National Forum

Wexford Hurling 2025

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To WEXILE:  "He got a long range rocket goal v.Limerick in the u21 AI final too. He looked unplayable back then. It would great if he could finish off his career with a few years like that.

Also he ties up a lot.of the opposition main men too over the years. He's probably going to be like Paul Morris. Gets a few scores every game and miss him when he's gone. Morris never got that amount of stick off supporters tho"
You were guaranteed workrate with Paul. And just over 3 points a game average right up til he retired. He was the first name on Davy Fitzs teamsheet every time when he was manager. Davy said so himself.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 16/04/2025 17:07:54    2602283

Link

Replying To Past hurler:  "Listening to some of the podcasts this week, none of them seem to rate Wexford at all.

They have Kilkenny as winners (rightly so as they are going for 6 in a row Leinsters), then Galway & Dublin and possibly Offaly.

One of them didn't even mention Wexford at all in the Leinster round up.

Are we really rated that poorly?"
Yes. We haven't made a Provincial Final or an AISF in 5 years now. All but one of the other counties in the top 9 have achieved one or both of those things on more than one occasion in that time. Including Dublin. Tipp are the only others who haven't, but at least they made one Provincial final in 2021.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 16/04/2025 17:14:09    2602286

Link

Replying To beano:  "Absolutely, if I was picking the six best Wexford forwards of my lifetime, the line-up would be:

Chin-Storey-Gizzy
Mogie-Mac-R.O'Connor

Rest of team while I'm at it sure:

Fitzy

Jippo-Ryan-Rossi
MOH-Dunne-Larry O

Dee- McCarthy (Fenlon's best asset be lost in modern game)"
No Paul Codd?

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 16/04/2025 17:18:25    2602289

Link

Replying To Viking66:  "Agree with that last paragraph, even at underage some of the best goals he scored, and assisted, weren't all from long high balls in. They were from team moves moving the ball forwards fast and Conor linking up well with other players. But he did move more back then.

https://youtu.be/sgsqX4yja30?si=w0ghpI4oEkperbYC

He did of course score from long high balls in, but he was relatively stronger underage than he is at Senior.

https://youtu.be/TIuGRWpUKoU?si=r-MneEVvKUtoXrW3

https://youtu.be/dH5ALGsCV20?si=dLGsO0JIZEN-M2Ib

Anyway, hope those 3 goals cheer you up of a dull April day. I've some great memories thanks to Mac."
I think there was a lot of pressure on him from the get go to be the next big thing for us, first year he really burst on the scene in 14 to the wider public - goal against Dublin Leinster final in u21, goal both days vs Clare and vs Waterford all within about 2 weeks, I think he got 2 against Antrim also up in Portlaoise, big pressure on a 19(?) year old at the time and considering the hype that year, probably all thought the sky was the limit for him from there, that he was the second coming of Tony Doran or very close to it.

For me anyway his performance in the Leinster final will go down as his best for us, unlucky not to get MOTM - 4 or 5 points from play that day, an absolute beauty out on the sideline iirc and he fought for every ball that day.

OpenStandWall (Wexford) - Posts: 241 - 16/04/2025 17:22:49    2602290

Link

Nice win for our under 19 against offaly 1 18 to 19 points

hunting (Wexford) - Posts: 1108 - 16/04/2025 18:07:43    2602301

Link

Replying To Past hurler:  "Listening to some of the podcasts this week, none of them seem to rate Wexford at all.

They have Kilkenny as winners (rightly so as they are going for 6 in a row Leinsters), then Galway & Dublin and possibly Offaly.

One of them didn't even mention Wexford at all in the Leinster round up.

Are we really rated that poorly?"
Which podcasts were these?

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 445 - 16/04/2025 18:50:07    2602303

Link

Replying To Past hurler:  "Listening to some of the podcasts this week, none of them seem to rate Wexford at all.

They have Kilkenny as winners (rightly so as they are going for 6 in a row Leinsters), then Galway & Dublin and possibly Offaly.

One of them didn't even mention Wexford at all in the Leinster round up.

Are we really rated that poorly?"
It's not really surprising when you look at how inconsistent we are. We escaped the McDonagh by the skin of our teeth in 23 and last year was a mishmash of soul destroying results against Dublin and Antrim versus a good first half v Kilkenny and the best performance against a poor Galway team.
We need to realize that we're not dining at the top table and haven't done for years bar 2019 so it's up to the team to make people sit up and take notice of them through good, consistent performances. We live in hope every single year and we mostly end up disappointed with our season but hopefully this year will be better than our recent years.

