Poetry in motion...sheer.

This time the greeting as much as said, ‘I’ve had my spell; it’s definitely over now’.

Liam Dunne was into the fourth day of his ‘official’ retirement from the inter-county scene, which between May 1988 and August 2003, he had graced with much distinction, before last Tuesday he ended the mystery surrounding his future intentions by bidding farewell to the Wexford jersey.

Forget the dismissals of 2000, 2001 and 2002 - each can be termed ‘dubious’, in some cases ‘harsh’. But, as much as some of us would prefer to think otherwise, the judgments of a few referees, and one linesman, have left a dark cloud hanging over this man’s years of honourable service to the purple and gold.

This writer, for one, instead chooses to remember only a catalogue of vintage centre-back displays from this defensive general, displays which knit neatly into a tapestry that also includes three All-Star awards, a couple of Leinster senior championships, an All-Ireland winners’ medal, and countless other mementos from his time in the game’s biggest arena.

A fourth All-Star should have been his a few months ago; it should now be getting a regular vigorous polishing at his place in Kilmuckridge. Well, it isn’t, and remarkably the world continues to spin on its axis.

“Life goes on,” Liam will tell you, though he always tends to say such things with a poker face - maybe something is hurting him, but he is not about to let his guard down.

That’s the way it is, has been, and always will be with the husband of Eithne, and father of young Billy and Aoife, two hurling and camogie stars of the future, no doubt. They are sure to be provided with plenty of encouragement, and what better a tutor than their dad?

Liam himself confesses to harbouring ambitions of getting involved in the development of youngsters in a game that has been for so long, and will remain, so special to him.

Two of his All-Ireland winning colleagues, Tom Dempsey and George O’Connor, have in recent months become actively involved with the Wexford minor hurlers, helping out manager Noel Goff (St. Mary’s-Rosslare) and his team of selectors in their efforts to end the county’s wait for a first Leinster title in the grade since 1985.

“It is up to the boys of ‘96 - and there is a good number of us gone from the Wexford team at this stage - to put something back into the game now,” Liam suggests, though maybe this was more of an assertion. “(Martin) Storey is putting in great work with our (Oulart-The Ballagh’s) own underage, and it is up to the rest of us to put something back into the game now.”

So, you have ambitions of being involved with Wexford teams? “Oh yeah - definitely,” he replies immediately.

Resting on a table before us are a number of reproductions of stories relating to significant moments in his career. Some photographs are scattered around, one of which is of Ger Cushe, dressed in a Naomh Éanna track-suit, during the initial days of his involvement as a selector with the county senior hurlers in 2001.

The picture is pushed into Liam’s line of sight. “Well, maybe I won’t be involved to the same extent as Ger,” he remarks, even expelling a nervy laugh at the thought.

“But, down the road, I want to get involved with the underage section in our club, and also the Wexford juvenile and minor teams. I would not go any further than that - just take it to that point and see what we have.”

For a man who was done a disservice by his county once or twice, it is amazing he has such good intentions for it. Then again, as implied earlier, this man cannot be bothered wasting energy on holding grudges.

He was left winded in 1988 by the Wexford management, as he explains: “I played centre-field with (John) Conran that year against Laois, and then a few days before the semi-final, I read in the Irish Independent that I had been dropped off the panel.

“In ‘89, I was brought into the panel six weeks before the championship began - Oulart were on a bit of a roll that year, we were hurling well, and there was a bit of pressure coming on the Wexford selectors to bring me in. I was brought back six weeks before the Kilkenny game, but a week before the match I read on a ‘paper that I was again dropped completely out of the panel.

“I have seen all aspects of the inter-county game, the good and the bad,” he smiles, while elaborating, “from being Wexford captain, being sacked as the Wexford captain, to breaking my leg, the sending-offs, being dropped out of the county panel, to winning an All-Ireland medal. Yeah, I’ve definitely seen it all.”

