Conran not resting on laurels

WEXFORD hurling manager John Conran has vowed to curb the enthusiasm which greeted their victory over Leinster and All-Ireland champions Kilkenny in Croke Park.

Conran yesterday stressed that his squad must focus on next month’s provincial final, and quickly forget their weekend heroics if they are to progress to championship silverware.

“Wexford have a history of going into carnival mode when they get a good display under their belt. It’s going to be very difficult to keep the lads from being affected by that, but we’ll work hard at it, we know where we’re at,” Conran said yesterday.

“We did okay on Sunday. It was a great performance, and what was most satisfying, apart from the result, was that it was a team effort.

“It was a full team display, the whole team worked non-stop throughout the field, pulled together. But there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“We missed a lot of scores, gave away needless frees and that’s what we have to work towards, no resting on our laurels.”

Conran explained that hard work and good planning were the key ingredients to their memorable win over the champions.

Hard work during the game itself, harder work in the weeks leading up to a match no one gave them a chance of winning, a reflection of the blue- collar ethics of manager Conran.

Most of the work was in the execution of a game-plan that worked almost to perfection, a reflection of the intelligence, forethought, drive and ambition that made Conran such a successful businessman.

“A fair bit of effort went into it alright, in training especially,” Conran agreed.

“The critical line was half-forward. Their half-back line beat us last year, we pumped high ball in on them and it was like feeding buns to bears, they gobbled it up. We’d learned our lesson. Their half-back line is huge, and keeping them out of it was key.”

To that end, Damien Fitzhenry’s puck-outs were crucial and in the first-half especially, his distribution was almost perfect.

Another central component in the win was Eoin Quigley. The intelligent centre-forward set up the first

Wexford goal for Rory Jacob, but it was his movement and non-stop effort that really caught the eye.

“Yeah, he played very well, didn’t he?” agrees his manager. “But then sure the blood is in him, he comes from great breeding, a son of John’s, nephew of Martin and Dan. He has a fierce work-rate, a great chap to work with, and I was delighted for the lad.”

Even more impressive however, was the way in which the Wexford full-forward line destroyed a Kilkenny full-back line laden with Allstars.

Indicative of the way Wexford approached this game, it was instead an area they targeted. Never have Michael Kavanagh, Noel Hickey and JJ Delaney looked as human on a hurling field as Sunday. Between them, Mitch Jordan (0-3), Michael

Jacob (1-2) and Rory Jacob (1-1) scored a collective 2-6, all from play.

“Tactically we felt that if we could get the right ball into those three they were good enough to do damage. And that was how it proved on the day. It was a great win, but we were steeped with luck to get the goal in the end.

“It looked like it was gone from us.

“How often does that happen to a team? Once in a lifetime, maybe. We’ve won nothing, and we’re aware of that, we have to go on from here.”

That, of course, is the new challenge facing Wexford. This was a famous victory on Sunday, badly needed for the county, the province and the game but it only gets them to the Leinster final.

“There, they will face Offaly or Dublin, whose fate is down for decision next Sunday in the other semi-final.

“We have to wait and see who we’re playing, though it will probably be Offaly; Conal Keaney got a straight red card on Sunday so it looks like he’s going to be gone, and he will be a huge loss to Dublin.

“Offaly would have been favourites anyway, Mike McNamara has done fair work with them this year, they’ve improved a lot.

“A few new faces, a bit of unknown quality about them, but we know, from recent years that if it is Offaly, it will be a real battle.”

A bonus for Wexford is that Paul Codd and Larry Murphy, both of whom looked sluggish when introduced on Sunday, have three extra weeks to recover from injury.