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Wexford Hurling thread 2024

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "I see St Annes lost to Birr in the Division 2 final which is good to see them competing at that high level too"
2 lads whose father is from Taghmon on that Birr team too.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 27/06/2024 11:05:26    2555114

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Replying To countyman2022:  "School far more important for developing county players. Clubs give schools the players- the top bracket players are developed further here as standard higher due to the best of the best from clubs being on these teams. Peters going to B championship a disaster."
Schools set up needs a really good look at. Was talking to one of our minors last night. 5th year in Bridgetown haven't done any hurling in ages. They had one game which they lost, and have mainly concentrated on soccer since. They reached a soccer cup final. And they have a hurling all star teaching there.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 27/06/2024 11:09:42    2555118

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Replying To Viking66:  "Schools set up needs a really good look at. Was talking to one of our minors last night. 5th year in Bridgetown haven't done any hurling in ages. They had one game which they lost, and have mainly concentrated on soccer since. They reached a soccer cup final. And they have a hurling all star teaching there."
My daughter is there. Mr o Keefe has no involvement in hurling in the school. Blew me away when she told me.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 2900 - 27/06/2024 11:21:14    2555123

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "My daughter is there. Mr o Keefe has no involvement in hurling in the school. Blew me away when she told me."
Thats mad. Maybe Dee wants a break from hurling outside the county set up

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 328 - 27/06/2024 11:39:53    2555129

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "Thats mad. Maybe Dee wants a break from hurling outside the county set up"
With heavy involvement with his club and county he probably couldn't find the time for coaching and match attendances.
Perhaps when he retires from intercounty he may well put the work in with the school.

Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 372 - 27/06/2024 16:12:59    2555205

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Replying To Magpie2:  "With heavy involvement with his club and county he probably couldn't find the time for coaching and match attendances.
Perhaps when he retires from intercounty he may well put the work in with the school."
Yeah I wouldnt be too hard on him to be honest he has plenty going on

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 328 - 27/06/2024 17:20:58    2555226

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "Yeah I wouldnt be too hard on him to be honest he has plenty going on"
I wouldn't be hard on him at all. He'd have no spare time with county including weekends also since government brought in this "croke park" agreement he'd be forced to work the equivalent week and a half extra by the the dept and the sickener is that agreement only allows meetings to take place nothing else.

So if he was to take a team it'd be out of his already limited own time. Ya can't get classes.covered officially for sports anymore. That's turned a lot of teachers off volunteering for a lot of extra curricular things. The goodwill is gone.

Good man Dee

WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 301 - 27/06/2024 17:56:19    2555239

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "Interesting chat with Rory jacob on the Wexford hurling podcast regarding the future of Wexford Hurling. He makes a few worrying points about such quality of players coming in Peters from primary school is getting lower every year and thinks this is widespread throughout the county . I would love to see the more money being pumped into coaching structures now rather than the centre of excellence and Wexford Park. Players are all that matter and if we arent producing them in the county we could end up in big trouble."
Rory is in a position to do something about it and can get a group and work with them for 6 years. They are pulling from some of the best clubs in Wexford including his own.

There should be no reason why there can't be investment in Wexford Park and Ferns which is badly needed as well as coaching. My understanding is that the lack of money isnt the issue. For example it doesn't take a huge amount of money for Rory and the teachers in Peter's to bring the best 30 1st years together 3 times a week to coach them and develop them. It's happening in lots of other schools.

If had been said that clubs are only training once a week at under 12 then they will be behind where they should be but they can still be improved rather than written off.

wexfordwin (Wexford) - Posts: 162 - 27/06/2024 20:41:02    2555259

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "Yeah I wouldnt be too hard on him to be honest he has plenty going on"
My original post wasn't a criticism of Dee O'Keefe at all. It was a criticism of our schools set up when a Year, 5th in this case, in a Secondary School only has 1 game of hurling to play unless they win it.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 27/06/2024 20:54:43    2555264

