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I think that game pretty much shows that the group stages game was never as bad as people made it out to be and that it was an even game other than us hitting the world of wides and Niland beating us on his own
Take Niland out and stop hitting wides and you cut down that gap a good bit
Might've lost by 3-6 points had Galway started Rabbitte and Killeen, would've made them grind it out
On the bright side, Galway won't be as strong next year plus we'll have Quigley, Donohoe, Moore, Shannon, Carley, Nolan, O'Brien, Doran, Fanning, O'Connell-Byrne, Reilly, and Darragh Ryan all eligible again plus a few Minors from this year
Ok enough team on the whole, not a bad team but not a great team, S&C work has improved compared to last year, would say that the half-back-line, Carley, Nolan, and O'Brien are the ones to take out of it from a Senior perspective going forward, Roark did a good enough job on Rabbitte until he understandably got tired in ET
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1213 - 13/05/2026 22:28:52
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Hard luck to the lads. They gave it their all and just came up short. Hopefully next year the lads who are still there again will get a shot at a final.
Well done to Galway and good luck in the final.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19568 - 13/05/2026 22:59:10
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It is getting grimmer and grimmer, After the last 2 senior games, our minors the weekend and unable to beat a Galway team without Niland and Murphy while Rabbitte and Killeen only came on, just hard see where the bottom is, are we close to it? When are they going to look at who is actually coaching our underage teams? So far off it with structures. Bit embarrassing and a plight on those who done good work in the past.
countyman2022 (Wexford) - Posts: 993 - 14/05/2026 08:46:35
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Hard luck to the 20s last night they gave it absolutely everything and that's all we can ask for. The lads will know we left that one behind us in normal time. We had too many wides from good positions in the first half in particular which ultimately cost us a place in the Leinster final. It's disappointing as we really could have done with a boost after the last few weeks we've had but I am hopeful a lot of those lads can push on and become top players for our seniors. If im not mistaken I think the majority of the team is underage for next year again so I would keep the same management team in place who in fairness made good strides this year and the aim next year has to be to get to a win a Leinster final.
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1070 - 14/05/2026 09:17:52
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "U20s ran out of gas in the end, suppose the fact that Galway only brought on Rabbitte and Killeen early on on in the second half would've stood to them in extra time, meant their best players were only getting going whereas ours were tiring
Game was probably gone from us when O'Brien got sent off but the two yellows were silly from him, wouldn't say anyone should read too much into the final score because we were out on our feet and had pretty much used our entire bench
Hard to know how much to read into the fact we were level at the end of normal time and what it means for us in terms of the quality of this team, neither Niland nor Murphy played for Galway and Rabbitte and Killeen only came on but at the same time, this is probably the best side they've had at this level for a good while
They were just able to get their scores that bit easier than we were and they were that little bit better at winning physical possession too
I think even U20 games are referred differently in Leinster compared to Munster, no real flow to the game, just too many frees" Great effort. Cannot understand why Sean Nolan wasn't on frees, landed 2 monsters in the first half. That said, O'Brien found his range late on.
Taking off both Doran Daly O'Toole and Charlie Mooney in dirt-time seemed strange.
Mooney had just won a huge free, and was well up to the pitch of the game with only a couple of minutes left.
Once Charlie Roark picked up a yellow, they needed someone to switch onto Rabbitte, Mooney has the capacity to do so
These are quibbles, a great effort against a super Galway outfit
On the frees, I've been at a fair few Wexford trainings at different levels over the years, and players are allowed foul.
Then when we come to a match, we always seem to get pinged more than the opposition. Is there a link?
wendellgee (Wexford) - Posts: 32 - 14/05/2026 09:21:02
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Gutted for the 20's, it was a gallant effort and can't fault anything in terms of effort, workrate and dying on their sword. I thought we were going to do it but conceded stupid free at the end.
It was desperately stop start, when I saw the video was over 2hrs at the start I had an idea something re extra time had happened. I fasted on many of the frees, stoppages, etc and watched it in a little over 1hr. My girlfried was watching the Tipp Clare game at the same time and it was a world apart in terms of frees, once a Galway player got the ball he charged at anything he could be it a high hurl or a player. These weren't been given in Limerick. What is the defender supposed to do? We need to get cuter at this. Charging is not a free that is blown any more, we need to start just running at players, falling, etc because everybody else is.
But Niland and Jason Rabbite are generational players. I think Sean O'Brien is one for us and he is young and underage for 2 more years? Galways record of transferring underage brilliance in to senior success is not great, some times hunger and drive makes the player.
StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2042 - 14/05/2026 09:48:18
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One other point, why did we opt to play against the wind in extra time? We won the toss. Play with every advantage you can. We were out on our feet, whatever chance we had of getting a lead and killing the clock was gone. We were gassed in the last 10 and were too far behind.
StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2042 - 14/05/2026 09:55:02
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Replying To countyman2022: "It is getting grimmer and grimmer, After the last 2 senior games, our minors the weekend and unable to beat a Galway team without Niland and Murphy while Rabbitte and Killeen only came on, just hard see where the bottom is, are we close to it? When are they going to look at who is actually coaching our underage teams? So far off it with structures. Bit embarrassing and a plight on those who done good work in the past." Would you get a grip of yourself?
Galway beat KK by 2 without Niland and Murphy and Rabbitte only played a half
We drew with KK and KK are now in a Leinster Final after beating Dublin by 6
Was this U20 side a great team? No but they were ok enough, wasn't as if they were the complete disaster you are making them out to be
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1213 - 14/05/2026 09:55:53
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Replying To wendellgee: "Great effort. Cannot understand why Sean Nolan wasn't on frees, landed 2 monsters in the first half. That said, O'Brien found his range late on.
Taking off both Doran Daly O'Toole and Charlie Mooney in dirt-time seemed strange.
Mooney had just won a huge free, and was well up to the pitch of the game with only a couple of minutes left.
Once Charlie Roark picked up a yellow, they needed someone to switch onto Rabbitte, Mooney has the capacity to do so
These are quibbles, a great effort against a super Galway outfit
On the frees, I've been at a fair few Wexford trainings at different levels over the years, and players are allowed foul.
Then when we come to a match, we always seem to get pinged more than the opposition. Is there a link?" Tbh, I don't think we were penalised that much more than Galway, they scored a similar number of frees as us, would say it was a stop-start game for both teams and it wasn't as if the referee was refereeing the two teams differently
And we hit some poor wides in the first half but Galway missed a similar enough number of chances in normal time too, don't think we can use wides as an excuse
We got 1-06 from play in normal time, they got 0-08, was an even enough game, a draw after 60 minutes was probably a fair reflection of the game, don't think it was one that we really left behind us tbh, certainly wouldn't question the effort level as the lads were wrecked in extra time
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1213 - 14/05/2026 10:02:05
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Draw after normal time was a fair reflection of the game, Galway were missing Niland and Murphy and then Rabbitte and Killeen only came on early in the second half so if you put it that way, they were essentially down three senior inter-county starters + panellists at U20 level (Niland = 1, Murphy = 1, Rabbitte = 0.5, & Killeen = 0.5)
Flip side is that this is supposed to be Galway's best team at this level in years and they had carried all before them at Minor level in Leinster three years ago
Suppose the way we could look at it is that for us to have a top-class team and be AI favourites at this level, we'd need to take this team and then add three X-factor talents to it. O'Brien probably the one X-factor talent there in time IMO, I like the half-back-line and think they all could have senior intercounty ability but not sure any have the X-factor
Team competed well physically, think we'd need to improve the skill level of the team, could argue that other more technical players were on the bench/extended panel/not on the squad and that more physical players were preferred, feel like the choice was between physical but not technical and technical but not physical players, we really need to be developing technical AND physical players
Lads put in a massive effort last night but don't like going on about how valiant it was, 100% effort is supposed to be the baseline and we need to have very high standards, people from KK/Tipp/Cork wouldn't describe last night as a valiant effort if they were in our position
The quality of this team needs to be the minimum level acceptable going forward, even your bad teams have to be OK/decent enough teams if you want to progress
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1213 - 14/05/2026 10:31:18
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Replying To countyman2022: "It is getting grimmer and grimmer, After the last 2 senior games, our minors the weekend and unable to beat a Galway team without Niland and Murphy while Rabbitte and Killeen only came on, just hard see where the bottom is, are we close to it? When are they going to look at who is actually coaching our underage teams? So far off it with structures. Bit embarrassing and a plight on those who done good work in the past." Thats a nonsense post. If you are talking about missing lads we were missing one of our best u20s from last year, probably the best u19 from last year who then started Senior hurling for his club, plus others like Gethings, Rossiter and Wickham who mightve been starters.
I dont think our u20s were badly coached this year, and they definitely showed more fight and dog than most Wexford teams over the last few years. JJ Doyle is over our minors, a good coach and an experienced Leinster and AI winning intercounty manager.
