Severe fall out from hurling humiliation

April 1984

The future of both Christy Keogh and Berney Radford as Wexford senior hurling selectors hangs in the balance this week as the Co. Board mounts an inquiry into events surrounding Sunday’s humiliating defeat by 3-5 to 2-7 to Roscommon in the Centenary Cup.

The County Board met to discuss the matter on Tuesday night after a demand from selector/trainer Keogh that at least eight players be brought before the Board to explain their behaviour in a Roscommon town hotel in the early hours of Sunday morning.

And Keogh is adamant he will resign from the selection committee unless there is a ‘satisfactory’ outcome from the inquest.

Wexford, having been virtually massacred by Limerick in the League final the previous week, were bundled out of the Cup by a ‘no hoper’ Roscommon side. Keogh laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of a section of the Wexford panel ‘who appeared to think they were Gods when they put on the Wexford jersey’. Radford has echoed Keogh’s dismay and said he too is close to resigning as a selector.

A party of twenty-two travelled to Roscommon by coach on Saturday afternoon, ahead of the embarrassing defeat on Sunday. And in one of the hardest-hitting statements ever made by a Wexford mentor, Keogh said on Monday the party appeared to have travelled up ‘merely for a drinking session’.

He said that eight players were still drinking in the hotel at 5.30 a.m. on Sunday. ‘We were pleading with them to go to sleep, but they were insulting us and ignoring us,’ he said. ‘ Their attitude was, ‘what harm another hour or another pint?’

‘In the end, we had to go to the night porter and tell him to stop selling them drink,’ he added.

He said he had told the players to be in bed by midnight, and he felt severely let down by the panel members involved. ‘ They have let themselves down and let Wexford down too,’ he said.

‘We had banked on a good run in the Centenary Cup, but now here we are with our plans gone up in smoke. It’s a nightmare situtation for any selector to be in. A year in which everything appeared to be going well has now come apart at the seams in just two weeks, and we as selectors are fed up of taking the rap.’

The outcome of Tuesday night’s meeting between Co. Board officials and players was still not known by the time of going to press, but is eagerly anticipated. A Co. Board spokesman yesterday said he could not divulge details of what occurred, but said ‘some further action’ is likely.

Note – We do not have a full match report of the game, as like everybody else, we anticipated an easy Wexford victory and intended carrying just a short round-up before reporting in full on what should have been a second round tie against Cork next week.

Now of course that game will not go ahead, and we are as shocked as anybody else. It’s enough to drive you to drink...