Hindsight has taught Liam to trawl through setbacks in search of positives. “At the end of the day, in 1996, after having had the captaincy taken off me in ‘95, Storey got it, we won an All-Ireland, and I got the ‘man of the match’ award.”

But surely you wanted to captain your county to such major success? “Oh yeah. It was an honour for me to captain Wexford, and,” he says with a large dollop of sarcasm, “I can always say I captained the county to a 31-point victory over Westmeath in the championship.” That was at Carlow in the quarter-finals of the 1995 Leinster series.

But Liam, nor any of Oulart-The Ballagh’s other Wexford representatives, were leading Wexford out for the penultimate round encounter with Offaly a couple of weeks later at Croke Park.

On the Tuesday evening before the game with Offaly, Dunne lined-out with his club in the All-County League, thereby going against the wishes of the then Wexford management of Liam Griffin, Rory Kinsella and Seamus Barron.

“On the Wednesday night, Liam Griffin came up to me and told me what he was going to do, and I just looked at him and said, ‘Whatever the decision, I will stand by you 100%’. And I did exactly that. I suppose the whole episode would have affected the team, because it got so much media attention. But it didn’t affect me - I ended up getting the South East Radio ‘man of the match’!

“Yes, it was a serious thing, and it was disappointing for the club that the captaincy was taken off us; in 1994 we had just won our first county championship, and so it was our first-time to get the captaincy of Wexford, which is quite an honour.

“The only way we could react to such an occurrence was to come back and retain the championship, which we did, and Martin Storey was the Wexford captain in 1996.”

Dunne describes Storey as “definitely a better man for the job than me. And his appointment meant I was able to do my own job in a different way than if I had been captain. Martin was the man who led us from the front, and his leadership was valued.”

Despite some ‘papers trying to make out that an Oulart-The Ballagh/Liam Griffin divide formed in 1995, Dunne is eager to reveal a more factual account. “With the Offaly game coming up the weekend after the club had been stripped of the captaincy, I was firmly focussed on the game. I just turned off the telephone, and kept to myself. I was backing Griffin all the way, and there was absolutely no question about it.

“And I think Griffin’s firm stand on that issue helped everything come together even stronger for the 1996 season. I also feel I came out of the whole thing a better man - I kept my mouth shut and let my hurling do the talking.”

When Wexford realised their Leinster, let alone All-Ireland dream, it clearly helped heal the wounds even quicker.

But Dunne regrets that the big breakthrough had not occurred five years earlier, in 1991, when DJ Carey’s infamous goal - legend has it that he took seven steps before shooting the decisive major in the Leinster final - caused Wexford’s downfall.

Then there was 1993, and three National League final encounters which eventually culminated in defeat to Cork, before Kilkenny nicked a Leinster final draw, and put Wexford to the sword a week later.

Dunne ventures that had silverware actually been realised in ‘91 or ‘93, it might have sparked serial success for Wexford for several more seasons.

When it eventually happened, the team, in general, had expanded much of its best energies. “Christy Keogh,” Liam suggests, with regard to the Wexford manager of ‘93, “was the unlucky one.”

He has a good point. Christy, who sadly passed onto his eternal reward in 2002, helped bring together the majority of the team that eventually went on to win the All-Ireland.

“Under Christy, we just didn’t have that bit of luck which we enjoyed in 1996. Christy put everything into it, and we were exceptionally unlucky in 1993. He was a great man.”

Keogh had also been at the Wexford helm in 1988 and ‘89, the years Dunne was “dropped”, and notified via the media. But the love he has for Christy is just another prime example of how Dunne tends to forgive and forget.

He, meanwhile, reckons that “the 1993 team was just as good as the ‘96 side.”

