Senior footballers’ rapid slide leaves them as outsiders

THE NEGATIVE vibes surrounding Wexford football are unfair on the players, as this is a young and inexperienced group thrown very much into the deep end of inter-county fare. Talk has centred on their failure to secure Division 3 status in the National League, making an immediate return to Division 4 football for 2019.

Somewhere along the way the battered soul of Wexford football has been lost with six defeats from seven games, their only victory coming against a depleted Armagh side in their final outing.

Now they face the task of meeting a resurgent Laois side, who not alone secured promotion from Division 4 but also won that divisional title with a comfortable victory over Carlow.

Wexford’s slide has been stark. While their league defeats in many games may not have been by wide margins, these were still games in which they never looked like getting a positive result, which in itself is an indication of the challenge facing Paul McLoughlin and his backroom team.

Few in Wexford give them a chance in the championship. Practically nobody outside the county expects them to beat Laois. The slide has been stark and in a short period Wexford football from the highs of recent years has slipped back into the doldrums.

As Wexford moved into 2018, and began to lay preparations for the new season, many of their more experienced regulars announced retirements.

The extent of those must have caught manager Paul McLoughlin even by surprise, but more importantly little work was carried out by the County Board officers to try to keep as many players as possible involved, to bridge that transition with a blend of experience and youth.

As a result, positivity around the big ball game was in short supply, and it was plain to be seen that the footballers do not get a huge support compared to the hurlers.

The traditional support base is predominately hurling. You could see that in Innovate Wexford Park when Armagh, fielding a depleted side and already promoted, attracted more support, despite the long journey, than Wexford, as they totally outnumbered the home following.

Wexford football is going through a very low period but the slippage of the Senior squad must fall back on the officer board and their failure to have an experienced back-up personnel to support Paul McLoughlin in his first venture into inter-county Senior management.

Wexford are not winning at under-age level. When you look at the strong footballing counties, while some may not be winning provincial under-age titles they are at least providing serious challenges, which is in stark contrast to Wexford, whose last provincial Minor football title was way back in 1969.

Wexford are unable to get the quality players through and this despite the success of both Good Counsel and St. Peter’s at Senior ‘A’ Colleges level

Now is the time to ask the hard questions about leadership in Wexford football. How deep are the problems within the Wexford football sphere? And how is the code expected to compete with hurling and other sports such as soccer and rugby, when the Senior county representatives are in a precarious state?

These are two questions that ran through my mind on Sunday night. The real problem is that both of those questions have gone unanswered for years.

How can a county with such a dismal under-age record compete successfull at Senior inter-county football level? We had a brief spell of success under then managers Pat Roe and Jason Ryan, but while this was continuing at Senior level, there was little or no movement at under-age.

Wexford need strong management in each grade. Last year considerable progress was made at Minor level under John Nolan, who reached a provincial semi-final, but for whatever reason he is not involved this year, while the county failed abysmally in their efforts to retain Seamus McEnaney for a second term in charge of the Senior team.

This is not to appear disingenuous to Paul McLoughlin, but the Monaghan native had built a bond with his squad, the majority of whom would have been once again available for 2018 had he still been in place.