THE WEXFORD TEAM who won the Walsh Cup, and earned a draw against Kilkenny in their league opener last weekend, was missing a few familiar faces.
Matthew O’Hanlon, Diarmuid O’Keeffe, Liam Óg McGovern and Conor McDonald are all experienced campaigners who have yet to hurl for the county in 2024. Wexford are still progressing though, in spite of their absence, handing out auditions to 27 players throughout the Walsh Cup.
Members of the Wexford U20 squad who reached the last two Leinster finals are being filtered through to make the step-up as part of the process. Keith Rossiter, who managed the U20s through those back-to-back campaigns, is overseeing the transition of those players as the new senior manager.
The horrors of 2023 are still a fresh memory for folks in the South East. A dismal league campaign that included a six-goal drubbing at the hands of Clare and a narrow swerve with relegation, followed by more tip-toeing around the drop into the Joe McDonagh. It was a season of survival.
But now comes the reboot, and so far, the road ahead looks clear for Wexford in the Rossiter era.
“They seem to be happy in themselves and a good work ethic for each other,” says Wexford legend, and 1996 All-Ireland-winning captain, Martin Storey.
February form does little to predict how a season will unfold for a team. True, the shortened length of the season will force teams to rethink their approach, but we’re still early doors in any case. Storey stresses how these weeks are for uncovering new players, building depth and assembling the strongest panel.
Some of the newcomers have already made their mark in that respect. Cian Byrne, who played in both of those U20 Leinster hurling finals and scored a combined 0-24, struck his first senior inter-county goal against Kilkenny last weekend. Corey Byrne-Dunbar, another member of that cast, picked off a point, while defender Conor Foley is also getting his shot.
Their youthful hunger compliments the more seasoned group of Lee Chin, Damien Reck and Mark Fanning who know this road very well.
“Keith has worked with these lads at underage,” Storey says of the relationship between Rossiter and the U20 graduates.
“He knows what’s coming through. It’s not about being up to the battle in Carlow or Nowlan Park at the end of January. It’s about being able to deliver on the bigger days with the fast ball in the middle of a championship battle. Keith will have that insight on these players.
“There’s eight or nine [new] names there, and if you get four or five of them to make the step-up, that’s huge. And then you get another few next year. It’s about building a team that’s going to be there in the future, and go to war when they have to.”
Storey is familiar with Rossiter’s development having played alongside him with both Oulart-The-Ballagh and Wexford. Rossiter’s hurling arc was on the rise as Storey’s career was heading for the winter days. Often marking each other in training, Storey liked what he saw in the man who would go on to win 10 county titles with Oulart, and enjoy provincial glory at club and inter-county level.
“You never saw him having a bad game. He puts his hand up, he’s honest and he’ll go to war.
“The one thing I hope is that they give him time to settle in. Counties are often harder on their own [men] than they are on the outsiders. There will be change coming because a lot of the older lads are gone over their 30s and he’s building a new squad. You just have to give him the chance to get it together.”
Storey attended a fundraiser in the days before the Kilkenny game, where he heard people predict a walloping at the hands of the Cats. He didn’t share their concern. He reminded them of Wexford’s healthy record over their neighbours: Kilkenny have failed to beat Wexford in seven of their nine games across league and championship since 2018.
That includes last year’s miracle result in Wexford Park when the hosts triumphed to preserve their Liam MacCarthy status. A week earlier, a fumbled 17-point lead in a shock defeat to Westmeath left them on the brink of the Joe McDonagh Cup; beating Kilkenny was a tonic that was desperately needed.
“It shows the fighting quality that the lads have,” Storey says of the heart Wexford showed that day to keep their spot at the top table.
But if Storey feels confident for Wexford when they play Kilkenny, there’s an equal sense of fear when today’s visitors to Wexford Park, Offaly, are on the other side of the white line. The 2023 Joe McDonagh Cup finalists are also on the rise after winning the U20 Leinster title last year and reaching the U20 All-Ireland final. Whatever the result, there’s more road to travel before the reinforcements come back.
“I hope we beat them and it’s another step on the ladder.
“They’re building and going through a change,” Storey notes. “We’re building and going through a change — so I don’t know who has the upper hand at this stage.”
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