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Replying To Viking66: "Ah ok. Waterford won minor in 2013 and u21 in 2016 as well I think." Ironic when you look back at it that our 2013 Minor and 2016 U21 teams should've been our strongest when you consider the lads who were up to the age back then
And yet the Minors lost by 4 to Laois in a Leinster SF and the U21s might have lost by 7 at home to Dublin in a Leinster QF
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1372 - 05/06/2026 11:42:47
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Replying To StoreysTash: "The progress made by Oylegate and Monageer in recent years is really eye-catching, have they done something different from other clubs here or is it just down to hard work and a top group of players?
That they have overtaken all the (no disrespect) "traditional" clubs in terms of numbers, considering both always were middle of the road clubs, is great to see. Provided its they are doing things better, not others have dropped the ball. Glynn were always good enough at underage and have numbers too.
But whatever Oylegate and Monageer are doing, other clubs should follow. Have they their own GPO's or something?" They have been working really hard in fairness to them. In an ideal world every club would do the same.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19946 - 05/06/2026 11:46:13
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Ironic when you look back at it that our 2013 Minor and 2016 U21 teams should've been our strongest when you consider the lads who were up to the age back then
And yet the Minors lost by 4 to Laois in a Leinster SF and the U21s might have lost by 7 at home to Dublin in a Leinster QF" Yes. Waterfords team 2013/2016 were like Offalys recent one, exceptional even at u11.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19946 - 05/06/2026 11:48:30
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Replying To Viking66: "Thanks Pikeman!" Have a look at how empty Croke Park was that day. And here's where I hop onto my hobby horse about bandwagons. :)
I remember there was only about 16,000 people there, and was for a double-header. Offaly played Meath in the first game.
Let's be generous and say 10,000 Wexford people. The other three counties wouldn't have had big support, and of course, this was in the days when championship was maybe just one game a year, that brought the annual "day out in Croke Park", and it's well established that a certain type of Wexford hurling "supporter" likes going to Croke Park but nowhere else.
Crowds then swelled as the year went on. And when we reached the All-Ireland Final, people complained about hard it was to get tickets for all the "real" supporters, "who go to every game".
Go figure.
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3749 - 05/06/2026 11:51:34
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Replying To StoreysTash: "The progress made by Oylegate and Monageer in recent years is really eye-catching, have they done something different from other clubs here or is it just down to hard work and a top group of players?
That they have overtaken all the (no disrespect) "traditional" clubs in terms of numbers, considering both always were middle of the road clubs, is great to see. Provided its they are doing things better, not others have dropped the ball. Glynn were always good enough at underage and have numbers too.
But whatever Oylegate and Monageer are doing, other clubs should follow. Have they their own GPO's or something?" Same as every other rural area near large town . Influx of families . Ballyhogue too .
I ve coached for years and hurled for a long time too at a reasonable level but I did sometimes feel whilst doing coaching courses that on occasion the tutors made you feel like you dont actually know what you are doing knowing you played and competed at a level thry never did if at all . Everything is by the book and poliitically correct . Can feel at times like this is what you cant do rather than this is what you can do and no improvising .
Everyone is equal everyone gets the chance not about winning or being the best well thats until it is .
Imo this does nt encourage the kids to put the extra work in to push themselves onto the team or next level sure no matter wgat I m entitled to play.
The landscape of coaching has changed I would imagine since you ve been away .
Formertownie (Wexford) - Posts: 613 - 05/06/2026 12:01:13
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Another funny one is that we've a similar population to Tipp but they have more clubs, probably because they're a bigger county so have more parishes
Viking has said they've a lot more hurlers than us and they've a better hurling culture than us but I do wonder if it's easier to get lads to stick around if they're part of a smaller club?
Like say you're with Gorey and you're part of a second string at underage level, you can just give up and it doesn't really have that much of an impact
But if you're at a smaller club, a player giving up could be the difference between being able to field a team or having to give walkovers/amalgamate, might be more of an incentive to stick around
Might be more of an incentive to coach at a smaller club too because you've such a small pick, you have to make the most out of what you have
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1372 - 05/06/2026 12:13:59
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Have a look at how empty Croke Park was that day. And here's where I hop onto my hobby horse about bandwagons. :)
I remember there was only about 16,000 people there, and was for a double-header. Offaly played Meath in the first game.