YellowShadeOfPurple (Wexford) - Posts: 41 - 16/04/2025 19:25:44    2602307

Link

Replying To Past hurler:  "Listening to some of the podcasts this week, none of them seem to rate Wexford at all.

They have Kilkenny as winners (rightly so as they are going for 6 in a row Leinsters), then Galway & Dublin and possibly Offaly.

One of them didn't even mention Wexford at all in the Leinster round up.

Are we really rated that poorly?"
I was looking at the betting for the Leinster yesterday, not because I fancied a bet, but just to see what the bookies thought.
The best odds for each county from the major bookies are:
Kilkenny 20/21
Galway 5/2
Wexford 7/1
Dublin 8/1
Offaly 50/1
Antrim 200/1

Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2715 - 16/04/2025 19:43:36    2602310

Link

Replying To Past hurler:  "Listening to some of the podcasts this week, none of them seem to rate Wexford at all.

They have Kilkenny as winners (rightly so as they are going for 6 in a row Leinsters), then Galway & Dublin and possibly Offaly.

One of them didn't even mention Wexford at all in the Leinster round up.

Are we really rated that poorly?"
To be fair out of all the games vs teams that yo-yo between the Joe McDonagh and Leinster we're the only county that have dropped points to those teams since 2022 barring Kilkenny last year vs Carlow. In the last 3 years it's been the same story-

2022: Disaster in Mullingar, win in Kilkenny the following week.
2023: Embarrassed at home vs Westmeath, beat Kilkenny the following week.
2024: Fall apart vs Dublin, Disaster in Belfast, beat Galway comfortably the next week.

I'm 50/50 at the moment regarding getting to a final/getting 3rd - we need to win our 3 home games, simple as.

One win against Dublin since 2018 hasn't exactly done us any favours either and we've thrown away games vs them in 19,22,23 which is why that game in 2 weeks is massive.

OpenStandWall (Wexford) - Posts: 241 - 16/04/2025 22:08:01    2602336

Link

Replying To ElGranSenor:  "FWIW, think there's a good chance they end up playing a sweeper against us given Davy is over them and Pat Bennett is coaching them, would rather they do play a sweeper tbh, we've conceded 9 goals in our last four championship games against Antrim and Westmeath, very hard to score goals playing with a sweeper"
I would not be so sure if Davy will play a sweeper he will know that rossi knows his management game inside out . Davy you can be sure will have something else up his sleeve. It will be interesting to see .

Jimbob96 (Wexford) - Posts: 24 - 16/04/2025 22:31:42    2602340

Link

Replying To hunting:  "Nice win for our under 19 against offaly 1 18 to 19 points"
https://kilkennygaa.ie/2025/04/u19-development-sheild-final-offaly-wexford/

If anyone wants to watch it. Good hard working performance.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 16/04/2025 22:32:36    2602341

Link

Replying To OpenStandWall:  "To be fair out of all the games vs teams that yo-yo between the Joe McDonagh and Leinster we're the only county that have dropped points to those teams since 2022 barring Kilkenny last year vs Carlow. In the last 3 years it's been the same story-

2022: Disaster in Mullingar, win in Kilkenny the following week.
2023: Embarrassed at home vs Westmeath, beat Kilkenny the following week.
2024: Fall apart vs Dublin, Disaster in Belfast, beat Galway comfortably the next week.

I'm 50/50 at the moment regarding getting to a final/getting 3rd - we need to win our 3 home games, simple as.

One win against Dublin since 2018 hasn't exactly done us any favours either and we've thrown away games vs them in 19,22,23 which is why that game in 2 weeks is massive."
Hopefully there will be a good crowd from Wexford there up in the Nell.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 17/04/2025 06:23:04    2602356

Link

Replying To Jimbob96:  "I would not be so sure if Davy will play a sweeper he will know that rossi knows his management game inside out . Davy you can be sure will have something else up his sleeve. It will be interesting to see ."
Forcing us to shoot from distance would be a good tactic, particularly when the weather doesn't look good.

I'd expect them to be very direct as well.

If our half backline are hurling heads up and hearne is brought into the game along with a cohesive forward unit moving all the time we should get enough scores.

The question will be how we cope with direct attacks. With jippo starting I'd feel ok about that.

Excited for Saturday now I must say. First time the whole family are going which is great:)

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3514 - 17/04/2025 11:43:57    2602393

Link

Replying To OpenStandWall:  "To be fair out of all the games vs teams that yo-yo between the Joe McDonagh and Leinster we're the only county that have dropped points to those teams since 2022 barring Kilkenny last year vs Carlow. In the last 3 years it's been the same story-

2022: Disaster in Mullingar, win in Kilkenny the following week.
2023: Embarrassed at home vs Westmeath, beat Kilkenny the following week.
2024: Fall apart vs Dublin, Disaster in Belfast, beat Galway comfortably the next week.

