Im afraid you guys are still wrong. Pinkie, if you make clubs choose then how can a guy decide to play hurling or football? And seriously, how many clubs play both? Buffers Alley, Cloughbawn, Oulart, Rathnure, Cushinstown, St. Pats, Oylegate, Marshalstown, are all almost 100% hurling. Add to this the fact that Wexford town and Enniscorthy should surely be able to have one team of hurling and football? Add in Intermediate sides Shamrocks, Naomh Eanna, Geraldines, Davidstown, Blackwater, and Monageer and you have 16 pure hurling clubs already. What is wrong with each of them having a poorly attended Junior football team? I dont see how any real GAA man could seriously be talking about not allowing a man play both codes. Thats not a GAA man, thats someone who's in it to win only. If thats the case start following soccer. GAA is more than that. My point originally was that of the teams I have listed (and there are probably a couple Ive forgotten) dont exactly break their backs to get the best coaches and build their clubs right. They concentrate on facilities - which of us has ever stood and cheered on a dressing room? its about having games and players training and training right. Does anyone know of any coaches in Wexford who could actually claim theyd be able to coach in Waterford or Kilkenny?????? Or does any county play fewer games?????

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2581 - 20/09/2008 20:14:49    103810

Icehonesty, i agree with your point in a way. That is my point though - most of the clubs already play almost one or other exclusively, so why bother playing a game which they dont really care too much about. If you went through a similar list for the football you'd find 16 football only clubs. For the hurling clubs, football training starts when it is too dark for hurling. I was at two senior hurling matches this weekend and the standard was absolutely terrible. If clubs played one or other, then the games could be played over the summer, i.e. hurling on weekends the footballers are playing, and vice versa. The problem is that no games are being played in the summer in either codes, lads are sick of it all. And even the junior/junior B championships cant go ahead because senior clubs have a second team in these grades.
If we could keep the games going in the summer, i agree that there is not a problem with having a "poorly attended" junior football/hurling team.
"Thats not a GAA man, thats someone who's in it to win only". Thats why we'll probably never win anything again in Wexford. Do Kilkenny/Kerry/top counties play to compete? I dont think they do. They go out to win and win as much as they can and however they can. The reason clubs cant get better coaches is they know they wont be needed until September, i.e. they will pay a man 100 a night for the whole summer and not get a game in this time. "Does anyone know of any coaches in Wexford who could actually claim theyd be able to coach in Waterford or Kilkenny" Eddie O'Connor springs to mind.
See, i agree with what your saying icehonesty, but it will only work if we get on with the games in the summer. If we let the current situation continue, GAA in Wexford will die. Simple as that.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 20/09/2008 21:54:01    103841

I think we are on the same page Pinkie. All my point is, is why don't we try first to get all our teams playing more games. Whats wrong with the first and third Sundays of every month for hurling, the second and fourth for football. players would love to be out every weekend. this rubbish about resting players etc doesnt apply to Wexford. Burnout is so far away it doesnt even register. Try to just put on the games, and not let clubs object to playing the fixtures - a Senior Championship game I know of was postponed last yr because one of the team's subs was a sub on the county minor team. Thats rubbish. Put on the games and let the men with the clubs play them. If that doesnt work, then look at having clubs mainly one or the other. But not first of all. The county board need to get their act together before we ask the clubs to get in line. Dont you agree? I wonder also if there is a single county board in the country who is as badly motivated as the Wexford one?

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2581 - 22/09/2008 22:58:03    105119

Have to agree with most of what is being said about wexford hurling,as a dub living in wexford i think your underage structures are way behind what i seen in dublin where the big clubs can have anything up to a 100 kids under 8 and 10 and 12
being coached by paid coaches and also going into the primary schools and doing the same.Most school teams are coached by teachers when the wexford county board should be sending coaches into the schools to do the work.Dublin schools won both school titles this year there second in 3 years and also claimed an all ireland schools title (2 years ago) as well as 2 minor leinsters in the last 4 years.The dublin county board had literally to start from scratch in a county with very little tradition for hurling.Can you imagine what could be done in wexford a county that has a tradition for hurling.I also think wexford should allow regional teams into there hurling championship to make it more competitive.

DELGADO (Dublin) - Posts: 72 - 23/09/2008 09:08:57    105192

thanks Delgado. Am I right in thinking that in Dublin the likes of St Vincents and Ballyboden are both hurling and football clubs? And most of the footballers would play hurling too?

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2581 - 23/09/2008 12:44:10    105503

Ixehonesty, i think we are alright! There is absolutely nothing wrong with your suggestion, and i wasnt trying to come as been pro hurling or football or anything. There is not reason at all why that cant happen, the only problem is that the couonty scene takes up at probably 3 of 4 weekends a month from May-September, between Senior/U21/Minor in both codes. So how do we get those matches played? We have a very static county board in Wexford BADLY in need of a shake up. What they need to do is start fitting in matches where and when they can (e.g. Monday nights before a county match, there is NO reason why a lad cant play a game), instead of trying to fit a "super sunday" style fixture list in October. Also, the position of the county managers needs to be looked at. There is no reason why JMeyler or JRyan should have an input into the fixtures of matches - they BOTH asked for May this year to be kept free. Nonsense, what do they think these prize 60 players are? It's gone an attitude of "to hell with the 1000 club players, we'll worry about the cream", and this attitude is killing GAA in Wexford. Club players are giving up hurling, heading off to America etc as a result, and come back and they have only missed one game. Nonsense.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 23/09/2008 13:27:20    105553

Seriously I think we should be mirroring the Kilkenny championship format. Kilkenny had 4 adult hurling teams involved in these years' AL Hurling Championships, winning all 4. They have also succeeded in completing their County Senior Hurling and Football Championships.

It can be done!!!!

Per Ignem (Wexford) - Posts: 385 - 24/09/2008 07:55:28    106230

Yes ice honesty in dublin a lot of footballers would play hurling and visa versa , but you get the same problems of players with dual status.The one rule that has been brought in to help is that for underage teams a player cant play both minor hurling and minor football they have to choose as in the last 4 years the minor football team have suffered with more emphasis on hurling.There are some very good young hurlers concentrating on hurling only at inter county level and the new football manager i would imagine will go after them which will cause a lot of arguments

DELGADO (Dublin) - Posts: 72 - 24/09/2008 10:58:15    106345

Lads the primary reason for Galway and Antrim entering Leinster is to help the state of the Leinster championship which is woefully lopsided in KK's favour at the moment. I know Wexford and Offaly may be happy to get a second chance as they have been competitive enough with the Munster teams in recent years but that is still not helping the Leinster championship as a competition which is dying visibly in the eyes of the public. Galway and Antrim would also get a second chance which they haven't got under the present structure unlike every other county.

tommy k (Galway) - Posts: 3470 - 24/09/2008 16:19:13    106825

i see john conran has only included farrell in his leinster squad another sign wexford hurling is a joke, i understand the top four clubs are still in the championship but this exactly prooves my point there is no depth of quality in the county, you cant sustain a top quality county team with just two good clubs and a couple of half decent ones. it would be interesting to see how some of the other clubs would fair in the likes of the laois or antrim county championship.

padraigoduill (UK) - Posts: 45 - 24/10/2008 16:10:09    126072

dont 4get dis is da same john conran dats on 7man panel 2 get da next manager he clearly tinks deres talent outside top 4 teams...dis is why wex are so bad...oulart and rathnure have da best players.rathnure players make dere selfs unavailable ie higgins codd ant o connell o leary.. martins have 3 players lyng lambert quigley no1 else...n den deres doc kenny r kehoe wille doran n malachy 3-7.people are jumpn on bandwagon wit da footballers it cud turn sour 4 dem nxt year hopefully not

hurlnman (Wexford) - Posts: 134 - 24/10/2008 19:26:27    126217

I don't know how Conran can only pick one Wexford man.

Rathnure got beaten by 6 points. Oulart to win the Championship easily again this year then make no inroads on the Leinster C'ship? How did the standard of club hurling in Wexford get so terrible?

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2581 - 28/10/2008 15:13:42    128028

Its mad, from searching around the other posts, nobody really knows who should be on the Wexford panel. Nobody here can agree on even 2/3 of what the panel make-up should be. I think that this is because most of us only get to see our own club play any competitive matches, and the county team play. Some might see the minors play.

Without a strong club championship it is impossible to know who is good enough. That applies to Intermediate, Junior, U-21 and minor. You can only tell how good someone is from competitive situations. You cant tell from challenge games or training. How can you know if someone is cowardly (which one or two current panellists certainly are), clever or brave.

On various other posts we have been debating whether certain players are good enough, when the truth is there is no way to properly tell. Even Wexford trainings are very tame by all accounts in comparison with what other counties do. We need to see our club hurlers playing regularly, because as it is, most of the current squad are there since they played one or two good games as minors or under-21s. (And also, since our minors and u-21s are usually not great now, lads find it hard to impress enough to move up).

What do ye think?

icehonesty (Wexford) - Posts: 2581 - 21/11/2008 16:02:46    147093