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Wexford Hurling Thread

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The Kilkenny game was a shocker and highlighted our limitations for all to see.
However if Jippo and Jacko show improvement after getting a game or two under their belts and if management make the necessary positional changes such as, Damien at centre back, ( his experience might be a good move ) Ryan to hold his central position and not following his man out the field leaving a huge gap in the full back line..
As has been said on this forum many times and elsewhere, Richie Lawlor is a midfielder or forward and it makes sense to play him in either position.
Chin and Jacko on the wings with Redmond in the centre. Rowley and cillian Byrne looked lively when introduced so I would start both on Saturday week.
With Kevin Foley in the corner. That would put Hearne and Lawlor/ Wickham midfield.
Going back I think on reflection that Simon Roche should slot in instead of Rowley.
Conor Foley and Carley wing backs and Donoghoe and Patsy/ Clarke in as corner backs.

Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 675 - 30/04/2026 19:12:35    2670066

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "We beat cork in thurles in 16 I think? First time since the 50s. That's the reason my son exists. I told my wife we'd have another one if we won which was statistically unlikely :)"
Not wanting to put a downer on the thread but that victory over Cork in 2016 was the last time we beat a Munster side in Championship.
Granted we havent played them that often, we havent played Cork or Limerick at all since then, lost to Tipp once, Waterford once (twice if you include 2016), and then Clare five times.
That 9 going 10 year drought is the longest since the back door came in in 2007.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19408 - 30/04/2026 19:29:06    2670067

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Replying To Viking66:  "Not wanting to put a downer on the thread but that victory over Cork in 2016 was the last time we beat a Munster side in Championship.
Granted we havent played them that often, we havent played Cork or Limerick at all since then, lost to Tipp once, Waterford once (twice if you include 2016), and then Clare five times.
That 9 going 10 year drought is the longest since the back door came in in 2007."
It's hard to believe we haven't beaten a Munster team since 2016. I remember being in Thurles that day there was very few of us Wexford supporters but it was one of the only times we went home happy from there.
I'm hoping we can have at least one big win this championship and please god it's next Saturday . We have had so much heartbreak against the dubs over the years .

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1038 - 30/04/2026 21:00:36    2670076

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "We played cork in thurles in 2012. Lost 3-24 to 2-27. It was gizzys last game.i knew I wasn't dreaming. Starting to worry about my memory which is usually good.

Lost to Limerick by 5 in the Gaelic grounds in 11.

We lost to cork in 15 as well. I think they might have been paudie Foley's debut."
A typo there that made me scratch my head when you said we lost by 3-24 to 2-27.

Had to look it up, and it was actually 3-24 to 2-17.

Never mind. It hpappns to the bset of us. :D

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3561 - 30/04/2026 22:11:24    2670085

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Since 2017 especially the rivalry has being healthy between both teams and very little separating the teams.First of all i cant stress this enough and people need to remember this. Keith took on a job that didnt exactly have a list of candidates. Davie inherited liam dunnes team who like keith now had a few tough days but like any rebuild thats part of the journey. Young lads will be key players in a few years. Keith knew when taking the job that Dara Egan has squeezed the last drop out of Davies team and but that was it. Keith immediately lost mogie,hanlon,Keefe,Morris,all these players who were leaders but he wasn't going to turn down the chance to manage the county. These couple of years are a rebuilding job. Decent minor and u20 teams this year. Ive no doubt the next manager will benefit from all of Keith's hard work and criticism which isnt all his fault. Unfortunately he will lose fanning,donahoe,jippo,chin jacko and foley who are all over 3o. When chin was held the attack was toothless. The amount of defenders coming back to hep carey it was easy tie lee up cause others werent working hard enough making themselves available. I had this debate with a few kk men about the lads this year unavailable but he said kk are down huw lawlor,billy ryan,tommy walsh,adrian mullen and harry shine. This certainly isn't a vintage kk team but are they going for 6 or 7 leinsters in a row? Wexford won in 2019 and its still spoken about. I met tom Dempsey at half time he was very apprehensive at half time because kk could of had 2 goals and 5 or 6 points more while foleys goal came from young bolgers mistake. He said the writing was on the wall and maybe at ht more could of being done to try prevent the inevitable onslaught because kk were nervous after the hammering the week before. Its a while since I seen a good kk crowd at a match and the half time thing was a magnificent idea. Other counties take note. Bad days happen to all teams but on side im thinking oh no. We robbed antrim,lucky against down,lost to a clare b team and weren't convincing against kikdare. Offally will definitely target the wexford match and they have some nice hurlers who will like the dry sod. The other part tells me drew with dublin few weeks ago,timing the run,caught a bit off guard against kk but ive absolutely no doubt there will be a big improvement. Players will be more upset than any supporter so expect a reaction because its coming. Lee needs to come out further he is too easily marked inside