Let's be generous and say 10,000 Wexford people. The other three counties wouldn't have had big support, and of course, this was in the days when championship was maybe just one game a year, that brought the annual "day out in Croke Park", and it's well established that a certain type of Wexford hurling "supporter" likes going to Croke Park but nowhere else.
Crowds then swelled as the year went on. And when we reached the All-Ireland Final, people complained about hard it was to get tickets for all the "real" supporters, "who go to every game".
Go figure." Tbf, Croke Park can always make attendances look worse (And I think drives the Leinster-Munster narrative a bit)
Like the Leinster Final might get 35k on average which makes it look fairly empty but 35k is still a decent crowd, the Gaelic Grounds, Semple, and PUC would be 80% full at 35k
Tomorrow might be around 40k, 20k from Galway and 20k from Dublin is a good crowd for a hurling game by their standards
Don't think the 1996 Leinster Final broke 40k unless I'm mistaken?
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1372 - 05/06/2026 12:48:37
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Another funny one is that we've a similar population to Tipp but they have more clubs, probably because they're a bigger county so have more parishes
Viking has said they've a lot more hurlers than us and they've a better hurling culture than us but I do wonder if it's easier to get lads to stick around if they're part of a smaller club?
Like say you're with Gorey and you're part of a second string at underage level, you can just give up and it doesn't really have that much of an impact
But if you're at a smaller club, a player giving up could be the difference between being able to field a team or having to give walkovers/amalgamate, might be more of an incentive to stick around
Might be more of an incentive to coach at a smaller club too because you've such a small pick, you have to make the most out of what you have" On the bigger club losing players easily, that depends on the club. Dublin has lots of clubs, in both codes, that have very successful 2nd, 3rd and even 4th teams. In Limerick NP, Monaleen and Mungrets 2nd and 3rd teams are decent and well run. In Monaleen and Mungrets case that applies to both codes. Kilmallock and Doon have very strong 2nd teams too. I know Thurles Sarsfields 2nd team is very strong and we all know that Ballygunners is.
I suppose the point is that it comes down to how well a club is run and its ambition. It can be done and is being done successfully by the well organised and ambitious clubs. My own club has struggles with its 2nd team and we should be as strong as Doon or Kilmallock. Imo that's down to a too much focus on senior hurling over a sustained period of time.
Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 540 - 05/06/2026 13:06:23
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Replying To StoreysTash: "No issue with the team getting together to remember their achievement. They should. And good for them. They achieved more than the rest of us.
My issue is mainly with the amount of air time it has got, and how much focus it still gets in Wexford. Those who were around in 96 should now be coaching teams, bringing children to Wexford matches, driving things forward to make it happen again. This isn't happening from what I hear and in every club its the same faces doing it all year in year out while others take advantage of a babysitting service.
I'm moving home soon and will hurl for a few more years but hope when that ends to get involved in coaching. People are busy I get it but Michael Duignan said he said to a parent recently "what makes you think I've got more time than you do"? If anything, work from home etc should have freed up some commute time for some parents?
If Wexford people want another All-Ireland, we have to make it happen ourselves. Paul Kinnerk won't make it happen by writing a report.
We need parents hurling with their children and encouraging them to practice, not leaving the hurls in the car between training sessions. No parent can't put out the cones or help some bit in the training sessions. Even a bad hurler can practice and get better and make the next worst hurler get better and so on up to the top hurler.
We have to make this happen ourselves. We need everybody thinking "what can I do" and do it, not everybody saying "Viking or Doyler or Pikeman or whoever will do it"." We don't always see eye to eye, but I promise you that I personally am doing everything I can.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4557 - 05/06/2026 13:35:58
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Tbf, Croke Park can always make attendances look worse (And I think drives the Leinster-Munster narrative a bit)
Like the Leinster Final might get 35k on average which makes it look fairly empty but 35k is still a decent crowd, the Gaelic Grounds, Semple, and PUC would be 80% full at 35k
Tomorrow might be around 40k, 20k from Galway and 20k from Dublin is a good crowd for a hurling game by their standards
Don't think the 1996 Leinster Final broke 40k unless I'm mistaken?" Oh, very true.
35,000 in Croke Park looks bad, but the same crowd would make Cork, Limerick or Thurles look "full", even though you'd still actually get thousands more into them. That's because the stands there would be jammed anyway, and terraces tend to look "full" once there's a large enough crowd to spread out all across them anyway, because the spots in between where more people could fit aren't obvious from any sort of distance at all.