I'm 50/50 at the moment regarding getting to a final/getting 3rd - we need to win our 3 home games, simple as.

One win against Dublin since 2018 hasn't exactly done us any favours either and we've thrown away games vs them in 19,22,23 which is why that game in 2 weeks is massive."
Ultimately I wouldn't expect anyone to be talking about us.

In the round robin we're statistically the team who are best at finishing third and losing quarter finals.

It's a source of huge frustration for me that both Dublin and Galway have reached more Leinster finals than us

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3514 - 17/04/2025 11:46:04    2602395

Link

Replying To OpenStandWall:  "I think there was a lot of pressure on him from the get go to be the next big thing for us, first year he really burst on the scene in 14 to the wider public - goal against Dublin Leinster final in u21, goal both days vs Clare and vs Waterford all within about 2 weeks, I think he got 2 against Antrim also up in Portlaoise, big pressure on a 19(?) year old at the time and considering the hype that year, probably all thought the sky was the limit for him from there, that he was the second coming of Tony Doran or very close to it.

For me anyway his performance in the Leinster final will go down as his best for us, unlucky not to get MOTM - 4 or 5 points from play that day, an absolute beauty out on the sideline iirc and he fought for every ball that day."
Won't lie if I didn't have massive expectations for Mac and especially after his first season he was the best young prospect in the country and we hadn't too many of those over the last 30 years. Hasn't really reached the heights of even his first couple seasons since. The lack of pace and the traditional full forward becoming fairly easy to defend against with extra defenders around the mid 2010s didn't help, the likes of Joe Canning having to move out to becoming more involved out the field helped them but Mac probably doesn't have the right material to play out there. Didn't help the last 6/7 years that Leinster did have some exceptional full backs in the likes of Daithi Burke, Eoghan O'Donnell and Huw Lawlor who were all physically superior to Mac and just able to over power him and all with pace. But then he did struggle on some below that level or lads gone past their prime, Gearoid McInerney seemed to stay on Galway's panel just to mark him for a few years longer than he should've been playing. Mac has still had his moments over the decade and his Leinster final performance in 19 will always be a great one to look back on and will be a loss when he goes but no point saying he won't be a "what could've been" career. I don't think I'd him down as guaranteed starter, a lot of why we seem to play him the last few years seems to be in chance he might do something as opposed to what he is doing atm. There's lots of times you look at him at club level and you just say this lad has to be on the panel and looks a step above everyone, a Wexford Conor Cooney or Conor Lehane who also at club level look a class on their own but more often than not look off it at county level, albeit the two Conor's have probably done a bit more at inter county level than Mac. Hate being critical on him but the fact we all know how high his ceiling was at the beginning just makes me frustrated as a fan, he won't be the first lad and won't be the last. Hopefully he can get a nice finish to his last couple of years with Wexford.

Throughthemidfieldhewasstormin (Wexford) - Posts: 304 - 17/04/2025 12:35:57    2602406

Link

Replying To Magpie2:  "I reckon a crowd of about 4000 on Saturday.
Perhaps an early start of 2.00pm and a price tag of €25 will keep some supporters away and keep their money in their pockets for the games to follow.
Surely a 3.00pm start on Sunday would make more sense.
Looks like Jippo will start which is great if it happens. Hopefully he can remain injury free and boost our chances of doing well in the round Robin."
Would love Wexford to have only 6 days recovery before going to The Nell on Saturday week.............. ;)

ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1320 - 17/04/2025 13:09:24    2602415

