Wexford must move forward with fresh talent

It took a teenager who emerged from the dressing room vicinity long after this All-Ireland qualifier had ended to voice what most among the home support were thinking as soon as the final whistle pierced the sky.

“We won’t be seeing a lot of those guys again,” he suggested.

For almost a decade now Wexford have been seeking a fair return on their significant investment but they have little to show for it aside from an unsuccessful appearance in a Division One league final and two defeats in Leinster showpieces.

Only two of those who featured last weekend — David Murphy and Redmond Barry — played in that seven-point league final loss to Armagh in 2005. Eight took part in the first of those provincial losses to Dublin five years ago.

Yet the sense remains that time and opportunity have passed the county’s footballers by and the departure as manager of Jason Ryan and his replacement by Aidan O’Brien has so far done nothing to boost fortunes.

“Strictly speaking, this year we can’t claim to have made progress,” admitted O’Brien. “We have maybe treaded water. We got five points in the league, beat Louth in the opening round of the championship and got to the third round of the qualifiers. There is no substantial progress. But we would hope we are bringing on some younger players who will start taking it on from the guys who maybe are moving out the other end.”

The fear for Wexford is that they could so very easily find themselves slipping back down the ladder, as Laois themselves did after a failure to capitalise on their breakthrough provincial title in 2003.

It’s impossible not to feel for players who have given so much for so long only to come up agonisingly short but the refrain about how you make your own luck was apposite in Wexford Park two days ago.

Wexford dribbled out of Leinster at the semi-final stage largely because of their inability to maximise the possession they enjoyed and chances they created and they were left repeating those same shortcomings here.

Against Meath they departed the field at half-time having squandered ten opportunities. They added two more to that tally by the interval here and finished the evening with 21 failed attempts on goal.

O’Brien grimaced: “It’s the stat we will certainly be haunted by in the wake of that game. .

“We just failed to take our chances. You can’t really legislate for that and can’t give an explanation for it. Some of the credit has to go to the Laois defending that there was pressure on our lads sometimes when they were kicking. But there were kicks that were missed that, for this level, you would find it very hard to forgive,” said O’Brien who refused to use the exertions of extra-time in Longford last weekend as an excuse for this display.

“I would think it is the highest tally of wides we had this year by some way.”