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We are way off Kilkenny those ways
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 12/07/2023 11:23:19 2493935 Link 0 |
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Eoin Cody referred to the responsibility and pride Kilkenny players have to wearing the jersey in his post match interview. The All Blacks say the same in rugby. If that's your starting point then work rate will be the minimum you'll get in each player's performance. Does wearing the Wexford jersey mean the same to all our players ? HurlingBuzz (Wexford) - Posts: 554 - 12/07/2023 11:27:05 2493938 Link 0 |
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Kilkenny bring a few lads through every year. Something we haven't really done in the previous 6 years.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 12/07/2023 11:29:42 2493940 Link 0 |
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Agree. That Clare game was the worst I have ever seen by a Wexford team in my near 2 decades here. And in general, league performances were so-so. I would not trivialise the job Egan has on his hands, in particular to blood new players and he has the added issue with players not interested. Tough jig. But the Clare performance set the bar for the year for Wexford for the year, Injuries or not, that was a shambolic performance. And but for the ultimate dig deep performance v Kilkenny Wexford would be in a bad place and this board would be full of every manner of blame. But I think a Wexford man would have lit a fire under the players and that performance would never have been repeated. Instead, it was. Kilkenny take every match seriously, and they always have. We used to go down to Kilkenny to play challenge matches in the 80 and 90's because we learned more in those than we ever would playing Dublin teams. That is why despite new money Limerick currently setting the bar, Kilkenny will always be the benchmark in my opinion. ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1368 - 12/07/2023 11:36:56 2493943 Link 0 |
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That last line is a problem for us. Taking Kilkenny as a benchmark is all well and good, but the fact remains that despite a great record against them across u20 and Senior this year, played 4 won 4, we still had what you and other posters, me included, described as our worst year in a decade or so.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 12/07/2023 11:44:18 2493946 Link 0 |
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Kilkenny will never offer injuries as an excuse for a defeat.
HurlingBuzz (Wexford) - Posts: 554 - 12/07/2023 11:44:23 2493947 Link 0 |
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It should do. But then the All Black's and Kilkenny play systems designed to maximise their success. The problem I have with our League performances is that we had no structure to our play in general. I didn't then, and don't now in hindsight, have any problem with us losing 4 games instead of winning 5 like last year. Especially as it meant loads of new players got gametime. But we should've tailored our play to suit the lads we had playing. Hitting repeated long puckouts on top of lads in their early 20s being marked by much bigger lads in their late 20s. Newer backs were never going to have the same confidence or ability running the ball out of defense either, and individual errors were to be expected. But short puckouts looked like they hadn't been practiced at all. They were being hit badly to lads who were closely marked and then turned over, and some were even hit out of play altogether. We should've been working very hard at a running game since December, a short game to suit the younger, lighter, though also faster, players we played in the League. I went to a challenge game against Watetford in Ferns just before the League started, our lads were way smaller than Waterfords, and if anything it was Waterford who were trying out things to suit our players, not us! As I said the Clare result, bad though it was, was made worse by this lack of a suitable gameplan to suit the players picked, and brutally exposed by what was Clares first team, but I don't blame Eoin Murphy for example for being turned over by Duggan for one of the goals, he was gaining experience and mistakes happen. Egans gameplan relied on big men winning their individual battles, nice and traditional, but was horribly exposed when we didn't have the big men on the pitch. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 12/07/2023 11:58:16 2493951 Link 0 |
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Yes Viking but surely your not suggesting we are as good as kk coz we bet them in a few meaningless games this year we haven't bet Westmeath for the last 2 years in round robin does that mean their as goid as us Hooe not.Its what we do in the all ireland series that matters last few years we have done nothing.
Tiger1 (Wexford) - Posts: 380 - 12/07/2023 14:20:13 2493982 Link 0 |
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I'd agree 100%, we are only codding ourselves thinking we are competitive at senior level. Shambles of a season and the fact there is even a debate around retaining the manager just shows where our standards are at.
