OISÍN MCCONVILLE WANTS Wicklow football to move ‘to the next level’ after becoming the first Division 4 county to win the Tailteann Cup.
In typical fashion, having trailed at half-time in all six of their Tailteann Cup games this season, Wicklow came from behind at Croke Park to beat favourites Down 1-21 to 2-16.
They outscored Conor Laverty’s side by 1-17 to 0-6 in the second half, an uncannily similar performance to the one they delivered against Offaly in the semi-final when they won the second half of that game 1-17 to 1-4.
They trailed Offaly by eight points at half time and were a dozen points behind Down at the turnaround this time, a deficit that stretched to 13 points early in the second half.
But Wicklow have consistently dug themselves out of deep holes in this season’s campaign and simply found a way again.
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“I hope that this is the catalyst for Wicklow football people to realise that this is an unbelievably special group of players,” said McConville, an All-Ireland SFC winner with Armagh in 2002. “And if you’re asked to go and play for Wicklow, put your hand up for it. Come in and bring this on to the next level.
“This team’s going to be playing Sam Maguire football next year. That’s a massive thing for Wicklow. But it also means standards and everything else that you’re facing go way up, and that’s the way Wicklow has to go from here on in.”
McConville said it wasn’t a case of any inspirational half-time speech that rallied his troops. Rather, the management team focused on getting the basics right.
“Honestly, the two things we said at half time was that their kick-out was at 100 percent, and that we were at 25 percent shooting efficiency,” continued the Crossmaglen man.
“If you want to go about losing a game, that’s a great way to go about it. We were much better in the second half. But we were supposed to look that good from minute one!”
McConville said it was never the case that they wanted to ease into the game and then storm past Down in the second half, despite that being their apparent routine throughout the campaign.
“We didn’t want to be in that position at half time, 12 or 13 points down,” he said. “That wasn’t part of the plan. We’re after spending three weeks working on the fact that in the previous two games we were down eight and nine points. So it wasn’t part of the plan. If you want to be winning games, I wouldn’t be advising that for the long-term, to be going 13 points down.
“But look, people keep talking about resilience and heart and desire with these lads. Of course, they’re going to have heart and desire, I mean, look where they’re coming from.
“So that’s one part of it. I actually said to them at half time, if we score 1-17 in the second-half, because that’s what we did the last day against Offaly, if we score that again we win the game.”
That’s exactly what Wicklow did.
“I’m used to it,” smiled McConville. “Because, as I’ve said, we’ve had plenty of heartache. But when you have that heartache, you have two choices – you can crawl in under your shell and forget about it, or you can actually say to yourself, ‘I’m just going to come out swinging’. The last three games, we’ve come out swinging. That’s five games in a row now we’ve won in different manners. I can’t express how proud I am to be in that changing room. Not proud of them, but proud to be in that changing room with them.”
It was another crushing defeat for Down, similar to the Croke Park final losses to Meath (2023 Tailteann Cup final) and Westmeath (2024 NFL Division 3 final) when they were also favourites.
“I don’t have the words to describe it, that’s the truth,” said a shocked Down manager Conor Laverty. “Lack of discipline, very sloppy in possession, the amount of turnovers we gave away.
“First half, we were extremely happy with. Second half it was a….eh, disaster.”
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Down goalkeeper Ronan Burns got all nine of his first-half kick-outs away to Down men. And he maintained a similarly high standard in the second half, despite Wicklow’s run of scores.
“I still think we had chances,” lamented Laverty. “I would understand if…listen, I would understand if we had got penned in on kick-outs and couldn’t get our hands on ball. But I think we were 92 percent on our own kick-out overall. That tells its own story, 25 or 26 turnovers I think in the game.”
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'Bring this to the next level' - McConville's message after Wicklow's epic Tailteann Cup win
OISÍN MCCONVILLE WANTS Wicklow football to move ‘to the next level’ after becoming the first Division 4 county to win the Tailteann Cup.
In typical fashion, having trailed at half-time in all six of their Tailteann Cup games this season, Wicklow came from behind at Croke Park to beat favourites Down 1-21 to 2-16.
They outscored Conor Laverty’s side by 1-17 to 0-6 in the second half, an uncannily similar performance to the one they delivered against Offaly in the semi-final when they won the second half of that game 1-17 to 1-4.
They trailed Offaly by eight points at half time and were a dozen points behind Down at the turnaround this time, a deficit that stretched to 13 points early in the second half.
But Wicklow have consistently dug themselves out of deep holes in this season’s campaign and simply found a way again.
“I hope that this is the catalyst for Wicklow football people to realise that this is an unbelievably special group of players,” said McConville, an All-Ireland SFC winner with Armagh in 2002. “And if you’re asked to go and play for Wicklow, put your hand up for it. Come in and bring this on to the next level.
“This team’s going to be playing Sam Maguire football next year. That’s a massive thing for Wicklow. But it also means standards and everything else that you’re facing go way up, and that’s the way Wicklow has to go from here on in.”
McConville said it wasn’t a case of any inspirational half-time speech that rallied his troops. Rather, the management team focused on getting the basics right.
“Honestly, the two things we said at half time was that their kick-out was at 100 percent, and that we were at 25 percent shooting efficiency,” continued the Crossmaglen man.
“If you want to go about losing a game, that’s a great way to go about it. We were much better in the second half. But we were supposed to look that good from minute one!”
McConville said it was never the case that they wanted to ease into the game and then storm past Down in the second half, despite that being their apparent routine throughout the campaign.
“We didn’t want to be in that position at half time, 12 or 13 points down,” he said. “That wasn’t part of the plan. We’re after spending three weeks working on the fact that in the previous two games we were down eight and nine points. So it wasn’t part of the plan. If you want to be winning games, I wouldn’t be advising that for the long-term, to be going 13 points down.
“But look, people keep talking about resilience and heart and desire with these lads. Of course, they’re going to have heart and desire, I mean, look where they’re coming from.
“So that’s one part of it. I actually said to them at half time, if we score 1-17 in the second-half, because that’s what we did the last day against Offaly, if we score that again we win the game.”
That’s exactly what Wicklow did.
“I’m used to it,” smiled McConville. “Because, as I’ve said, we’ve had plenty of heartache. But when you have that heartache, you have two choices – you can crawl in under your shell and forget about it, or you can actually say to yourself, ‘I’m just going to come out swinging’. The last three games, we’ve come out swinging. That’s five games in a row now we’ve won in different manners. I can’t express how proud I am to be in that changing room. Not proud of them, but proud to be in that changing room with them.”
It was another crushing defeat for Down, similar to the Croke Park final losses to Meath (2023 Tailteann Cup final) and Westmeath (2024 NFL Division 3 final) when they were also favourites.
“I don’t have the words to describe it, that’s the truth,” said a shocked Down manager Conor Laverty. “Lack of discipline, very sloppy in possession, the amount of turnovers we gave away.
“First half, we were extremely happy with. Second half it was a….eh, disaster.”
Down goalkeeper Ronan Burns got all nine of his first-half kick-outs away to Down men. And he maintained a similarly high standard in the second half, despite Wicklow’s run of scores.
“I still think we had chances,” lamented Laverty. “I would understand if…listen, I would understand if we had got penned in on kick-outs and couldn’t get our hands on ball. But I think we were 92 percent on our own kick-out overall. That tells its own story, 25 or 26 turnovers I think in the game.”
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