Rory O'Connor not suited to sideline view with St Martin's
Full-forward gearing up for Saturday's Leinster semi-final against Ballyhale Shamrocks
Friday 15 November 2019 18:37, UK
As St Martin's edged St Anne's Rathangan to claim their second Wexford county title in three years, there were joyous celebrations for the club, but the decider was a strange experience for county star Rory O'Connor.
The 21-year-old was shown a red card in the semi-final win over Ferns, meaning he was suspended for the final.
His club did their level best to ensure he would be free to play, but the 11th-hour appeal fell short.
"We failed the Wexford appeal," he explained. "It was transferred onto Leinster. Obviously, it being a bank holiday weekend, Leinster gave us a date, Sunday at 11:30. The match was at 3:00.
"We trained away as if it was nothing else. The lads took it that I wasn't playing. There was a team of people put behind me to work on it behind the scenes, outside of the management. Lisa McDonald, James McDonald, they're great Wexford people, they're great club people, solicitor and barrister, and they gave it their best shot.
"There's no getting around the GAA rule book. But yeah, it was a weird feeling, watching the county final from the sideline, knowing you could play. If you had a camera on me, you'd see me as a lunatic on the sideline!"
As he watched on helplessly, he saw his teammates dig out a two-point win.
"It was certainly a sense of relief. It was a different kind of experience when the final whistle went," he continued. "I'd say I've never celebrated as much at a final whistle!
"When you're playing matches, and you're expected to win, you're just like 'thank God that final whistle has come now. We got the cup' and stuff like this. But knowing the lads are after winning it for you, or winning it and you had no impact on it, it was really enjoyable that you could take it all in."
It's an experience he'll learn from.
"Ultimately I shouldn't be in those situations, getting things appealed," he noted. "I'm big enough and bold enough now to stay out of incidents like that. So it's my own fault to be missing out on a county final."
I'm big enough and bold enough now to stay out of incidents like that.
They now look ahead to Saturday's Leinster semi-final against Ballyhale Shamrocks. Coming up against the reigning All-Ireland champions is a prospect they are relishing.
"We've won the county final, two of the last three years. As good as it was winning the county final, there's a bit more in us in what we're kind of wanting [to go further]," O'Connor said.
"Obviously it's Ballyhale in the semi-final. I was saying to the club lads, a couple of the club lads - why wouldn't you want to go out to a field and play against lads that won two All-Stars, one Young Player of the Year? Put yourself up against these lads and give them a nice rattle.
"As long as we give it our best shot in that sense, I think the lads are focused on it. Hopefully we'll cause an upset.
"We're not going up to make numbers up in Nowlan Park," he added, confidently. "We're going up there to cause an upset hopefully and we're not going to shy away from the challenge that faces us."