Link

Replying To Throughthemidfieldhewasstormin:  "Won't lie if I didn't have massive expectations for Mac and especially after his first season he was the best young prospect in the country and we hadn't too many of those over the last 30 years. Hasn't really reached the heights of even his first couple seasons since. The lack of pace and the traditional full forward becoming fairly easy to defend against with extra defenders around the mid 2010s didn't help, the likes of Joe Canning having to move out to becoming more involved out the field helped them but Mac probably doesn't have the right material to play out there. Didn't help the last 6/7 years that Leinster did have some exceptional full backs in the likes of Daithi Burke, Eoghan O'Donnell and Huw Lawlor who were all physically superior to Mac and just able to over power him and all with pace. But then he did struggle on some below that level or lads gone past their prime, Gearoid McInerney seemed to stay on Galway's panel just to mark him for a few years longer than he should've been playing. Mac has still had his moments over the decade and his Leinster final performance in 19 will always be a great one to look back on and will be a loss when he goes but no point saying he won't be a "what could've been" career. I don't think I'd him down as guaranteed starter, a lot of why we seem to play him the last few years seems to be in chance he might do something as opposed to what he is doing atm. There's lots of times you look at him at club level and you just say this lad has to be on the panel and looks a step above everyone, a Wexford Conor Cooney or Conor Lehane who also at club level look a class on their own but more often than not look off it at county level, albeit the two Conor's have probably done a bit more at inter county level than Mac. Hate being critical on him but the fact we all know how high his ceiling was at the beginning just makes me frustrated as a fan, he won't be the first lad and won't be the last. Hopefully he can get a nice finish to his last couple of years with Wexford."
You are right about Mac I just think the modern game doesn't suit him!! And yes we are hoping that something can happen when he's there rather than he's going to do this or that!!! I think myself he's not a starter,he's definitely void of intercounty level pace,he can only really play inside aswell because his work rate over the last 4 or 5 years has been way off the mark to play further out the field!!! I think mac reached his peak along time ago and he's been on a steady decline,that happenes!!! Your absolutely right about the 3 full backs you mentioned they have his number particularly O'donnell of Dublin,they all have pace and very good in the air and strong!!! Even a club level the last few years he's been getting well marshalled,one who always gets the better of him is Richie kehoe of the harriers!!! He must be 40!! Take his county final performance out of the last few years he's been ordinary!!! I think oylegate got it wrong that day too with Shane reck,he's terrible in the air and that's where mac got him!!! Sometimes hurlers peak early in there career and go on a steady decline like mac and others continously improve over a long period like chin!! But tbf he was brilliant in the early part of his career no doubt,I think now he might be the new Billy Byrne!!

theboys (Wexford) - Posts: 257 - 17/04/2025 15:10:17    2602435

Link

Replying To Throughthemidfieldhewasstormin:  "Won't lie if I didn't have massive expectations for Mac and especially after his first season he was the best young prospect in the country and we hadn't too many of those over the last 30 years. Hasn't really reached the heights of even his first couple seasons since. The lack of pace and the traditional full forward becoming fairly easy to defend against with extra defenders around the mid 2010s didn't help, the likes of Joe Canning having to move out to becoming more involved out the field helped them but Mac probably doesn't have the right material to play out there. Didn't help the last 6/7 years that Leinster did have some exceptional full backs in the likes of Daithi Burke, Eoghan O'Donnell and Huw Lawlor who were all physically superior to Mac and just able to over power him and all with pace. But then he did struggle on some below that level or lads gone past their prime, Gearoid McInerney seemed to stay on Galway's panel just to mark him for a few years longer than he should've been playing. Mac has still had his moments over the decade and his Leinster final performance in 19 will always be a great one to look back on and will be a loss when he goes but no point saying he won't be a "what could've been" career. I don't think I'd him down as guaranteed starter, a lot of why we seem to play him the last few years seems to be in chance he might do something as opposed to what he is doing atm. There's lots of times you look at him at club level and you just say this lad has to be on the panel and looks a step above everyone, a Wexford Conor Cooney or Conor Lehane who also at club level look a class on their own but more often than not look off it at county level, albeit the two Conor's have probably done a bit more at inter county level than Mac. Hate being critical on him but the fact we all know how high his ceiling was at the beginning just makes me frustrated as a fan, he won't be the first lad and won't be the last. Hopefully he can get a nice finish to his last couple of years with Wexford."
In fairness to Mac hes scored way more points and goals from play than Cooney and Lehane in Championship hurling. And in less games played too.
I was just saying he didn't end up as good as I was expecting, not that he was worse than lads like those.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 17/04/2025 15:25:34    2602438

Link

Eddie Brennan on the indo pod with Joe Molloy said he's worried about wexford. Only one I heard say anything positive. As usual Munster championship gets all the coverage and Leinster gets 10 minute token

Wexfordgaa (Wexford) - Posts: 357 - 17/04/2025 15:45:51    2602442

Link

Replying To Wexfordgaa:  "Eddie Brennan on the indo pod with Joe Molloy said he's worried about wexford. Only one I heard say anything positive. As usual Munster championship gets all the coverage and Leinster gets 10 minute token"
Just listened to the RTE podcast. Rory O'Neill gives us a cautious shout of a Leinster Final. Jackie Tyrrell thinks we won't make top 3 because our top players are too injury prone and we are too dependent on them. Being Wexford neither outcome would be a shock.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 15466 - 17/04/2025 16:43:04    2602460

Link