Logical step is a final one

Leinster SF semi-final, Wexford v WestmeathIan O'Riordan talks to Wexford manager Pat Roe as his side prepare to face Westmeath

When in late November of last year Pat Roe bit the bullet and met the three Wexford selectors, there was still some order in Leinster football. But with runaway speed all that changed, and so for the first time since 1968 the Leinster final will be without one of the big four: Dublin, Meath, Kildare or Offaly.

That Wexford are 70 minutes away from making that final is in no small part down to Roe. Beating Westmeath in Sunday's semi-final at Croke Park would simply represent what he believes is the next logical step for Wexford football. The potential is there to keep improving all the way to the top.

"I would never put a barrier on a team's ambitions," says Roe. "The more you progress the more ambitious you get, and we'll be very disappointed if, having beaten Kildare, we don't win on Sunday. And we've set that target now, to reach the Leinster final."

Roe, however, backs away from any suggestion that he alone has turned Wexford into Leinster contenders.

No more than Páidí Ó Sé's part in Westmeath, he was targeted for his reputation for solid management, and also his regard as a former county player of fine ability with Laois; but ultimately it was the players who would have to deliver on any potential.

But as with Ó Sé in Westmeath, Wexford were keen to get him. The meeting with the three selectors, Dec Carty, Ger Halligan and Micheál Furlong, involved over an hour of straight football talk, and even after that Roe needed time to think.

The commute from his home in Portlaoise would be an hour and 20 minutes each way, and his only previous county management experience with Carlow had proved a little frustrating.

With a deal finally in place, Roe arrived for the first training session on January 6th a little uncertain.

"But straightaway I was impressed at how committed they were," he admits. "It wasn't like anything needed to be changed.

"And I feel management is a simple game anyway, and is often made too complicated.

"What I did do was put a little more emphasis on ball skills, and on using the ball every night at training. I'd say 90 per cent of the stuff we do includes ball work. But I didn't make anyone on the team a good footballer. They were good footballers when I got there. What a manager does is just bring them together."

Throughout the league then, Roe progressively tightened the team, highlighted by wins over Galway and Meath. Beating Kildare in the Leinster championship was something he always believed possible.

"The only fear I had was that stage-fright might be a factor, simply because Wexford weren't expected to beat a top team like Kildare, that they weren't used to that stage, and that they might freeze. But I knew the form was good and I expected that with a good performance they would win.

"So Leinster has been blown open now, but this has been on the cards for the past couple of years, and that the gap is closer now than ever before, simply because every team is preparing as well as the other. After that, it just comes down to the couple of class players and then the self-belief and confidence."

Raising the level of confidence in Wexford is something Roe has clearly worked hard on. Players like Matty Forde, Willie Carley and Darragh Breen have been carrying themselves with some added swagger this season, and Roe feels there is more to come.

"I always believed that so-called weaker counties are weaker psychologically more than anything else. I think we've seen that most of all in Laois. They always had good footballers, but just look at the self-belief they had against Meath last Sunday. They just blew them away in the second half the way few teams do, and that comes with the confidence you get with winning.

"So in Wexford they still need to develop a little more of that confidence and self-belief, that they can beat any team in Leinster. And so far this year they've showed they can."

Roe falls into the traditional category of football managers, the full hands-on approach, taking on all the physical and coaching work. He says his work wouldn't be possible without the experience of his three selectors, but between them he feels all bases are covered. Even the more theoretical elements.

"Every training session for us involves some psychology, because it's up to the players themselves to visualise winning and their skills.

"I don't think you need to bring in someone with a PhD for something like that. Our psychology involves understanding players around them, and knowing why they can win. And I prefer to keep that as simple as possible."

Having finished teaching at Rathdowney for the summer, Roe has a little more time to think about the road ahead in Leinster - and that possible date with his native county.

"I think Laois are now the pre-eminent team in Leinster, almost head and shoulders above the rest of us. That's the benchmark now.

"But there is the chance there for Wexford or Westmeath to match up against them in the Leinster final, and that's a great carrot."