Brosnan rolls back the years as Wexford knock Offaly into Tailteann
Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship Round 1, Chadwicks Wexford Park, Co. Wexford 24/4/2022. Wexford vs Offaly. Offalys Kieran Dolan blocks Wexfords Ben Brosnan from shooting. ©INPHO/Ken Sutton
It’s 14 years since Ben Brosnan graduated to a Wexford senior football team that, at the time, was mixing it with the best Leinster and Ireland had to offer.
The county played Dublin in a Leinster decider and pushed a legendary Tyrone team to within six points in an All-Ireland semi-final that summer. Those days have been few and far between as the years have gone on but another approaches next Saturday.
This gritty defeat of Offaly in the provincial preliminary round earns Shane Roche’s side a crack at the Dubs for the second time in 12 months. Brosnan was injured for that one so he is relishing the prospect of this next assignment in Wexford Park.
“I’ve been wishing for the last year that I could get to play against them and next weekend now we have them in Wexford Park,” said the 34-year old attacker after a superb haul of 1-8 yesterday.
“That’s what you want to be playing against.”
Wexford kept Dublin honest last time. Eight points was the difference at the end but they did more than enough to depart the provincial campaign with pride intact having hinted at the fact that the Blue Wave was beginning to dip.
What can we expect this time?
“Look, they’re not as good as they were last year but obviously it will be very difficult,” said Brosnan. “We will go back to the drawing board on Tuesday and Thursday and see what we can do next week.”
This was his 151st appearance for Wexford and surely one of his best.
A goal and five points of his final total came in a 15-minute second-half period that helped turn a four-point deficit into six-point advantage and Wexford put paid to an Offaly side that competed two grades above them during this spring.
You could term this one as a shock given that disparity in social class but John Maughan had served warning as to the extent of the task ahead of his side last week and they made the trip in what was clearly a vulnerable position.
Recent gains that included promotion to the second tier and last year’s Leinster and All-Ireland U20 titles had been diluted in recent weeks with demotion to Division Three and the loss of those underage crowns after a provincial semi-final loss to Kildare.
They were missing a slew of players here too. Too many of them were forwards, Niall McNamee among them, and the lack of options was readily apparent near the end as Maughan introduced defenders even as they chased the game.
“We played brilliant,” said Brosnan. “I thought we were much better in the first-half as well. There was a strong wind there and maybe even from the stands that couldn’t be seen but no-one was panicking at half-time. Everyone knew their jobs.”
Wexford boxed clever.
They played with extra men at the back in a first-half where they faced the wind and found the interval only a point in arrears. It was always going to be tough for Offaly after that and even Lee Pearson’s 49th-minute goal couldn’t give them some separation.
The manner in which Wexford, and Brosnan in particular, responded to that setback was astonishing, so much so that Offaly were held scoreless for 21 minutes of the second-half before finally rousing themselves for a belated charge.
It duly came in the form of four unanswered points to cut the deficit to two but here again Wexford refused to be found wanting. The next two scores fell their way and a red card for Kevin O’Grady and one last Offaly score proved immaterial to the outcome.
When that was all done Brosnan had his son Benji to find. His two-year old had never been at a game of this import when his dad was togged out so no doubt there was a snap or two taken to mark the occasion.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said in summing up. “I love playing for Wexford. I have been playing for Wexford since 2008 and I haven’t been blessed by many days like this, especially over the last five or six years. A great feeling.”
B Brosnan (1-8, 0-4 frees); M O’Connor, G Malone, P Hughes and T Byrne (all 0-1); E Nolan (0-1 mark); D Brooks and K O’Grady (0-1 free each).
L Pearson (1-0); P Dunican (0-3 frees); B Carroll (0-2); C Doyle, M Abbott and J O’Connor (all 0-1); N Darby, J Moloney, B Allen and D Hyland (all 0-1 free).
D Brooks; L O’Connor, E Porter, M O’Connor; P Hughes, G Malone, D Furlong; N Hughes, L Coleman; A Tobin, D Shanley, K O’Grady; B Brosnan, E Nolan, M Rossiter.
T Byrne for Rossiter and R Brooks for Nolan (both 62); D O’Toole for Shanley (68); S Ryan for Tobin (73).
P Dunican; D Hogan, J Lalor, K Dolan; C Doyle, D Dempsey, N Darby; J Hayes, B Carroll; M Abbott, J Moloney, D Hyland; B Allen, A Sullivan, C Flynn.
L Pearson for Doyle (28); C Stewart for Allen (53); J O’Connor for Flynn (54); C O’Donoghue for Hyland (64); C McNamee for Abbott (71).
D O’Mahony (Tipperary).
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