Slowandshortsighted (UK) - Posts: 74 - 30/04/2026 23:36:17    2670092

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Replying To goreyll:  "After the performance on Saturday, it'd make you wonder what role Bernard Dunne is playing and what impact he's having?"
Agree gorey11. His role whatever that Is doesn't seem to be bearing any fruit. Or is it a long term fix? Nobody has said as far as I know what he hopes to achieve with the panel of players.
Is he a coach, or a sports psychologist or a motivator or a combination of some sort.
Hopefully his influence will help with the preparation of the team.
Maybe we are being inpatient with the process so far and we must give him time to get us moving in the right direction.

Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 675 - 01/05/2026 08:36:35    2670105

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Is it hard to believe though? We haven't beaten any of them at underage, their provincial championship is on a different planet.
We do not hurl with the intensity they do and that is it. I don't understand Bernard Dunne's role in Wexford GAA but is this a better use of money than spending it on coaches, coach training, S&C training? I heard our minors S&C is off the charts but we need every club to get up to the standard of S&C in other counties. Because if our smaller players are being hit by a bull in a club match, it'll help them to take a hit off an inter county player.
If his role is to do with mindset and culture or whatever, where was this mindset on Sunday? But as I said once you cross the white line, you are going to war. Where was the pressure, the effort, the "I'm not letting this fr win the next ball off me" attitude?
The number 1 thing you are a player need to do is play angry, give 100%. Wexford are crying out for support at the moment but going home from Kilkenny must have had supporters wonder why they went if that was the effort they were willing to give.
This cannot be acceptable. 100% effort has to be a given every day you put on the jersey for any team from Junior D to senior inter county. Why was effort so lacking? How could any player let a Kilkenny man waltz down the field and pick out another free man?
How can any player not think "I'm going to put pressure on him and make him earn it at least"?
I don't know, what am I missing?

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2017 - 01/05/2026 12:11:16    2670155

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Is it not odd that big fans of Wexford GAA don't understand what Bernard Dunne's role is?
I mean that in a how have the C/B not explained to the clubs what his role is?
I asked my father who is on the committee in our club, nobody knew.
This is the club person's money they are spending?

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2017 - 01/05/2026 12:17:23    2670156

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "Is it not odd that big fans of Wexford GAA don't understand what Bernard Dunne's role is?
I mean that in a how have the C/B not explained to the clubs what his role is?
I asked my father who is on the committee in our club, nobody knew.
This is the club person's money they are spending?"
There's still a lot of secrecy around Dunne's role all right. But for what it's worth:
- whatever exactly it is, he's only been in it six months. Am not sure anybody could deliver massive changes in that time.
- I've seen him at the Centre of Excellence when there were just development squads there, but not the senior hurlers. So I'm guessing that his role goes deeper than just being involved with the seniors.

And as regards what he's costing: as I've said before, I think it's fairly widely known (but not widely publicised) that the money is coming from a private individual donor who was very specific that he wanted to do something like this to help Wexford hurling. And that in turn explains why Dunne is not involved with any of the football squads. Anyway, it's not actually "club money" that's being spent on him, and nor is it money that could be spent on something else instead.

