WEXFORD ARE HOPEFUL they’ll field a team this weekend and avoid handing out another walkover in Division 1 of the Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League.
The Model County couldn’t pull together enough players to take on Cork on Saturday, forcing a late postponement of the game. The Rebels were subsequently awarded the victory.
Today's clash between Cork and Wexford in the @LittlewoodsIRL Camogie Leagues Division 1 has been called off.
— Camogie Association (@OfficialCamogie) January 26, 2019
Martin Carey, brother of Kilkenny legend DJ, had been in charge but ended his reign prior to the start of the league.
Wexford camogie chairperson Jacinta Roche has confirmed they are currently speaking to potential candidates for the vacancy. She remains confident they’ll have a manager installed by next week.
“We have no manager,” Roche told The42. “We’re actively looking.
“I’ve gotten a couple of phone calls today from people (who are interested). So I’m hoping to hold interviews this week and all going according to plan I hope to have a manager in place by the middle of next week.”
It has been a swift fall from grace for the county who were All-Ireland senior champions on four occasions between 2007 and 2012.
Former Cats goalkeeper Carey was appointed as manager of the Wexford senior team last January.
They finished in fifth place of the six-team Group 2 in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland senior championship and failed to advance to the knock-out stages after winning one of five games.
Last June, Wexford withdrew their intermediate team from the championship after a number of players departed the panel, reportedly unhappy with the county board’s failure to appoint an intermediate manager.
A stand-in manager and some county board officials had taken charge of various games during a tumultuous intermediate league campaign that saw Wexford forfeit their final match of the competition.
In a statement released last summer, the county board said: “With such low numbers on the panel regrettably a decision was taken to withdraw the intermediate team from the championship. Wexford camogie county board are hopeful that we will be able to field teams in both senior and intermediate in 2019.”
Amid the struggles to string together a senior team, it’s unlikely Wexford will field an intermediate side this season.
Roche replaced Donnacha Kerins as the chairperson of the county board over the winter.
After Carey stepped down earlier this month, Mick Curran acted as stand-in senior manager for their Division 1 opening round defeat to Waterford.
When asked about the reasons behind Carey’s departure, Roche responded: “I’m not getting into that.”
She remains optimistic that Curran will continue as interim boss for Sunday’s trip to Galway and is “hoping” they will have enough players to field a team and fulfil the fixture.
A number of county players are currently involved with Wexford and Leinster champions St Martin’s, who defeated Inniscarra in the All-Ireland senior club semi-final on Sunday. They’ll play Ulster champions Slaughtneil in the decider on 3 March in Croke Park.
“We just didn’t have enough players (last Saturday),” explained Roche. “We had girls obviously involved with St Martin’s in the club championship, which they won brilliantly yesterday.
“We had girls involved in college duties and girls that were working and couldn’t change their work.
“We’re away to Galway this weekend and I’m hoping to field on Sunday.”
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