O’Connor looks to set himself up for a double
RORY O’CONNOR is facing into a hectic few days. This evening in O’Moore Park, Wexford will look to their gifted forward to inspire their Under 21s in the Leinster final against Galway.
And less than 72 hours after that final whistle, O’Connor will be playing for Wexford seniors in their All-Ireland qualifier against Westmeath in Mullingar.
Busy times, but nothing compared to what O’Connor, who turns 20 later this month, faced in 2017. Over the course of 15 weeks, the talented attacker played an extraordinary 21 games.
‘Yeah, that was a crazy stat,’ O’Connor smiled when reminded of it. ‘It was just how the club season turned out. Wexford got to the All-Ireland quarter-final and then we are dual club at St Martin’s, and we got to the county finals in both football and hurling, winning the football.
‘There was U21 club championship in the middle of all of that, so we just went through a crazy amount of matches in a short period of time. But it is always enjoyable to be playing with the club. It is not as serious as intercounty and you have a couple of drinks with the lads after matches. And there was no training at that time, it was just going from match to match.’
The strain on his body did tell. Eventually he picked up a knee injury, although as O’Connor says, it came at the right time. ‘I got a few months off over the winter but I came back during the League.’
It was during that campaign that O’Connor, despite his tender years, put himself forward as the answer to Wexford’s free-taking issue.
He had a nerveless day on the frees against Dublin in their Leinster Championship opener and even though he has scored 0-36 across the four Leinster Championship matches, he feels that he had poor days with the placed-balls against Galway and Kilkenny.
However, he says he doesn’t mind the responsibility. ‘What I say is that when the sun shines, you make hay. And when the freetaking is going well, it feels perfect. But the Galway match was probably the first time I felt a bit of pressure.
‘It is a big responsibility with the frees. If you want to compete now, you can’t miss a single one. Against Kilkenny, we had seven long-range frees and didn’t nail them — I think we had only one free inside the 65. They were probably outside my zone but at the end of the day, that game came down to a point and if we had drawn it, we would have been in a Leinster final. So, it shows how important frees are.’
As Wexford were one of the teams to suffer from having to play on four consecutive weekends, O’Connor feels that the GAA have to look at tweaking the format and schedule for next year.
‘It’s grand for me. I am young and I can run off a knock and get on with it but some of the older lads are feeling the knocks,’ he says. ‘It was the Thursday after the games that you were coming around and ready to get going again. You are trying to get yourself up all week and mentally, it is tough. ‘And four in a row is extremely tough. Maybe they should look at playing two matches, having a week off, and playing two again. Something like that.’ Wexford will be expected to deal with the threat of Westmeath on Saturday evening, especially as the midlanders are demoralised after being trounced by Carlow in the first ever Joe McDonagh Cup final. O’Connor will hope to bounce into that game on the back of provincial glory but knows that the Slaneysiders will need to improve from their scratchy performance against Dublin in Parnell Park, especially as Galway will be out to create history.
‘Galway are a serious county in hurling terms and they have definitely upped the standard in Leinster. It doesn’t bother any of the Leinster teams that they are in there and this game will be a bit of history.’
Another provincial U21 crown ahead of the senior team getting their summer back on track this weekend would prove that there is something happening in Wexford hurling.
‘We are convinced we can do anything as long as we take every match as an All-Ireland final,’ O’Connor explains of the attitude that has been serving Wexford well for the past couple of seasons.