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "Interesting chat with Rory jacob on the Wexford hurling podcast regarding the future of Wexford Hurling. He makes a few worrying points about such quality of players coming in Peters from primary school is getting lower every year and thinks this is widespread throughout the county . I would love to see the more money being pumped into coaching structures now rather than the centre of excellence and Wexford Park. Players are all that matter and if we arent producing them in the county we could end up in big trouble."
Listened to the podcast earlier this morning while I was in work. He cares alot about where we are heading, and while he used the words "coming out of primary school" he basically said what I've seen with my own two eyes. As a county we aren't doing as much as other counties in the u8 to u12 age groups, and therefore the standard of our lads when they get to secondary school/u14 development squad age is poorer. Some of this is made worse by most of our clubs being dual, but essentially if our lads in those critical age groups are only getting training once a week it means they are only getting 2 hours a month in football, and 2 hours a month in hurling. Its not enough.
In many other counties where clubs are predominantly one code or the other even if they are only training once a week they are getting double what our lads are getting. And if they train twice a week they are getting 4 times as much coaching/training in that particular code.
Yes, as our Counry Board/Games Development people have correctly identified, coaching has to be of a higher standard. But also quantity/volume of training/coaching has to be increased also, especially as we are a dual county. And therein lies another problem- we don't have enough volunteers at many clubs to do this extra work. Maybe some sort of targeted advertising campaign might help?

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 28/06/2024 09:11:12    2555316

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Nail on the head:

The season for most clubs is what, March to October, 7 months or 30 weeks.

So this is 1 hurling - 1 football training session (one of these may be a match)

So that's 30 hours hurling and 30 hours football per year.

Is this enough?

By comparison what are other successful counties doing?

wexford2012 (Wexford) - Posts: 78 - 28/06/2024 10:54:49    2555345

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Listened to the Pod, ya have to bow to Rorys experience and calibre and he' clearly has Wexford hurling close to his heart but he made some statements and opinions that have to be challenged I feel. But challenging them is no way criticism of him but healthy discussion:

1. Why should there be one or two players from every club? Ya get in on merit not on where you live. There's a few Rathnure lads that spring to mind that just don't qant to hurl for Wexford that's fine, Oulart let thr ball drop in terms of development for a while....they're back now. Alley have produced next to nothing so I don't agree with him there. I take his point tho it sure would be nice for every team to be represented and bring that expertise but it's on merit.

2. I find it hard to believe Wexford ripped up a.progeam in 2015 for an inferior one..anyone have input or info on this?

3. Wasn't Rory burned for a job with the u20s so is he impartial on all this?

Fair questions

WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 301 - 28/06/2024 11:11:12    2555351

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Replying To WEXILE:  "Listened to the Pod, ya have to bow to Rorys experience and calibre and he' clearly has Wexford hurling close to his heart but he made some statements and opinions that have to be challenged I feel. But challenging them is no way criticism of him but healthy discussion:

1. Why should there be one or two players from every club? Ya get in on merit not on where you live. There's a few Rathnure lads that spring to mind that just don't qant to hurl for Wexford that's fine, Oulart let thr ball drop in terms of development for a while....they're back now. Alley have produced next to nothing so I don't agree with him there. I take his point tho it sure would be nice for every team to be represented and bring that expertise but it's on merit.

2. I find it hard to believe Wexford ripped up a.progeam in 2015 for an inferior one..anyone have input or info on this?

3. Wasn't Rory burned for a job with the u20s so is he impartial on all this?

Fair questions"
Definite sense of entitlement, though he tried to qualify this to be fair. His core point I think was, that while widening the pool is great, has this come about with a lifting of the standards or have a wider pool of clubs met/surpassed a declining standard from the 'traditional' clubs?
2015 - that's a minefield but from recollection changes were made for valid reasons
YEs Rory I think didn't get the Wexford u20 job despite being involved with Keith for a few years at this level, not sure how this impacts or not his partiality though.

wexford2012 (Wexford) - Posts: 78 - 28/06/2024 12:31:19    2555367

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Replying To wexford2012:  "Nail on the head:

The season for most clubs is what, March to October, 7 months or 30 weeks.

So this is 1 hurling - 1 football training session (one of these may be a match)

So that's 30 hours hurling and 30 hours football per year.

Is this enough?

By comparison what are other successful counties doing?"
I know of 3 clubs in our age group that didn't start back til around the beginning of May. And the same for u8s and u10s. There may have been more. And a good few clubs finish up in around September that I know of.
We did a one night a week thing all over winter at the club, alternating between hurling and football. And encouraged as many of the lads (and their parents to bring them!) to do the A.S.H. programme as possible also. I know of other clubs who did the same. But not many. It was the 1st time we did, and it was very noticeable that by doing it lads were practicing at home or down the pitches on other evenings/nights also. The hurls weren't just put away for 6 months.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 28/06/2024 13:16:42    2555381

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Replying To wexford2012:  "Nail on the head:

The season for most clubs is what, March to October, 7 months or 30 weeks.