Timbertony (Wexford) - Posts: 424 - 12/07/2023 16:31:13 2494001 Link 0 |
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No I'm not suggesting that at all. Either that we are as good as Kilkenny or as bad as Westmeath. I've been following our hurlers since the early 90s. And for most of that time we couldn't say we didn't have the players because we were capable of beating pretty much anyone on our day. That's still true now. Like beating Kilkenny in Nowlan Park in a game they had to win to be sure of a place in the AI series. Or beating them this year to stay in the Liam Mccarthy for next year. Beating Munster sides the odd time also. Very odd time truth be told. Our big problem in my time is that for all the bluster about playing the Wexford way, and playing with ferocity and intensity, the truth is we generally haven't done that consistently over the last 30 years, save the mid 90s when we did so for a few games in a row. Both the AI finalists the last 2 years play that way every game. Whether it's the AI final or a League game in February. And increase that level as the season goes on. That's what's needed out of our players too. It's up to them to find that in themselves, and the management team to help them find it. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 12/07/2023 17:02:20 2494005 Link 0 |
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This season a complete waste of time, Kilkenny only looking towards All Ireland 37, we keep going on about 96. Our record at All Ireland level at every grade is shocking. And beating Kilkenny is only covering up the cracks.Carlow certainly won't be scared next season, they nearly had Wexford a few seasons ago in Wexford Park. We just can't get any result against Dublin or Galway, neither are capable of winning an All Ireland. Just a real struggle at minute, don't know where we are going TBH. Jedobi (Wexford) - Posts: 246 - 12/07/2023 17:59:55 2494012 Link 0 |
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We need to devise tactics to suit our mainly smaller faster hurlers when playing bigger teams like the Dubs and Galway. Especially when Chin, Ryan or Matthew aren't playing. Playing it long and batting it down doesn't work if your "batter" is smaller/lighter than his marker and a small shoulder puts him out from under the ball and then unable to bat it. Trying to run it forward without a sitting midfielder/plus 1/sweeper doesn't work because it leaves too much space around the halfback line. Also trying to run it forward with only 1 inside means you are running into too much traffic in the middle 3rd. We could've tried picking faster half forwards and pulling them out to halfway and playing short stick passes into the space in front of them for the faster half forwards to run on to, or the fast inside forwards to run back onto. Limerick do this alot. A good spare man does reduce the effectiveness of this as he would be marking this space. There's loads of things we should've tried during the Walsh Cup and League instead of just lumping it down onto wing forwards who often couldn't bat the ball never mind catch it. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 14/07/2023 09:49:41 2494264 Link 0 |
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Chatting to ned buggey today got me thinking. Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3703 - 15/07/2023 14:08:19 2494497 Link 0 |
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Just to clarify I'm not saying he's right or wrong i dont know the answer to that but we could have a team of the quality of Limerick and the Buggy's would still only see the negatives.
TerribleFootwork (Wexford) - Posts: 1760 - 15/07/2023 14:43:14 2494501 Link 0 |
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That is a fair point. He's most commonly referred to as negative ned. Some hurler though Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3703 - 15/07/2023 22:57:39 2494672 Link 0 |
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Well funny you say that. I watched the Wexford Kilkenny match this evening (Aus time, Spratt commentary hilarious LOL at times I didn't find it funny at the time but now that the result was good it was fun to look back and laugh) and I didn't watch it properly at the time one thing I noted was that the Wexford goals all came from long balls from the backs in to the forwards which our forwards either won or battled and hassled the KK backs in to a mistake. We had forwards who could win the ball. And support players giving options. Now that said, I feel that was a freak result for Wexford to be frank and although I did not see much of them this year the question has to be asked and answered if that is in them v Kilkenny with everything on the line, where was it v Dublin, Galway and Westmeath and in all the league games? It sounds like Wexford were dire in all these games. To me, that responsibility has to be shared by manager and players but after 2 years of losses v Westmeath, Dublin and Galway I find it unimaginable - unless Wexford are really raising the white flag (and not the point flag) for 2024 - that we would have the same manager next year. StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1857 - 16/07/2023 12:13:58 2494742 Link 0 |
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That worked against Kilkenny because Lee Chin played really well. Sadly he missed most of the League and the Galway game, or played injured in the games he did appear in. And when he's not playing Mac just doesn't seem to win the ball he does when Lee plays. When it was apparent that we would be using newer and younger squad members during the League, none of whom carry any real aerial threat at Senior intercounty level yet, a gameplan to suit these lads strengths should have been devised. A good manager designs systems of play to suit the players at his disposal, and motivates them to believe in them. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 16/07/2023 16:18:05 2494813 Link 0 |
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Is tomorrow D Day for Egan? Or just the deadline for him to make his presentation as to how he's going to improve things if he's kept on? Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 17/07/2023 10:46:58 2495026 Link 0 |
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Yeah I would concur with that. It was one thing experimenting in the league, but you have to adjust the game plan to suit the strengths of these new players, i.e. in that league game v Clare not just letting their half back line rule the roost and leaving their full forward line to school the Wexford corner backs. It was the single worst performance I have ever seen by any team, and to me the questions about this management team started that day and still have not been answered.
ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1368 - 17/07/2023 15:19:48 2495151 Link 0 |
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Agreed management threw the lads to the lions against Clare.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 16146 - 17/07/2023 15:58:06 2495167 Link 0 |