But haven’t you said the ‘93 side was better? “Okay, it was. There was an arrogance about us in 1996 and ‘97. Even coming into 1998, the fear factor was not a problem with us anymore - we certainly didn’t fear Offaly in that Leinster semi-final. Garry (Laffan), Rod (Guiney) and myself were all missing through injury, but even despite that, the boys didn’t fear Offaly, and they really should have beaten them.”

Johnny Dooley’s last-gasp goal saw to it that Wexford were deprived of the chance to shoot for a rare provincial three-in-a-row.

“Kilkenny are now playing like we were back then. They are continuously winning, which breeds confidence, and that makes it so much easier to keep winning.”

Is the gap between Wexford and Kilkenny really that considerable? “Well, the gap is the structure in the county, and Kilkenny have a far superior one to ours.

“I cannot understand for the life of me why we do not follow their example. You can make all the excuses you want, talk about Wexford being a football and hurling county, and Kilkenny just being interested in hurling, but regardless, you should try learn from the likes of Kilkenny.

“It is frightening to look at how they compare to us statistically. And it is even more of a concern to think that if we have not won another All-Ireland senior hurling title by 2008 that we will have won only one within the space of 40 years! The system is all wrong here,” he adds, his passionate words still flowing.

“I see the underage Board in this county have made changes to the youth structure, and that is definitely a move in the right direction. But it is only a start, and it is going to be up to the clubs to row in behind the Board and help it to rectify the problems which are clearly holding Wexford back in terms of trying to achieve inter-county success.”

To lighten the mood, a photo is turned over to reveal Liam and Kilkenny’s flame-haired number 11 of the Nineties, John Power, with both men on the battlefield of Croke Park. They had some bruising confrontations, and this picture dates back to the drawn Leinster final of 1993, when they had what can be politely described as ‘a serious duel’.

“Oh Jaysus,” Liam sighs as his catches sight of the picture. “1993...the drawn match. We were slim that time!

“My brother Seán always said to me, ‘Why do you keep mentioning John Power? Every quote of yours I ever read is about him’. But, I would have a lot of respect for John.

“Starting out, I used to hate the man. When we were playing Kilkenny, I would just be waiting for the battle, to get the jersey on, to get out onto Croke Park and meet up with him. We had great battles over the years, but I have ended up having the utmost respect for him.”

I see where, in more recent times, you have likened your jousts with Power to those with one of Kilkenny’s new kids, John Hoyne.

“Hoyne would be a different sort of player. But I have had good battles with him over the last couple of years. He is in the same mould as this lad,” Liam adds, his eyes still fixed on the picture he holds.

“I started with Richie Power, a super hurler. And then they came along and gave me John Power, and I ended up with John Hoyne. Ah Jaysus - great battles, every one of them.

“If I was to pick two Kilkenny lads I get on best with, they would be John Power and John Hoyne. But the man there,” he says, again looking at the picture, “...he was something else. I enjoyed every minute of our battles. Some days I got the better of him, but you would know damn well that the next day he would comeback for retribution. There was no quarter asked for or given with us two. Unfortunately our inter-county days have run out. However, we can look back on the good times.”

One incident Liam prefers to erase from the memory banks happened in the Autumn of 1997, in a Leinster Club championship quarter-final against Castletown of Laois at Bellefield.

Twenty minutes into the game, Dunne challenged David Cuddy shoulder-to-shoulder on the Pavilion side of the Enniscorthy venue, and Dunne’s leg snapped.

A report from EchoSport back then is shown to him, the headline explaining, ‘All-Star Dunne ruled out for 17 weeks’.

“If I had only been ruled out for 17 weeks it wouldn’t have been too bad,” he now muses.

“I ended up being out for 16 months! When it happened I immediately knew the leg was broken. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

“That is the only moment I regret in my whole career, and if I could change anything I would actually have gotten out of David’s way, if I could; I would have tackled him in a different way than going in with my shoulder.”

