Since Davy Fitzgerald arrived in Wexford in late 2016, Wexford and Kilkenny have met four times in the Championship, six times in the league and four times in the Walsh Cup. Of those fixtures, Wexford have won eight and Kilkenny have won just five, the one draw being that unforgettable evening in Wexford Park in June 2019.
This is a record that fits in a different era and is a welcome change from the norm of recent memory. People can say what they want about Fitzgerald’s style of play, but they cannot deny he’s made the slaneysiders competitive against the cats.
The most recent meeting, was of course a one sided affair where Kilkenny trounced Wexford in Nowlan Park. However, this must be clarified, Wexford had the Covid issues, not to bring the whole situation back up again, but Wexford wouldn’t have trained together as a group for about 10 days in the lead up to that game. They also experimented with Liam Óg Mcgovern as the sweeper, an experiment which did not work. Kilkenny also had their Covid issues but the effect was not quite as newsworthy, and only caused them to miss out for a few days.
The main point here is to suggest this weekend’s clash will be as close as any in the Davy era. Wexford have looked much improved in the games since then, albeit over lesser opposition. Speaking to The Hurling Podcast during the week, Wexford legend Tom Dempsey was quite positive on their chances.
“I’m more hopeful than maybe three or four weeks ago, it just seems, albeit the opposition wasn’t strong, but they really are on form. It does Rory no harm to be coming in with 1-7 from play, Conor coming in with two goals, two fabulous goals and a few points, and Lee Chin. In fairness to Lee Chin and Rory they have been just outstanding during the league, they’ve probably been our best players and Paul (Morris) has just come back at the right time from injury, popping the ball over the bar and Mikey Dwyer, if those boys are motoring, that’ll give him that bit of room, I thought he showed some nice touches the other night as well. It really is one of the times that all our forwards seem to be packing a punch and are at the top of their confidence at the one time, so that is a big benefit for us.
“Kilkenny are not as settled as the Kilkennys of old, they’ve lost a lot of players over the years, they’re trying to find a bit of form. For the first time ever our forwards possibly are more seasoned than the Kilkenny forwards. They have the forwards as well. I just think we actually hold it, if we can get it right we are a little bit stronger, it depends on how the two defences hold up it really does. And how our full back line right across, Liam Ryan is one of the best full backs in the country, but how our full back line holds up against their full forward line.
“My heart as always will tip Wexford. I think it’s going to be very tight, but I just think, there’s something telling me, while we need to have caution about what happened last Saturday night, that we just might be in a good place and we might just nip this one by a point or two. I do think that we can do that. Maybe I’m totally wrong on that. I think we’ve a bit of a bench as well, we didn’t see the Joe O’Connors, the Conall Floods, fellas like that we’d seen earlier on in the year starting, I think they’ve a role to play as well.
“I know Lee Chin had a bit of an injury last weekend, I just hope he’s at full fitness, he is our modern day talisman really. He’s the guy that inspires.”
Conor MacDonald is widely regarded as one of the best forwards in the game. He made his debut in 2013 while he was still a minor. In recent years, owing to the style of play Wexford have adopted and the way hurling has gone in general we haven’t seen MacDonald playing in that traditional full forward position as much as we may have expected when he began his career. Being an inside forward himself, Dempsey understands how difficult it must be.
“I think he’s the best stand up full forward in the country, he has wrists to burn, but he’s very often to put in positions where, he’s wing forward, out the field, where he’s not able to do what he’s best at, that’s finishing, or laying off the ball. Against Antrim, we had Antrim at sixes and sevens in the first 10, 12 minutes, we’d scored two goals, for the 2nd goal we scored by Paul Morris I counted four Wexford men inside the 21. All of a sudden we brought Conor out to wing forward or centre forward. I don’t get this, I think Conor has been a little bit of a victim of the way we played in the last while. Any kind of lack of form or any depreciation in form has been tactical, I suppose you have to sacrifice you’re game, I think he has had to sacrifice his game for the way Wexford play.
“He’s a super player, that goal last weekend, if you expect him to pick and not pull on it he’ll do the opposite, that’s the kind of genius the man has, to see a ground stroke hitting the net it’s so refreshing. I think he’s a brilliant player, he’s served Wexford very well and done a great job, and then in doing the job that he’s asked to do, which may not be spectacular. The naked eye sometimes doesn’t give you the credit for what you’re doing. I think he’s a splendid player now I have to say.
“The likes of Conor, they do get special attention, Conor would give it back fairly easily. Referees have to make a call with Conor a lot of the time because there is a lot of pulling and dragging, it can be going on both sides, they do get special attention, a lot of those forwards do. Maybe that’s why Davy lets him out a little bit, to give him a little bit of freedom, that he’s not under that pressure the whole time. Me, I’d like to play more direct ball down on Conor in front of the goal, I think we’ve seen a lot of goals come from that tactic.
“I pay particular attention to forwards, I looked at Mikey Dwyer in the league match (against Kilkenny), and he was striding manfully, with three aggressive big Paddy Deegans, Huw Lawlors, Padraig Walsh. If you were on them on your own they’d nearly eat you for their supper, let alone three.
“Paul Morris is another player that’s had to play up there, at times one against three. Maybe we’re not affording them the credit they deserve for that, as it’s not easy. It’s not as easy as me in my time standing beside a Billy Byrne or Jimmy Holohan. Ball comes down, they either catch it or it’ll break off them and I come in. In some cases Paul or Mikey or Conor, they have to win it, they have to turn, they have to beat two men and they have to score it. That’s not an easy job.
“I’m not saying it’s not the right tactic, I’m saying we need to be kinder, I hear people in the crowd who are going to town on lads, they have to understand what’s expected of these fellas, sometimes they’re not going to come out with 2-3, playing that system.”
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