Doyle: No excuses as Wexford now fully focused on final

Bord Gais Energy Leinster Under-21 hurling final

Distraction, expectation, further distraction. A testing week has it been for JJ Doyle and his Wexford U21 outfit.

The involvement of nine of his panel with Liam Dunne’s senior set-up has contributed to depleted training numbers of late, neither has their preparation been aided by the confusion which surrounded this fixture through the weekend.

Wexford GAA chiefs were informed on Saturday evening the game had been postponed, only to receive contradictory information the following morning.

Only by Sunday evening were they certain they had a Leinster final to look forward to. Not as smooth a run in as you would like, admitted Doyle, but vows there will be no excuses offered from the Wexford camp if their title defence is unsuccessful tonight.

“The confusion over the fixture would have been a distraction,” said the Wexford boss.

“We were told on Saturday evening it was definitely called off. Then by Sunday morning we were told Dublin hadn’t agreed to it being called off. I can understand Dublin’s position. They had planned, like we had, for the game to be on Wednesday evening. It is not like you are preparing for this game only in the week leading up to it. We have been building physically and mentally towards this for months. By Sunday evening we knew it was going ahead and the lads are now in the right head space.”

Doyle continued: “I have no concerns over the four lads that featured on Saturday — Jack Guiney, Liam Ryan. Conor McDonald and Conor Devitt. Conor did take a knock to his eye in the Clare game, but the swelling has gone down and there is no visual impairment. The guys have trained all year. They are in top physical condition. We won’t be using Saturday’s game as an excuse and even if we feel the lads are tiring we have guys on the bench who can come in and do a job for us. We are not looking for excuses.”

As for managing the expectation which has surrounded this group since they travelled to Nowlan Park last month and secured a most comprehensive quarter-final win over the hotly-tipped Kilkenny outfit?

“Last year we won the Leinster title where no one would have given us a chance against Kilkenny in the final,” said Doyle.

“We caught them on the hop. They underestimated us. They, looking at the fixtures at the start of the year, would have expected to be meeting Dublin. Beating Kilkenny again this year on their home turf was massively encouraging. The element of surprise is gone, however.

“Dublin will be up for this game and they won’t be taking us for granted. When defending the title there is always more expectation on you. We know we have a chance going up to Parnell Park, we also know, however, it won’t be easy. This Dublin team when they were minor, reached the 2011 All-Ireland final. That is experience our lads simply don’t have. Parnell Park has never been a happy hunting ground for Wexford hurling, and putting back-to-back titles at any grade has always proven difficult for us.

“All we want from our lads is a performance, to perform to the best of their ability. If they do, the result will then look after itself.”

DUBLIN: C Dooley; M McCaffrey, C O’Callaghan, S McClelland; E O’Donnell, C Crummey, C C Robinson; D Gormley, C Boland; A Clabby, C Cronin, G Whelan; P Winters, O O’Rorke, C Conway.

WEXFORD: O O’Leary; D Byrne, L Ryan, E Conroy; A Kenny, S O’Gorman, J O’Connor; A Nolan, C Devitt; J Guiney, G Moore, P Foley; R Clarke, C McDonald, K Foley.