Most people will tell you the Leinster football championship has become an utterly predictable, one-sided contest. Séamus “Banty” McEnaney goes further.
“If it were a competition between Dublin and a team made up of every other county in Leinster, I still think Dublin would win,” says McEnaney. He is in his first season in charge of the Wexford footballers who, if they beat Carlow on Sunday, will next play the two-time All-Ireland champions.
“I think it’s been cut and dried for the last 10 years. And that’s a long time for it not to be open. I think Dublin are still streaks ahead of everyone else.
“I won’t say that will never change, but I don’t think the provincial championship will ever change. It may be still relevant in Ulster, Connacht, or maybe even Munster. So I don’t think you will get agreement from those counties. But then Carlow, I know, will be doing everything they can to beat Wexford on Sunday, to get to play Dublin. And that’s the game we’re in.”
And no matter who wins on Sunday, there is no guarantee they will have home advantage against Dublin (Dr Cullen Park or Wexford Park may not be deemed suitable): “I think Carlow would say the same, if it wasn’t in Carlow. But other than that the question is totally irrelevant at the moment.”
Commute
All off which begs another question: why did McEnaney take the job in Wexford this season, which involves a 2½-hour commute from his home in Monaghan, given the apparently zero chance of any silverware?
“Well first of all so much goes into [it], from a management and players’ point of view, then you’d like to be winning every game to enjoy [it]. And I certainly felt Wexford could win every game they needed to win in Division Four, and get promoted, and I really enjoyed that journey.”
He had previously managed his native Monaghan, from 2004-2010, then did two years with Meath, but this was a journey of a different sort: “Yeah, 2½ hours down the road, taking in the M50. And probably not inside the limit, two hours back up the road. And I’m 2½ hours there. So it’s a seven-, eight-hour day, maybe 30 hours a week, between everything.
“I’m still busy in my day job [a publican by trade], and the journey is taxing, and you don’t know how much longer you can sustain that. But don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the job. I’ve a brilliant county board, a brilliant group of players, giving me absolutely everything. The grounds are fantastic when I arrive there, so everything from the football side is absolutely brilliant.”
He often shares the drive with the Wexford trainer, Martin McElkennon, the native of Tyrone who previously worked with him. “You get a certain amount of work done on the phone, going up and down. But again, where I was coming from, I was four years out of the game. Last summer was the first summer I got that bug back.
“Football, you know, can be a bad disease. And I got that bug back last summer, and just felt I wanted to get back in, at a level where a team was capable of winning games in the league, to get the enjoyment back, and I felt I could bring a little more professionalism to Wexford, to help them out of Division Four.
“Which we did, and just about, I must add. We won our first four games by a grand total of 10 points. People don’t realise how difficult Division Four is. It was Wexford’s second year there, and the longer you stay in Division Four, the more you become a Division Four team.”
Going places
His first impression of the Wexford squad reinforced what he thought, that they were a team going places.
“I felt maybe the Wexford players weren’t quite at the level of conditioning they needed to be, and we worked really hard on that. But I’m of the opinion if you’re good enough you’re old enough and I would put a lot of trust in the experienced players like Ciarán Lyng, PJ Banville, Daithí Waters, Brian Malone. All those boys played every Sunday, and with them fit I felt we had a serious chance.”
He has committed to three years with Wexford, and while he has no intention of cutting that short, he wonders how much longer intercounty managers can keep finding the “free” time.
“It’s become inevitable, within management and players, you either have to be self-employed, or a teacher. And preferably a teacher. I don’t think you could hold down a demanding job, 8am-6pm, not able to use your phone. I’d love to be retired and managing a team. But if you’re with the top four or five teams, and doing your job properly, you couldn’t work as well. Because of all the stuff that goes with that.
“And the same mostly goes for the players. People don’t realise these players give their lives to Gaelic football, up to 31, 32. But it is a life commitment, to play football, and I think the players deserve unbelievable credit.”