Would you not prefer to never have been sent-off? “No,” he states, before returning to the injury. “I didn’t think that it was going to take me 16 months to again play a competitive game, and that was only between ourselves (the Wexford squad). That was from the 8th of November 1997 to the 16th of February 1999 that I was out of action - that was a longtime,” he says, clearly still amazed.

“I wasn’t right for a long time after actually coming back. I was off the pace, and for a good while I was just trying to get back into the rhythm. I will never forgot the pain I suffered that day in Bellefield. But, over the course of time, I got a few smacks on the leg which was broken, and it was perfect again.”

The 1999 Leinster championship brought a semi-final exit to Offaly. A year later, at the same stage, and against the same opposition, Liam was dismissed for two bookable offences. A year further down the line, and he suffered a similar fate in the closing stages of the narrow Leinster final loss to Kilkenny (though it was probably thanks in no small part to some Kilkenny gamesmanship).

In 2002, he and Tipperary’s Brian O’Meara were red-carded in the first-half of the replayed All-Ireland semi-final for what amounted to hang-bags stuff, an off-the-ball incident which, at most, merely merited a yellow card for both players.

“Oh, Kilkenny,” come the words as Liam glances at a picture of Kilkenny’s Martin Comerford laying on the ground as he is dismissed in the 2002 Leinster final.

“My friend Pat Horan,” he continues, while surveying reports of his clash a year earlier with O’Meara.

“The way I look on things, once the game is over, it is over. You cannot be bringing things that happen on the hurling field with you - you just have to let go. Over the years I hit hard and I got hit hard. When you are hurling, there is always another day - but after that day you must just forget about whatever happened on the field. Don’t ever bring it with you.”

Wexford are back in the full swing of preparations for the new season. On Thursday night last, the squad underwent a fitness exam, and Liam didn’t miss it one bit.

“I have been meeting the lads in recent days, sometimes as they would have been going to training. I was just sitting at home last night (Thursday) knowing the boys were doing a fitness test; I was just looking at the telly, saying to myself, ‘Jaysus, what is it going to be like in the summer?’.

“But it is only early days yet. It is only natural that I will miss the whole Wexford thing immensely, especially coming up to the Leinster semi-final against Kilkenny; in fact, I’m missing that game already.” It arrives on June 13th, the day after he celebrates his 36th birthday.

“I know if I was to go back this year that it would not be the right decision. To come back so well last year, I had to put in a savage effort between November 2002 right through to August 2003. I would not be prepared to do that again this year. At 35, the energy is just not in me anymore.”

Liam reflects on Croke Park last August, and the minutes after Wexford’s loss to Cork after the replayed All-Ireland semi-final. He remembers how while his team mates were engulfed in disappointment at the loss, while his own disappointment was much greater with the realisation that he would not be returning to this stage with the county he was so proud to serve.

“I had known for a longtime that I was going to be giving up after the 2003 campaign. I turned around in Croke Park that day last August before I went into the dressing-room and just look around; I knew that was my last game there.

“I looked at the four corners of the stand, and I just sat in the dressing-room looking around. All the lads were doing their own thing, and I just sat there, the jersey in my hand, watching the faces of the boys after being beaten by Cork. I just said to myself, ‘They don’t realise that they will be back in Croke Park again on these big days, but I won’t.”

He is now looking forward to seeing how club mate Keith Rossiter develops. “I grew up in Oulart when we had Mick Jacob and Jimmy Prendergast as defenders with Wexford, and since then I have played my part. Now it is Keith’s chance to make the breakthrough, if he wants to.

“He took a big step last year, and was unlucky at times not to have been on the team - he was very unlucky to have been taken off in the Leinster final. It is up to Keith to knuckle down, as there is a place there for him if he wants it bad enough. It won’t come easily, and it takes a lot of hard work to make the grade.

“But it is nice to see that another fellah from the club is emerging onto the county team, and that I can just sit back and see what way he is going to develop.”

