Wexford’s ‘history’ always gives them chance against Cats, insists Byrne

It is, Wexford great Billy Byrne concedes, difficult to put a finger on the mood in the county just now.

After all, it’s only a few weeks since they were chastened in Belfast by Antrim, a result that came on the back of last year’s remarkable collapse against Westmeath, enough of a jolt to the system to send a county into a tailspin.

They’ve stabilised since. And on the credit side of the ledger their response to the Antrim defeat was to topple Galway and take care of a Carlow side good enough to draw with Kilkenny the previousweekend. And now they head to N owl an Park with a place in a Leinster final on offer. So are Wexford hurling people giddy, relieved or expectant?

“I think you could put all those three things into it to be honest with you,” Byrne replies. “I did have the feeling they were starting to come together there even though Antrim beat us. But Antrim are not a bad team. You can’t write off teams anymore.

“Going into the game we had a few inexperienced fellas but I think that experience has stood to them because I was on teams that got beat by Antrim. And for young lads coming through, that will make them stronger. We’ re happy the way things are going but we haven’t qualified yet. That’s the big thing.”

It’s been a roller-coaster for new manager Keith Rossiter, the first Wexford native to take the team since Liam Dunne stepped down in 2016. But out of the rubble of that Belfast defeat, they travel to Kilkenny carrying more than a puncher’s chance. During the Cody years, the Kilkenny-Wexford rivalry was largely put on ice. Byrne points out that the Cats had everyone on the rack in those days.

“If you go back, apart from the period where Kilkenny dominated everyone to a certain degree. A bit like Limerick now, Wexford were always able to put up a good show against Kilkenny.

“It’s an age-old rivalry that brings something different to the table when the two of them meet. Certainly it has had that the last number of years but it’s really an ‘on the day’ fixture. And certainly over the last number of years Wexford have performed well against Kilkenny.

“[ Wi th Cody’ s]Kil kenny team basically every team had that ‘fear’ going back to that generation. It has levelled off a small bit and certainly we have the forwards and a few younger guys that have come into the backs and they are learning.”

From Cody’s first year in 1999 through to 2016, Kilkenny’s win percentage across Walsh Cup, league and championship stood at just under 80pc.

But the worm has turned of late, and starting with Davy Fitzgerald’ s first seasonin charge when they beat Kil kenny in both league and championship, Wexford have reasserted themselves.

Since 2017, Wexford have won 11 of their 20 meetings and they are unbeaten in their last six encounters. Their last defeat came in the 2021 Leinster Championship, after extra-time.

“It’s the history that’s in it that makes [the rivalry]. And that history has never been let die. I would have learned it from my father who learned it from his father going back to the ’50s and before.

“Everyone who came in through the door the conversation was about the game of hurling. And more than likely when you talk about the game of hurling the first thing that came on your lips was Kilkenny and Wexford. Down through the years it has been a great rivalry and there were other great ones as well.

“But Kilkenny always felt like the benchmark of where you had to be. There was something about it. The nerves just disappeared when you were playing Kilkenny. It’s strange. You knew it meant so much, the nerves went out and you believe you could perform against a team because over the history of the GAA, that’s always the way it was.”

Byrne points to their easing injury situation as one of the reasons for their upturn in form. And, he argues, in Lee Chin, Conor McDonald, Rory O’Connor and Liam Óg McGovern, they have the forwards to give anyone problems.

A win in Kilkenny and a place in the Leinster final and the mood in Wexford would certainly shift to giddy. Byrne just wants to ensure they are in the championship come Sunday night.

“Progression is the big thing . . . the way they have hurled in the last couple of games has been a joy to watch. They are getting the balls into the forwards a lot quicker and if you have forwards of the calibre of Rory O’Connor, Lee Chin, Conor McDonald, Liam Óg, the quicker you get the ball into them more than likely things will happen.”

“The nerves just disappeared when you were playing Kilkenny” Billy Byrne