Could hit 40,000 in Croke Park tomorrow all right, but the 10,000 free children's tickets will be big factor in that. Don't forget there'll be some there from Carlow & Laois for the McDonagh Final too. I believe quite a few Carlow clubs are taking up the free tickets offer anyway.
Have looked up the attendances for the 1996 Leinster Championship. It was 30,008 for the semi-final double-header (Dublin v Wexford, and Offaly v Laois). Attendance at the Final was 34,365. No figure given for the quarter-finals I referred to earlier, but was there myself, and am 100% sure it was only in the region of 16,000.
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3749 - 05/06/2026 14:32:04
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Replying To StoreysTash: "No issue with the team getting together to remember their achievement. They should. And good for them. They achieved more than the rest of us.
My issue is mainly with the amount of air time it has got, and how much focus it still gets in Wexford. Those who were around in 96 should now be coaching teams, bringing children to Wexford matches, driving things forward to make it happen again. This isn't happening from what I hear and in every club its the same faces doing it all year in year out while others take advantage of a babysitting service.
I'm moving home soon and will hurl for a few more years but hope when that ends to get involved in coaching. People are busy I get it but Michael Duignan said he said to a parent recently "what makes you think I've got more time than you do"? If anything, work from home etc should have freed up some commute time for some parents?
If Wexford people want another All-Ireland, we have to make it happen ourselves. Paul Kinnerk won't make it happen by writing a report.
We need parents hurling with their children and encouraging them to practice, not leaving the hurls in the car between training sessions. No parent can't put out the cones or help some bit in the training sessions. Even a bad hurler can practice and get better and make the next worst hurler get better and so on up to the top hurler.
We have to make this happen ourselves. We need everybody thinking "what can I do" and do it, not everybody saying "Viking or Doyler or Pikeman or whoever will do it"." It's not a Wexford specific thing but these days both parents in a lot of cases have to work to pay mortgages, childcare, multiple holidays and the standard of living they desire. Throw commuting into the mix and they barely have enough time to raise their own kids not to mind volunteering for coaching. That's increasingly modern society. The same goes for teachers, once upon a time a lot of them at primary and even secondary put in an awful lot of time into GAA coaching. That day is increasingly coming to an end- golf, hyrox, nixers - that's where a lot of teachers focus their time these days.
Timbertony (Wexford) - Posts: 587 - 05/06/2026 14:34:13
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Replying To Formertownie: "Same as every other rural area near large town . Influx of families . Ballyhogue too .
I ve coached for years and hurled for a long time too at a reasonable level but I did sometimes feel whilst doing coaching courses that on occasion the tutors made you feel like you dont actually know what you are doing knowing you played and competed at a level thry never did if at all . Everything is by the book and poliitically correct . Can feel at times like this is what you cant do rather than this is what you can do and no improvising .
Everyone is equal everyone gets the chance not about winning or being the best well thats until it is .
Imo this does nt encourage the kids to put the extra work in to push themselves onto the team or next level sure no matter wgat I m entitled to play.
The landscape of coaching has changed I would imagine since you ve been away ." Absolutely no criticism or disrespect of yourself here, so please don't take it that way, but I think you've just illustrated one of the inherent difficulties with calls that "County Board should do more with the clubs" or "County Board should run more "Coach the Coaches" sessions".
If a club coach's vision for how to coach his team doesn't tally with the county coach's one, then these courses achieve little or nothing. The club person at a course is thinking "that's no use to me", or even decides against attending at all - "sure what would they be able to teach me?"
Am not saying who's right or wrong, and of course, there's no "one size fits all" approach to coaching anyway, even within one age group. Just saying it's one of the difficulties with the whole thing.
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3749 - 05/06/2026 14:39:52
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Have a look at how empty Croke Park was that day. And here's where I hop onto my hobby horse about bandwagons. :)
I remember there was only about 16,000 people there, and was for a double-header. Offaly played Meath in the first game.
Let's be generous and say 10,000 Wexford people. The other three counties wouldn't have had big support, and of course, this was in the days when championship was maybe just one game a year, that brought the annual "day out in Croke Park", and it's well established that a certain type of Wexford hurling "supporter" likes going to Croke Park but nowhere else.
Crowds then swelled as the year went on. And when we reached the All-Ireland Final, people complained about hard it was to get tickets for all the "real" supporters, "who go to every game".
