Wicklow put Tipperary to the sword in Thurles
Useful workout for O’Brien’s Minors as big day approaches
‘TRYING to make a difference’ is the motto which is being instilled into the Wicklow Minor footballers by manager Kevin O’Brien and his management team as they prepare for their opening Leinster championship game against Offaly on May 7.
Storm Ophelia, Storm Emma, the Beast of the East and snow storms have hampered Kevin and his coaches’ efforts to prepare this team, but they have kept soldiering along unable to get available pitches and teams for games due to the ferocious weather conditions.
On Saturday morning the troops were assembled and headed for Thurles and under the shadow of Semple Stadium in Dr. Morris Park these young men took on the Tipperary Minors in a very good game of football.
Tipp started off the better and opened a three-point gap in a game which was being played at high intensity and speed. By this stage Wicklow had shook off the match-day cobwebs and were beginning to make an impression on the game and two pointed placed balls by Matthew Ging left only a point in it.
The Munster boys answered with a point and in Tipperary’s next attack a somewhat fortunate bounce of the ball fell to a Tipp
forward and he finished well to the net. In fairness to the Wicklow lads, they stuck with their game plan and after a tremendous turnover in the full-back line they worked a beautiful move up the field and Ging was on the end of it to finish it to the net.
At the half-time whistle Wicklow trailed by a point playing against a stiff breeze.
Tipperary made two changes to their forward line for the restart and seemed intent on stretching
their lead and did so by adding another point.
The Wicklow boys were putting in a huge shift and their work rate and turnover counts were starting to mount up and this began to tell on the scoreboard as they moved into a one-point lead through a hard-working Ruari Tomkins (two points) and Eoin Darcy (one point) who was leading the line from the full-forward position.
Kevin Quinn was doing trojan work in the half-back line as was
Sean Doody(captain) around the middle of the park with Johnny Keogh mopping up any stray balls from the air or on the ground in the half-forward line.
Wicklow were driving on at this stage and another sweeping move ended with Ruari Tomkins being pulled down in the square and up stepped Eoin Darcy to send the ball into the top corner of the net from the resulting penalty.
At this stage the Wicklow management had made numerous
changes, allowing all panel players to make an impact and sure enough intensity did not drop as they looked to stake a claim for a starting position.
Tipperary did manage to breach the Wicklow defence with a goal in the last play of the game and the game finished on a scoreline of Wicklow 2-12, Tipperary 2-9.
Speaking to Kevin O’Brien after the game, he was happy with the performance and not too worried about the result. To borrow a phrase of the past: ‘A lot of work done but a lot more to do’.
Hopefully these young men will make a difference, and they seem to be in a good place, certainly by their mannerism, attitude, and workrate they are trying, and a good turnout of Wicklow support in Aughrim on May 7 will certainly give them a lift.
Wicklow lined out today in their new kit which is kindly sponsored by Darcy Sands. And rumours rumbling from Met Eireann is that there is to be a storm in Wicklow on that weekend and their calling it Storm Kevin.
Wicklow scorers: Matthew Ging 1-6 (4f), Eoin Darcy 1-1, Ruari Tomkins 0-2, Kevin Quinn 0-1, John Doyle 0-1, Sean Doody 0-1.
Wicklow: Niall Gaffney (An Tochar); Andy Keogh (Kiltegan), Eoghan Byrne (Tinahely), Cian McHugh (An Tochar); Kevin Quinn (Blessington), Oisin Cullen (An Tochar), Ben Fennell (AGB); Sean Doody (Baltinglass), Craig Dwyer (Blessington); Alan Barrett (Baltinglass), Matthew Ging (Tinahely), Johnny Keogh (Baltinglass); Gavin Fogarty (An Tochar), Eoin Darcy (Tinahely), Ruari Tomkins (Coolkenno). Substitutions: Shane Daly (Donard) for Fennell, Sam Kearney (Bray Emmets) for Quinn, Bradley Hickey (Tinahely) for Fogarty, Tom Moran (Dunlavin) for Barrett, John Doyle (Carnew) for Tomkins, Sean Coffey (Rathnew) for Darcy, Dylan Smyth (Rathnew) for Ging, Jason Steed (Baltinglass) for McHugh, Adam Hatton (Tinahely) for Maguire, Jack Fleming (Baltinglass) for Keogh, David Lalor (Dunlavin) for Doody, Chris Grimes (Baltinglass)