Positives from defeat

Evans happy with players but not new rules

‘A good workout’ was how Wicklow Senior football manager John Evans described his side’s clash with Longford in their opening O’Byrne Cup game in Newtownforbes in Longford on Saturday evening.

Heavy rain beforehand made conditions very difficult for both sets of players and Wicklow’s kicking of 10 wides in the opening half as well as the concession of a fiercely unlucky goal left them vulnerable in the second.

John Evans says that he wouldn’t be disappointed with the wides given the time of year and that his players were getting themselves into the shooting positions.

‘Overall, I thought the game was good, twas a good workout,’ said Evans after the game.

‘I think 10 (wides) in the first half, at this time of the year I wouldn’t say that was disappointing, we got into the position of doing it, and I’d say that nine of them definitely got within two feet (of the posts) and one of them we would contend was a point,’ he added.

The fixture was also Wicklow’s first competitive game under the new rules. The Wicklow boss is no fan of the developments.

‘You’d have to have sympathy for the referee more than anything else, there were lads shouting ‘three’, ‘four’, ‘two’ and ‘three’, there’s too many things missed by the referee because he’s trying to focus in on it.

‘The conditions were difficult enough besides implementing the rules.

‘I don’t think anybody used the mark because of the conditions. You’re kicking for the sake of kicking just the same as you’re passing for the sake of passing.

What was his first thoughts when he heard about the new rules?

‘I was taken aback completely, I was flabbergasted. We’re amateur sportsmen, we’re not out to there entertain like all the other professional rugby and soccer players and everyone else for that matter, and trying to expect us without doing a course, without doing any induction courses or anything, to go changing rules because fellas feel fit to go changing them. Look, I don’t see the point of it.

‘At the same time, I’ll conform, I just don’t see the point of it.

‘You’ve the opposition shouting four, and the others... it’s confusing, lads are looking for little tricks like that,’ he added.

Wicklow take on Louth this Saturday in Bray.