We’ve learned the hard way, says O’Keeffe
DIARMUID O’Keeffe wasn’t part of the Wexford fundraising delegation to New York last weekend — ‘I didn’t get the call up unfortunately!’ he says laughing — but he acknowledges that organising the finances now needed to support a county team at elite level is a serious business.
In the same week that manager Davy Fitzgerald led a party across the Atlantic, it was revealed that inter-county training costs for teams had broken the €25 million mark for the first time.
Wexford’s books might be in a healthy surplus but with so many other counties with AllIreland ambitions beating a fundraising path to the US, they have now followed suit. ‘Intercounty set-ups are very much run in a business mindset now,’ admits O’Keeffe. ‘The finances necessary are phenomenal. The lads sat down a number of months ago and looked at how they’d pull in some extra money. Going to New York was the best option they thought was possible. Yeah, the finances that are used are gone to crazy levels.
‘I believe they got on very well and it was a good couple of days,’ he added about the Stateside trek.
O’Keeffe has blazed his own trail under Davy Fitzgerald, producing one of the more remarkable statistics in Wexford’s remarkable 2017 season. The wing-back scored in every competitive game as promotion from Division 1B was achieved and Kilkenny were beaten for the first time at Nowlan Park in the League since 1957 and the Championship since 2004. Starring in a counter-attacking role, he even popped up to score a goal in the Leinster final against Galway and has been moonlighting at midfield to brilliant effect this season.
‘It was very significant,’ he said of the Kilkenny results. ‘It gave us massive belief that we could compete with the top teams. We beat them in the League semi-final, beat them in the Leinster semi-final.
‘It gave us the belief that we could push on and compete with the top teams in the country. The atmosphere that night was unbelievable but no different to last weekend against Cork — Wexford supporters will follow in numbers.’
He doesn’t agree with the suggestion that putting so much into the first half of the season left Wexford’s tank somewhat empty in late summer when they were beaten by Waterford in an arm-wrestle of an All-Ireland quarter-final.
‘We got promotion in the League, we met Galway in a Leinster final and three weeks later Waterford in a quarterfinal and those two teams ended up in the All-Ireland. When you are playing teams that are competing for an All-Ireland there is only a couple of points either way.
‘I don’t think it was a case of running out of steam it was a case of we were meeting another top calibre team and if you are not on top of your game you are going to suffer and unfortunately we did in the Leinster final particularly and in the quarter-final we were beaten by four points.’
Wexford have the wind in their sails again early in this year’s Allianz League with wins over Waterford away and Cork at home. Saturday night’s trip to Thurles will evoke memories of last year’s League semi-final when Davy Fitzgerald’s pitch invasion and altercation with Tipperary player Jason Forde made the headlines, the Model boss’ outrage sparked at the build-up to Tipperary’s second goal when a free out should have been awarded.
‘They caught us for two goals against the run of play and really in the second half we got to three or four points behind them but we could never break that gap of just getting a little closer. They finished up, I think, with five goals in the end and two late on.
‘It was a steep learning curve and we picked up a lot of things from it. Tipperary went on to lose the League final but got to an All-Ireland semi-final and almost an All-Ireland final again. I suppose the biggest thing we learned was that if you don’t perform to the best of your ability as a team then you’re going to suffer and we did very much that day.’