Football as low as it can be after poor weekend results

IT’S DIFFICULT to know where to begin with an overview of Wexford football. Should we start with the happenings through the season or the frightening end results? There is no current situation to suggest that Wexford football is about to turn the corner. Oh, and we haven’t even mentioned the summer, but the end of season football on show was so underwhelming that it raised the question if there is any reason to be excited at all.

Last weekend did not bode well for the ‘big ball’ in the county, with two demoralising defeats in the Leinster Club championship, and only a Horeswood victory against Kilkenny opposition left to acknowledge.

Just a few short weeks back one did manage to harness some little excitement with an excellent drawn Senior football final involving Shelmaliers and Kilanerin, but six days later came the replay anti-climax.

And the drought continued last weekend, leaving serious question marks over the future of the game in the county as we once knew it.

Not alone is a place among the top-ranking counties out of the equation, Wexford it seems will now struggle down in the lower echelons of the game, a struggle that we may be about to witness in Division 4 of the National League.

The success we once enjoyed under Jason Ryan now seems an eternity away. Wexford football has lost its identity, with the fast diminishing supporters now looking on in disbelief and worrying where the game in the county is heading.

There is little consolation to take from the year just ended. Re-running the tape is not going to achieve progress, but when those at the top table sit down to assess the game in the county, it will make for sorry viewing.

Wexford football has taken a pasting from under-age right through to adult level. The absence of a plan is frightening as inter-county football has been absent from the top table, compared to hurling where the highly energised Davy Fitzgerald ensures that it will always command lots of attention.

But one has to park hurling for the moment. Who is to deliver a plan to resurrect Wexford football? A review of the season suggests the county has dropped even further down the rankings.

Just a single league victory, relegation to Division 4, and not even one championship success. There was a provincial championship defeat to Laois but, even more shattering, a qualifier exit to lowly Waterford, who were winning their first game for many seasons. This came on top of a demoralising under-age campaign which suggests that Wexford football is in free-fall.

So let’s be frank: the absence of plan for the future of the game in the county can be interpreted as a failure.

And on the back of the football turbulence of this spring and summer came a shattering weekend. Senior champions Shelmaliers suffered a demoralising and disappointing defeat to Meath title-holders, Dunboyne, managing just 1-2 in 60 minutes of football.

Their opening point arrived in the tenth minute, with the goal just approaching the interval, while their solitary second-half score came in additional time, so they played some 50-odd minutes of normal time with just one point. That speaks for itself.

Twenty-four hours earlier came the embarrassing defeat of Naomh Eanna to Kilkenny side, Tullogher-Rosbercon, in the Leinster Club Junior football championship. Yes, defeat to a Kilkenny side, where hardly a football is kicked.

Sure, we’ve seen it all before. We hear of the celebrations taking its toll, but then again the opposing sides also win their club championships.

So, can that be offered as a genuine excuse? We all know only too well the excuses will be trotted out, but at the end of the day they will offer little in determining where the real problems lay.

Wexford under-age has been derailed over the past two seasons and, as the county looks to get back on track, the coaching system in the county must be re-visited.

And while we hear so much of coaching plans and courses, one must not lose sight of the fact that it’s not delivering the quality under-age players.

Trotting out huge numbers attending various coaching initiatives is impressive in itself, but Wexford must get to the heart of the problem, and this must be led from the top table.