|
Replying To Viking66: "If everyone is fully fit, which was the prerequisite for that prediction, Id probably go-
Fanning
Donohue Ryan Conor Foley
Patsy Reck Lawlor
Hearne Wickham
Jacko Chin Redmond
Kevin Foley Roche Cian Byrne
And on the bench we will have lads who might have actually had a reasonable bit of Senior experience by that stage, lads who can score if they are forwards, work hard with and without the ball, and can actually hurl-
Tucker, James Byrne, Niall Murphy, David Codd, Rory Higgins, Ross Banville, Darren Codd, Philip Dempsey, Darragh Carley.
Or maybe some of these younger/newer lads might step up in the meantime-
Cillian Byrne, Sean Rowley, Dara Kehoe, Eoin Whelan, Ciaran O'Regan, CBD?, Diarmuid O' Leary, Eoin O'Leary, David Clarke.
Cian Byrne or Derry Mahon sub keeper.
If we get the best version of Jacko that would probably be as strong a starting team as we have had out in the last couple of years if they all stay fully fit.
And the cherry on top would be if Rory O'Connor came back......." Sure it'd be great if Rory came back. I still wouldn't be surprised if he did.
Keeping everyone fit is almost impossible considering we play 2 or 3 weeks in a row in the Leinster championship. Big ifs there. A lot of them like Jacko are injured now never mind when it all starts in April.
I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Kikdare but get stuck in Offally. I said it before their trajectory is up I believe.....I dont think ours is up. I think its a transitional period for us and although Id love a Leinster final I just cant see it myself. Id be delighted to be wrong.
Maybe next year when lads have more experience and hopefully we have key lads back but I feel this year is all about survival and bedding in a new set of.lads.
I dont feel the optimism that I felt in the last major transition. Bringing in all those u21 winning players was an exciting time. I dont think its the same now. Good solid lads Ok but back then it was Mac, Jippo, Guiney, Foleys ...it just felt so exciting.
Lads not buying in is disappointing, I saw some of the Gorey lads in the pool last night....id love to have them all back.
Dublin super athletes, big physicality, settled team and super hurlers like Hayes, O'Donnell, Bourkes, Curry etc. all in their prime as well, its hard to see us stay with them on Saturday but again I'd love to be wrong.
WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 463 - 19/02/2026 14:22:05
2657320
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Afinestick96: "Id like to see us put down a marker in that game put doubts in there before we play them in April" It won't be a completely weak team we will have out Saturday either. 12 of the 18 lads who played in our League win up in Ennis last year are injury free and available. And some of the lads who arent available are possibly not as good as some of the lads who will be replacing them.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 19/02/2026 15:12:28
2657334
Link
0
|
|
Replying To WEXILE: "Sure it'd be great if Rory came back. I still wouldn't be surprised if he did.
Keeping everyone fit is almost impossible considering we play 2 or 3 weeks in a row in the Leinster championship. Big ifs there. A lot of them like Jacko are injured now never mind when it all starts in April.
I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Kikdare but get stuck in Offally. I said it before their trajectory is up I believe.....I dont think ours is up. I think its a transitional period for us and although Id love a Leinster final I just cant see it myself. Id be delighted to be wrong.
Maybe next year when lads have more experience and hopefully we have key lads back but I feel this year is all about survival and bedding in a new set of.lads.
I dont feel the optimism that I felt in the last major transition. Bringing in all those u21 winning players was an exciting time. I dont think its the same now. Good solid lads Ok but back then it was Mac, Jippo, Guiney, Foleys ...it just felt so exciting.
Lads not buying in is disappointing, I saw some of the Gorey lads in the pool last night....id love to have them all back.
