Our two provincial champions dare to dream of more

WE’RE RAPIDLY approaching that exciting time of year when children dream of what Santa will bring while the adults look forward to some festive relaxation before turning their attention towards a better and brighter 2018.

And as the Christmas shopping gathers pace in the weeks to come, I’m sure that there will be an extra spring in the step of the members of two clubs from opposite ends of the county.

Fethard and Kilanerin are both smack-bang in the middle of a glorious adventure at present, with players, mentors and supporters hoping that it won’t end until they descend the steps of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park with an All-Ireland trophy.

Just like the proverbial city bus, we had waited since the Intermediate and Junior club championships began for a Wexford team to attain a Leinster title, and then two came along in the space of a fortnight.

Fethard broke the mould initially, and they followed it up with a three-point win over London’s Brothers Pearse on Saturday when they became the first Wexford team to play a competitive fixture in the re-developed Ruislip grounds, now named McGovern Park.

And while that was happening in front of a fantastic travelling support, Kilanerin were following them into the history books on home soil as a third successive narrow win resulted in provincial Intermediate glory.

Their mentors had done their homework the previous week when opponents Ballyboughal pipped Curraha from Meath - not Emo from Laois as my deadline-impaired brain somehow transferred into print via this column last week. I knew before the paper hit the streets that I had mixed up the quarter-final and semi-final opponents, but unfortunately in this game there’s no option other than waiting seven days before rectifying matters.

Now our newly-crowned Leinster champions will have no qualms about mixing festive cheer with some more tough training as they knuckle down before facing their Connacht counterparts in January.

Fethard will be taking on Sylane from Galway, while Kilanerin’s next opponents are Michael Glaveys from Roscommon, the home club of the Earley brothers.

The prospect of being just one game away from Croke Park would have been the last thing on their minds at the outset of their respective campaigns, but now they can dare to dream a little more and the support of the entire county will be behind them.

Moving to the Under-21 scene, I was reminded of my childhood fascination with Murphy’s law when news reached me on Saturday night that floodlight failure had led to the St. Martin’s versus Starlights game being abandoned.

Murphy is my mother’s maiden name, and the words of that adage were framed on the wall in my late grandparents’ home on Mill Park Road in Enniscorthy.

It stated that ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong’ and there was an addendum: ‘and usually at the worst possible time’.

Earlier on Saturday, I had been telling a fellow spectator in a chilly Innovate Wexford Park that if everything went according to plan, the earliest weekend for the Greenstar Under-21 football Premier ‘A’ and ‘B’ championship finals would be December 16-17.

The only potential impediment on my mind at that stage was a possible draw after extra-time, and little did I think that darkness descending on Bellefield would bring matters to an abrupt halt and throw at least one more week on the schedule when it’s the last thing that anyone needs.

While playing under lights has its benefits and will become even more commonplace in future, there is a downside and unfortunately it’s not the first time that this problem has arisen in the county.

And it really was the worst possible game for it to happen in, because it was the last preliminary round clash, with the winners moving into the ‘A’ quarter-final while the losers will be in the ‘B’ last eight.

Therefore, some of the remaining contestants are facing lengthy delays owing to circumstances that nobody could have foreseen.

And with a lot of Under-21 players likely to feature with the Wexford Seniors in the O’Byrne Cup which starts on December 30, the window for completion is closing rapidly.