Owen Doyle has served Wicklow well, both as a player and mentor As a former stalwart county senior player and a long time county selector with his native Wicklow, Owen Doyle hasn't much time for the consolatory pat on the back the gratuitous handshake at the end of the match and armchair viewing per se. He's been the recipient of the lot, been there, done that. Now, he reckons it's time Wicklow switched roles and gave the Dublins, the Kildares and the Meaths of this world a taste of their own medicine. This year marks Owen Doyle's fourth year as a Wicklow senior football selector, his fourth year on the trot and his second helping all told. Originally invited to assume the onerous position in seasons past by former County Board Chairman Bobby Dignam and having served alongside 'erstwhile team boss Sean O'Toole, you'd think the Glendalough born, former Laragh clubman would have had enough of football's slow lane. Not a bit of it. The long time Avondale loyal servant is enjoying his labours in the company of current team boss Niall Rennicks. For nearly a dozen seasons, Owen Doyle served as a pillar of the Wicklow senior team's defence, was a colossus in the Garden County's rearguard and could never have been accused of pointing the finger at his colleagues while being less than dedicated himself. Initially a wing forward for his county, Owen later became identified as one of Wicklow's most resilient and consistently able defenders. All told he was involved on and off with Wicklow seniors from the age of twenty, right through to the age of thirty four before departing the senior inter county stage. A lot of seasons under his belt with no reward. It's probably fair to say that Owen Doyle played with Wicklow teams who failed miserably to fulfil their inherent potential. Failed unreservedly to match their ability with sufficient levels of commitment, dedication and basic will to win. Never one to stand up on a soap box and inflict the holier than thou attitude on an unsuspecting dressingroom, Owen looks back on his many years in the county jersey with more than a hint of realism and honesty. "I remember when we were operating out of Division One of the league when the league was worked on a geographical basis and with the likes of Moses Coffey, the team was well able to hold its own. In terms of us transferring our league form on to the championship arena, we were a Jekyl and Hyde type team. I think the dedication just isn't there among enough players. Most of the players around then put their club first when the Leinster championship came around and serious training began. Thankfully, that sort of attitude doesn't apply to the current players." According to Owen, the advent of the late eighties and the arrival of a more professional approach by the county team management of the day helped stimulate a change of attitude among the players. "There's been a noticeable change of attitude among the players in recent years, a change which has been brought about by Niall Rennick and those that were there before him like Gerry Farrell, Peter O'Neill, Ken Brown and Michael Sergeant, who also helped the process of making it the norm for all players to be together as a unit and not just some players as the exceptions," recalled the man who works in the sales and distribution area of Irish Fertilisers Industries. Conscious of the new breed of players to emerge on the Wicklow scene, Owen reflects on the break up of the county panel post 1986 with a matter of fact type recollection, pin-pointing the near half dozen retirements of being part of the reason why Wicklow laboured and duly failed to get together something more than a workmanlike team. "We had several players who retired, players who the county could ill afford to lose. To lose such players would have left it difficult for successful counties to overcome but it was especially hard for us. It took quite a while naturally for the county team management to get together a settled team or squad with a winning attitude and the necessary belief," Owen insisted. While acknowledging that Wicklow now possess a greater number of players with the necessary self belief, Owen still reflects the kind of frustration and anxiety so characteristic of Wicklow gaeldom. "We have a greater belief in ourselves now but we still haven't delivered yet. We're still getting up the ladder and then slipping back down again as has happened with us in recent years against Meath and Kildare last year," Owen reckoned. Firmly believing that if the squad could get that we bit of killer instinct, they could make that invaluable breakthrough, Owen remains convinced however that there's no substitute for hard work and having quality players at your disposal. Getting that breakthrough, he says, would make everybody so much more optimistic. "A break for us would mean so much to football in the county. It would see more people playing the game in every part of the county and would make a lot of players on the fringe of things want to show the ambition to get on the senior county team." Every county needs a good tradition to use as a buffer in harsh, barren times. Cavan has relied heavily on that buffer, so too have the Offaly footballers and the hurlers of Tipperary prior to the late eighties. Unfortunately tradition is something Wicklow is conspicuously short of but establishing it is what Doyle, Rennicks and company are all about. "I remember we beat Donegal in Aughrim in the national league and then Donegal went on to win the All-Ireland. We thought we were making headway but then the leagues were all changed the following year and we were back again trying to prove ourselves. The changing around of the divisions in the league somehow led to us forgetting and losing sight of our goals." Discounting the suggestion that the '94 season represents a 'make or break' situation for the Garden County, Owen reflects that a good run in the championship would certainly be required to make up for a very disappointing league campaign. "We had to get out of division four but failed, which was hugely disappointing. We fell to a sucker punch against Westmeath but we recovered very well." And the upcoming provincial championship. How does he reckon it will develop? "Going by the draw, on paper it looks as if we have the easier route through the series but it's a more drawn out campaign and it'll give us better scope if we're good enough to beat Offaly to go on and improve. At the moment I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of progressing past the Offaly hurdle but as I said, the Westmeath result in the league was very disappointing." Given that Westmeath went on to do themselves immense justice in the league campaign thereafter, one would imagine that Owen Doyle would have gleaned some succour from their progress in the aftermath of Wicklow's defeat by Kerrigan's crew. Not a bit of it. "Their subsequent performances made our defeat to them harder to take because after what they did we realised what could have been for us and the money that would have come in to us. It's a fact of life that doing well in the national league brings in valuable revenue and given that it takes so much money to prepare a team over the course of a year, it's a big help to go far in the league, especially for the likes of Wicklow who aren't exactly flush with money." Originally from Glendalough, Owen's brothers Pat and John Joe are gaelic football enthusiasts too and the Doyle family is sports friendly. Owen, in true family tradition, has plied his wares at soccer and rugby and done well too. A boarder at the famed Belcampe College where he linked up with the likes of Meath's O'Halloran, Owen comfortably made the county under 21 team, but on the club scene suffered the misfortune of losing out with Laragh in the 1971 junior county final. An intermediate championship medal secured against Valleymount six years later reaped it's deserved compensation. "The Avondale side at that time were tipped to go and win a hatful of senior championships but it never came to pass, thanks to Baltinglass who were our bogey team at that time. Even though we had five senior county players at the club at that time, including my brother Pat, Kevin and Pat Baker, Brian Laide and Liam McGraynor, we never seemed to bury the bogey." Reckoning that Avondale will be there or therabouts for the 1994 championships, the still razor keen centre half back who togs out an intimidating six foot and near thirteen stone, the husband of Clare and the father of Orlagh, Cormac and Eimear is still as enthusiastic as ever about the game he graced for a decade and more. Owen Doyle reckons that Wicklow have a good chance of bypassing the Offaly hurdle and progressing in the senior championship if the players show the necessary will to win on the day. The necessary will to win as epitomised by the Avondale ace, one suggests. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 20th May 1994 Tweet

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