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Wexford Hurling Thread

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Replying To Viking66:  "Absolutely they wouldn't. But if it was a good blueprint why are their underage teams with the exception of that one good team performing so badly?
Offalys u20s lost by 20 points to Dublin this year, and by 25 points to Kilkenny. They only beat Laois by a point, we beat Laois by 21 points.
And their minors lost the tier 2 final to Antrim by 9 points."
Maybe Offaly was a bad example. Or maybe it's just the case that their "blueprint" - even if it was just of the back of a fag box variety - simply didn't work out the way they hoped for the next few underage squads coming along.

But main point remains that when a county analyses its structures and coaching and everything else, and does up a report setting out a plan to try improve things, it's unrealistic to expect them to publish that plan for every other county to see as well.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3659 - 20/05/2026 11:39:02    2674304

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Replying To Afinestick96:  "Agree with everything you have said there. In opinion We need to strive for excellence now in everything we do. Belief is a huge issue in the county. You look at Offaly on Saturday. Most of them lads believe they can beat everyone in Leinster because they have done it at minor and u20 level. We are really competitive but consistently fail to get over the line at these grades. Our 2019 team was backboned by the 3 in a row u21 team. Fair enough Galway werent in Leinster at the time which made it easier to win but them lads had a winning mentality and then believed we could win at senior. Its very hard to convince our seniors now we can beat the top teams when we havent been beating them at any grade while they were playing. We need to make a breakthrough at underage in my opinion for things to really change for us."
Our current Senior panel have nearly all beaten Kilkenny and Dublin in knockout u20/1 games, and 10 started on the team that beat Galway by 8 points at Senior in what was basically a knockout game in 2024. 11 if you include Rory who will hopefully be back next year.
I do agree having more belief would help us, as would a never say die give it all you have approach to every game, which is definitely lacking. Consistency is our main problem.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19705 - 20/05/2026 11:53:57    2674309

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Replying To Spuds&GAA:  "You clearly are the one with the Narrative and I think most people see it too. I say it again Niland and Rabbitte played for Galway Seniors V Dublin on Saturday. Neither started the U20 v Wexford on Wednesday. Above you quoting as if you were on Galway's management teams! Niland picked up an Ankle injury before subbed off scored 1, 2 Assists for score and 4 points from free. You said Niland was injured?? Yet you went on to the Galway forum page and asked was Aaron Niland injured!! You were told he was definitely spared till the Dublin game!!! You must of forgotten to tell us that???!!!"
Barcoe might be missing tonight, does that mean Kilkenny dont respect Galway if he is?

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19705 - 20/05/2026 11:55:03    2674310

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Replying To Spuds&GAA:  "Shush, Did you not know We don't do Facts here!! We are doing great, Wexford Club U10s beat a Tipp Club before Tipp and Clare Senior game…"
Kilkenny "rested" 2 players for the final against Galway that started against us. I know they were injured but I wouldnt want to spoil the Narrative......

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19705 - 20/05/2026 12:00:49    2674311

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Replying To wexfordwin:  "Agree with this but I have ben told that of the 120 primary schools in Wexford, less than 20 would be actively promoting hurling and less than 10 would be "hurling /GAA mad". That is a small perecntage. Worse is that the perecentage of clubs who are doing it year round is also small. All adds up to what we have which is an average perfromance at all levels."
Do we know which schools do Hurling 365? I'm fairly sure the main school in my parish do it, was just wondering how widespread it is

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1274 - 20/05/2026 12:04:29    2674312

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Replying To Viking66:  "Absolutely they wouldn't. But if it was a good blueprint why are their underage teams with the exception of that one good team performing so badly?
Offalys u20s lost by 20 points to Dublin this year, and by 25 points to Kilkenny. They only beat Laois by a point, we beat Laois by 21 points.
And their minors lost the tier 2 final to Antrim by 9 points."
Offaly are Tier 2/3 levels at all age groups underage hurling and their current Senior team quality has absolutely nothing to do with anything their County Board did etc. In 5/6 years time they will be back struggling again and they know it. They were blessed to have 1 super team that now backbone their Seniors. I was lucky enough to see KK play and win an under 12 hurling tournament with Screeney etc standing out and everyone there knew they were something special. And do you know why we all knew it?? Because they were U11 at the time.. Their current success is nearly all down to that one team , one club and could even be argued two people. Adam and his Dad Keith. Adam for being so special he was literally like the Pied Piper who brought everyone along with him and his Dad Keith for training him plus that team from U6 all the way through to adult.
Why are Rathnure U12s / 13s currently so good?
They have the same numbers they had for the last 10 years. Its because of who is over the teams and the influence they are having on those boys.
We need another 10 equally high standard coaching teams like Rathnure have at U12 and success will just evolve naturally from there.

