following Wicklow football....trials and tribulations

ergo

Well, what can I say?

another trip to Croke Park and how close did we get?

I am still gutted over losing to Kildare like that today,

(I have to say now though, well done to all the lads, it was a great display, in fact maybe that's why it was so heartbreaking to lose again)

I'm now realising that now, aged 27 years, I have never seen Wicklow win at Croke Park (OK I might have missed a year or 2 but when was the last time?)

I did see them draw with Meath there in '91 but lose the replay

and I saw us beat Kildare in 1990 down in Aughrim but my God, today's loss hurts, and to see Hugh Kenny interviewed you know he feels it

But, it was great to hear the support there today, let's hope we can build on this, at least there's the qualifiers...

I dunno if any/many WW fans are on boards but the only other WW GAA message board I could find was fairly uninspiring,
had to get this off my chest

madmorphy

Sure westmeath,laois were in the same boat,then they won the leinster final it can be done !I've heard the club teams in wicklow are more interested in killing each other than anything else,doesn't really help the county team.

Lemlin

Kildare are a good side though and, with the right run of games, Wicklow could go far in the qualifiers after that great display. Just hope to avoid Fermanagh and get the likes of Louth!

RuggieBear

yeah...i'm another wicklow follower. It sucks. Another heroic failure

cournioni

Very very unlucky. But if they keep performances like that up they will go far in the qualifiers I'm sure.

Yavvy

Wicklow are comming out of a dark period imo. I think they will be winning championship games within a year or two. Kildare have improved vastly this year and are on a high from a solid Leauge campaign. Wicklow were unlucky a nice draw in the qualifiers could see thme in good stead

cruiserweight

Wicklow have some excellent players and in recent years had it not been for internal fighting they may have had some success! You just have to look at the standard of the club football in relation to other counties who would perhaps be considered bigger, Baltinglass in the early ninties had success outside the county and more recently Rathnew have won a leinster club championship!

ergo

Yeah, I suppose, on reflection there are a lot of positives from Sunday's game

I was away in Australia last year and might have missed some of the goings on,

I know there was a big cull of the old panel from a few years ago,
only 1 player from Rathnew on Sunday's team so it was good to see the new team hold their own,

and to show the character to come back and bring it level in the last few minutes after Kildare had really been on a roll was great to see,

and sure Westmeath had plenty of Croke Pk heartbreak aginst Meath etc in the years before getting near a Leinster

bring on the qualifiers...

Flukey

I was there too. Wicklow should have won that match. They kicked a load of wides in the first half and most of them were easy ones Fermanagh and Wicklow, the only two counties to have never won a senior football provincial title (yes even Kilkenny have won Leinster, 3 times in fact) will not follow Westmeath's achievement last year in doing so. Still, if they play like they can, we may not have seen the last of them yet.

Flukey

Wicklow did have a good team in the early 90s. There were some other good teams around then too, so they did not make the breakthrough. I was at that drawn game they had with Meath in 1991. If Wicklow had won a lot of people would have said it was down to the fact that Meath were tired after the 4 matches with Dublin. Wicklow played well that day and could have won it and indeed should have won and it would have been down to their own good performance, not anything Meath had been through over the previous month and a half.

nlgbbbblth

How come Kevin O'Brien wasn't playing?

great player

ergo

nlgbbbblth wrote:

How come Kevin O'Brien wasn't playing?

great player

Kevin O' Brien (Wicklow's only ever All-Star) retired,
I think it was back in 2000, he was probably in his mid-thirties by then,

a true legend and I'm glad he did manage to taste All-Ireland club success with Baltinglass back in 1990, the year he won his All-Star

but according to the match program from the game a few weeks back he's still available for selection for the junior club teams (there was an interview with him)