Again, I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I'd expect that so long as the individual donor thinks it'll pay off in the medium to longer term, that the arrangement will continue.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3561 - 01/05/2026 13:29:21    2670179

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "Is it not odd that big fans of Wexford GAA don't understand what Bernard Dunne's role is?
I mean that in a how have the C/B not explained to the clubs what his role is?
I asked my father who is on the committee in our club, nobody knew.
This is the club person's money they are spending?"
Hes privately funded

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19408 - 01/05/2026 13:42:13    2670182

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "Is it hard to believe though? We haven't beaten any of them at underage, their provincial championship is on a different planet.
We do not hurl with the intensity they do and that is it. I don't understand Bernard Dunne's role in Wexford GAA but is this a better use of money than spending it on coaches, coach training, S&C training? I heard our minors S&C is off the charts but we need every club to get up to the standard of S&C in other counties. Because if our smaller players are being hit by a bull in a club match, it'll help them to take a hit off an inter county player.
If his role is to do with mindset and culture or whatever, where was this mindset on Sunday? But as I said once you cross the white line, you are going to war. Where was the pressure, the effort, the "I'm not letting this fr win the next ball off me" attitude?
The number 1 thing you are a player need to do is play angry, give 100%. Wexford are crying out for support at the moment but going home from Kilkenny must have had supporters wonder why they went if that was the effort they were willing to give.
This cannot be acceptable. 100% effort has to be a given every day you put on the jersey for any team from Junior D to senior inter county. Why was effort so lacking? How could any player let a Kilkenny man waltz down the field and pick out another free man?
How can any player not think "I'm going to put pressure on him and make him earn it at least"?
I don't know, what am I missing?"
We have only played Limerick, Clare and Cork from Munster in Championship at underage in the last good few years. We beat Cork and lost to Clare in 2024 and lost to Limerick in 2025.
We need to win more games in Leinster first.
Agree our lads dont seem to have the same grit as those from other counties, with a few notable exceptions.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19408 - 01/05/2026 13:51:32    2670185

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Replying To Slowandshortsighted:  "Since 2017 especially the rivalry has being healthy between both teams and very little separating the teams.First of all i cant stress this enough and people need to remember this. Keith took on a job that didnt exactly have a list of candidates. Davie inherited liam dunnes team who like keith now had a few tough days but like any rebuild thats part of the journey. Young lads will be key players in a few years. Keith knew when taking the job that Dara Egan has squeezed the last drop out of Davies team and but that was it. Keith immediately lost mogie,hanlon,Keefe,Morris,all these players who were leaders but he wasn't going to turn down the chance to manage the county. These couple of years are a rebuilding job. Decent minor and u20 teams this year. Ive no doubt the next manager will benefit from all of Keith's hard work and criticism which isnt all his fault. Unfortunately he will lose fanning,donahoe,jippo,chin jacko and foley who are all over 3o. When chin was held the attack was toothless. The amount of defenders coming back to hep carey it was easy tie lee up cause others werent working hard enough making themselves available. I had this debate with a few kk men about the lads this year unavailable but he said kk are down huw lawlor,billy ryan,tommy walsh,adrian mullen and harry shine. This certainly isn't a vintage kk team but are they going for 6 or 7 leinsters in a row? Wexford won in 2019 and its still spoken about. I met tom Dempsey at half time he was very apprehensive at half time because kk could of had 2 goals and 5 or 6 points more while foleys goal came from young bolgers mistake. He said the writing was on the wall and maybe at ht more could of being done to try prevent the inevitable onslaught because kk were nervous after the hammering the week before. Its a while since I seen a good kk crowd at a match and the half time thing was a magnificent idea. Other counties take note. Bad days happen to all teams but on side im thinking oh no. We robbed antrim,lucky against down,lost to a clare b team and weren't convincing against kikdare. Offally will definitely target the wexford match and they have some nice hurlers who will like the dry sod. The other part tells me drew with dublin few weeks ago,timing the run,caught a bit off guard against kk but ive absolutely no doubt there will be a big improvement. Players will be more upset than any supporter so expect a reaction because its coming. Lee needs to come out further he is too easily marked inside"
Agree with everything you said . Was chatting to a few lads and we all agreed something had to change particularly in the forwards yet there were no changes .
Hopefully we see improvements both on the field and the line and we can get the win next week.

