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You can't force counties to field A and B teams. Clare deliberately dont. U14s is supposed to be purely mixed, and I think every county approached it that way pretty honestly this year, for a change for some counties. And in any case its fairly subjective. A hurler who might impress you might not impress me as much. Not that it means much but it was noticeable our u15b and u16b teams were pretty decent compared to most other top tier counties. Our u16bs only lost to a mixed Clare team by 7 points. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 18/08/2026 18:23:50 2690373 Link 0 |
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@Viking ElGranSenor so is "Tipperary Blue" their "A" team say? StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2164 - 19/08/2026 10:52:40 2690399 Link 0 |
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Their u16A team was the team that we lost to in Belfield Saturday and that then lost to Kilkenny. The 3 Tipp county minors who were u16 all played against us in the semifinal. Im not sure they all played against Kilkenny in the final but I assume they did. But like all 4 counties there, Id presume everyone on their panel got time on the pitch, as would be the norm for development squads. Agree clubs have to put in the work to develop players, parents too. This work particularly has to be done between u6 and u12. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 19/08/2026 11:45:14 2690419 Link 0 |
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To me, the obvious benefit of not having a designated "A" team and "B" team is for the sake of your own players. I know our U14s this year had mixed teams, as usual, and lads were regularly swapped between "Wexford Purple" and "Wexford Gold". The few from our own club might be together one week, split up the next, and back together again the time after that. Remember that many of these lads are still only 13 years old, if they haven't had their birthday yet this year. Others would have only just turned 14. Tell a lad of that age week in and week out that "you're only good enough for the "B" team", and there's a greater chance of losing him somewhere along the way. Personally, I'd strongly consider mixed teams at U15 too. Not so much U16, because they need to have an eye on U17 the following year, when you really do need to split the sides into "A" and "B". Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3908 - 19/08/2026 12:23:48 2690426 Link 0 |
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ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1505 - 19/08/2026 12:51:53 2690431 Link 0 |
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#elgransenor there were only 4 teams in the Arrabawn Cup competition. Same as every year. We have won the Shield 3 years in a row now I think. Last year we only lost the de facto QF to Galway by a point, if we had of won that game we wouldve been in the Arrabawn Cup instead. So I guess at least we are consistently middle of the pack. Not that I think thats great btw, before Im accused of toxic positivity, but I guess its ok. And I had higher hopes for this years u15s, they were very good last year at u14. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 19/08/2026 13:12:15 2690435 Link 0 |
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A good thing JJ Doyle did at minor this year was have the one panel at u17 training together, minor and celtic challenge. People I know involved with other counties minor set ups thought that was a great idea too. Our celtic challenge team were very competitive this year considering depth has usually been considered an issue here in Wexford. It was also good to see our U15Bs and U16Bs doing relatively well this year for the same reason. The u15Bs in particular got to the John Doyle Cup Final which they only lost by a puck of a ball to Antrims u15As. This would also be the oldest age group that came through the 1st year of Dermot Ryan and Paul Laffans u12 ASH scheme, which I think is now showing to have been an excellent initiative. To put that achievement in perspective Kilkenny made a big deal of how their u15Bs won the John Doyle Shield. I think its a real shame JJ Doyle has been relieved of the minor manager job too. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 19/08/2026 13:26:30 2690437 Link 1 |
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I'm not sure on this one, I think Cork Red were 5th and Laois were 6th I think there were three groups of 4 and then the top two from each group and the two best 3rd placed teams went into the Cup QFs and we then went into the Shield ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1505 - 19/08/2026 14:59:37 2690462 Link 0 |
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I think we should so similar for the U19 and U20 teams, no point having two separate squads IMO, probably had 32-34 on the U20 squad and then another 20-24 on the U19 squad Might be better off combining them into one and having 40-45 on the one squad, lads would get a lot of minutes that way, would also mean a more competitive U19 team, it's hard for U18s to step up to U20 level so the U19 competition should be used as a bridge, we probably had players this year playing U19 who probably won't feature in next year's U20 squad, sounds harsh to say but I'm not sure what good that is doing Wexford hurling, I'm all for expanding the net at U14-U16 level but at U19/U20 level, a tighter squad would work better IMO ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1505 - 19/08/2026 17:42:47 2690480 Link 0 |
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Last year I do know we lost a "QF" to Galway, by a point I think, and they ended up 1 of the 4 teams in the Cup on the final day, and we ended up in the Shield. This is this years set up here- https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1347324597517066&id=tippcoiste We won the competition for the 2nd group of 4 teams it appears, unless there was an A Shield in which case we finished 9th as you said before. Our u15Bs got to the final of the 4th group of 4, or maybe the 5th group if there was an A Shield? Kilkenny won the top group of 4, and their u15bs lost the 6th tier final to Galways u15bs then. Up or down I was expecting better results for our u15s this year. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 19/08/2026 18:04:24 2690490 Link 0 |
