MASSIVE STEP
Former Model stalwart Rossiter backing Wexford to take scalp in Tralee ambush
“It’s not going to be easy, the lads know it”
KEITH ROSSITER was on the field in Wexford Park when ‘ Dancing at the Crossroads’ started belting out of the tannoy to mark the official demise of All-Ireland champions Clare. He lined out the following Saturday night in mid- summer 2014 when Wexford struck another blow to Munster hurling by turfing Waterford out of the Championship.
Back then, Austin Gleeson was an audacious young buck not long out of minor who was listed at corner-forward. Tadhg de Burca had yet to be re-invented as an AllStar and mould-breaking sweeper, while Seamus Prendergast was one of the links to the celebrated Waterford team of the previous decade who came so close to an All-Ireland.
Injury curtailed his involvement that night and little did Rossiter realise it would be his last victory in a Wexford jersey. Even after Limerick ended the county’s odyssey in emphatic fashion in the subsequent All-Ireland quarter-final, and long-serving Rossiter pulled the curtain down on his own county career the following winter, there was a sense of Wexford hurling being on the rise.
Instead, it’s Waterford who have kicked on from that Nowlan Park meeting to the extent that they travel to Thurles to play Tipperary as defending Allianz League champions and are sitting proudly atop Division 1A. Meanwhile, Wexford face a season-defining trip down south to face high-flying Kerry who could drag them into the relegation mire and the prospect of hurling’s third tier of League competition.
‘Waterford were a young and up and coming team,’ recalls Rossiter of that qualifier that proved to be the modern high point for Wexford hurling. ‘They were putting in place a game plan that they probably weren’t overly comfortable with at the time.
‘In fairness to Derek McGrath, they stuck with it for 2015 and got it spot on, won a National League, and put Kilkenny to the pin of their collars in Championship.
‘So they were in transition in 2014 when Wexford got a hold of them.
‘In 2014, we were a step or two ahead of Waterford, as we showed in Nowlan Park. But the lads failed to build on it.’ The big question is why? ‘We thought Wexford would come through last spring,’ he admits. ‘We had the key League fixtures at home, everything lined up perfectly to get back up to Division 1A. I think a bit of that sunk in with the players as well.
‘In 2015 we thought it was going to happen rather than making it happen like Waterford. We’re after dropping back a level now after getting such a kicking in 2015.’
That kicking consisted of an uninspiring League campaign in Division 1B followed by a Championship blow- out. Any optimism generated by a hat-trick of Leinster Under 21 titles evaporated in a merciless 5-25 to 0-16 rout by Kilkenny in the provincial semifinal, Cork then finishing their season by turning Wexford over in a qualifier on their own patch.
Kerry’s encouraging spring form in the division, already taking Laois’ scalp and pushing Limerick to within four points, suggests this is going to be a real test of Wexford’s confidence.
‘ It’s set up perfectly for an ambush,’ says Rossiter. ‘ Wexford travelling down — it’s set up for Kerry. Wexford on the back of an injury crisis at the moment. The panel is shrinking by the day.
‘It’s not going to be easy — the lads know that. The brighter outlook would be that if Wexford go to Kerry and get a result, and if they then beat Laois and Offaly, they’re in a League quarter-final.
‘Okay, you’re not getting promotion but you’re back mixing it with the big guns. If you could take a scalp in that, the League would arguably be deemed a success.
‘If Kerry do beat us, you could be in relegation trouble. It’s a flip of a coin, then. Set the lads up nicely or have Wexford in the doldrums. It’s an important one.’
The senior county team’s continued loss of form is a bit of a mystery when so much else is going right for the county. The Under 21s have broken the stranglehold of Kilkenny and Dublin at underage level while Oulart-The Ballagh won the Leinster title.
He knows there is no direct correlation to the county team annexing provincial crowns but it can only help in fuelling belief that the tide will turn — eventually: ‘Wexford have to take it one step at a time before thinking of Leinsters.’
The next step is at Tralee tomorrow afternoon.