Paull (Wexford) - Posts: 278 - 20/05/2026 12:24:06    2674315

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Replying To OpenStandWall:  "https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2026/0519/1574233-offalys-clarity-contrasted-by-wexfords-sorry-confusion/

Shane McGrath couldn't have hit the nail any cleaner on the head here about us"
In fairness, it's fairly spot on all right. One of the most accurate and yet fairest pieces of analysis I've seen about us.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3659 - 20/05/2026 12:32:51    2674316

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Do we know which schools do Hurling 365? I'm fairly sure the main school in my parish do it, was just wondering how widespread it is"
Both schools in our parish do it. One has been organised the last 3 years by our clubs coaching officer, helped by 2 teachers who play and played intercounty LGFA. The other is doing alot of hurling the last year and a half thanks to Willie Cleary and 2 of the teachers, one who was involved in underage intercounty coaching and the other a current player and executive member of our club.
The school our coaching officer is organising the 365 at also bought rebounders for the pupils to use in breaktime. Our club bought both of the schools hurls, helmets and sliotars.
Only a few years ago none of that was happening, so a big thank you to those people for getting it all going in our parish.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19705 - 20/05/2026 12:44:26    2674320

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Do we know which schools do Hurling 365? I'm fairly sure the main school in my parish do it, was just wondering how widespread it is"
To be honest, and possibly at least slightly controversial, I'm not sure that Hurling 365 is all that it's cracked up to be. A brilliant idea in theory, but in practice, can be very disjointed.

In my own place, it's done for an hour before school, three mornings a week - one for 1st/2nd class, one for 3rd/4th class, and one for 5th/6th class. All overseen by people from the club (not a single teacher involved), and no real consistency or continuity between one week and others, particularly when different people are involved. The people one Thursday morning, for example, might make the children spend most of the time doing drills for one or two key skills. Somebody different the next Thursday might almost straight away give in to the pestering of "can we play a match? can we play a match?"

For the ASH things over the winter, the coaches get a detailed plan for each session, setting out all the drills to be done, even down to how many minutes to spend on each of them.

I've suggested to both Club Coaching Officer and the Coaching Office in Wexford Park that similar detailed week-by-week schedules could be set out for Hurling 365. Of course, the big difference is you'd be talking maybe 20 weeks and for three different levels, so that'd be 60 different sessions to set out altogether. That would take a lot of planning and a lot of time that people don't seem to have.

And of course, you'd probably still be half the time at every session listening to "can we play a match? can we play a match?"

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3659 - 20/05/2026 12:47:16    2674321

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Do we know which schools do Hurling 365? I'm fairly sure the main school in my parish do it, was just wondering how widespread it is"
Both schools in our parish do it. One has been organised the last 3 years by our clubs coaching officer, helped by 2 teachers who play and played intercounty LGFA. The other is doing alot of hurling the last year and a half thanks to Willie Cleary and 2 of the teachers, one who was involved in underage intercounty coaching and the other a current player and executive member of our club.
The school our coaching officer is organising the 365 at also bought rebounders for the pupils to use in breaktime. Our club bought both of the schools hurls, helmets and sliotars.
Only a few years ago none of that was happening, so a big thank you to those people for getting it all going in our parish.
And just to acknowledge the inter club support involved those 6 people hail from St Martins, St James, Gusserane and Cushinstown, as well as 2 originally from our club.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19705 - 20/05/2026 12:51:43    2674322

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Replying To wexfordwin:  "Agree with this but I have ben told that of the 120 primary schools in Wexford, less than 20 would be actively promoting hurling and less than 10 would be "hurling /GAA mad". That is a small perecntage. Worse is that the perecentage of clubs who are doing it year round is also small. All adds up to what we have which is an average perfromance at all levels."
Thats very disappointing . I left primary school nearly 20 years ago and we had coaches come in every week all year round during school class time. Its disappointing to hear this is not happening all year round. If we are ever to get back to where we want to be which is competing to win All irelands coaching in schools will be vital. Is the hurling 365 programme not working anymore?

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1077 - 20/05/2026 13:03:52    2674326

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