FORTRESS WEXFORD
Family fun day out for fans at a unique ground but with Davy Fitz’s charges unbeaten on their own patch it will be no walk in the Park for Kilkenny at...
LIKE the Viking Splash tour or a trip to the Guinness Storehouse, here comes the new cultural and social attraction in the southeast: The Wexford Park Experience. If Fáilte Ireland had any sense, they’d market and promote a trip to Innovate Wexford Park for a senior hurling game along just those lines, in the manner of the fun-filled historical tour of Dublin by yellow bus-cum-boat or a trip to St James’s Gate. It has that same feel to it at the moment as the Davy Fitzgerald revolution continues apace.
There are very few grounds in the country which haven’t bowed to the concerns of litigation and declared the pitch off limits for a puckaround on a live match day. Wexford Park is one of those, the TG4 clip of the half-time scenes last Saturday going viral, the pitch invaded with young kids wielding hurls and having an impromptu mini-game, one bunch in particular, shouldering each other like the Wexford-Galway game was still going on inside their own heads.
Then there was the clip of the gasún sneaking in through a gate behind James Skehill’s goal and poaching a sliotar when the umpire’s back was turned. His own personal memento of the day. Of the Wexford Park Experience.
One which, since Fitzgerald has taken charge, has ended each time with the customary pitch invasion as fans celebrate a victory. It’s one of the stand-out features of his reign since taking charge at the start of 2017 that Wexford haven’t lost a home game at the town venue on his watch. In two separate National League campaigns and in the Championship.
Last Saturday represented the seventh consecutive win there. Fortress Wexford Park. That’s seven games and counting as Wexford have clinched promotion from Division 1B, reached a first Leinster final since 2004, and are now one step away from a first Division 1 final appearance since 1993 and two steps from a first title since 1973.
And it’s 10 wins from 11 on Wexford soil when the four other Walsh Cup matches at three separate home venues are taken into account – at Páirc Uí Síochain in Gorey, the Shelmaliers GAA venue of Hollymount (twice), and O’Kennedy Park, New Ross.
Fitzgerald’s Wexford project started with an annihilation of UCD in a first round Walsh Cup game in early January 2017, a 5-31 to 1-8 massacre in the offBroadway setting of Páirc Uí Síochain. Dublin were beaten in round three and the only blemish on the record came at the hands of Kilkenny in the semi-final of the competition at New Ross by a single point, 0-15 to 0-14.
Taking the proud record at Wexford Park, the list of scalps is a prized one. Limerick, in the spring of 2017; Kilkenny in Championship in high summer; Cork, Clare, and Galway this spring. That’s the Munster, Leinster and All-Ireland champions all in one go. Not to mention his native Clare, with its added layer of significance.
Roughly 15 minutes after the final whistle last Saturday and with League and All-Ireland champions Galway beaten, Fitzgerald still hasn’t made it back to the dressing room. For those chasing up his reaction, the search is an easy one. Locate the biggest crowd and he’s almost certain to be in the middle of it.
True to form, RTé reporter Marty Morrissey has him on the far stand side, a big roar going up as the interview winds up. He stops to shoot the breeze on his way across the field, making a point of emphasising how the county has embraced him as Brian Cody’s Kilkenny come to town for the National League semi-final.
‘We’re playing Kilkenny down here. We’ll have 8-10,000 people here. There will be an unbelievable atmosphere. You’ve seen the atmosphere today – why wouldn’t you want it?’
The bandwagon has been gathering apace. For the opening round of the League away to Waterford, the throw-in had to be delayed by 10 minutes because of the crowd gathering and the congestion at the gates. And that was mainly down to the big travelling support in the crowd of over 7,000.
It was hardly a coincidence that last year’s Leinster final attendance for Wexford versus Galway represented a new record, a whopping 60,000-plus.
This afternoon’s semi-final against Kilkenny is sure to draw a big crowd and there is already talk of the return meeting in the roundrobin stage of the Leinster Championship as being a potential sell-out at Nowlan Park.
After the same teams met in round five of the League a matter of weeks ago – Kilkenny ended a run of three defeats against Wexford by winning 0-22 to 0-19, though the latter had already qualified for the knock-out stages – Fitzgerald had one eye already on that summer meeting.
‘We both know what the story is. Today will be 100 miles away from what will be here in June. It will be a lot faster surface; the game will be a lot quicker. I don’t think there will be a puck of a ball in it.
‘For me, the most important thing for me is that Wexford is competitive. No matter what happens, we have to stay there or thereabouts. And I think we will. We won’t be afraid coming down here – we’ll look forward to the challenge. To me, it’s actually too long to wait for. I’d rather it was coming quicker and we could tear into it.’ He didn’t know then that another match-up against Kilkenny was on its way.
This time at home. Another chance to extend a proud winning run at the venue to eight games. And give Kilkenny a taste of The Wexford Park Experience.
We’ll have 10,000 people here and an unbelievable atmosphere