So this is 1 hurling - 1 football training session (one of these may be a match)

So that's 30 hours hurling and 30 hours football per year.

Is this enough?

By comparison what are other successful counties doing?"
I know of 3 clubs in our age group that didn't start back til around the beginning of May. And the same for u8s and u10s. There may have been more. And a good few clubs finish up in around September that I know of.
We did a one night a week thing all over winter at the club, alternating between hurling and football. And encouraged as many of the lads (and their parents to bring them!) to do the A.S.H. programme as possible also. I know of other clubs who did the same. But not many. It was the 1st time we did, and it was very noticeable that by doing it lads were practicing at home or down the pitches on other evenings/nights also. The hurls weren't just put away for 6 months.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 28/06/2024 13:17:33    2555382

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Replying To WEXILE:  "Listened to the Pod, ya have to bow to Rorys experience and calibre and he' clearly has Wexford hurling close to his heart but he made some statements and opinions that have to be challenged I feel. But challenging them is no way criticism of him but healthy discussion:

1. Why should there be one or two players from every club? Ya get in on merit not on where you live. There's a few Rathnure lads that spring to mind that just don't qant to hurl for Wexford that's fine, Oulart let thr ball drop in terms of development for a while....they're back now. Alley have produced next to nothing so I don't agree with him there. I take his point tho it sure would be nice for every team to be represented and bring that expertise but it's on merit.

2. I find it hard to believe Wexford ripped up a.progeam in 2015 for an inferior one..anyone have input or info on this?

3. Wasn't Rory burned for a job with the u20s so is he impartial on all this?

Fair questions"
In fairness to him he didn't say that Wexford management should pick anyone from those clubs becauseof the clubs they played for. He made it clear it was a criticism of those clubs that they weren't producing hurlers good enough for intercounty. Rathnure certainly have a couple players good enough who were considered this year. 1 dropped out, and the other struggled last year with injury. Both are only 21 this year so hopefully they might play down the line, depending on their form.
I'm not sure what exactly he was talking about when he said something was scrapped in 2015. He didn't elaborate.
I think all his comments came from wanting to see Wexford do as well as possible going forwards, especially the Senior team. There didn't seem to be any bitterness in what he was saying. I don't think anyone who has been involved in the u8 - u12 age groups here in Wexford, who has any knowledge of how things are in other counties, would argue with what he is saying.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 12889 - 28/06/2024 13:32:39    2555386

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Replying To Viking66:  "In fairness to him he didn't say that Wexford management should pick anyone from those clubs becauseof the clubs they played for. He made it clear it was a criticism of those clubs that they weren't producing hurlers good enough for intercounty. Rathnure certainly have a couple players good enough who were considered this year. 1 dropped out, and the other struggled last year with injury. Both are only 21 this year so hopefully they might play down the line, depending on their form.
I'm not sure what exactly he was talking about when he said something was scrapped in 2015. He didn't elaborate.
I think all his comments came from wanting to see Wexford do as well as possible going forwards, especially the Senior team. There didn't seem to be any bitterness in what he was saying. I don't think anyone who has been involved in the u8 - u12 age groups here in Wexford, who has any knowledge of how things are in other counties, would argue with what he is saying."
I think its great he's starting the debate on how we can improve hurling in the county. There is a lot of good things happening but we definitely could be doing more

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 328 - 28/06/2024 14:09:53    2555393

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Replying To Viking66:  "In fairness to him he didn't say that Wexford management should pick anyone from those clubs becauseof the clubs they played for. He made it clear it was a criticism of those clubs that they weren't producing hurlers good enough for intercounty. Rathnure certainly have a couple players good enough who were considered this year. 1 dropped out, and the other struggled last year with injury. Both are only 21 this year so hopefully they might play down the line, depending on their form.
I'm not sure what exactly he was talking about when he said something was scrapped in 2015. He didn't elaborate.
I think all his comments came from wanting to see Wexford do as well as possible going forwards, especially the Senior team. There didn't seem to be any bitterness in what he was saying. I don't think anyone who has been involved in the u8 - u12 age groups here in Wexford, who has any knowledge of how things are in other counties, would argue with what he is saying."
Either way we can't afford to be losing people like that to other counties.