Dublin super athletes, big physicality, settled team and super hurlers like Hayes, O'Donnell, Bourkes, Curry etc. all in their prime as well, its hard to see us stay with them on Saturday but again I'd love to be wrong." The saddening part of your post is how little some of those lads you mention actually played for us. Mac in fairness soldiered on many years fair play to him, Jippo too. Most of those Gorey lads didnt want to. Cullen and the older 2 Molloys were potentially top county hurlers.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 19/02/2026 16:59:36
2657347
Link
0
|
|
Replying To WEXILE: "Sure it'd be great if Rory came back. I still wouldn't be surprised if he did.
Keeping everyone fit is almost impossible considering we play 2 or 3 weeks in a row in the Leinster championship. Big ifs there. A lot of them like Jacko are injured now never mind when it all starts in April.
I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Kikdare but get stuck in Offally. I said it before their trajectory is up I believe.....I dont think ours is up. I think its a transitional period for us and although Id love a Leinster final I just cant see it myself. Id be delighted to be wrong.
Maybe next year when lads have more experience and hopefully we have key lads back but I feel this year is all about survival and bedding in a new set of.lads.
I dont feel the optimism that I felt in the last major transition. Bringing in all those u21 winning players was an exciting time. I dont think its the same now. Good solid lads Ok but back then it was Mac, Jippo, Guiney, Foleys ...it just felt so exciting.
Lads not buying in is disappointing, I saw some of the Gorey lads in the pool last night....id love to have them all back.
Dublin super athletes, big physicality, settled team and super hurlers like Hayes, O'Donnell, Bourkes, Curry etc. all in their prime as well, its hard to see us stay with them on Saturday but again I'd love to be wrong." The saddening part of your post is how little some of those lads you mention actually played for us. Mac in fairness soldiered on many years fair play to him, Jippo too. Most of those Gorey lads didnt want to. Cullen and the older 2 Molloys were potentially top county hurlers.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 19/02/2026 17:35:56
2657355
Link
0
|
|
Replying To WEXILE: "Sure it'd be great if Rory came back. I still wouldn't be surprised if he did.
Keeping everyone fit is almost impossible considering we play 2 or 3 weeks in a row in the Leinster championship. Big ifs there. A lot of them like Jacko are injured now never mind when it all starts in April.
I wouldn't be surprised if we beat Kikdare but get stuck in Offally. I said it before their trajectory is up I believe.....I dont think ours is up. I think its a transitional period for us and although Id love a Leinster final I just cant see it myself. Id be delighted to be wrong.
Maybe next year when lads have more experience and hopefully we have key lads back but I feel this year is all about survival and bedding in a new set of.lads.
I dont feel the optimism that I felt in the last major transition. Bringing in all those u21 winning players was an exciting time. I dont think its the same now. Good solid lads Ok but back then it was Mac, Jippo, Guiney, Foleys ...it just felt so exciting.
Lads not buying in is disappointing, I saw some of the Gorey lads in the pool last night....id love to have them all back.
Dublin super athletes, big physicality, settled team and super hurlers like Hayes, O'Donnell, Bourkes, Curry etc. all in their prime as well, its hard to see us stay with them on Saturday but again I'd love to be wrong." I can absolutely understand your feelings. I was extremely excited between the two Clare games, the Waterford win, then the 21s beating Galway in that semi final there was massive optimism in the county.
It's different now because we just haven't those types of results in the last couple of years.
Having said that, immediately prior to that 2013 breakthrough we were getting hammered by everyone. Offaly knocked us out of the championship in 2012. We lost to Dublin by 23 points in that league.
It feels like we're on the floor now, but I'd argue the floor is higher than it was then, and that's a reason to be optimistic.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4256 - 19/02/2026 19:48:13
2657367
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Viking66: "The saddening part of your post is how little some of those lads you mention actually played for us. Mac in fairness soldiered on many years fair play to him, Jippo too. Most of those Gorey lads didnt want to. Cullen and the older 2 Molloys were potentially top county hurlers." Yep, a frustrating return from very good underage Wexford teams. It shows we DO produce good players in the county but for whatever reasons we dont keep them involved.
