Well of hope for Wexford running dry

LockerRoom: What is the correct frame of mind for a neutral to pack on the way to a Leinster hurling final between Kilkenny and Wexford?, asks Tom Humphries.

It's hard to know.

The harsh view is Kilkenny have such a tradition of doing things right that perhaps it's wisest just to wish them the best and let them get on with it. If nobody else in the province is catching up that's not really Kilkenny's fault, is it?

Leinster hurling won't be healthier just because Kilkenny grow weaker.

You could hope for a Wexford victory on the basis Wexford are the source of all hope. You could hope for Wexford because even though they don't really deserve it they have the most wonderful support and they produce teams that even in their most mediocre times play 100 per cent above themselves against Kilkenny.

So on balance you go for those yellowbellied underdogs, hoping they'll get near or that they'll prevail. That's how it was yesterday. You suspected Wexford had found a little chink in Kilkenny's armour when they played in the league a couple of months ago and had gone back home planning a coup. Should be close.

Five minutes before half time you would have thrown the towel at such a thought. Kilkenny were just going on one of those little runs which stitched three points into Wexford after a chokingly close first half. The PA announced four minutes of injury time. Room for Kilkenny to put three more over, perhaps, but then Wexford came back with three of their own before the break.

Set it up nicely, you thought. Not at all. Kilkenny eased away after the break, scoring 2-15 in 35 minutes of championship hurling. Six Leinster titles in a row. Who'd bet against them making it to 10?

With respect to Wexford I'm having second thoughts about the general goodwill on offer to them. Perhaps all us neutrals should travel to Croke Park hoping to see Kilkenny put 20 points on them. Because getting near to Kilkenny seems to make Wexford happier than it should and while they are happy nothing will be done to restore the game in the county.

They lost by 11 yesterday and it could have been more. Hopefully it was the sort of chastening experience which might hit them like a dose of smelling salts. They have a choice now. They can listen to all the nice cant coming out of the Kilkenny dressing-room about how tough it was or they can tell themselves they were trimmed and it's back to basics, not just for the team but for the county.

In Croke Park yesterday, the Wexford panel and management deserved whatever plaudits and pats on the back were going after a fine first-half performance. But Wexford as a hurling county didn't earn the right to any sense of well-being. There's more to that than getting worked up about Kilkenny every year. There's more to hurling than holding Kilkenny for a half.

Yesterday, Kilkenny won their 47th Leinster minor title. That includes every one in the 1990s and three in a row since then. Offaly's win in 2000 is all that stands between Kilkenny and 14 wins on the trot. That is staggering.

Between the Rackard era and 1985 Wexford won seven minor provincials. None since 1985. Not one. Staggering.

As is St Kieran's dominance at schools level. And the fact that the Kilkenny seniors won a record sixth provincial title yesterday. Kids in Kilkenny are playing over 40 games a year between school and club and they are playing when the weather is good for hurling.

Hurling needs Wexford. Since the mid '50s and Art Foley's save the county has been a symbol of the possibilities of the game, the metaphor for the common challenge to the game's bluebloods. They have been the essence of romance for so long. And they win just enough to keep the illusion alive. 1968. The near misses of the '70s. 1996. And all those late, late losses to DJ.

It's not enough anymore, though. It's a sad sight then to see Liam Griffin raging like Lear on the heath every time the state of Wexford hurling gets discussed these days. The legacy of the breakthrough in 1996 has been negligible apart from two provincial under-21 one titles under Seámus Murphy.

Leinster hurling is in decline no matter how we may wish it to be otherwise but if you look down the road Wexford are the ones who might struggle the most. Offaly hurlers grow like small wild flowers out of rocks. One team goes, there is general depression and then another one flowers. One of the mysteries of nature.

In Dublin, Diarmuid Healy will succeed. He will do so because he has come at the right time. Dublin have taken enough double-figure hidings to eventually get the message through. Success doesn't come. You go and get it. He will succeed because the numbers are there and the hunger is there. And the breadth of his success won't be measured in silverware it will be measured in the number of clubs and schools who give primacy to hurling in 10 years' time. Between Dublin and Laois there is very little right now. They are both moving in the same direction, measuring their progress against each other.

Wexford are going the other way, though. Football is growing. Soccer is increasing in popularity. St Peter's, Wexford, haven't been a force in schools hurling since the early 1980s. Good Counsel, New Ross, find themselves raising the offspring of the magpies from south Kilkenny. Two Leinster minor titles in 33 years.

A couple of weeks ago, Dublin hammered Wexford in the Leinster under-21 final in Carlow. What was interesting wasn't just Dublin's complete domination of a team who had done well at that level for the previous two years but the fact Dublin eased off for the last 10 minutes. If that didn't rub it in.

There's not really any great will to do anything about Leinster hurling on a macro level. A few years ago, Dublin proposed a round-robin system which would exempt the top two counties (Kilkenny and Offaly at the time) by giving them byes into the semi-finals and allow Laois, Dublin, Wexford and one of the so-called weaker teams from the Keogh Cup to play a round-robin series. The idea was accepted, then overturned again.

The GAA is a funny old business. On Saturday, in defeat, Tommy Lyons spoke about how Dublin footballers just don't have the players at the moment. On the face of it he is right. And yet there's the rub. In 1994 in Clare, you'd have sworn they just didn't have the players. In Wexford at the same time, you'd have reckoned the same. Donegal footballers in 1991? Down in 1990? It just takes a good year to alter the picture but the trick to long-term success is fundamental change.

There'll always be a messiah coming down the road to rescue some God-help-us tribe, or a club like Oulart, to put a good underage run together but for long-term success you need things as unglamorous as administration, sponsors, plans and coaches.

When we talk about professionalism for players we are living in dreamland. We need talented, highly-paid development officers. Start in the sunny corner that is Wexford and make your way up across the country.

And if Bertie Ahern wants (as Graham Norton might say) to experience a warm hand upon his entrance at sporting events again he might grant aid such a development for cultural, sporting and health reasons. And then we can stop approaching Leinster finals involving Wexford, half in hope, hope in dread.