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Wexford Club Hurling 2026

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Replying To beano:  "And whats wrong with that?"
Absolutely nothing. Just saying it works for football but not for hurling.

Trump2 (Wexford) - Posts: 9 - 09/08/2026 10:28:40    2689142

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "That Cork club was getting seven and a half months of an organised games programme at the time, from early March through to end October. The "lot" of it the nine they were doing themselves was starting training about three weeks before their first match, and then after the last match, taking about another three weeks to run a club tournament where all their own players were divided into teams to play against each other in a "mini league" sort of thing for a set of medals.

Our clubs at the time were getting only five months of organised games, from mid April to mid September. And while they're now getting six and a half months, that's still a month less than in Cork, and it's still to cover both codes."
You said earlier that that Cork club were getting 26 games which would be closer to six months of an organised games programme, no? Seems to me that the 26 games are spread across seven and a half months and they then start and finish training three weeks either side of that which would bring you to the nine months alright

Are these Wexford clubs starting training just as the Go Games programme starts?

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1479 - 09/08/2026 10:44:16    2689144

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Replying To Viking66:  "Thats nonsense. Nearly all of our best hurlers in the recent past played Football. Chin played intercounty Football and LOI soccer, Mogie and Matt O'Hanlon won a Leinster u21 Football title, Dee O'Keefe won a Senior county medal, Rory played in an AI A Schools Football Hogan Cup final.
In other counties Brian Hayes could play intercounty Football for Cork if he wanted hes one of their top club Footballers, Gearoid Hegarty played Football for Limerick, Daithi Burke has won 4 Senior AI club Football titles. Conor Cleary has won 3 county Senior Football titles with his club. Noel and John Mcgrath have won as many county Senior titles in Football as for hurling. Eoghan O'Donnell has played Senior Football and Hurling for Dublin. Dessie Hutchinson played professional soccer. There are top hurlers from every county in Ireland who are good club footballers or have played soccer to a high level.
And there are plenty of hurlers around the country who never played soccer or Football but arent top hurlers either."
Yeah, was thinking of the McGraths, even if they were training with their club for 8-9 months of the year at underage, that probably would've been 50/50 between hurling and football

But on top of that, they would've been with their primary school, secondary school, and development squad and that's before you even mention the amount of hurling they would've done at home

Again, really comes back to the point about how much hurling they're doing when training sessions and matches aren't on, our underage teams should probably be training for 8-9 months of the year, that shouldn't be up for debate but while a 50/50 split is hardly ideal, if they're doing the work at home, the 50/50 split ultimately won't work against them?

I know i was at an U13 Premier football final back in 2021 between Cushinstown and Castletown so Seán O'Brien would've been playing, would Cushinstown really have been doing that much more hurling than football? If they were 50/50, certainly didn't stop Seán O'Brien on the hurling front

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1479 - 09/08/2026 10:49:24    2689145

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Replying To camánouttathat:  "Absolutely. Dee and Mogie would speak of the principal they had in national school been mad for hurling and had them out playing during school time. Did wonders for the Anne's in the long run"
Willie Cleary is having a positive effect in Taghmon so far. He will be starting his 3rd year in September, hopefully he will be in the job a good while.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20425 - 09/08/2026 11:58:13    2689154

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Replying To camánouttathat:  "As someone who might see it first hand, do you think you are been hindered in both codes due to 50/50 split of time with each?"
Its a debate Ive had with numerous club members over the years. The Football men at the club are 100% certain we would be a Senior Football Club, and challenging for Senior titles, if we concentrated on Football. Some of the Hurling men here think that the only good thing to do with a Football is stick a large pin in it. Most of us would be dual minded overall though.
In general we would be more of a Football leaning club historically, though it seems slightly more of our current players from adult all the way down would prefer hurling. For example we have no bother fielding a Junior B hurling team this year, but its been a real struggle to get lads out for the Football. And last year at u14 we had 3 lads who only hurled, while we only had 2 that only played Football.
Usually these days when you see young lads at our grounds outside of training they are spending more time pucking a ball than kicking one.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20425 - 09/08/2026 12:06:16    2689158

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "Yeah, was thinking of the McGraths, even if they were training with their club for 8-9 months of the year at underage, that probably would've been 50/50 between hurling and football

But on top of that, they would've been with their primary school, secondary school, and development squad and that's before you even mention the amount of hurling they would've done at home

Again, really comes back to the point about how much hurling they're doing when training sessions and matches aren't on, our underage teams should probably be training for 8-9 months of the year, that shouldn't be up for debate but while a 50/50 split is hardly ideal, if they're doing the work at home, the 50/50 split ultimately won't work against them?

