‘Great to come up here and get the win’

THE two maestros behind the resurgence of Wicklow hurling were almost the last to leave the dressing rooms in Celtic Park last Sunday afternoon.

Seamus Murphy and Michael Neary have instilled new belief and have rekindled the passion within this group of Wicklow hurlers and for 50 minutes against Derry it was a pleasure to watch as they launched attacks and ran sweet lines and defended stoically.

Derry, as Michael Neary would know only too well, is not an easy place to go to and both he and Seamus Murphy are delighted with how the league is unfolding and with the effort that the players are putting in.

“It is a hard place (to come to), I wouldn’t have experienced it but Michael (Neary) would and coming to the North when I was involved with Wexford, and we came to Down and to Antrim at two different stages, and we were lucky to get out with the result, so it is a hard place to come but we are delighted with the win,” said Seamus Murphy.

Michael Neary says that a vital component of the improved performances and the competitive spirit within the camp are all the players that make up the panel of 36 and that the effort to bring back that focus and drive began last November.

“I think we re-focused last November to try and get that into the team. Inter-county sport is about intensity. Unfortunately it nearly overshadows skill at times but it is about intensity, working, making tackles, chasing back, everyone working for each other,” he said.

“We have a big panel of 36 or something like that and obviously only 26 came today so there are lads back there (in Wicklow) who are working really hard and they’re making our training sessions intensive and I think it’s the first and foremost thing you need with a county team so we’re really happy with all those players as well. They’re a huge boost for us.

“As Seamus says, it’s great to come up here and get the win. Obviously, we’ve banished the relegation worries now and we’ve got competitive but there’s still lots to do and we’re working on the shape and how we want this thing to work but the players are giving us everything and that’s a huge plus for us and if they keep doing that let’s see where this journey goes,” he added.

One of the standout performers on the day in Derry was Glenealy’s Garry Byrne at half-back. Seamus Murphy says that Garry Byrne was a leader and that there are plenty of leaders on this team.

“Garry was having a real good day today and he knew he didn’t have a great day the last day and the blood was nearly up in his eyeballs, it was fantastic. And one thing about those fellas, if somebody does shout up they’re big enough to take it. Often if you don’t have the right discipline in a team and a fella can’t take that and he turns around and says f off with yourself.

“But you want leaders like that. Garry was a real leader today. Someone else was (the leader) the last day and you need leaders, both off the field and on the field, and it’s different fellas on different days.

“When you get that, everybody put in their pound’s worth today out there and as I said last night, if you go home tomorrow and look yourself in the mirror and all you can say is “I didn’t give that my best” it would be a shame. It took us from 2pm yesterday, which is 22 hours to the throw-in today, for 73 or 74 minutes, so don’t let that slip. Make sure when you go home, whether you had a poor day or not, that you gave it everything you had and there’s subs to come on if they’re needed, and that’s their job to come on and do the job as well. So that’s the kind of momentum we’re building and that’s what myself and Michael are delighted with.

As well as the huge defensive effort and the sublime supply lines to the forwards, it was Andy O’Brien who struck fear into the hearts of the Derry defence.

“Andy is going well but obviously the players are working hard to get the ball into him,” said Michael Neary. “But, obviously, someone has to be at the end of them and if you want someone at the end of a ball then Andy is a big player in that position. He had a very strong year last year for the club and he’s carrying that form on.

“In fairness, there are other lads working hard as well. Eamonn Kearns, I thought Pádraig Doyle had a trojan game, brought him out to centre-half forward and we played with a sweeper against the wind in the first half and I thought he worked extremely hard but that made it difficult for the two inside lads because they were marked by three but we felt that once they raced into a three-point lead that we needed to tighten things up and our goal was a huge score for us and one we got that goal it allowed us to go on an express ourselves a bit more,” he added.

Seamus Murphy is delighted with how things are working out so far but he is calling on all Wicklow GAA supporters to get down to Arklow this Sunday afternoon and support the hurlers as they go in search of a league final spot.

“We’re delighted. Who the hell would have said, I suppose, the way it went last year wasn’t good but it’s not our job to make anymore comments on that. Our job is to get the best from what we can do.

“When we won the first game were very happy to win it. When we won the second game we were saying that the relegation is nearly out of our pocket and now we’re talking about maybe nearly trying to reach a league final.

“We’re not there at the moment, but the actual fact is the Down game at the moment, a victory against Down would assure us of a league final place. That’s massive in itself.

“The Kehoe Cup set us up for that, even though there were bad matches in it. We built up momentum in the Kehoe Cup and myself and Michael were trying to work on different facets of play and they’ve come on and we’re really delighted with where we are.

“And we’re delighted for the lads, it’s them that are doing the hard work, they’re down in Ballinakill in slop as the fella says, every place is like that now, but the players are getting a bit of a return now so I’d hope that Wicklow people would appreciate that, see that, and come out and support these guys in Arklow next Sunday”.