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1038 - 01/05/2026 13:54:36    2670189

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Replying To goreyll:  "After the performance on Saturday, it'd make you wonder what role Bernard Dunne is playing and what impact he's having?"
The biggest issue is the lack of players up to the required level. Club and underage scenes are simply not producing enough quality players. Dunne isn't going to address that whatever his remit is.

Timbertony (Wexford) - Posts: 562 - 01/05/2026 14:47:56    2670204

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Do many clubs in Wexford have their own S&C programmes at underage level?

This would be outside of the stuff that goes on in schools, I'm wondering whether clubs do their own stuff on top of that for U14, U16, and Minor in late winter/early spring through to summer/early autumn

Doesn't have to be anything heavy, could even be just own body weight stuff

And of course, some clubs mightn't have the facilities or the (S&C) coaches to carry this stuff out

But you'd imagine that if clubs aren't doing it atm, that's an area which they could improve on and would be a big boost to them as a club, would help them to be more competitive at underage level and would make it easier to bridge the gap between underage and adult level, could have a big impact IMO if it's not really being done right now by very many clubs

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1137 - 01/05/2026 14:48:55    2670206

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Replying To Slowandshortsighted:  "Since 2017 especially the rivalry has being healthy between both teams and very little separating the teams.First of all i cant stress this enough and people need to remember this. Keith took on a job that didnt exactly have a list of candidates. Davie inherited liam dunnes team who like keith now had a few tough days but like any rebuild thats part of the journey. Young lads will be key players in a few years. Keith knew when taking the job that Dara Egan has squeezed the last drop out of Davies team and but that was it. Keith immediately lost mogie,hanlon,Keefe,Morris,all these players who were leaders but he wasn't going to turn down the chance to manage the county. These couple of years are a rebuilding job. Decent minor and u20 teams this year. Ive no doubt the next manager will benefit from all of Keith's hard work and criticism which isnt all his fault. Unfortunately he will lose fanning,donahoe,jippo,chin jacko and foley who are all over 3o. When chin was held the attack was toothless. The amount of defenders coming back to hep carey it was easy tie lee up cause others werent working hard enough making themselves available. I had this debate with a few kk men about the lads this year unavailable but he said kk are down huw lawlor,billy ryan,tommy walsh,adrian mullen and harry shine. This certainly isn't a vintage kk team but are they going for 6 or 7 leinsters in a row? Wexford won in 2019 and its still spoken about. I met tom Dempsey at half time he was very apprehensive at half time because kk could of had 2 goals and 5 or 6 points more while foleys goal came from young bolgers mistake. He said the writing was on the wall and maybe at ht more could of being done to try prevent the inevitable onslaught because kk were nervous after the hammering the week before. Its a while since I seen a good kk crowd at a match and the half time thing was a magnificent idea. Other counties take note. Bad days happen to all teams but on side im thinking oh no. We robbed antrim,lucky against down,lost to a clare b team and weren't convincing against kikdare. Offally will definitely target the wexford match and they have some nice hurlers who will like the dry sod. The other part tells me drew with dublin few weeks ago,timing the run,caught a bit off guard against kk but ive absolutely no doubt there will be a big improvement. Players will be more upset than any supporter so expect a reaction because its coming. Lee needs to come out further he is too easily marked inside"
Just on the line "when Chin was held the attack was toothless", part of the problem there is that Lee Chin is too good in a way. We didnt play much ball into the other forwards. The default setting for a back or keeper playing the ball forward is look for the red helmet.
Agree we need to get Chin on more ball, and agree hes better at half forward for us.
As regards him being out numbered if Jacko and Simon had of followed their men back as they dropped in front of Chin then we wouldve had a couple of lads there to fight for the broken ball. It wouldve been 3 on 3. Being as they never pushed up when their men dropped, I started wondering were they told to hold their zone? If so thats terrible coaching. If not they were just asleep. Either way that was surely something both the players and the line shouldve put right. If it wasnt possible in game, then they shouldve put it right at half time.
1-16 wont win any Championship game these days.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19408 - 01/05/2026 15:05:50    2670212

