O’Brien primed for Model challenge

When Aidan O’Brien was approached about taking over from Jason Ryan as Wexford senior football manager he had to think about it for a while.

His day job is deputy principal of football powerhouse Good Counsel in New Ross and after work he goes home to four young children.

He knew the Model County job would require every minute of his spare time.

“It took a degree of soul searching and had to be weighed up in terms of the personal toll it would take too,” he said.

“But another part of me said it would be a challenge to get involved and I’m honoured to be considered and honoured to feel people thought I could contribute something.”

And why wouldn’t they. Westmeath native O’Brien managed his school to an All-Ireland Colleges Senior A championship in 1999, took Adamstown from junior to senior in three successive seasons, helped Horeswood to two county titles in-a-row and last year steered Geraldine O’Hanrahans to county junior honours.

Mix in his role as Wexford U21 boss in 2008, where they reached a Leinster final, and you can see why his appointment is being seen as a massive boost.

“The ratification is tomorrow night [Tuesday] so the plan is to meet the players by the end of the following the week and introduce myself and my plans,” he said.

“I hope all lads stay on and maybe we can look at emerging talent. The door is open to everyone and I haven’t made any prejudgement. It’s very much an open door policy.”

Having coached with and against most of the eligible players within the county, he believes they will be a team few will want to meet next year.

However, he isn’t reading too much into a Leinster championship draw which pits them against the winners of Laois and Louth in the quarter-final and Wicklow, Longford or Meath in the provincial semi-final.

“In our position we’re not a Kerry or Cork who will almost be certainly meeting in a Munster final. There is no such thing as an easy draw for us.

“I was at the Longford first round game last year and we were lucky to come out of it with a win and then the next day we could have taken out Dublin.

“Teams like ourselves can’t take anyone for granted but other teams can’t take us for granted either.”