LEINSTER SFC:THE NOTION of Wexford footballers as All-Ireland contenders has long faded. Failure to win a serious game since overcoming Armagh to reach the penultimate stage of the 2008 championship will do that and it means last year's Leinster finalists enter the new campaign against Kildare in Carlow tomorrow evening as, well, the Wexford footballers.
Such a title reached the zenith of respect throughout Gaelic football for the briefest spell last summer, but a disastrous league campaign, coinciding with the loss of blue chip forwards Matty Forde to a chronic back injury and Redmond Barry to an extended honeymoon, has seen the dreaded second season syndrome laid firmly at the feet of young manager Jason Ryan.
Kildare hammered them in their Division Two meeting this spring (2-16 to 0-8) and under another inexperienced manager in Kieran McGeeney, the Lilywhites appear to have discovered their groove. Carving out an elite identity in Gaelic games is a near impossible task as the top tier pull further into the distance, with only traditional strongholds keeping pace with Kerry and Tyrone.
Wexford, of course, have plenty of tradition, but even their hurlers are struggling to make a sustained impact this century.
For certain, Ryan remains an impressive character and a clever, if surprising, appointment by the county board last year.
The question of general naivety was aired recently, with Ryan conceding his team was not up to the required fitness level when the league commenced.
The GAA hierarchy forced a November and December close season that may not have been rigorously followed by the majority of panels behind closed doors.
Wexford, while missing the great Forde, proved last year that others can and will carry the burden. However, come the league, they were a shadow of the side that sparked to life a few months earlier.
“Last year was a relatively successful year for Wexford football,” says Ryan. “We looked at how we were going to replicate that, but different circumstances existed that prevented us from having a successful national league.
“We were unfortunate (with injuries). We felt we were off the pace. The responsibility has to lie with myself, maybe we didn’t have the players in as good a shape as we would have liked at the start of the league.
“There is talent coming through in Wexford, but it doesn’t have the same experience as other counties. Take, for example, Tyrone. If Tyrone lose five players they can bring in five players who have played in Ulster under-21 finals or All-Ireland minor finals, so they have a certain amount of experience behind them.
“Our guys don’t have that experience so whatever they come into with us it is a steep learning curve for quite some time.”
They might contest this within the Wexford camp, but the loss of Forde remains central to the decline. Ciarán Lyng had a marvellous campaign, but it was Forde who turned the aging Francie Bellew inside out, ending the era of Armagh as a superpower in the process.
“We haven’t had Matty for much of the year so all the work we have done has been without him,” Ryan argues. “For him to be involved would be more a surprise after all the injuries he’s had. We are disappointed not to have him, but we have been able to plan for a long time knowing he would not be available.”
That’s fine, but when will he be back? “He will be playing football this summer. With some of these things you predict a time, but other sports people have come back from a similar operation in six to eight weeks.”
At least Barry is back training a few months and leads the attack in Dr Cullen Park.
There are plenty of other familiar and experienced faces in this Wexford team – the same men who recovered from a 23-point defeat to Dublin, returning to Croke Park to challenge the established giants of the modern game.
“The success of last year is brilliant for the guys. It boosted their confidence and made them feel better as footballers. They realised that at a national standing, on their day and I stress on their day, they can put it up to a lot of other teams.”
