Wexford undecided on team to face Galway

WEXFORD have left two vacancies in the side to play Galway in Sunday's NHL semi final at Limerick.

Essentially the team is the same as that which surprised Offaly in the quarter final but the left corner back position and one of the midfield spots are unfilled.

According to team manager Liam Griffin, the selectors are undecided about the corner back berth whereas at midfield Adrian Fenlon is nursing an injury and his availability won't be finalised until later in the week.

Shane Carley played corner back in the quarter final but he was filling in for Colm Kehoe, the regular league choice, and there are also other contenders, hence the need for more time to consider the matter.

"We were very pleased to beat Offaly," says Griffin. "It was a monkey off our back. No one can remember the last time we beat them in major competition. Gary Laffan (Wexford's full forward) is a young fella, only 19, and in all his time watching from the stand, he never saw us beat Offaly - but now he's actually played on a team that beat them."

Pleased as he is to have reached a semi final, Griffin shares the county's irritation at the match being staged in Limerick - a venue nominated before the quarter finals presumably on the basis that Offaly would be Galway's opponents.

"Commonsense should have prevailed," he says. "The matches (semi finals) should have been put on together so that supporters could see both. I'd like to have seen the other match. I'm not a GAA politician but I don't think it was the right thing to do not to wait until the quarter finals were finished before fixing the venues.

"I've no objection to Limerick or Limerick people I spent enough time living in those parts - but to come up with a venue that's a four hour trip for one team and a half hour for the other is crazy. The only match we had to overnight for this league was the one in Limerick. We went to London to introduce proposals for the game's future, hurling's under pressure and we should be careful about these things."

Griffin has had a good season in the league. Promotion from Division Two has been followed by an excellent quarter final victory and most significantly, he would argue, the base has been laid for a new team.

"I'm happy to get this far which isn't to say I'm satisfied not to do any better I expect us to do well but it is not the end of the world if we lose.

"The 1993 team was finished the day of the replay against Kilkenny. Their age wouldn't have helped and psychologically there were problems. We had to rebuild. People get impatient but Clare took over four years to emerge.

However, there is a strong resource of experience in the panel and Griffin has high praise for the players who provide it.

"Another agenda we have is to reduce the average age of the team. It's now less than 24 but we have to keep some experience.

I owe a debt of gratitude to fell as like George O'Connor and Billy Byrne, marvellous men to take a subs' jersey after all those years and not a word of complaint. You see some players now going wild at being taken off in matches but with them, there's no tantrums. They make their contribution when asked. It speaks volumes for them."