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Replying To Timbertony:  "The biggest issue is the lack of players up to the required level. Club and underage scenes are simply not producing enough quality players. Dunne isn't going to address that whatever his remit is."
Listened to Davy Redmond on the Wexford hurling podcast and that was definitely an issue when he was over the u20s at the end of the teens turn of the 20s.
Alot of good work has been put in since covid however, but some of the fruits some of this good work wont even be seen at minor for a few years yet.
For example the first group of lads that were on the ASH for u12s are only u15 this year.
The enhanced Gogames programmes for u10s and u12s likewise.
The extended season pushed by CB and Coaching and Games 3 years ago also. Including the efforts to persuade clubs to coach their lads in all age grades twice a week and for more months of the year.
The full benefits of u18s being allowed to play adult wont even be seen at u20 for a couple of years yet. So it will be even longer until they are seen at Senior.
We were so far behind other top counties at u6-u17/8 by the end of the teens its going to take a while to catch back up.
Hopefully this years u20s and minors might have a little success which will give those groups of players a bit more real belief as they get older and maybe play Senior one day.
Underage Leinsters and AIs in themselves dont really mean that much to me, though obviously they are massive to the players, management and families concerned. What success will do is bring a little positivity and belief in Wexford hurling back, which hopefully would have a knockon effect for our Senior chances then.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19408 - 01/05/2026 15:17:41    2670219

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Replying To MyOhMi:  "And the standard of Inter A hurling in Wexford is compariable to Senior inter county hurling .. Serioudly grasping at straws now .. Derry Mahon hasn't a short game

Eoin Ryan hurling with the Annes currently - he could only commit until June apparently but Rossiter wouldn't accept that. He's a big loss"
He was involved in Goal all the way up with Wexford, his first Position. You won't know until you give these guy's a chance. What do you want to do keep Fanning there till he is 40? He is been a good servant but we have to move on now.

Tox73 (Wexford) - Posts: 192 - 01/05/2026 15:54:55    2670230

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Replying To goreyll:  "After the performance on Saturday, it'd make you wonder what role Bernard Dunne is playing and what impact he's having?"
The same impact as our departed Director of Hurling, 0

Tox73 (Wexford) - Posts: 192 - 01/05/2026 16:05:35    2670232

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Replying To Tox73:  "He was involved in Goal all the way up with Wexford, his first Position. You won't know until you give these guy's a chance. What do you want to do keep Fanning there till he is 40? He is been a good servant but we have to move on now."
Problems last weekend did not start with Fanning. Accidentally posted.
They ended with Fanning picking the ball out of the net because of the shambles out the field in terms of workrate.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2017 - 01/05/2026 18:47:32    2670253

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Replying To Viking66:  "Hes privately funded"
What were the terms of reference of it? Like, was it "this money has to be earmarked for a a culture coach", or "it must be invested in a hurling related position"? Investment in coach training, or a top hurling coach to go around to the schools will pay off in spades.
The problem with GAA is everybody wants that extra 1% that worked for somebody, but you need to be at 99% before that matters. In our case, we are way off that 99%.
I know we have S&C in the schools, etc and that is great. But we also need hurling coaches going to all the big schools in Wexford to help engrain hurling in the psyche instead of it being an after school hobby.
Say a top coach spent one day in Wexford CBS and Peters, the next day in Enniscorthy, next day in Gorey, next day in Bunclody say. I know you are missing schools, but you need to get where the big numbers are.
That to me would reap more benefit to Wexford hurling than paying an external person where nobody seems to know what he does all day?

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 2017 - 01/05/2026 18:56:47    2670254

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