Fighting spirit sets the template for all teams to emulate

IHAVE one wish for all Wexford teams in 2020, and it’s one I formulated on the drive home from Newbridge on Saturday. Quite simply, if every inter-county team can match the battling qualities and spirit displayed by Rathgarogue-Cushinstown in their wonderful All-Ireland semi-final success, then I think we can look forward to another successful summer.

It was the sort of afternoon when only the hardiest survive. Looking on from the comfort of the stand, the poor conditions were magnified during a minute’s silence before the game when the sole sound to be heard was the heavy rain belting off the roof.

It was coming down in torrents, and it meant that handling errors were unavoidable. And certainly, what followed was no footballing classic if one was to judge it solely on the skills of the game.

Nobody looked at it that way though, because this was all about two teams throwing their bodies on the line for the honour of their respective little parishes in the most miserable of conditions.

When full-back Peadar Cody flung himself at a ball that was destined for the net in the first-half, it typified Rathgarogue-Cushinstown’s outlook on the game: having made it that far, they certainly weren’t going to leave the field with any regrets.

Scares abounded along the way, with their goal living a charmed existence at times, but all that mattered at the end was the scoreboard, and that certainly made for pleasant viewing.

Wexford football has endured hard times since contesting the All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone in 2008, and this makes the achievement of Rathgarogue-Cushinstown all the more special.

As I left Newbridge afterwards, I spotted a few familiar faces from other New Ross District clubs who were there to support their neighbours, and my hope is that they will be backed by the G.A.A. fraternity from all over the county now on January 25.

As the first-ever Wexford team to qualify for an All-Ireland Club football final, they certainly deserve it, especially as the task they face will be so difficult against Na Gaeil from Tralee.

The Kerry kingpins may be the youngest club in their honours-laden county, but already they have two established Seniors playing at the highest level in Diarmuid O’Connor and Jack Barry.

They will be aiming to become the tenth outfit from the Kingdom to capture this title, and that underlines the magnitude of the task facing James Bolger and his troops.

In the interests of accuracy, it should be noted that Rathgarogue-Cushinstown will be the third club team from the county to play a football championship game in Croke Park, not the first.

That honour went to Castletown in the inaugural year of the Senior competition when they lost a first round replay to Newtown Blues from Louth on June 16, 1971, by 1-11 to 1-6.

Nine years later, St. Fintan’s were on the road to headquarters after winning the county Senior title for the first time since 1930, but that journey most definitely didn’t go according to plan.

According to the report in this newspaper later that week, the bus ferrying the team to Dublin broke down somewhere around Rathnew, with the players having to seek lifts from passing supporters.

Remember, this was in 1980, prior to the mobile phone era, and the end result was that the men from Ballymore, Mayglass and Killinick only had 14 players on the field in Croker when the game started 20 minutes behind schedule.

The reinforcements eventually arrived, but Dublin champions Civil Service - who had been boosted by the arrival of Kilmore and Wexford defender James Marshall the previous year - were already well on their way to claiming a 5-5 to 1-5 success by that stage.

Everyone says a club’s first trip to Croke Park is a memorable occasion, but on this evidence St. Fintan’s would hardly concur!

Almost 40 years later, it would take an earthquake in Ballinaboola to stop the Rathgarogue-Cushinstown crew from descending on the hallowed turf on Saturday week.

And even if that were to happen, I’ve seen enough of this group in the past 15 months to firmly believe that each and every one of them - to a man - would crawl on their hands and knees to Dublin if they had to. To see such spirit in a team is truly uplifting, and it’s the reason why they’re just 60 minutes away from an All-Ireland title.