It may never happen again. JJ Doyle takes a philosophical stance about Wexford hurling’s future. Saturday’s All-Ireland Under-21 final against Limerick may well be the last chance for this generation to make any sort of breakthrough. It could be their only chance to capture a national title.
“What we need to do now is to get over the line,” said Doyle, Wexford’s manager. “None of these guys ever won anything other than at under-21. It’s the first time they have won Leinster titles. The next step has to be winning an All-Ireland. They may not get another chance. This is the only one we are guaranteed to be in. People talk about last year being a good year for Wexford hurling but we didn’t win anything. Not at senior or under-21. To progress this year we need to win an All-Ireland.”
Last year
Ten Wexford hurlers return from last year’s defeat to an all-conquering Clare, who were conquered by Limerick this season, to try and make amends.
“I’m not too big on drawing on last year. We have five big guys gone, five new lads in.It’s now or never for some of these guys. Some of them will never pull on a Wexford jersey again. They get one chance at this. All we ask of them is they give it their all. We are not asking them to do anything they haven’t done before.”
The problem, Doyle could be referring to, was in evidence during last Sunday’s senior final. For all the success and work being done at underage in counties like Clare, Limerick, Dublin and Wexford, Galway even, nobody has been able to break the relentless consistency of Kilkenny.
“We won’t get the respect that these lads deserve until we get over the line with a national title,” Doyle added. “Leinster, for some reason, seems to be down the line as regards how people think. It’s supposedly easy to win Leinster but people don’t realise how strong Dublin and Kilkenny are. Wexford have won three [provincial titles at under-21 in a row] but I’ve heard it said they weren’t tested. I don’t know any team that goes out against Kilkenny and isn’t tested. Listen, I’m sure we’ll get a test on Saturday and see what we are made of.
Performance
“We firmly believe if we give the performance that we are capable of, and we feel we didn’t do that in last year’s All-Ireland, we are capable of winning.”
Speaking in his ambassadorial role for competition sponsors Bord Gáis Energy, Dublin manager Ger Cunningham whistled a similar tune about the way Kilkenny dismissed early summer talk of a level playing field. "A lot of people felt it was a very open season at the start of the year and that there was a lot of teams that could challenge Kilkenny," said Cunningham.
“It didn’t pan out that way if you look at the four matches they played. Wexford didn’t challenge them in Nowlan Park. They beat Galway pretty comfortably in the Leinster final. When they get to Croke Park in semi and All-Ireland finals they are just hard to beat.
“People were expecting better matches. Tipp Galway one is the only one that stands out. We’ve been blessed over the last number of years with great finals.” Limerick manager John Kiely has named the same team that started in the semi-final against Galway to face Wexford
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