I know i was at an U13 Premier football final back in 2021 between Cushinstown and Castletown so Seán O'Brien would've been playing, would Cushinstown really have been doing that much more hurling than football? If they were 50/50, certainly didn't stop Seán O'Brien on the hurling front"
The top lads in hurling, football and soccer spend hours and hours outside of training kicking or pucking a ball from a very young age, and stay doing this through to adult.
If they have enough time to do this in 2 or 3 of the above sports they will likely be top players of all 3 of them.
Obviously that all depends on them being athletic enough, strong enough, work hard enough on the pitch, and maybe big enough to start with.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20425 - 09/08/2026 12:10:13    2689160

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Replying To Viking66:  "The top lads in hurling, football and soccer spend hours and hours outside of training kicking or pucking a ball from a very young age, and stay doing this through to adult.
If they have enough time to do this in 2 or 3 of the above sports they will likely be top players of all 3 of them.
Obviously that all depends on them being athletic enough, strong enough, work hard enough on the pitch, and maybe big enough to start with."
Agreed. Some lads are gifted for sure, but there's no substitute for work rate. That comes from attitude, which usually comes from parents.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4636 - 09/08/2026 12:27:10    2689163

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "You said earlier that that Cork club were getting 26 games which would be closer to six months of an organised games programme, no? Seems to me that the 26 games are spread across seven and a half months and they then start and finish training three weeks either side of that which would bring you to the nine months alright

Are these Wexford clubs starting training just as the Go Games programme starts?"
We were training in February and will finish the October bank holiday weekend. We don't get near enough matches though.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 4636 - 09/08/2026 12:30:19    2689164

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "We were training in February and will finish the October bank holiday weekend. We don't get near enough matches though."
You can always arrange games yourselves. Or organise blitzes/tournaments. We run a couple of annual u13 and u11 ones.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20425 - 09/08/2026 14:47:30    2689184

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Replying To ElGranSenor:  "You said earlier that that Cork club were getting 26 games which would be closer to six months of an organised games programme, no? Seems to me that the 26 games are spread across seven and a half months and they then start and finish training three weeks either side of that which would bring you to the nine months alright

Are these Wexford clubs starting training just as the Go Games programme starts?"
Yeah, they had 26 matches spread over the 32 or 34 weeks of seven and a half months. Some free weeks in there, but obviously they'd be keeping up training themselves. And have already explained above how they made it approx. nine months altogether by doing three other weeks either side of that.

Can't speak for any Wexford club other than my own, but I what do know is this:
U10 Go Games were to start this year with hurling on Sunday March 22, and football on Sunday March 29. Then a free weekend for Easter, before starting again on Sunday April 10.

My club's U10s did a session on Sunday March 15 (couldn't do the Saturday because of soccer!), but then when our lads contacted the clubs they were due to play in those first two matches, both those other clubs said they weren't bothering with them at all and hadn't starting training yet. They felt March was too early and that it'd be time enough to start on April 10 after all.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3839 - 09/08/2026 16:22:51    2689198

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Replying To camánouttathat:  "Just as a matter of interest, out of those 11 clubs who opted for hurling do you know how many are currently senior hurling clubs?"
Have gone down that rabbit hole again to find out :)

Turns out I was incorrect at first in saying 11. I counted Rathnure amongst them, but turns out they don't play football at all at that age. So, really only 10 dual clubs made that choice.

Alphabetically, they were: Askamore/Kilrush, Blackwater, Buffers Alley, Crossabeg-Ballymurn, Ferns, Kilmore, Oulart-The Ballagh, Oylegate-Glenbrien, Rapparess/Startlights, St. Martin's. (I'm correctly counting Oulart-The Ballagh here because they do play U10 football).