Go figure." Was chatting to the lad next to me up in Parnell Park last year who sounded like a Dub but was decked out in Wexford colours. He said his mother and father were from Wexford and they moved up to Dublin with work when he was small. His son was with him, and he was wearing a Dublin shirt. They were both in Croke Park in 2019 supporting Wexford. He reckoned there was quite a large number of lads living in Dublin who were from Wexford. Id know of 2 intercounty football players from our club who moved to Dublin while they were still playing county.
Maybe thats a factor too?
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19946 - 05/06/2026 15:18:00
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Another funny one is that we've a similar population to Tipp but they have more clubs, probably because they're a bigger county so have more parishes
Viking has said they've a lot more hurlers than us and they've a better hurling culture than us but I do wonder if it's easier to get lads to stick around if they're part of a smaller club?
Like say you're with Gorey and you're part of a second string at underage level, you can just give up and it doesn't really have that much of an impact
But if you're at a smaller club, a player giving up could be the difference between being able to field a team or having to give walkovers/amalgamate, might be more of an incentive to stick around
Might be more of an incentive to coach at a smaller club too because you've such a small pick, you have to make the most out of what you have" There are other factors at play with Tipp and ourselves than just demographics.
Tipp have alot more hurlers at all ages.
Tipps adult soccer League has 5 divisions of teams, we have 11.
We have a larger retired population also, with lads from Dublin especially moving down here when they retire.
We have a larger travelling population.
We have more dual Football and Hurling players.
Its not just history and tradition, but also the above.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19946 - 05/06/2026 15:23:09
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Replying To ElGranSenor: "Tbf, Croke Park can always make attendances look worse (And I think drives the Leinster-Munster narrative a bit)
Like the Leinster Final might get 35k on average which makes it look fairly empty but 35k is still a decent crowd, the Gaelic Grounds, Semple, and PUC would be 80% full at 35k
Tomorrow might be around 40k, 20k from Galway and 20k from Dublin is a good crowd for a hurling game by their standards
Don't think the 1996 Leinster Final broke 40k unless I'm mistaken?" No it wasnt full. Probably a good few less than 40000. The following year more lads hopped up on the bandwagon and there were around 55000 at it.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19946 - 05/06/2026 15:26:02
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Replying To StoreysTash: "No issue with the team getting together to remember their achievement. They should. And good for them. They achieved more than the rest of us.
My issue is mainly with the amount of air time it has got, and how much focus it still gets in Wexford. Those who were around in 96 should now be coaching teams, bringing children to Wexford matches, driving things forward to make it happen again. This isn't happening from what I hear and in every club its the same faces doing it all year in year out while others take advantage of a babysitting service.
I'm moving home soon and will hurl for a few more years but hope when that ends to get involved in coaching. People are busy I get it but Michael Duignan said he said to a parent recently "what makes you think I've got more time than you do"? If anything, work from home etc should have freed up some commute time for some parents?
If Wexford people want another All-Ireland, we have to make it happen ourselves. Paul Kinnerk won't make it happen by writing a report.
We need parents hurling with their children and encouraging them to practice, not leaving the hurls in the car between training sessions. No parent can't put out the cones or help some bit in the training sessions. Even a bad hurler can practice and get better and make the next worst hurler get better and so on up to the top hurler.
We have to make this happen ourselves. We need everybody thinking "what can I do" and do it, not everybody saying "Viking or Doyler or Pikeman or whoever will do it"." Fair play to you.
But just to point there's nothing to stop from you getting involved in coaching the minute you move home either, even if you start playing yourself again.
Plenty of current players in my own club help out with underage coaching at various levels. And as Michael Duignan might say, "what makes you think they've got more time than you do?" ;)
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3749 - 05/06/2026 15:26:10
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Fair play to you.
But just to point there's nothing to stop from you getting involved in coaching the minute you move home either, even if you start playing yourself again.
Plenty of current players in my own club help out with underage coaching at various levels. And as Michael Duignan might say, "what makes you think they've got more time than you do?" ;)" This isn't directed at anyone in particular but I suppose you could look at it from the angle that we're just not getting in enough hurling work at underage level and we're not getting the coaching work other counties are getting in and someone could point out that they do a huge amount of coaching themselves and they are putting in the work
Which would likely be true tbf
But the issue is while it may be true for that person, the problem is that there just aren't enough people like them in the county
ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1372 - 05/06/2026 15:37:52
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