Dunne will continue to make the hard calls for Wexford

Liam Dunne was never one to shirk a challenge.

During his playing career, the aggression, intensity and above all, the intelligence of his displays led to many labelling him a GAA version of Roy Keane. Since he became Wexford senior hurling manager, little has changed. The honesty, determination and will to win are, like Keane, still his trademark attributes.

“Are you happy everything is being looked after,” Dunne was asked by Alan Corcoran of South-East Radio this week, “No Saipan moments?”

“There have been lots of Saipan moments!” was Dunne’s instant reply. “I’ve often said to the lads, it’s very easy to pick up the phone to tell a guy he’s on the team or on the panel, it’s not so easy picking up the phone and telling a Jim Berry or a Tomás O’Leary or a Benny Travis or a Niall Breen that you’re letting them go back to their clubs.”

But he didn’t shirk making the hard calls, just as he never shirked the hard tackle in his playing days. So it is that guys whom he knows well find themselves off the team or the panel. Thus it is too that the starting 15 for today’s clash with Offaly is laced with new young faces.

One of those is full-forward Jack Guiney. But Dunne has no fears about placing pressure on such inexperienced shoulders.

“Put as much pressure on him as you like, he’s a Guiney, isn’t he? We also have young Aiden Nolan and Gary Moore in there and both were minors last year. I don’t mind the pressure on these young fellas — we’re putting structures in place at underage where they’re coming into a better place.”

He doesn’t mind putting pressure on the old guys either. Quotes attributed to him surfaced within weeks of his appointment to the effect that there were some on the Wexford panel whose time was up who should walk before they were pushed.

And yes, he says, he made those comments.

“Following Wexford I’d have looked at players in the National League, Leinster championships and the qualifiers. I’ve also watched fellas in club championships over the last number of years and there were some fellas I felt didn’t need for me to give them a push.”

And did they go? “I don’t know if they went or not but they’re not in the set-up!”

That wasn’t the only controversial comment Dunne made in the early days of the job. He was stated that if Wexford had been relegated this year he wouldn’t have played the side in Division 2 next year.

“I’ve brought in a lot of new players, young players and my whole idea at the start of the league was to play 20 players in every game I could. I know people weren’t happy we were in a relegation play-off but it never really bothered me. I didn’t care if we went down (they didn’t, beat Laois in the playoff), I was never going to play the full Wexford team in Division 2A — I’d have played the development team.”

His logic? “The GAA make (up) the rules as they go along, we can make our own rules as well. Last year the guys did extraordinarily well to draw with Tipperary in Thurles and beat Cork in Wexford Park to stay up in Division 1A, then the GAA decided to change the rules and put us back down to Division 1B. We weren’t good enough to get out of it this year but I just said to myself, if that’s the way they want to play the game then we’ll play it to suit ourselves.”

Dunne is modern in his methods but old-school GAA in his philosophy – one life, one club, one county. “I’m in this (job) because I firmly believe it’s the place to be. Ollie Baker is the manager of Offaly — deep down, how badly does he really want that job? He’s a Clare man. It’s part of what we are, it’s part of who I am.”

If Liam had his way every dual player in Wexford would be giving his first loyalty to the small-ball game, and again, no apologies to anyone, not even to senior football manager Jason Ryan.

“I’m not going behind anyone’s back. Down the road – maybe not this year, but next year — Ciarán Lyng, Brian Malone, guys that are not playing a whole lot of hurling because they’re involved in the football, I’d like to have those fellas hurling all the time. People have said to me about asking in the footballers (to hurling training) – I didn’t ask in anybody because I was trying to pull them in from the football, I asked them in because they did very well in the club championships. Shane Roche, Daithí Waters, Brian Malone, Ciarán Lyng, they’re top-class hurlers and I’m not doing my job properly if I don’t give these guys an opportunity if they want it down the road. From what I’ve seen of the (club) championship so far, if they can hurl like that when they’re not (training) hurling, what would they be like if they were put into this environment? This is a journey that’s just starting, I don’t know where it’s going to bring us.”