Wicklow footballers and hurlers get back to business

IT’S back to the serious business again for the Wicklow Senor footballers and hurlers as they set off on their national league journeys for 2018.

First up on Sunday afternoon is Seamus Murphy’s hurlers who will take on Armagh in Bray at 12.30pm. With their Kehoe Cup final against Longford postponed due to the weather, this league opener will be a welcome return to action and a good chance for Seamus Murphy to see where his charges are at.

Armagh will not be an easy task by any stretch of the imagination but Wicklow should have too much for the Orchard County all things being equal. With Andy O’Brien and George O’Brien in the form they are in currently up front and the likes of Warren Kavanagh and Martin O’Brien back minding the house, Wicklow hurling supporters will hopefully be celebrating an opening day victory come 2pm.

At that exact time in Joule Park, Aughrim, John Evans’ footballers will be lining out to face Waterford in their NFL Division 4 opener. The Wicklow boss has injury concerns, with John Crowe, Harry Wilson and Darragh Fitzgerald likely to miss the opener, but the Kerry native is feeling very positive due to the positivity in the camp ahead of the visit of the Deise.

“Training has been good,” said John Evans. “We got a couple of run outs in the the O’Byrne Cup and while results didn’t go our way it was more about giving players a taste of the action. We played 32 or 33 players (against Meath and Carlow) and it was good to give them the experience,” he added. “There’s a lot of freshness in the panel, there’s a nice blend in there. It’s about building a new team (this year), because, the team that was there was not operating,” said John Evans. “The weather has been really against us for training, we had to call off a few trainings due to snow and wind and storms. That hasn’t stymied the enthusiasm of the players,” he added.