Surely you’ll be lending Keith some advice? “You’d be trying to help him. But he is his own man, and he’ll do his own thing. He’s a good lad, and it is just a matter of Wexford giving him enough time to bed in.”

He reckons the team post-Liam Dunne can still do all right. “Well, they still have Damien Fitzhenry, Colm Kehoe, Darragh Ryan, Adrian Fenlon, Rory McCarthy, Declan Ruth, Paul Codd, and ‘Mitch’ - all good leaders.

“We have been in two All-Ireland semi-finals in the last three years, and yet, when the papers make up their lists, Wexford are always eighth or ninth when it comes to contenders for the championship. That will always be the way until this county can come along and win Leinsters and All-Irelands regularly. Maybe that is not a bad thing though, as it sharpens the focus of the lads to ensure we do well.”

He has his mind on Oulart-The Ballagh right now. “Only last night I heard we’ve drawn the ‘Harriers in the first round of the championship, and that is all I’m focussed on.

“I really want to go back to the club and contribute again. That will be a strange experience, because for quite a number of years I haven’t been able to train with them in months like March, April, May, June and July owing to county commitments. It’ll be great to be back with Oulart-The Ballagh full-time.”

This man’s not for turning.

up the weekend after the club had been stripped of the captaincy, I was firmly focussed on the game. I just turned off the telephone, and kept to myself. I was backing Griffin all the way, and there was absolutely no question about it.

“And I think Griffin’s firm stand on that issue helped everything come together even stronger for the 1996 season. I also feel I came out of the whole thing a better man - I kept my mouth shut and let my hurling do the talking.”

When Wexford realised their Leinster, let alone All-Ireland dream, it clearly helped heal the wounds even quicker.

But Dunne regrets that the big breakthrough had not occurred five years earlier, in 1991, when DJ Carey’s infamous goal - legend has it that he took seven steps before shooting the decisive major in the Leinster final - caused Wexford’s downfall.

Then there was 1993, and three National League final encounters which eventually culminated in defeat to Cork, before Kilkenny nicked a Leinster final draw, and put Wexford to the sword a week later.

Dunne ventures that had silverware actually been realised in ‘91 or ‘93, it might have sparked serial success for Wexford for several more seasons.

When it eventually happened, the team, in general, had expanded much of its best energies. “Christy Keogh,” Liam suggests, with regard to the Wexford manager of ‘93, “was the unlucky one.”

He has a good point. Christy, who sadly passed onto his eternal reward in 2002, helped bring together the majority of the team that eventually went on to win the All-Ireland.

“Under Christy, we just didn’t have that bit of luck which we enjoyed in 1996. Christy put everything into it, and we were exceptionally unlucky in 1993. He was a great man.”

Keogh had also been at the Wexford helm in 1988 and ‘89, the years Dunne was “dropped”, and notified via the media. But the love he has for Christy is just another prime example of how Dunne tends to forgive and forget.

He, meanwhile, reckons that “the 1993 team was just as good as the ‘96 side.”

But haven’t you said the ‘93 side was better? “Okay, it was. There was an arrogance about us in 1996 and ‘97. Even coming into 1998, the fear factor was not a problem with us anymore - we certainly didn’t fear Offaly in that Leinster semi-final. Garry (Laffan), Rod (Guiney) and myself were all missing through injury, but even despite that, the boys didn’t fear Offaly, and they really should have beaten them.”

Johnny Dooley’s last-gasp goal saw to it that Wexford were deprived of the chance to shoot for a rare provincial three-in-a-row.

“Kilkenny are now playing like we were back then. They are continuously winning, which breeds confidence, and that makes it so much easier to keep winning.”

Is the gap between Wexford and Kilkenny really that considerable? “Well, the gap is the structure in the county, and Kilkenny have a far superior one to ours.

“I cannot understand for the life of me why we do not follow their example. You can make all the excuses you want, talk about Wexford being a football and hurling county, and Kilkenny just being interested in hurling, but regardless, you should try learn from the likes of Kilkenny.