We have other things stacked against us. Aside from a ref who gave them a free that they scored for tripping one of their own players, and a very soft free that led to their equalising point, we were also away again. This year so far our minors, celtic challenge and u20 teams have played 13 games, with only 1 game each at home. Home advantage is huge at underage. Our minors have to travel to Munster to play a Munster team, again. Why can't these games alternate between Munster and Leinster venues? There are always 2 teams from each province at the preliminary QF stage?
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19568 - 14/05/2026 10:37:58
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Replying To Afinestick96: "Hard luck to the 20s last night they gave it absolutely everything and that's all we can ask for. The lads will know we left that one behind us in normal time. We had too many wides from good positions in the first half in particular which ultimately cost us a place in the Leinster final. It's disappointing as we really could have done with a boost after the last few weeks we've had but I am hopeful a lot of those lads can push on and become top players for our seniors. If im not mistaken I think the majority of the team is underage for next year again so I would keep the same management team in place who in fairness made good strides this year and the aim next year has to be to get to a win a Leinster final." I agree. If the management team want to give it another go next year Id be inclined to give them another shot.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19568 - 14/05/2026 10:43:31
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Replying To StoreysTash: "Gutted for the 20's, it was a gallant effort and can't fault anything in terms of effort, workrate and dying on their sword. I thought we were going to do it but conceded stupid free at the end.
It was desperately stop start, when I saw the video was over 2hrs at the start I had an idea something re extra time had happened. I fasted on many of the frees, stoppages, etc and watched it in a little over 1hr. My girlfried was watching the Tipp Clare game at the same time and it was a world apart in terms of frees, once a Galway player got the ball he charged at anything he could be it a high hurl or a player. These weren't been given in Limerick. What is the defender supposed to do? We need to get cuter at this. Charging is not a free that is blown any more, we need to start just running at players, falling, etc because everybody else is.
But Niland and Jason Rabbite are generational players. I think Sean O'Brien is one for us and he is young and underage for 2 more years? Galways record of transferring underage brilliance in to senior success is not great, some times hunger and drive makes the player." They even got a score from a free awarded when one of their lads tripped over one of their own lads......
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19568 - 14/05/2026 11:04:27
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Draw after normal time was a fair reflection of the game, Galway were missing Niland and Murphy and then Rabbitte and Killeen only came on early in the second half so if you put it that way, they were essentially down three senior inter-county starters + panellists at U20 level (Niland = 1, Murphy = 1, Rabbitte = 0.5, & Killeen = 0.5)
Flip side is that this is supposed to be Galway's best team at this level in years and they had carried all before them at Minor level in Leinster three years ago
Suppose the way we could look at it is that for us to have a top-class team and be AI favourites at this level, we'd need to take this team and then add three X-factor talents to it. O'Brien probably the one X-factor talent there in time IMO, I like the half-back-line and think they all could have senior intercounty ability but not sure any have the X-factor
Team competed well physically, think we'd need to improve the skill level of the team, could argue that other more technical players were on the bench/extended panel/not on the squad and that more physical players were preferred, feel like the choice was between physical but not technical and technical but not physical players, we really need to be developing technical AND physical players
Lads put in a massive effort last night but don't like going on about how valiant it was, 100% effort is supposed to be the baseline and we need to have very high standards, people from KK/Tipp/Cork wouldn't describe last night as a valiant effort if they were in our position
The quality of this team needs to be the minimum level acceptable going forward, even your bad teams have to be OK/decent enough teams if you want to progress" Didn't see the game last night but would see taking this Galway team to extra time a net positive in the context of the hiding we got in the first round, result v Galway at Minor and ongoing results/performances at senior level. Forget who Galway brought on or didn't bring on, our lads can only play who is on the field against them. If it was more composure that let us down then that can be worked on. An age old problem if we are honest, recently seen in the Dublin senior league game that cost us promotion.
That baseline you refer to hasn't been consistently seen at senior level for some time. It should be non negotiable. Already a lot of expectation on O'Brien, worry about that a bit to be honest. Not sure it did Mcdonald any favours for example.
Timbertony (Wexford) - Posts: 570 - 14/05/2026 11:36:10
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Replying To countyman2022: "It is getting grimmer and grimmer, After the last 2 senior games, our minors the weekend and unable to beat a Galway team without Niland and Murphy while Rabbitte and Killeen only came on, just hard see where the bottom is, are we close to it? When are they going to look at who is actually coaching our underage teams? So far off it with structures. Bit embarrassing and a plight on those who done good work in the past." Do you ever have anything positive to say?
richiepmurphy (Kilkenny) - Posts: 81 - 14/05/2026 11:36:12
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Replying To Viking66: "Thats a nonsense post. If you are talking about missing lads we were missing one of our best u20s from last year, probably the best u19 from last year who then started Senior hurling for his club, plus others like Gethings, Rossiter and Wickham who mightve been starters.
