Football in crisis but where is the urgency to sort it?

NEXT WEEKEND we will be heading back to focus briefly on what is the forgotten sport in Wexford: Gaelic football. Drastic action is required to improve football fortunes in the county, but the question must be asked if the will is there to do it.

One would have to agree with the thinking of many people in the county that Wexford is no longer a football county – certainly no longer a dual county to boast about with any credibility.

Taking a look back on this year’s championship, one now feels the desire is not there to drive football to another level as much as hurling, not just from the County Board but from everybody involved.

An urgent review is needed. A football committee was put in place but little or nothing has been heard of their workings or findings, so much so that even some die-hard people are resigned to the reality that football has become a lost art in the county.

It’s now on the back burner where it will remain to fade into oblivion unless drastic action and leadership is shown from the top table.

One would have to accept that football is now the poor relation. We had two rounds of our football championship run off in April, in order to comply with Croke Park wishes in having the month designated for clubs.

Wexford set an example which not many counties followed. Games were fixed and re-fixed, with multiple venue and time changes, with little or no regard for players or clubs.

It’s a collective responsibility to see both codes treated equally. Those two rounds of football were completed in the muck and rain of April, while through the following months the clubs have been sent away to await their third round fixtures, which have finally arrived for those without players on the county Under-21 hurling squad.

The attitude of clubs towards football must also be questioned. We had a golden spell under both Pat Roe and Jason Ryan, but the manner in which the game has been allowed to deteriorate is quite alarming, with not a murmur from clubs at County Board level.

When Wexford hurling was in a bad place, all of which resulted from the dismissal of John Meyler, there was much talk of what needed to be done, but now one does not hear the same level of debate on what is a football crisis in the county.

There’s a realisation from everybody involved in Wexford football that a drastic change is needed. One is not seeing a sense of urgency from the County Board.

We had what could be termed a mixed Senior football championship. There was a decent showing against Laois, who later qualified for the provincial final, bringing them to extra-time before bowing out.

But it was followed by a real low point, with defeat to Waterford in the qualifiers. Wexford football hit a new low that will take a lot of recovering from.

This defeat to Waterford will be looked at in the light of coming on the back of an immediate return to Division 4 football in the league. Yet football is seldom if ever mentioned in the county even though it needs a fresh spark.

The talk at present surrounds Davy and the hurlers. But one has not heard the name of the Wexford football manager, Paul McLoughlin, mentioned since that embarrassing qualifier defeat, with no statements from the County Board as to whether the former Kildare player is remaining at the helm, or if Wexford are about to seek out a new management team.

We had a mediocre Under-20 football campaign, blighted by the fact that players who featured at Senior inter-county level could not drop back to their age group. Only the G.A.A. could come up with this one.

We had an embarrassing Minor football campaign in the first year as Under-17, with little light at the end of the tunnel given the poor standard witnessed in this grade. If that was all an Under-17 management team could produce, it does not bode well for the future of the game in the county.,

Wexford football is in crisis. It’s a collective responsibility, and it’s very hard for the Senior football team to be progressing if the County Board are just performing as if it’s business as usual, and if your county championships aren’t set up in way that facilitates getting the best out of players to bring them through the system. From County Board level to all the management teams and down to the clubs, it needs an overhaul.