“It is frightening to look at how they compare to us statistically. And it is even more of a concern to think that if we have not won another All-Ireland senior hurling title by 2008 that we will have won only one within the space of 40 years! The system is all wrong here,” he adds, his passionate words still flowing.

“I see the underage Board in this county have made changes to the youth structure, and that is definitely a move in the right direction. But it is only a start, and it is going to be up to the clubs to row in behind the Board and help it to rectify the problems which are clearly holding Wexford back in terms of trying to achieve inter-county success.”

To lighten the mood, a photo is turned over to reveal Liam and Kilkenny’s flame-haired number 11 of the Nineties, John Power, with both men on the battlefield of Croke Park. They had some bruising confrontations, and this picture dates back to the drawn Leinster final of 1993, when they had what can be politely described as ‘a serious duel’.

“Oh Jaysus,” Liam sighs as his catches sight of the picture. “1993...the drawn match. We were slim that time!

“My brother Seán always said to me, ‘Why do you keep mentioning John Power? Every quote of yours I ever read is about him’. But, I would have a lot of respect for John.

“Starting out, I used to hate the man. When we were playing Kilkenny, I would just be waiting for the battle, to get the jersey on, to get out onto Croke Park and meet up with him. We had great battles over the years, but I have ended up having the utmost respect for him.”

I see where, in more recent times, you have likened your jousts with Power to those with one of Kilkenny’s new kids, John Hoyne.

“Hoyne would be a different sort of player. But I have had good battles with him over the last couple of years. He is in the same mould as this lad,” Liam adds, his eyes still fixed on the picture he holds.

“I started with Richie Power, a super hurler. And then they came along and gave me John Power, and I ended up with John Hoyne. Ah Jaysus - great battles, every one of them.

“If I was to pick two Kilkenny lads I get on best with, they would be John Power and John Hoyne. But the man there,” he says, again looking at the picture, “...he was something else. I enjoyed every minute of our battles. Some days I got the better of him, but you would know damn well that the next day he would comeback for retribution. There was no quarter asked for or given with us two. Unfortunately our inter-county days have run out. However, we can look back on the good times.”

One incident Liam prefers to erase from the memory banks happened in the Autumn of 1997, in a Leinster Club championship quarter-final against Castletown of Laois at Bellefield.

Twenty minutes into the game, Dunne challenged David Cuddy shoulder-to-shoulder on the Pavilion side of the Enniscorthy venue, and Dunne’s leg snapped.

A report from EchoSport back then is shown to him, the headline explaining, ‘All-Star Dunne ruled out for 17 weeks’.

“If I had only been ruled out for 17 weeks it wouldn’t have been too bad,” he now muses.

“I ended up being out for 16 months! When it happened I immediately knew the leg was broken. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

“That is the only moment I regret in my whole career, and if I could change anything I would actually have gotten out of David’s way, if I could; I would have tackled him in a different way than going in with my shoulder.”

Would you not prefer to never have been sent-off? “No,” he states, before returning to the injury. “I didn’t think that it was going to take me 16 months to again play a competitive game, and that was only between ourselves (the Wexford squad). That was from the 8th of November 1997 to the 16th of February 1999 that I was out of action - that was a longtime,” he says, clearly still amazed.

“I wasn’t right for a long time after actually coming back. I was off the pace, and for a good while I was just trying to get back into the rhythm. I will never forgot the pain I suffered that day in Bellefield. But, over the course of time, I got a few smacks on the leg which was broken, and it was perfect again.”

The 1999 Leinster championship brought a semi-final exit to Offaly. A year later, at the same stage, and against the same opposition, Liam was dismissed for two bookable offences. A year further down the line, and he suffered a similar fate in the closing stages of the narrow Leinster final loss to Kilkenny (though it was probably thanks in no small part to some Kilkenny gamesmanship).

