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Wexford Hurling Thread

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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: 19558 - 13/05/2026 22:59:10    2672882

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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: 989 - 14/05/2026 08:46:35    2672895

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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: 1068 - 14/05/2026 09:17:52    2672898

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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    2672899

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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    2672904

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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    2672906

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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: 1205 - 14/05/2026 10:31:18    2672913

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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: 19558 - 14/05/2026 10:37:58    2672914

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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: 19558 - 14/05/2026 10:43:31    2672915

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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: 19558 - 14/05/2026 11:04:27    2672920

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