1956/'57 National Football League season. The fourth eldest in a family of ten children, Phil didn't go against the grain in following the football in Ballyhogue. Perhaps he would have been had he been playing in Wexford town but not Ballyhogue. "Up to the time Wexford hurling reached its peak in the fifties when the men from the South East won two All-Irelands, football was the main game in the county. Wexford has a great football tradition. Ever since the end of the fifties, it seems that hurling has taken over and football is the poor relation". Phil declared this week. "To be honest football has been on the decline since the fifties. There's not the same support for the game in the county as there used to be years ago. There won't be the same sort of buzz for the Wexford versus Meath Leinster Championship semi final as there would be for a Wexford-Kilkenny Championship hurling clash", explained Phil whose uncle Willie Wilson played Senior county football for Wexford and another uncle Jim Wilson played for Wexford Juniors. The Ballyhogue football set up was one of the best football nurseries that a body could have been born into. Along with the Starlights club, Ballyhogue dominated the county football scene at Senior level and for the most part that's the way it was during Phil's time playing at adult level. All told, Wilson scooped five Senior county football Championship medals with Ballyhogue, a hat trick of souvenirs in 1962, '63 and '64 and two more in 1972 and '73. Significantly, Phil has been rated by some as a better football than hurler and although in fairness, the jury is still out on that sort of comparison. A pacey intelligent player, Phil was equally as good at both hurling and football but he only achieved such a high standard on the field of play with plenty of practice. "In the nineteen fifties we used to hurl four evenings a week, every week throughout the year. There was no such thing as coaching then. You had to learn to perfect the skills of hurling yourself by sheer practice and diligence", explained the affable Enniscorthy shopkeeper who learned the rudiments of the small ball game playing with his four brothers and using a sponge ball as a sliothar. Phil's earliest memories are football, listening to the radio in 1947 and joining in the thrill of Cavan's historic victory over Kerry in the All-Ireland Senior Football final in the Polo Grounds, New York. So influenced was Phil and his peers that classmates were often called after these self-same "radio" stars such as Cavan's ace free-taker Peter Donohoe (himself nicknamed the Babe Ruth of Gaelic football). With football role models from the thirties such as Ballyhogue Nick Walsh and John Doran, to look up to, Phil wasn't short of icons as an impressionable young player. A great believer in the axiom that a player needs to be both physically and mentally fit to be at his best, Phil Wilson says hat his All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship medal of '68 remains the highlight of his career in both codes. "Having said that there's something special about winning a title with your home club and when we won the county Senior title in 1962, thirty years after the club had last won it, the victory was also extra special", explained the former dual star who also won four Leinster Senior Hurling Championship medals with his native Wexford. A key member of the London hurling team which won the 1960 All-Ireland Junior final by beating Carlow, Phil has experienced the highs and lows of competitive fare at the top level, epitomised in that year of '60 when he also figured on the London beaten by Dublin Juniors in the All-Ireland football decider. Two National League medals from the seventies and four Railway Cup triumphs later, Phil has no reason or cause to have a chip on his shoulder about the hand dealt him by gaelic games . and he hasn't. Harking back (as a result of the interviewers petitions) to what might have been on the football front, Phil leaves the mostalgia behind to honestly assess the quality of the Wexford football teams from yesteryear. "The Wexford Senior football team of '69 was a team that should have won something. We played Offaly in the Leinster Championship semi final but lost by two or three points to them. I've no doubt but that we had the same preparation then that the players in Wexford have these days, we would have won the Leinster title. We had Offaly on the rack during that match but unfortunately we badly missed the players who weren't brought home from England for the match". Married to Geraldine and father of John, Phil and Genieve, Phil admits that he's looking forward with keen anticipation to Wexford's hurling and football Championship campaigns. Realistically, he doesn't expect too much of the footballers as they prepare to meet the might of Meath in the provincial football semi final. "Wexford players will have to concentrate one hundred per cent and not turn their back for one second. They'll have mark man for man and stick with it throughout the match. Meath have been through the mill before and have a lot of experience at this level and will try and dictate the pace of the game. At the present time Meath are playing some great stuff and to be honest it's hard to see Wexford winning. Wexford had a fairly good run in the League and will have benefited in confidence from it but I'm afraid our lads have it all to do". Cloughbawn's currant trainer and the man behind the club's success last year (their first in forty-two years), Phil has proven himself as good a reader of the game off the field as he has on it. He's hopeful that the club can retain their title. "I don't see any reason why not. The lads can retain their title if they hurl to form and if the panel can keep free from injuries. The work has to be done though". And on Wexford's gaelic games future? "The county is as enthusiastic as ever and there's certainly the same sort of interest in the county that there was in my day. The young are keen and just need to be organised. If the county can get a bit of luck there should be some success on the way ever if the supporters will need to be patient for a little while longer". Written by the Hogan Stand Magazine 1st July '94 Tweet

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