Wexford GAA

You still have plenty of time to text or WhatsApp us and we will announce the winners tomorrow on the programme.

But now, as I mentioned, I was speaking to and took Ron Tuff with the incoming president of Wexford GAA yesterday, Derek Kent.

We just had a brief chat.

looking at developments within the games, and he talked and gave glowing praise to the battle between the Rapperees and Feathered that took place last Friday.

He, he, at the time, he was in charge of coaching in, in Wexford.

He was heavily involved in Wexford GAA, and, um, he had this concept of camps to cover the whole county, and, uh, he initiated these.

And at the time, there were a group of coaches available, I think mainly through community employment schemes and so on, and he set up the, effectively the Cúl Camp structure.

Uh, Croke Park were very impressed by it.

There's 10 good men in that dressing room.

Again, look at Wexford battling for everything, and that one has gone over the bar as well.

Oh, that fantastic play by Rory O'Connor.

Then we had Billy Byrne, who was going to come in to be the game changer, and we would throw, put a high ball in from the middle of the field, and Billy Byrne's job was to catch, touch, and bang.

Oh, there's no rules.

This guy just grabbed the ball, threw it up in the air and then hit it.

Most importantly, I'd like to thank now the people of Wexford who stood by us through thick and thin.

[firecrackers popping] Hurray, Wexford.

I think this argument is more about the soul of the GA and what it represents as an organisation and what the values are.

I did a piece with Tom Dempsey, the former Wexford hurler, this week.

It's 30 years on this coming Tuesday since Wexford won their All-Ireland, their sole All-Ireland in the last 60 years that triggered sort of Mayo-like...

And he told a lovely story of when he was a kid in the village, nine or ten, the night before a match, they'd go down to the phone box and ring Tony Doran.

Tony Doran was the superstar of the team.

I think the interesting thing about Pat Gilroy and Colm O'Rourke's piece is this conversation we've had about the fun and joy and whether that's being lost in this race to absolute elitism.

It has been an ongoing debate.

Again, Tom Dempsey talked about that Wexford team was full of characters.