I dont think our u20s were badly coached this year, and they definitely showed more fight and dog than most Wexford teams over the last few years. JJ Doyle is over our minors, a good coach and an experienced Leinster and AI winning intercounty manager.
We have other things stacked against us. Aside from a ref who gave them a free that they scored for tripping one of their own players, and a very soft free that led to their equalising point, we were also away again. This year so far our minors, celtic challenge and u20 teams have played 13 games, with only 1 game each at home. Home advantage is huge at underage. Our minors have to travel to Munster to play a Munster team, again. Why can't these games alternate between Munster and Leinster venues? There are always 2 teams from each province at the preliminary QF stage?" The excuses need to stop Viking. Optimism can only get you so far. We are so far off it- just open the eyes, step back and look at it for what it is. Look at quality of what they didn't play verus what Wex hadnt. I don't mean our u-20's regards coaching- thats our best coached team and yet still we won 2/5 games (wins against Laois & Kildare). The issue is the quality of coaching from u-14 to u-17 and below even. At ALL grades. Look up who is coaching, what they are doing. How they are doing it. Its nowhere near adequate. Stop putting a spin on everything- we are dropping further and further back. I am a huge optimist going to games and with teams- sadly when you look into poor results for 5/6 years now and try to figure it out- you see how it is happening very quickly. No minor All Ireland since 68, 1 u-21 in 65. This blaming ref's needs stop also- what about the stupid needless free given away before that free? A man going nowhere. Its down to coaching down the years. Between the shocking level of coaching- the amount of games at both underage and adult that carry no jeopardy, shields etc at underage plus its been impossible be knocked out of club hurling championship after 5 games the last few years). What do people expect to happen?
countyman2022 (Wexford) - Posts: 993 - 14/05/2026 12:02:41
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Replying To Viking66: "They even got a score from a free awarded when one of their lads tripped over one of their own lads......" Galway did a lot of charging through our lads and each time resulted in a free for Galway. We have to be a lot cuter really. Also couldnt understand why Jack Nolan wasnt let take the frees he scored two brilliant long range ones
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1070 - 14/05/2026 12:05:45
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Replying To richiepmurphy: "Do you ever have anything positive to say?" Can you tell me the positives over the last few weeks please?
countyman2022 (Wexford) - Posts: 993 - 14/05/2026 12:16:58
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Replying To Timbertony: "Didn't see the game last night but would see taking this Galway team to extra time a net positive in the context of the hiding we got in the first round, result v Galway at Minor and ongoing results/performances at senior level. Forget who Galway brought on or didn't bring on, our lads can only play who is on the field against them. If it was more composure that let us down then that can be worked on. An age old problem if we are honest, recently seen in the Dublin senior league game that cost us promotion.
That baseline you refer to hasn't been consistently seen at senior level for some time. It should be non negotiable. Already a lot of expectation on O'Brien, worry about that a bit to be honest. Not sure it did Mcdonald any favours for example." McDonald probably had a good career though tbh, suppose the problem was that we didn't put enough good hurlers around him for a long enough period of time
Like with Limerick, Gillane could have an off day and it doesn't matter because they've quality all over the field, we never really had that and the closest we came to that was under Davy for a few years
Like with some of the younger lads on the Senior side right now, it's hard to look good on a dysfunctional side, Cork can throw in Barry Walsh and William Buckley because they've a huge amount of quality and they have to be at a high level to earn their way on to the team, Dublin can throw in David Purcell because outside of him, they've a settled enough side (Every other starter for them Saturday was hurling for them in Championship at least 2/3 years ago)
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1213 - 14/05/2026 12:48:04
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Would probably keep the same U20 management team for next year if they want it, last year was not good but they seemed to have learned their lessons, team was a lot physically stronger this year and were better set up to physically compete at this level, can't win games getting bullied
And tbh, we've had trouble filling jobs in the past as well, you get rid of them and then it might be a struggle to replace them
Think Furlong, Corey Ryan, Mooney, Ciarán Doyle, Roark, Daly O'Toole, Dempsey, and Podge Doyle are overage next year, likes of Quigley, Donohoe, Moore, Shannon, Carley, Nolan, O'Brien, Doran, Darragh Ryan, O'Connell Byrne, Jack Dunne, and Conor Fanning are eligible next year if I'm not mistaken
Galway won't have Niland, Rabbitte, Murphy, and Killeen next year unless I'm mistaken, will still have a good team tbf
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1213 - 14/05/2026 12:54:25
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