That means five senior clubs, four intermediate ones, and one junior.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3839 - 09/08/2026 16:27:28    2689199

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How many handballs clubs are there in Wexford? This is a point I've made before but regardless of whether lads are playing hurling and football for 6 or 8 months and regardless of how much of that is hurling compared to football, if you've lads playing handball for 4-6 months in the hurling/football off-season, then they'd end up developing a lot of skills that would naturally carry over to hurling and football (Fitness, agility, burst, strong wrists, good hand-eye coordination, peripheral vision)

Now question is cost and some clubs doing handball now might only have outdoors facilities

But on a question of cost (And I am showing my ignorance here), would you be able to host squash games on a certain handbal court? If you were able to do that, you could maybe have handball a few days in the weeks and then lease it out for squash the other days

Bit of a mad idea on my end tbh

ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1479 - 09/08/2026 17:11:04    2689203

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Yeah, they had 26 matches spread over the 32 or 34 weeks of seven and a half months. Some free weeks in there, but obviously they'd be keeping up training themselves. And have already explained above how they made it approx. nine months altogether by doing three other weeks either side of that.

Can't speak for any Wexford club other than my own, but I what do know is this:
U10 Go Games were to start this year with hurling on Sunday March 22, and football on Sunday March 29. Then a free weekend for Easter, before starting again on Sunday April 10.

My club's U10s did a session on Sunday March 15 (couldn't do the Saturday because of soccer!), but then when our lads contacted the clubs they were due to play in those first two matches, both those other clubs said they weren't bothering with them at all and hadn't starting training yet. They felt March was too early and that it'd be time enough to start on April 10 after all."
Thats terrible.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20425 - 09/08/2026 18:20:34    2689210

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Yeah, they had 26 matches spread over the 32 or 34 weeks of seven and a half months. Some free weeks in there, but obviously they'd be keeping up training themselves. And have already explained above how they made it approx. nine months altogether by doing three other weeks either side of that.

Can't speak for any Wexford club other than my own, but I what do know is this:
U10 Go Games were to start this year with hurling on Sunday March 22, and football on Sunday March 29. Then a free weekend for Easter, before starting again on Sunday April 10.

My club's U10s did a session on Sunday March 15 (couldn't do the Saturday because of soccer!), but then when our lads contacted the clubs they were due to play in those first two matches, both those other clubs said they weren't bothering with them at all and hadn't starting training yet. They felt March was too early and that it'd be time enough to start on April 10 after all."
Our u10s train Mondays and Wednesdays with games on Fridays.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20425 - 09/08/2026 18:21:34    2689211

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Ive been to a fair few u10 up to u12 blitzes in past few years as involved with underage Lucan Sarsfields. I have to say that on the whole I haven't been impressed with the Wexford teams I've seen at all. We brought a mixed ability u10 team to a tournament in wicklow 2 weeks ago and beat 3 Wexford clubs handily enough and bare in mind we are off for the summer so we went down with no training at all. On tje flip side of that Gorey won our own u12 blitz a.few weeks ago and we had strong teams present like Na Fiianna and Naas so with kids results you're gonna get mixed years so hard to predict

WEXILE (Wexford) - Posts: 523 - 10/08/2026 10:59:25    2689278

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Replying To WEXILE:  "Ive been to a fair few u10 up to u12 blitzes in past few years as involved with underage Lucan Sarsfields. I have to say that on the whole I haven't been impressed with the Wexford teams I've seen at all. We brought a mixed ability u10 team to a tournament in wicklow 2 weeks ago and beat 3 Wexford clubs handily enough and bare in mind we are off for the summer so we went down with no training at all. On tje flip side of that Gorey won our own u12 blitz a.few weeks ago and we had strong teams present like Na Fiianna and Naas so with kids results you're gonna get mixed years so hard to predict"
What frustates me is the pace it takes to get things done in Wexford . All the recommendations made in the Kinnerk report have any of them been acted on?

Afinestick96 (Wexford) - Posts: 1114 - 10/08/2026 11:21:57    2689282

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