A busy time ahead!

Senior footballers and hurlers in action this weekend

THERE’S very little rest for the footballers and hurlers of Wicklow with both camps back in action on Saturday, December 30, in the O’Byrne and Walsh Cup competitions. Seamus Murphy’s second team will head for Kilcoole on Sunday to take on DCU St Pat’s in the Kehoe Cup as the Wicklow boss and trainer Michael Neary look to get as much hurling in as possible early in the season in preparation for a tilt at league and Christy Ring success.

John Evans’ Senior football squad will welcome Turlough O’Brien’s Carlow to Bray on Saturday at 2pm in the O’Byrne Cup. This will be a very interesting work-out for the Garden County men against a team that delivered plenty on the playing fields last year. Will the neighbours suffer the second-year syndrome in 2018, however? At times when a ‘weaker’ county does relatively well, they can fall back the following year and endure something of a nightmare, but Turlough O’Brien and Stephen Poacher are intelligent men and will have made moves to ensure a freshness in the camp.

It will be interesting to see how the dynamics of the new Wicklow camp will work. John Evans has brought an enthusiasm and a boundless positivity to the job in the first few months so it will be intriguing to see how things unfold when his team take to the field in official competitions.

Interesting too how the man- agement team interact. Evans and his selectors, Brian Heaslip from Baltinglass, Steven Cushe from Coolkenno and Leighton Glynn from Rathnew have been putting their charges through their paces over the last while with the panel being cut down to 40 with more to follow.

Will James Stafford feature in the early competitions, or any of the Rathnew contingent for that matter?

A trip to Navan to face Meath follows for Wicklow on Sunday, January 7, where the spirit and mettle of the Garden County men will be tested. Last year’s fixture at the same venue saw Wicklow’s hopes dashed early on. A decent contest would go down nicely for the weary Wicklow football followers.

A stiff challenge at Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday, December 30, awaits Seamus Murphy’s Wicklow Senior hurlers.

Superb work at underage and in the clubs has resulted in Carlow hurling making considerable strides in recent years and they are on a slightly elevated platform to the Wicklow men in terms of hurling ability and physical stature.

That’s not to say Wicklow are without a chance.

Last year at the same venue in the Christy Ring Cup semi-final, Seamus Murphy’s men performed well at times and although defeat (0-24 to 2-08) was the ultimate outcome, had certain things gone in their favour and had injuries not plagued the team at the time, a closer outcome might have been realised.

The county team will have a fresh feeling to it this year with the arrival of Glenealy’s Michael Anthony O’Neill and Carnew’s Timmy Collins as selectors.

There are now four respected hurling men on the sideline, all four of whom have nothing but the best in their hearts for Wicklow hurling.

The dynamics of this quartet and how that manifests itself within the team and performances makes the next few months extremely interesting.

The introduction of the second team is potentially promising. This surely gives fringe players an excellent opportunity to impress and stake claims on various positions. The clash against DCU St Pat’s on Sunday in Kilcoole is the start of that journey.

Wicklow’s first team will wel- come Wexford to Bray for their second game in this competition on January 7. You can expect a fairly experimental Model County side, but Davy Fitzgerald and his management team won’t want any nightmare slips or embarrassing close calls at this stage of the season and certainly not against Seamus Murphy’s men so you should anticipate a full throttle performance from the neighbours. How Wicklow deal with that will be interesting to see.

A trip to Louth on January 7 awaits the second team in the Kehoe Cup and Longford will come calling for the last group game to a Wicklow venue (to be announced) on January 14. The final will be played on January 21 between the top two teams, with home venue being decided by a toss.