I hope he's not correct on that 2015 thing but we did have a string of very competitive u21 teams at the time and that can be a fluke or down to the program or a mix of both but when he said it it did sound concerning and maybe he didn't say exactly what he knew.

The u8 to u12 situation we have sounds exactly like the situation we have here in Dublin. 1 hurling & 1 football and alternating games on weekends, honestly I'm not impressed with the set up at all. Out of 60 kids you'd pick about 3 as hurlers but I said it the other day ....you'd pick them out because of the practice they are doing outside of training. It's the culture at home I think and also it's how intrinsically motivated the kids are. Outside of possibility of winning a trophy do the kids just want it enough to be out putting in the time themselves....in my experience in Dublin the answer to that would be a big No. Is there an element of that at home in Wexford?

I thought we had made strides. Hurling 365 links to schools is great but again depends on volunteers.

We also have had the A.S.H. program. Organised extra hurling for the winter when no other training is on. Again this looks great but I believe its only once a week?

We have schools Athletic Development program which is really up and running now, someone said on this that the gym work is unsupervised. Let me tell you for a fact that is not true. Maybe lads not on county panels are given a program to follow themselves but for the most part especially the model academy squads this work is 100% supervised bt s&C coaches. Lads 14 years olds would legally not be let near a gym on their own. This switches to the C of E now for the entirety of the summer. That will stand to our lads that really want to make it. To see this work for yourselves follow JJ Doyle on Facebook or twitter.

We then have our model academies from u14 up. I don't have any info on these as to how much training they do etc. I think these lads would be on the formal player pathway.

From.what I'm reading about school teams perhaps we are.short here on this. I really don't know what the set up is. Outside of the school team environment we do have development officers or coaches visiting schools again loads of evidence of this on Facebook twitter etc.

We have the problem of truly being a dual county. If hurling is the perogative of some clubs then they really need to go and do more than one night a week for the u8 to u12s. I think hurling requires more practice than football to get the basics rights.

One more thing too is that our u8s to u12s just need to graduate with basic skills perfected and just as importantly a.love for the game. A culture of hurling a.love for it that you're never going to give up. No point reaching 13 after having years of coaching and practice to walk away from the sport. Maybe 2 training max a week but plenty of practice at.home is enough.

All the experts on sports youth participation say you should not specialise before 13 anyway and all that research is available online if you want to have a look. So maybe it's no harm not.to go full hurling at a young age.

I think we get demoralised and blame our systems, I think we are doing a good job but could do more around 13+ and schools. Who cares how good a 9 year old is if he gives up at 13 and never plays county

WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 301 - 28/06/2024 14:13:33    2555395

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Replying To Viking66:  "
Replying To wexford2012:  "Nail on the head:

The season for most clubs is what, March to October, 7 months or 30 weeks.

So this is 1 hurling - 1 football training session (one of these may be a match)

So that's 30 hours hurling and 30 hours football per year.

Is this enough?

By comparison what are other successful counties doing?"
I know of 3 clubs in our age group that didn't start back til around the beginning of May. And the same for u8s and u10s. There may have been more. And a good few clubs finish up in around September that I know of.
We did a one night a week thing all over winter at the club, alternating between hurling and football. And encouraged as many of the lads (and their parents to bring them!) to do the A.S.H. programme as possible also. I know of other clubs who did the same. But not many. It was the 1st time we did, and it was very noticeable that by doing it lads were practicing at home or down the pitches on other evenings/nights also. The hurls weren't just put away for 6 months."
That's brilliant. So visibility or access to even one session keeps the kids mind on the game even on non training nights

WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 301 - 28/06/2024 14:18:17    2555397

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It was being discussed in our field last night, I hadn't listened. One of the lads said Rory was bitter but 3 others disagreed with him and said he had the improvement of Wexford hurling at heart. Did he say to the effect that he loves his club #1 but he is of the opinion that his clubs main duty has to be to supply top quality hurlers to Wexford? If so, how is that bitter?
I will give it a listen over the weekend but to me, you only have to look at the underage results in the last few years to tell the story. Its not that you want or need to be winning everything, but top players are made by lesser players challenging them and making life hard. If they get it too easy locally, and in training, then they get found out in championship.

ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1210 - 28/06/2024 14:29:25    2555400

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