Dubs have shown Stamp the way

READERS who like their words spelt out, look away now. Unless you’re interested in honesty, of course. Darren Stamp will show you plenty of that. It’s just he hasn’t a particular way of displaying it.

The expletives the Wexford captain uses to articulate his points are all well-natured. When he speaks of his team’s recent Leinster defeats by Kilkenny — the 15-point final loss in 2007,the 19-point one in 2008 — he tells it like it is.

“Before some of those games, we were beaten before we went out,” he admits before adding, “there were too f***ing many low points. I wouldn’t like to be picking one because they were all awful.”

Inquire as to just how relieved Wexford were to avoid relegation to Division Two and prepare yourself for a barrage of complaints. “Some of the games you’d be going to, you have no interest in going at all,” concedes Stamp.

“No disrespect to anyone but it’s a f***ing Mickey Mouse league. You had Clare and Limerick down there this year and Laois who were able to have a bit of a go. Carlow put in a few good shifts. But like, it wasn’t doing Limerick or Clare any good to be there. It’s very hard to get up for those games. You know you’re going out and you know you’re going to win by 10 or 15 points in some of the games.

“And then some lads will get carried away with their performances in those games. Lads might come in and score two or three goals against a Mickey Mouse back-line and next thing they’re making headlines all over the county.

“But come the championship, they’ll go up against Galway or somebody and mightn’t get a stroke of the ball. The pace is an awful lot slower and it’s a terrible league. It was no good for us. Everything was down when it came to it. Everyone was telling us we were going to win games by this and that and you’re going into games thinking this.

“You’re going to play the likes of Derry and even Antrim to an extent and lads are pissed off at having to get up for them. Hopefully Kilkenny will be coming down here thinking the same thing.”

With testimonies like that, is it any wonder Colm Bonnar has been preaching the detriment of Division Two ad nauseam? Stamp agrees the league has overshadowed Wexford’s championship campaigns the last two years. After putting so much into earning promotion last year, the summer was almost an anti-climax. They went into this year’s provincial campaign full of relief after their relegation escape and the win over Antrim was a comfortable one. It makes a change.

“The real low was getting relegated two years ago. Everyone was fierce negative in the county after that. It was ferocious. John Meyler said he never came to a more negative county in his life.”

But why so negative? “I don’t know. It’s probably down to the players as well. We always used to be able to compete with Kilkenny but since 2004 and 2005 we were told at every turn that Kilkenny were going to beat us. We just weren’t competitive and people were probably just sick going to Croke Park to see us getting beaten. I think the players themselves weren’t putting in enough of an effort. We were feeling sorry for ourselves.”

If Kilkenny’s detractors are to be believed, there may never be a better time to face them. The fear of the stripy men isn’t what it once was and Stamp concurs... to an extent.

“You look at what Dublin did to them in the league final — they just showed no fear whatsoever of Kilkenny and took the ball and went at them. It looked like Kilkenny didn’t know what to do or what was going on. A lot of teams were beaten by Kilkenny before they even come out of the dressing room.”

Of course, Wexford were one of them but Stamp recognised a difference during March’s league game in Nowlan Park. Even if Kilkenny came out on top by five points, they weren’t as convincing.

“They looked very sluggish,” recalls Stamp. “They didn’t look like the Kilkenny team of old. They looked fierce tired and didn’t look like they were playing for each other. Two years ago, if you were playing even half a Kilkenny team you’d see that they were trying their hardest for each other.”

Given Kilkenny had been nine ahead at the break, had Wexford fallen into the trap of showing the Cats too much respect? “We’re paying them too much respect for the last 10 years, never mind that first half.

“But I think that’s the thing, giving them too much respect the whole time, you know?”

Dublin’s league final win gave Stamp some ideas about how to tackle Kilkenny but he reckons Anthony Daly’s side are a breed apart. “I haven’t seen anyone like them in a good few years and that includes Kilkenny and Cork when they were flying. That Dublin team at the moment, I don’t know what they’re eating but they’re unreal.”

If Wexford are to scratch that seven-year itch Stamp knows they won’t blow Kilkenny away like Dublin did.

“But it would be great.”

Telling it like it is.

Picture: THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME: Darren Stamp says Wexford have been guilty of showing Kilkenny too much respect in recent seasons. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan