Seamus McEnaney: ‘This is not about me. This is about Wexford’

“This is not about me,” Banty insisted. But it is a plea that has already fallen on deaf ears. Wexford v Monaghan won’t be just another football qualifier. They’ll call it the Banty derby.

Eight teams went into the bowl for yesterday’s round 2B draw, with most eyes fixed on Monaghan and who might they get. Malachy O’Rourke’s charges, after all, weren’t supposed to be in the bowl in the first place. After Mayo, they were the second high-profile county upset in their quest for provincial tin. Armagh-Monaghan would have made for a tasty all-Ulster clash.

Instead, the Farney men were handed a potentially sticky assignment in the south-east against a county now managed by one of their own. Seamus McEnaney knows the road from Monaghan to Wexford like the back of his hand at this stage. He’s been traveling it twice and three times a week since last November. Two and a half hours down, two and a half hours spent in Wexford Park or the county’s centre of excellence in Ferns and two hours back up the road. And as he said himself earlier this year, the speed limit isn’t always obeyed.