Brian Barry
GAA Editor @BrianGBarry
Wexford can use Kilkenny victory as a 'launchpad': Darragh Egan reflects on Model County's win in Nowlan Park
Wexford hurling manager Darragh Egan reflects on the Model County's 1-22 to 1-18 away win over Kilkenny, as they reached the All-Ireland series: "These are all passionate Wexford men. They were hurt after coming out of Mullingar last Saturday evening."
Last Updated: 23/05/22 3:52pm
The obituaries for Wexford's championship campaign were written after the Model County slipped up in Mullingar.
Following the Yellowbellies' draw with Westmeath, many dismissed their chances of going to Nowlan Park and beating a Kilkenny team who had just hammered Dublin by 17 points.
But Darragh Egan's side produced a spirited performance, and were full value for their 1-22 to 1-18 victory over the Cats.
"These are all passionate Wexford men. They were hurt after coming out of Mullingar last Saturday evening. This was always going to be a standalone fixture. We were always going to have to come to Nowlan Park and get something," said Egan.
"We can only go off our training performance. I can say this without any hesitation, our training performance in the last three or four weeks has been absolutely top notch. We hurled well against Laois in the second half and we blew them away. We were so wasteful up in Mullingar last Saturday evening and it hurt us ultimately. We had 21 wides, made a few mistakes.
"We trained well all week, we planned effectively and ultimately the performance you saw today is what we have been doing over the last few weeks on the training pitch.
"Once we came out of Mullingar last Saturday we parked it. Lots of the journalists and lots of the papers and lots of Wexford people were probably a bit sore over it but as a collective we knew we were seven days from coming into Nowlan Park for our last championship match. Thankfully the boys were really, really good all week. We knew coming in we were going to get a bounce off them. It was just a matter of not letting the emotion and the rivalry with Kilkenny take over.
"There's great character in the dressing room. They have shown it over the last few years. Every time they're knocked back, they always come out fighting and swinging."
The two Leinster rivals were neck-and-neck for the majority of the contest on Nore-side, before a late burst from Wexford saw them over the line as they scored six of the last eight points.
"It has to be a huge launchpad," Egan said of the strong finish.
"Cathal Dunbar got a very important score, Mikie Dwyer got a very important score, lads who were training really well but who just aren't getting into the first 15.
"This is a 20-man game, sometimes you are going to finish with as strong a 15 as you start with. Once we can get our lads to realise that, we'll be in really good stead because we are building a panel.
"We're not there yet, we've absolutely loads and loads of work to do, we still have to be more efficient in front of goals, like, at half-time we had nine wides on the board which just isn't good enough at this level and it hurt us over the last few weeks so ultimately finishing strong is definitely we go after."
It has to be a huge launchpad.
Egan says Wexford must build on the victory
Next up is a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final against the beaten Joe McDonagh Cup finalists. Wexford will be hot favourites to progress, but Egan has urged caution.
"We went in as favourites in Mullingar last weekend as well so we'll be well aware of what's coming down the tracks," he warned.
"Lots of drama in that Joe McDonagh today. The winners and losers of that are going to come out in their preliminary quarter-final thinking they have a really big chance and we just need to be ready for them.
"The big thing for us is over the next three weeks, can we get that level of consistency, can we keep the level of consistency in our training and make sure that when we go to our preliminary quarter-final that we're in good stead and ready to attack the All-Ireland Championship."
