Unfortunately for a mainly youthful Wexford team, this was a bridge too far against a very hungry Dublin team…
Despite a disappointing result on a score-line of 5-17 to 1-11, some positive aspects included Wexford’s style of play and their attitude on a freezing cold and soggy day in Parnell Park.
Captain leads by example
It was with great pleasure the Wexford football fans have seen a very young man in Liam Coleman rise to the challenge of taking on the role as Wexford senior football captain.
Despite his youth, this young Castletown starlet really stands up and delivers huge performances for his team in towering displays from midfield.
Against the pressure of the Dubs, on their own home patch, there were times – especially in the second half – when Liam plucked ball after ball clean out of the high skies and endeavoured to set up attacks for the model men. He gave an absolute aerial masterclass and had much the better of his direct opponent.
Deep into the second half, against a big score, Coleman surged up the through the Dublin half backline, powering his way past definitely 3 defenders with fantastic attitude and strength to win a scored free. The man has a serious engine and was all over the place, defending, linking and attacking with venom. There’s no doubt that he’s a young man with a lot of energy that Wexford will hope to utilise in the upcoming League campaign.
Exuberance of youth
For much of the game right up to about the 45 minute, Wexford despite some poor and costly errors were still doing reasonsbly well on the scoreboard. Much of it was down to the mercurial old dog Benny Brosnan and his magic radar from frees. However, the youth must be talked about too. The likes of Cian Hughes, Cathal Walsh, Dylan Furlong, Rory Tubritt; these lads were putting in some quality displays.
Cian Hughes, who is a fantastic nifty youngster from Kilanerin, had an all round exciting match. He was constantly out in front of his man, constantly looking for the ball, thus showing great responsibility and confidence and perhaps with a some better deliveries into him, he’ll continue to show promise. There’s no doubt that he has the potential to unlock the opposition defence in the league against weaker opposition.
Hughes scored a beauty of a score in the first half, winning the race, in dogged fashion,easily disposing of his man to the turf and finishing with aplomb.
Cathal Walsh of Monageer/Boolavogue scored an absolute peach of a goal in the first half, sizing up his man, bringing him on a short attacking tour, before putting on the rocket shoes and then rasping the peil right across the goalie into the far corner.
Another young man to shine was Rory Tubritt of Naomh Eanna who came on at half time as goalkeeper. I couldn’t believe my eyes as he pulled off two stunning saves in as many minutes, after unfortunately being left with no defensive support and it was a dire one on one situation, but both times making heroic saves. Another positive to take was the fact that his kickouts were mainly on the money despite facing into a stiff breeze
Positive management
I was really pleased with the attitude that the Wexford players were sent out onto the Parnell Park grass with on Saturday afternoon
It was very positive in many aspects, realistic to get bodies back and innovative in many ways. Credit must also go to the coaching team; when things went a bit south, they sent on subs very quality to give subs a chance to impress.
What was really interesting and intriguing to see was a clear experiment by John Hegarty and one I was quite excited about and one that with a bit of fine tuning could possibly work well and did at times against Dublin.
That was a high press on kick outs from the Wexford full forward line with a fourth player hanging up in that line or hovering slightly behind trying to second guess the kickout target area. It worked beautifully on occasion, one strikingly so, with so much pressure on the Dublin goalkeeper looking for options he completely fluffed it, leading to a direct turnover and which resulted in a Wexford score.
I think if we fine tune that plan with forwards pressure and with half-forwards and Midfield fully concentrating in unison, this plan could work wonders versus weaker opposition.
I really like this team. They’ll be disappointed by the scoreline, but really, it’s not to worry.
The team will take the positives from a solid O’Byrne Cup campaign; a massive positive from the O’Byrne cup was their excellent result versus Kildare – a massive turn around from last year’s fixture which is fantastic too,
Wexford have cool ice free taking from Benny Brosnan, the fantastic skillet of Eoghan Nolan, two massive and extremely talented footballing leaders in the middle / defense like Coleman and Malone and a mobile defense.
Once Wexford sort out a few concentration issues and perhaps get a bit quicker of transition through to the forwards with snappy and accurate ball, I believe this Wexford football team can produce champagne attacking football like they have shown versus Kildare and Wicklow and threatened against Dublin.
They are on a journey. They deserve your support. They are a joy to watch at times and they’ll be looking forward to the League and Championship campaigns.
a very good report, i was quite happy with it after, a strange thing to say after such a big defeat