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Did a bit of further research and you are bang on. We finished 9th at u15. Our u15As won the Arrabawn B Cup, not the Arrabawn A Shield. We finished behind Kilkenny, Tipp, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Laois, Galway and Dublin. Clare fielded mixed teams so Im not considering their results in this. You would wonder did we select all our best hurlers on our A team, either intentionally or unintentionally, seeing as our B team finished above all the above countys B teams except Tipps and Corks, who with the numbers they have you'd expect them to have strong B teams. And at u14 last year we beat nearly all the Tipp and Cork teams we played, I was at the games against the Tipp teams. So maybe its fair to say that group went backwards this year? Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 19/08/2026 21:38:59 2690518 Link 0 |
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@VIking66 - Has a new Minor manager been announced? .. Was JJ not brought in for 2026 and relived Richie Flynn of his role? .. Why is there a constant change
MyOhMi (Wexford) - Posts: 362 - 20/08/2026 09:04:24 2690536 Link 0 |
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It's very difficult for me to speculate as I don't know but the group they were in was strong enough They lost to Waterford by 7 who made the SFs They were well-beaten by Tipp Blue who were knocked out in the SFs against KK by a point, that Tipp team was supposedly fancied to win it Cork White gave us a beating and then ran Tipp Blue and Waterford very close but they ended up losing the other Shield SF to Tipp Gold, don't know if Cork had A or B teams, they could have had Mixed or else had the teams brokedn down by geography, not sure if Cork Red or Cork White were supposed to be the stronger team even though Cork Red finished higher ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1505 - 20/08/2026 09:58:40 2690546 Link 0 |
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Not so far afaik. Not sure why theres constant change. Richie Flynn has Crossabeg set up pretty well this year. Our minors last year probably hadn't had enough tactical work done from u14 to u16 to implement what he was trying to do with them, but then he maybe shouldve seen that earlier in the year too. I wasnt involved so thats all speculation on my part. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 20/08/2026 10:33:05 2690555 Link 0 |
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No point having too narrow of a bridge at the same time. Not enough players will be able to get across. I think the numbers they have at u19 and u20 are OK. When lads go to college or work alot of them stop practicing as much away from training and stop improving as a result, so I think its better to have more in the system at those agegroups to keep them incentivised.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 20/08/2026 10:36:14 2690557 Link 0 |
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Our u15As were put in a stronger group because of their u14 results.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 20/08/2026 10:59:57 2690567 Link 0 |
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If counties don't pick A and B teams the first "check" on academies, etc is minor. So after 4-5-6 years of academies only then you find out how well or not its working. StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2164 - 20/08/2026 11:27:55 2690572 Link 0 |
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I'm not sure about that one, if you deliberately create stronger groups than others but have the same numbers of teams qualifying from each (And in this case, only two teams qualified from the group whereas three teams qualified from the other two groups), that's an approach that makes very little sense to me from a fairness perspective
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1505 - 20/08/2026 11:30:17 2690573 Link 0 |
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If that's looping back to my post - I reckon you do "A" and "B" teams at U16 all right. And I'd be about 70-30 or 80-20 in favour of doing it for U15s. But consider U14s, which happens to be the age group I'm involved with myself this year (at club level, not county!) - All these lads are still just 13 years old or barely turned 14 when you start out. Not to sound all wishy-washy or anything else about it, but they're at a tricky stage in their mental development. To be with the county squad in the first place, they're clearly one of the best in both their club and their school. They're used to being an automatic pick and one of the main men in any team they go for. But now, assign them to what's clearly a "B" team every time there are matches coming up, and you're basically suddenly telling them "you haven't got what it takes when it comes to this level". Some will react positively and knuckle down to try make the jump to the "A" team. But others will react negatively and think "why bother at all then?". And even among those knuckling down, some may become disillusioned if they think themselves that they're working harder and performing better but still aren't moving up to the "A" team. With mixed teams at U14, they'll know from their own performances over the year whether they're generally in the top half or the bottom half of performers, so they'll be better prepared to react one way or the other when the actual split does come the following year. And also, at that age, they're that bit more mature after even just one extra year. My tuppence worth. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3908 - 20/08/2026 13:04:56 2690598 Link 0 |
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Clare have had good results at minor the last few years since they introduced mixed teams from u14-u16
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20531 - 20/08/2026 13:17:19 2690606 Link 0 |