Tough beginnings
Wicklow Minors fall to heavy defeats
Dublin 4-10
Wicklow White 0-1 Dublin 5-14
Wicklow Blue 0-1
Wicklow Minor football manager Paddy Dalton says that last week’s heavy defeats suffered by his two squads at the hands of Dublin in UCD represent a line in the sand and shows the management team and the players what work is required to bridge the gap ahead of their opening Leinster championship game against Carlow on May 12.
The league game against Ger Lyons’ sharp and well organised outfit took the form of two games of two halves of 20 minutes each with the White team playing first followed by the Blue team. The White team suffered a 4-10 to 0-1 defeat while the Blue team fell to an even heavier 5-14 to 0-1 thumping on the Astro pitch at Bellefield.
Worryingly, from an organisational point of view, and totally out of the control of Paddy Dalton, was that this was the first competitive game played by the combined panel of 54 players still operating within the county panel.
The players have played one game but as part of either a north team (defeated Louth) or the south team (beaten by Laois) but because the Coolkenno stalwart was the last county Minor manager in place in the entire province he has not had the advantages other bosses have had with the Dublin side staying together constantly from last season in this the third year of the current management set up.
It was with these limitations that these two Wicklow teams took to the field against two very strong Dublin outfits and through a combination of Wicklow errors and quality play from the Dubs the results were unavoidable.
‘I was expecting it, I kind of knew,’ said Paddy Dalton a few days after the games. ‘I knew from Ray Cosgrave that Dublin are way ahead of a lot of other counties. They’ve picked their squad, they’ve played inhouse games. That’s the first game we’ve played as a squad together. We had a north team playing Louth and a south team playing Laois and I was happy up to that point. The north team beat Louth well and Laois bet the south team by a few points.
‘We have 54 lads on our panel, and we haven’t done any tactical work whatsoever. It’s been about conditioning and fitness and just trying to see lads and that’s when you’ll really get shown up against Dublin,’ said Paddy who said he would have liked the game to be a month later.
Dalton said that there were a number of factors in the defeat. The Astro pitch was the first with the Wicklow players not accustomed to the swiftness of the game on the surface given that they have been playing their games on heavy pitches in Ballinakill.
The second factor was the obvious fact that Dublin have played together so much given how ruthless and rehearsed their play was in all areas of the field. Paddy Dalton said that the Dubs were very well drilled and worked superbly on defensive systems. He also revealed that they also had a backroom team of up to 15 people with four physios in attendance.
The Wicklow boss also highlighted uncharacteristic errors made by his charges as allowing Dublin to dominate.
However, Dalton is very positive that these are changes and improvements that can be made very easily and quickly in the coming weeks. On Saturday last the Wicklow squad had a practice match with Wexford in Ferns after which the panel was due to be cut to 40 players. Ahead is a practice match against Limerick and then their second competitive game, that being against Kildare. And with each team automatically qualifying for a semi-final place there is at least one further game ahead as they team build to their championship opener with neighbours Carlow.
Paddy Dalton and his management team of Tony Hannon, Mervyn Travers, Podge Murphy and Jonathan Savage (S&C) have been impressed with the commitment of the squad but Dalton acknowledges that the result and performance against the Dubs is a ‘wakeup call’.
The Minor management team have been in place since January 2 of 2020 after the resignation of
Kevin O’Brien with Dalton’s name first put forward by the selection committee at County Convention in early December and ratified in early January.
With most counties already well up and running by then the Wicklow team are already hit with a major disadvantage before they even take to the field of play. However, with three months to go before championship there is plenty of positivity within the Wicklow Minor management team.
‘I’m delighted with it so far,’ said Paddy, ‘there’s great quality in the squad. Everybody I wanted to get in I’ve got in and I’m very happy. We’re not at that place yet (where Wicklow can compete with Dublin) but they’re going well,’ he added.
White team: Andrew Nolan; Mark Evans, Luke O’Brien, Ross Quinn; Matt Nolan, Liam O’Neill, Shane Collins; Jack Kirwan, Daniel Cooney; Finn Tracey, Daniel Silke Featherson, Thomas Keogh; Mikey O’Rourke, Niall Sheehan, Eoin Doyle. Subs: Mikey O’Toole, Conor Murphy, Noah Sheridan, Cathal Baker, Conor Fee, Adam Byrne.
Blue team: Chris Doyle; Austin Brennan, Adam Mullervy, Jean Luc Morris; Killian Clarke, Niall O’Connor, Hugh O’Toole; Oisin Gorman, Thomas Fisher; Ryan Kavanagh, Cormac McGraynor, John-Paul Nolan; Rory O’Dare, Reece Doyle, Tom Hodgekinson. Subs: Oisin Shannon, Cillian Bailey, Willie Eager, Oisin Morrissey, Joe McGeary, Oran O’Callaghan, Ewan Culbert.