Foxe focuses on college work
Current situation an eye-opener for talented dual jewel
IT’S NO secret that Wexford camogie has been going through a tough time in the last few years.
There have been a couple of rays of light along the way - more competitive under-age teams and the exploits of St. Martin’s in the club championship - but few would argue that it has been good enough for a county that won four Senior All-Irelands in six campaigns from 2007.
That, naturally, demanded a rebuild, and with Kevin Tattan in charge it finally seems like the wherewithal to get things going in the right direction is there at the top of the pyramid.
There was a huge amount of work for the Cork native to file through in the past few months, but once he knew who he had at his disposal, the first task would have been identifying the cornerstones of the county team for the next decade.
One would think, in attack, that Chloe Foxe would have been the first name that warranted use of a ‘Sharpie’.
The 22-year old Wexford, St. Martin’s and U.C.D. forward has been a regular for her county since she made her debut against Tipperary in February, 2016.
Up until that point it had been an ideal progression for Foxe. While winning wasn’t something that was ingrained in those under-age teams, she did start to emerge from the pack as arguably the stand-out talent.
‘We obviously didn’t have a lot of success,’ she admitted. ‘We won a Leinster final - an ‘A’ title with Minor - but other than that our age group weren’t the most progressive in winning titles. We held a strong group core coming through so, I suppose, that’s great in that regard.’
Yet, of those that did start to make the step up, many saw their progression almost flatline. Some, like Sarah O’Connor, struggled with injuries, while others found it difficult to go to the next level and stalled.
Foxe sees the age gap between those that were nearing the end and those coming through as a big minus.
‘A lot of issues that we’re after facing as a team kind of extended from the problem of the players not really taking ownership, and I think that’s down to the experience that we lacked,’ she said.
‘When I first broke onto the panel we all had a group of maybe myself, Amy Cardiff, Sarah O’Connor, Una Sinnott, Joanne Dillon, and there was a huge age gap between Mary Leacy and Una Leacy and girls like that.
‘We didn’t gain the experience that we needed and quickly enough to bridge the gap. I think that it’s only now that we started to really fill in those gaps, and a prime example in that is Amy Cardiff being in the captain’s role for the year.
‘She’s a great example [of] how Wexford camogie is moving on and willing to go with that age group and push on.’
Moving on has been needed at club level too, but for very different reasons. By most standards, St. Martin’s have had a fantastic few campaigns, but at the same time, every season has ended somewhere with defeat, meaning there’s always a lingering ‘what might have been’ feeling.
‘Honestly, the last two or three years has been a bit of a rollercoaster experience,’ Foxe admitted.
‘We’ve had some great wins, getting to Leinster finals and [an] All-Ireland but we can’t really forget yet that what we’ve achieved is nowhere near the great teams like Oulart and St. Ibar’s that have gone before us.
‘I suppose the important thing for us as a team is that there’s still quite a good core there. It’s been a learning experience for us but it’s a journey as well. We know where we want to go but it’s still [been] quite an enjoyable experience.’
The biggest day of those seasons was probably the most crushing disappointment for Foxe. Having worked their way into an All-Ireland final against Slaughtneil, things just didn’t go well for the young Wexford club.
‘Since when I can remember I wanted to play in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park, but again you look back on it now and obviously there’s an awful lot of regrets in terms of the way the day went for us as a team.
‘I’ve said it before, but you dream of kind of a fairytale when you step out in Croke Park, but when you see the snow falling from the sky and it just it turns into a bit of a nightmare then when things aren’t going your way.’
However, it’s not just the small ball that has given Foxe memorable days in the last few seasons. Both for Clongeen and Wexford, Intermediate medals have been earned, with the former taking the county title in 2019 and the latter also securing provincial glory last summer.
Amongst an overall cloudy outlook for sport, the situation for Clongeen is pretty clear for Foxe.
‘I think Shelmaliers are probably a bit far ahead in terms of any team being able to beat them at the minute, just because of the sheer talent in the club.
‘For us we kind of just want to, as a club this year, if we’re able to play, is just kind of compete and stay up there, that’s ultimately our goal.’
Things are murkier at county level. Being a dual player now is near impossible over a long period of time, and it seems that Foxe has came to a similar conclusion after trying it the last two years. At the moment it’s one or the other.
‘I know some people have managed it, but for me I think I’d nearly prefer just to stick at the one. Last year I was hit with a lot of injuries so it made it difficult,’ she explained.
‘Obviously looking to a relegation final with a camogie team on a Wednesday night is difficult when you’re playing an All-Ireland [football] quarter-final the weekend after, so peaks and troughs.’
While results have been tough over Foxe’s four seasons with the county team, the current situation has given her the opportunity to think about the bigger picture, about how much she just appreciates being out there, competing.
Right now a game of anything would interest Foxe, given that she’s unfamiliar with such a long break having played both codes, club and county, for over a decade.
At the same time, she’s availed of this unexpected opportunity to take a short step back from everything, as she explained.
‘I’ve thought about that a lot and at the minute I’ve decided just to take a month off from, I suppose, the accountability around training in the off-season as it is, and I’m taking a month to focus on college.
‘I’ve never gotten the opportunity to do it while I’ve been playing at a county level, and if I continue to play at a county level I’ll probably never get the opportunity again. It’s difficult to comprehend in such an unprecedented situation when or if we’ll be able to play.
‘I think everyone is sitting at home right now and previous you’d be saying we’re going out to play camogie to win All-Irelands or going out to play football to win All-Irelands and county finals, but in times like these you realise how inconsequential the winning part is.
‘Nobody is sitting at home right now thinking, “God, I’d love to win an All-Ireland tomorrow”, I think most of us are just saying, “Jesus, I’d love to just play a practice match or even go training”, so you begin to realise that kind of the actual participation and the social aspect is more important.’