Wr have enough players to give Leinster a rattle.if everyone bought in but sadly thats just not the case and hasn't been for a long time.
Refreshing to see some of the Martins players opting in this year are mid 20s or so.
WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 463 - 19/02/2026 21:51:16
2657378
Link
0
|
|
Replying To WEXILE: "Yep, a frustrating return from very good underage Wexford teams. It shows we DO produce good players in the county but for whatever reasons we dont keep them involved.
Wr have enough players to give Leinster a rattle.if everyone bought in but sadly thats just not the case and hasn't been for a long time.
Refreshing to see some of the Martins players opting in this year are mid 20s or so." Yes fair play to them. Hope some of them kick on as intercounty players now.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 19/02/2026 22:43:45
2657384
Link
0
|
|
Schools are competing but not winning. All we ever hear on this board is "this school or team lost to this school or we beat them in a league match, we'd have won only for the referee"
Ifs, buts, maybes. Lost.
Top counties dont deal in hard luck stories. 1 Leinster minor title in 31 years. In Leinster. That's an atrocious record. If players don't get a winning feeling at underage and feel "we are on to something here" like the 3 U21 wins then how can we possibly expect to be winning adult titles?
We need to stop pretending things are OK and stop the "oh they lost by a point so they must be good". James Skehill on the Off The Ball hurling podcast this week said you might as well be bet by 10 points as 1 and it's a fact.
We need that ruthless killer mindset in Wexford and its missing at every level.
Wexford season starts on Saturday and what happens from here on will tell how good we are, not the games to date. Hoping for the best, fearing for the worst to be realistic.
StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1966 - 20/02/2026 06:37:30
2657394
Link
0
|
|
Replying To StoreysTash: "Schools are competing but not winning. All we ever hear on this board is "this school or team lost to this school or we beat them in a league match, we'd have won only for the referee"
Ifs, buts, maybes. Lost.
Top counties dont deal in hard luck stories. 1 Leinster minor title in 31 years. In Leinster. That's an atrocious record. If players don't get a winning feeling at underage and feel "we are on to something here" like the 3 U21 wins then how can we possibly expect to be winning adult titles?
We need to stop pretending things are OK and stop the "oh they lost by a point so they must be good". James Skehill on the Off The Ball hurling podcast this week said you might as well be bet by 10 points as 1 and it's a fact.
We need that ruthless killer mindset in Wexford and its missing at every level.
Wexford season starts on Saturday and what happens from here on will tell how good we are, not the games to date. Hoping for the best, fearing for the worst to be realistic." Agree 100% we need that mindset. And also agree 100% that winning is a habit. But you have to be competitive first. Then kick on to the next level. For large chunks of my adult life we havent even been truly competitive. At least there have been green shoots that way at academy level the last couple of years. We need to bring that through to minor now. And so on up the line.
As regards tomorrow I agree Im travelling in hope more than expectation. We will see if the major changes in training practices this year from last year have made a difference to the lads or not.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 20/02/2026 10:18:49
2657419
Link
0
|
|
Replying To StoreysTash: "Schools are competing but not winning. All we ever hear on this board is "this school or team lost to this school or we beat them in a league match, we'd have won only for the referee"
Ifs, buts, maybes. Lost.
Top counties dont deal in hard luck stories. 1 Leinster minor title in 31 years. In Leinster. That's an atrocious record. If players don't get a winning feeling at underage and feel "we are on to something here" like the 3 U21 wins then how can we possibly expect to be winning adult titles?
We need to stop pretending things are OK and stop the "oh they lost by a point so they must be good". James Skehill on the Off The Ball hurling podcast this week said you might as well be bet by 10 points as 1 and it's a fact.
We need that ruthless killer mindset in Wexford and its missing at every level.
