Entertainment of a very high standard marks a lively start
IHAVE often been critical of the general standard of Wexford club football in this column, but it’s important to give credit when it’s deserved too. And in that context, the entertainment levels were certainly off the charts when the Senior championship got off to a most enjoyable start on Friday night.
When two teams score 1-16 apiece and still lose, it points to the type of enjoyable fare that hopefully will be maintained in the second round action this coming weekend.
And while the year is still in its infancy, already some clubs are facing matches that may well define them as points are urgently sought.
Take Castletown, for example, who really cannot afford a second successive below-par display after their tame finish which resulted in a loss to St. Martin’s under the Bellefield lights on Saturday.
These sides have met six times in the last decade, and Gusserane got the verdict in the two games that mattered most, namely the county semi-finals of 2014 and 2016 respectively.
They also won the group game in between in 2015, with Castletown now seeking a first championship victory over their south county rivals since 2013.
That encounter in Bellefield on Friday will be awaited with interest, and it’s followed by a clash between two more teams experiencing contrasting fortunes last weekend.
A Matty Forde-less Kilanerin went down to Gusserane, whereas St. James’ defeated Sarsfields in a shoot-out, so last year’s runners-up are also in immediate need of a couple of points.
Their sole previous meeting in Senior ranks was at the quarter-final stage last year when Kilanerin won by 2-11 to 2-6, and they will need to curb the menacing threat posed by an in-form Kevin O’Grady to repeat that verdict.
St. Martin’s were comfortable winners of their three championship clashes with Sarsfields between 2012 and last year, and I don’t think I can be accused of playing down the chances of my own club by suggesting that they will be hot favourites to continue in that vein.
By the way, that meeting of the clubs seven years ago took place in Rathangan, which was an eminently more sensible location for the clash of two Wexford District teams than the frankly bizarre setting of New Ross next Saturday.
Turning to Group B, the first game of the weekend will follow that clash in O’Kennedy Park when Starlights face Glynn-Barntown.
The Enniscorthy men beat their Killurin-based rivals by six points in the Intermediate semi-final of 2012, and they edged the Senior verdict 2-1 in their three successive clashes from 2016 to 2018.
Their victory over St. Anne’s was impressive to say the least, but Glynn-Barntown will take heart from a strong fightback that almost snatched victory before the spoils were ultimately shared with Horeswood.
Clongeen will host a Group B double-header on Sunday, starting when two teams yet to get off the mark meet for the seventh time since 2009. And given that St. Anne’s have won five and drawn one of those six previous meetings with Fethard, they have to carry the tag of slight favourites. The Rathangan crew prevailed by 3-7 to 0-12 when the sides played almost twelve months ago.
There’s no Senior history of note between Shelmaliers and Horeswood who will bring the curtain down on the weekend’s Senior action.
Indeed, they have met on just one previous occasion, back in 2013 when Horeswood coasted home by 3-14 to 1-10. The Shels are a different proposition these days, and it will be a surprise if they don’t chalk up a second success on the trot.
One final thought for this week, and it relates to the much-maligned Wexford Senior football squad. Of the 34 players used by management since the start of the O’Byrne Cup, 14 cannot play top-flight club football since they are from outfits ranging from Intermediate down to Junior ‘A’.
Bringing District teams in at a preliminary round knockout stage at the end of the summer would go some small way to helping that situation, but sadly I don’t think the will is there for this to happen.