STABILITY IS A MUST ON THE WEXFORD JOURNEY
TOM Dempsey made the trip to Walsh Park last weekend and saw a Wexford team missing a raft of first-team regulars continue their winning ways and beat Waterford to secure a place in the seventeam Division 1A for 2025.
With Cork coming to town this afternoon and a healthy shot of still reaching a league semi-final, he cautions against supporters losing the run of themselves. As a member of the last senior team from the county to bring home the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 1996, and a long-time analyst, he says he has seen it all before.
‘The first thing for Wexford and we need to be very careful, we’re not a very stable county in that we’re either up in the sky or we’re down on the ground — there’s no in between. The first thing everybody has to do is make sure we stay on an even keel. We’re not looking at an All-Ireland final yet. If you look at where we were, we were one refereeing decision away from going back to the Joe McDonagh last year.
‘In fairness to Darragh Egan, that wasn’t a fair representation of where we were. I think it was just a multitude of events — you are 17 points up against Westmeath, you don’t expect to let that lead go.’
The fall-out from that defeat saw Egan replaced by former Wexford player Keith Rossiter. But it’s worth remembering that in Egan’s first year in charge in 2022, Wexford topped the group. Went five wins from five, beating All-Ireland champions Limerick along the way. Until the bottom fell out in the semi-final where they shipped five goals and a heavy defeat to Waterford.
So no wonder Dempsey is wary of any boom and bust cycle. ‘That’s why we need to keep an even keel. We’ve six All-Irelands in 100 and whatever years. There is definitely a very good feel-good factor there at the moment. Sport being sport, that can change very quickly. ‘In fairness to Keith, he’s a local fella, so you’ll get a good pardon as a local man. He was a popular local hurler — it’s nearly unusual now for the younger Wexford generation to see a Wexford man in charge. ‘I think people are very comfortable with the Wexford man being in charge. And that’s a plus for him. We’re delighted but we know there’s bigger tests ahead.’ While he can sense a change of style under Rossiter, he says what the team achieved under Davy Fitzgerald, now Waterford manager, is worth remembering too. ‘Davy Fitzgerald got us within a whisker of an All-Ireland final, so he has to take a lot of credit. But definitely the type of play that Wexford play, it’s pretty traditional. At no point last Sunday did we have less than two men in the full forward line. ‘Young Richie Lawlor, as good a small man under a dropping ball as I’ve seen; Cian Byrne five points from play, and Séamus Casey playing the hurling of his life. So all three, not big men, but they were playing close to the goal. ‘I remember the narrative when they were talking about pundits a few years ago, probably I was one of them, that we were outdated in our thoughts on
the game. The truth of the matter is that hurling hasn’t changed that much in my book.
‘I think you do need to keep possession but whether it be Dessie Hutchinson or Rory O’Connor, the most dangerous place they need to get the ball is close to goal. That hasn’t changed.
‘I’m not being critical of Waterford but I was surprised how far from goal their forwards played. One minute into injury time, you’re two points down and Wexford were able to string four passes together between their full-back line and goalkeeper — that doesn’t make sense to me. I think you have to press.
‘But don’t be too naive as well to know that we have to adapt as well. There’s a place for a sweeper. If we met Limerick, say in a league semifinal, we may have to bring somebody back.’
Dempsey has been around long enough too to see how this Limerick team compares to the Kilkenny team who also won four in a row between 2006 and 2009. Whether or not Limerick become the first to win five in a row, he says comparisons are moot.
‘It’s very hard to compare different eras. If they get five in a row, they’re going to be put up there but we’ll never have an answer around the Kilkenny team with 11 All-Irelands in 16 years versus the Limerick team now. We’ll never get the answer to that.
‘They are as good as I’ve seen. Will they be stopped? If they are, I think it will be in Munster. I just love watching them hurling. John Kiely, how brilliant a manager he is.
‘But every team when you look at it have been stopped. Tipperary were only beaten by a point last week. No matter what anyone says, and we saw what happened the great Kerry team going for five in a row, they left the other team in the game and that lastminute goal can hit any of us. And it can hit Limerick as well.
‘As long as they’re leaving teams in the game, there is an outside chance of them being caught. But the only team that are capable of beating them are the team able to get that last 20 minutes out of themselves.
‘Let’s sit back and enjoy them because no more than Wexford, they had a lot of years in the doldrums. For what they’ve done — Cian Lynch, Aaron Gillane, Tom Morrissey, Nickie Quaid — the skill levels of the players are remarkable. They’ve brought a new aspect to the game.
‘And I love the way they mix the short and the long. And you know what, you very rarely see Aaron Gillane too far from the opposition goal.
‘I love watching them. I don’t begrudge them. If they get to about eight in a row, maybe then I’d like to see them brought down.’
“Keith is local, you’ll get a good pardon as a local man”