‘Expecting a tough, tough battle’
Wicklow boss eager for return of inter-county action
THE last time the Wicklow Senior footballers took to the field for a competitive match was all the way back on February 29.
That was an away win in London. As for when the previous occasion was that Wicklow played in Aughrim, that was February 16, a win against Sligo which was, itself, originally supposed to take place the weekend before but was postponed due to Storm Ciara.
The almost eight months that have come since then have been the longest eight months in living memory. Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a strangle hold on life across the island and world as a whole.
When football finally returned earlier this summer, the clubs took precedent, which led to quite the dramatic, storybook championship at all grades, wherein the warriors ruled the roost in the form of Baltinglass (senior), Donard-The Glen (intermediate), Valleymount (Junior ‘A’), and St. Nicholas’ (Minor ‘A’).
The nature of the Senior championship, in particular, has caught the eye of Davy Burke, who finally got his hands on his county players from Monday, September 14.
The Kildare native, who said that he fancied Baltinglass to win Miley for the first time since 2016 from the start of the competition, admitted that several stand-outs from the 2020 campaign had forced his way into his panel ahead of this weekend’s crunch clash against Antrim in Division 4 of the national football league. Matthew Ging (Tinahely), Pat Burke (Baltinglass), Peter Hempenstall (AGB), and Saoirse Kearon (Avondale) are among those included, as well as Ross O’Brien (Rathnew), who made his return to the field this season after suffering a long-term injury last year.
Each of those names, added to the players that he had under his tutelage before lockdown, will give the team a big lift when they welcome Antrim to Aughrim on Saturday at 12.30pm. It will be a big test for them, however; Antrim are currently second in the league
with three wins and a draw from five games. They are one of five teams fighting it out for promotion to Division 3. Limerick are outright favourites to go up with four wins from five, while Wicklow, Wexford, and Sligo are also dogging it out to go up.
When it comes to Saturday, however, it is all about
getting back out on the field, from Burke’s perspective; an occasion they have been waiting for all year.
‘We are seven months waiting for a game,’ Burke said. ‘All of the club managers and club officials and club facilitators didn’t know how good they had it. Some of the county lads had to sit back and take their medicine. We are all looking forward to the weekend to get back at it.
‘Hopefully, there are not too many figures on cases and whatever else we’re hearing every evening on the dreaded six-one news. I do think, though, intercounty football and hurling is a huge outlet that the country is crying out for. I do think it is a less risky environment than, maybe, the club, since there is only one team per county.
The national league is the most important competition for 70 or 80 per cent of the championship from my point of view.’
In terms of preparation, the Senior final did not have much of a say on Wicklow’s preparation. When one takes into account the London game at the end of February, only Mark Jackson (Baltinglass) and Eoin Darcy (Tinahely) were not able to join back up with the team when training resumed on September 14. When one includes those new additions, then four players – Jackson, Darcy, Matthew Ging, and Pat Burke – were busy with club commitments. Burke himself confessed that the way the championship played out well for the management team, with the absent players able to join up well in time to get ready for the return of the league, in which they have already collected three wins from five games.
In their way of recording their fourth win of the season will be Antrim, who themselves made the drop to Division 4 in 2017. It is a test that makes for a daunting one for Davy, who considers Antrim to be something of a wolf in sheep’s clothing; a Division 3 team that just so happens to be in Division 4.
‘I’m expecting a tough physical battle from a typical northern team, probably masquerading in Division 4, really. They’re probably a Division 3 side, really, who found themselves in Division 4.
‘From what I have seen, they’ve recruited well; Mark Sweeney‘s come back up from St. Jude’s, Ryan Murray’s come back in. They’ve used the break to strengthen.
‘I’m expecting the real Antrim down in Aughrim on Saturday. They’re the favourites for promotion, or maybe second favourites for promotion. We’re expecting a tough, tough battle,’ he said.