We’re taking this Christy Ring Cup one step at a time
THE build-up to Wicklow’s Christy Ring cup curtain raiser against London is very much underway and hopes are high in the county that the Wicklow hurlers can build on what was a positive league campaign.
From speaking to Wicklow manager Seamus Murphy, it is clear he is content with how the league campaign panned out yet he is quick to point out that there is still room for improvement.
‘We had a more than expected good run in the league. Last year the team was in a relegation playoff so, for me as manager, and Mick (Neary) as coach, it was worrying that you can very easily end up in the same place.
‘The actual fact is that we went to the other end of the scale and the team reached a league final which was brilliant.
‘When we got there we knew Meath would be looked upon as the standard bearers in that after coming out as Christy Ring champions from last year and playing in the Walsh Cup, the Leinster championship and the Liam McCarthy this year they would be looked upon as a team playing at a higher level or two.
‘In saying that, when we got to the final we still went on to try and win it. The actual fact is we fell short but in fairness to the lads they showed savage character. A few little mistakes here and there, first touches and striking and things like that let us down a little bit and we conceded a couple of goals.
‘A team at a higher level will punish you in that situation whereas if you’re playing maybe some of the teams we played in the national league and you made a mistake like that you might not have been punished and it doesn’t seem as bad.
‘So if there’s a disappointment from the league final it is those mistakes. We feel that we shouldn’t be making some of them or we hope that we wouldn’t be making them and we know the game could have been much tighter.
‘Everyone knew Meath were strong favourites after winning the Christy Ring last year and although they lost one or two players last year they’ve gained about five because when they won the Christy Ring it gave a lift to the whole county and four or five players who weren’t their last year put their services forward and, in fairness, the management kept an open eye on things to increase the quality of the panel so we’d be hoping that as this Christy Ring filters out now too, that there’s a
They‘re coming out of a higher level of the national league and would have had games against Antrim, Carlow and Kildare.
few players in Wicklow that might have a strength of heart and come forward’.
Looking forward, Seamus Murphy is well aware of the challenges that London will pose for his side. Having plied their trade in Division 2A of the national hurling league this year, a division above Wicklow, they are a side that is used to facing quality opposition.
On top of this, Murphy points out that there is always an element of the unknown when facing any London side.
‘Throughout the league you get the experience of all the teams we’ve played and London is something new again but understandably the same thing applies. I haven’t got that much knowledge of them.
‘This coming week I’ll be doing some research on them but the actual fact is they’re coming out of a higher level of the national league where they would have had games against Antrim, Carlow and Kildare, all the higher tier teams.
‘Even though they would have struggled in that doesn’t make them a bad team for taking part in the Christy Ring and taking us on in Aughrim so we’re expecting a huge challenge here. It’s not that far back that London won a Christy Ring so they know the standard that they need to set as their target and what level they need to be up to so they have a chance of winning it.
‘Last week they came the whole way over to play Meath in Trim and they scored 5-16 against them. Okay they got beaten but they put up a huge score. It could have been that they played 40 minutes a side for a practice match but it was a huge score.
‘With London, it’s probably hard to ever know what they’re going to have because it comes down to emigration and recession and all this type of stuff so in the last few years when the Celtic Tiger slipped away they started to get stronger because of the influx of emigration.
‘At this stage maybe there’s a few people returning to the country and all that so they may not be any stronger than they were last year or the year before but actually they’re still a good team. Their team changes a bit because it’s not a settled county and they have more players coming in and going out and that kind of thing’.
Although Wicklow enjoyed a successful league campaign on the whole, a loss in a final is always hard to take and this was no different for Wicklow after they were defeated by Meath recently.
‘We’ve been a bit up and down [since the loss to Meath]. I think it took fellas a week to get over it. We didn’t return to training until the Thursday night after the final. Now of course it was a very challenging contest too and we have unfortunately lost John Henderson with a broken finger and Padraig Doyle with badly torn ligaments and they were two players you were down straight away.
‘We were trying to give clubs a few challenge games too and
some of them are playing in the Leinster league like Greystones, Carnew and Glenealy so we’re giving players back to those clubs for a little while up to yesterday but from now on it’s a closed shop on club games so we’re expecting the whole panel to be 100 per cent committed to the cause for Sunday week’.
This year the winners of the Christy Ring cup will move forward to take part in the All-Ireland qualifiers in the same year, but Murphy is adamant that this will not make any difference to his side’s attitude.
‘We won’t look at that. We will take this Christy Ring one game at a time.
‘I think this is a huge game for Wicklow. For the panel ourselves, for the County Board and for the supporters of Wicklow in the sense that it is crucial to win the first game in the Christy Ring.
‘If we win this game it’s massive because it gives us another two games in the competition irrespective of if we lost them. If you lose next Sunday it gives us the fear of drawing Kildare, Carlow or Antrim and that would be a huge challenge.
‘If you lose two games you’re staring at a relegation final so the London game is one we want to try and win next Sunday and we’re looking no further than that’.
Last year’s Christy Ring Cup champions Meath have been under the spotlight in recent weeks due to the decision to drop dual player Seamus Toher from the panel. When asked for his opinion on dual players, Seamus Murphy maintains that he keeps an open mind for every player.
‘I’d be very open minded on that and I was the same when I was with Wexford or even club teams. I’ve been involved with club teams, primarily hurling, but sometimes dual clubs and it’s very difficult and there’s no easy calls. You can be very ruthless with fellas playing football or whatever but you have to look at the strength of what you have and for any player playing football in Wicklow and playing football in Wicklow but hurling with his club I would say there is no problem for us whatsoever we’d only love to think that they could be able to give a certain commitment.
‘Now obviously you need X amount of commitment and there’s a bit of a problem in Meath but I think that thing is overwritten.
‘I think Seamus Toher was a great performer for the Meath hurlers but I suppose he looked upon it as something where they had a new football manager and Meath would primarily be known as a football county.
‘He had got his Christy Ring last year and when he got the call from Martin Ennis he probably thought, “This is something I have to have a cut at”, and unfortunately something seemed to collapse then.
It was unfortunate but I’m sure if the football manager and the hurling manager sits down and they’re of good opinion for what’s good for the county in general then I’m sure it can be worked out’.