We need return of injured players to offer extra strength

IT’S NO longer fortress Innovate Wexford Park. Wexford had ruled at the county venue since Davy Fitzgerald took up the post as county manager, having never lost a league or championship match at the venue during his reign.

Kilkenny, under Brian Cody, probably thought they could have picked more desirable spots for their Allianz Hurling League semi-final, because it was a hell of time for the former champions in the most recent game at the venue as Wexford dramatically turned them over there in the 2017 championship, having earlier defeated their great rivals in the league in Nowlan Park.

But a lot has happened in 2018, particularly in Kilkenny hurling, with Cody coming with a new-look, lean team into the current season.

While many were treating Kilkenny as relegation fodder, Cody was quick to play down the significance of those assertions even despite two opening league defeats. It was a Kilkenny team which included so many new faces, but as a manager he always believed in his players and right now they are in a league final.

Davy Fitzgerald cut a disappointed figure as he addressed the media in the aftermath of Sunday’s semi-final defeat. He had come from conducting a lengthy post mortem with his players and one could see the disappointment etched on his face, as there wasn’t the usual free-flowing talk followed by that contented smile.

Wexford had an unbelievable record at the county grounds and took pleasure in bringing teams to the venue. Some 16,452 supporters converged on the ground but few had anticipated what they were about to witness, not even ardent Kilkenny supporters.

This will be a trying week for the Wexford players and backroom team. How often have Kilkenny been questioned this year? But they keep coming back. You can never write them off.

But what to me is of real significance is that we have failed to beat Kilkenny in three clashes this year. We drew the Walsh Cup final, with only a token victory in a free-taking shoot-out, but of greater importance we lost our group league game in Nowlan Park.

I believe this is where we handed back the initiative to Kilkenny as they capitalised on that confidence-boosting game to hand the Model county a real drubbing on Sunday.

I’m still convinced that Wexford can bounce back from this shock defeat, and I’m still backing the players and the manager to re-group quickly and launch a successful championship campaign.

There was always going to be a hiccup, given the pressure the players were under, and unfortunately this arrived. Perhaps this can be looked upon as the defining moment of a season still so young, giving the players and management time to reflect, and re-focus for the championship ahead.

Wexford probably would like to see a bolter emerge from the club championship, but given the current club plight, this will not happen.

And while one suspects that some positions will come under the spotlight, Fitzgerald will instead be looking to have an easing of his injury problems and have a full squad available for what will be a demanding championship, playing on four successive weekends.

I have no doubt the players and management will get together this week for clear-the-air talks ahead of a championship assault, as they’ll have woken up yesterday morning hurting so bad. The players will no doubt have an open discussion, as they know where they are, but they’ll realise all is not lost.

So what’s the management focus? They scored 2-15 against Kilkenny but conceded 1-27 so there’s massive room for improvement. We failed to score from play during the opening 35 minutes, with only two of the starting forwards, Conor McDonald and Rory O’Connor, on target from open play, while at the opposite end we conceded far too many frees, punished by T.J. Reid.

Have we got the strength in depth we thought we had? If we had, the bench would have been utilised earlier, but we couldn’t do it. So what is needed now is the return of the injured players to give us that extra strength.

There should be absolutely no panic, but we have still some way to go. It was one of those days, but after that opening 35 minutes I never felt we could win this game.

We did have a go at Kilkenny in the opening ten minutes on the resumption, but they are not a side for coughing up big leads. We lacked their aggresion, and their confidence. Kilkenny had their homework done.