Wexford season starts on Saturday and what happens from here on will tell how good we are, not the games to date. Hoping for the best, fearing for the worst to be realistic." I don't think anyone is pretending anything is ok, but at the same time its not helping our cause to hear how we are doomed the whole time on this Board or elsewhere. Good players and coaches arent committing because of that very narrative.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 20/02/2026 10:21:58
2657420
Link
0
|
|
I see the Dubs have a strong team out tomorrow.
Crummy, Cian o'sullivan, Donal Burke, Ronan Hayes all on board.
They will be mustard keen to get the win and increase their chances of returning to the top flight in 1A.
Any truth in the rumour about Jipp back in the panel? Hope so, we badly need him as we most definately don't have a settled replacement at the moment.
If he is back I can't see him been up to speed for a few weeks, maybe longer.
Looking forward to the game and hopefully we can rattle their cage a bit, but as I said earlier I don't think we have the experience throughout the team to cause an upset.
If the lads give it everything and compete for every ball and don't drop the heads, I will be happy enough.
Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 609 - 20/02/2026 11:11:24
2657433
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Magpie2: "I see the Dubs have a strong team out tomorrow.
Crummy, Cian o'sullivan, Donal Burke, Ronan Hayes all on board.
They will be mustard keen to get the win and increase their chances of returning to the top flight in 1A.
Any truth in the rumour about Jipp back in the panel? Hope so, we badly need him as we most definately don't have a settled replacement at the moment.
If he is back I can't see him been up to speed for a few weeks, maybe longer.
Looking forward to the game and hopefully we can rattle their cage a bit, but as I said earlier I don't think we have the experience throughout the team to cause an upset.
If the lads give it everything and compete for every ball and don't drop the heads, I will be happy enough." Huge test for our lads . A win would be huge but I would be happy if our lads go out and throw everything at it and see where it takes us.
Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 886 - 20/02/2026 11:26:19
2657438
Link
0
|
|
Replying To StoreysTash: "Schools are competing but not winning. All we ever hear on this board is "this school or team lost to this school or we beat them in a league match, we'd have won only for the referee"
Ifs, buts, maybes. Lost.
Top counties dont deal in hard luck stories. 1 Leinster minor title in 31 years. In Leinster. That's an atrocious record. If players don't get a winning feeling at underage and feel "we are on to something here" like the 3 U21 wins then how can we possibly expect to be winning adult titles?
We need to stop pretending things are OK and stop the "oh they lost by a point so they must be good". James Skehill on the Off The Ball hurling podcast this week said you might as well be bet by 10 points as 1 and it's a fact.
We need that ruthless killer mindset in Wexford and its missing at every level.
Wexford season starts on Saturday and what happens from here on will tell how good we are, not the games to date. Hoping for the best, fearing for the worst to be realistic." I do actually agree with that. There's a bit of a complex here about playing on honest game as well when a big part of the success Clare have achieved has been around the art of making sure you win a free.
There's nothingness wrong with drawing attention to positive things as a means to keep going. That should not be interpreted as accepting or celebrating mediocrity.
It is better to be such at underage. Yet not being successful at underage doesn't mean you can't be at adult. I will make the points thought that we wouldn't see the number of players opting out if they had tasted proper success.
As a matter of interest, what is your definition of the worst tomorrow or for the season?
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4256 - 20/02/2026 11:30:17
2657442
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Magpie2: "I see the Dubs have a strong team out tomorrow.
Crummy, Cian o'sullivan, Donal Burke, Ronan Hayes all on board.
They will be mustard keen to get the win and increase their chances of returning to the top flight in 1A.
Any truth in the rumour about Jipp back in the panel? Hope so, we badly need him as we most definately don't have a settled replacement at the moment.
If he is back I can't see him been up to speed for a few weeks, maybe longer.
Looking forward to the game and hopefully we can rattle their cage a bit, but as I said earlier I don't think we have the experience throughout the team to cause an upset.
If the lads give it everything and compete for every ball and don't drop the heads, I will be happy enough." Jippo is definitely back but probably won't feature until the championship.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4256 - 20/02/2026 11:31:11
2657443
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Doylerwex: "Jippo is definitely back but probably won't feature until the championship." I don't think you can understate how big a boost that is. I think we beat Dublin last year with Jippo on the pitch from the start. Delighted with that news now to be honest.
Fulgrim (Wexford) - Posts: 277 - 20/02/2026 12:12:58
2657454
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Fulgrim: "I don't think you can understate how big a boost that is. I think we beat Dublin last year with Jippo on the pitch from the start. Delighted with that news now to be honest." It's an absolutely massive deal. He's one of the best of his generation nationally in that position. We don't currently have a like for like replacement and he has experience of winning at the top level. Even if we don't get the best version of him for all our championship games his value to the squad is enormous.
All ifs and buts of course but I'd agree. That game ruined our season and it was very fine margins. If he'd been on a couple of minutes earlier we might have been in a Leinster final last year.
Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4256 - 20/02/2026 13:11:45
2657468
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Fulgrim: "I don't think you can understate how big a boost that is. I think we beat Dublin last year with Jippo on the pitch from the start. Delighted with that news now to be honest." We didn't beat Dublin last year.
Magpie2 (Wexford) - Posts: 609 - 20/02/2026 13:37:57
2657476
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Magpie2: "We didn't beat Dublin last year." Jippo only came on for the last quarter or so last year
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 20/02/2026 13:53:26
2657477
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Doylerwex: "It's an absolutely massive deal. He's one of the best of his generation nationally in that position. We don't currently have a like for like replacement and he has experience of winning at the top level. Even if we don't get the best version of him for all our championship games his value to the squad is enormous.
All ifs and buts of course but I'd agree. That game ruined our season and it was very fine margins. If he'd been on a couple of minutes earlier we might have been in a Leinster final last year." If hed of been fully fit and had of been able to last the Galway game we mightve won in Salthill either. Or alternatively for those who want to think that way if we had of lost to Kilkenny, Antrim and/or Offaly we mightve been playing Joe Mac this year. Hope everyone's happy I covered both ifs :-D
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18441 - 20/02/2026 13:57:38
2657479
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Doylerwex: "I do actually agree with that. There's a bit of a complex here about playing on honest game as well when a big part of the success Clare have achieved has been around the art of making sure you win a free.
There's nothingness wrong with drawing attention to positive things as a means to keep going. That should not be interpreted as accepting or celebrating mediocrity.
It is better to be such at underage. Yet not being successful at underage doesn't mean you can't be at adult. I will make the points thought that we wouldn't see the number of players opting out if they had tasted proper success.
As a matter of interest, what is your definition of the worst tomorrow or for the season?" I think that is it. Wexford are a bit naive and honest, players go down over the ball and just wait for the feel of the player behind before collapsing. Diving is rampant in the game and its time for Wexford to join them and stop trying to beat them. Win that free, get your point, no point being the honest losers any more.
Winning breeds winning, losing breeds failure, it was ever thus in my view. But also, I hate this "not showing your hand" lark that mid-rank teams go on with. Go out and win these league games with the best team available and put Kildare on their backside and lay down a marker. Play at full speed, up your game. Because senior hurling is no hiding place.
But having seen the Dublin team, I have to honest knowing who Wexford have available I'll be disappointed if we can't win by 6-8 points tomorrow night. I'll be the first to shake hands and say well done and I'll congratulate you on here if my prediction turns out to be way off. We all know April in championship is when it matters.
But I want to see us up in 1A, I would like if Wexford joined us but I don't see it happening because I can't see Wexford winning in Clare with all the changes in personnel. I don't believe you are replacing players with better players and that's just my opinion.
If I'm wrong, so be it. Safe journey up the N11.
ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1568 - 20/02/2026 15:07:30
2657498
Link
1
|