In 2002, he and Tipperary’s Brian O’Meara were red-carded in the first-half of the replayed All-Ireland semi-final for what amounted to hang-bags stuff, an off-the-ball incident which, at most, merely merited a yellow card for both players.

“Oh, Kilkenny,” come the words as Liam glances at a picture of Kilkenny’s Martin Comerford laying on the ground as he is dismissed in the 2002 Leinster final.

“My friend Pat Horan,” he continues, while surveying reports of his clash a year earlier with O’Meara.

“The way I look on things, once the game is over, it is over. You cannot be bringing things that happen on the hurling field with you - you just have to let go. Over the years I hit hard and I got hit hard. When you are hurling, there is always another day - but after that day you must just forget about whatever happened on the field. Don’t ever bring it with you.”

Wexford are back in the full swing of preparations for the new season. On Thursday night last, the squad underwent a fitness exam, and Liam didn’t miss it one bit.

“I have been meeting the lads in recent days, sometimes as they would have been going to training. I was just sitting at home last night (Thursday) knowing the boys were doing a fitness test; I was just looking at the telly, saying to myself, ‘Jaysus, what is it going to be like in the summer?’.

“But it is only early days yet. It is only natural that I will miss the whole Wexford thing immensely, especially coming up to the Leinster semi-final against Kilkenny; in fact, I’m missing that game already.” It arrives on June 13th, the day after he celebrates his 36th birthday.

“I know if I was to go back this year that it would not be the right decision. To come back so well last year, I had to put in a savage effort between November 2002 right through to August 2003. I would not be prepared to do that again this year. At 35, the energy is just not in me anymore.”

Liam reflects on Croke Park last August, and the minutes after Wexford’s loss to Cork after the replayed All-Ireland semi-final. He remembers how while his team mates were engulfed in disappointment at the loss, while his own disappointment was much greater with the realisation that he would not be returning to this stage with the county he was so proud to serve.

“I had known for a longtime that I was going to be giving up after the 2003 campaign. I turned around in Croke Park that day last August before I went into the dressing-room and just look around; I knew that was my last game there.

“I looked at the four corners of the stand, and I just sat in the dressing-room looking around. All the lads were doing their own thing, and I just sat there, the jersey in my hand, watching the faces of the boys after being beaten by Cork. I just said to myself, ‘They don’t realise that they will be back in Croke Park again on these big days, but I won’t.”

He is now looking forward to seeing how club mate Keith Rossiter develops. “I grew up in Oulart when we had Mick Jacob and Jimmy Prendergast as defenders with Wexford, and since then I have played my part. Now it is Keith’s chance to make the breakthrough, if he wants to.

“He took a big step last year, and was unlucky at times not to have been on the team - he was very unlucky to have been taken off in the Leinster final. It is up to Keith to knuckle down, as there is a place there for him if he wants it bad enough. It won’t come easily, and it takes a lot of hard work to make the grade.

“But it is nice to see that another fellah from the club is emerging onto the county team, and that I can just sit back and see what way he is going to develop.”

Surely you’ll be lending Keith some advice? “You’d be trying to help him. But he is his own man, and he’ll do his own thing. He’s a good lad, and it is just a matter of Wexford giving him enough time to bed in.”

He reckons the team post-Liam Dunne can still do all right. “Well, they still have Damien Fitzhenry, Colm Kehoe, Darragh Ryan, Adrian Fenlon, Rory McCarthy, Declan Ruth, Paul Codd, and ‘Mitch’ - all good leaders.

“We have been in two All-Ireland semi-finals in the last three years, and yet, when the papers make up their lists, Wexford are always eighth or ninth when it comes to contenders for the championship. That will always be the way until this county can come along and win Leinsters and All-Irelands regularly. Maybe that is not a bad thing though, as it sharpens the focus of the lads to ensure we do well.”

He has his mind on Oulart-The Ballagh right now. “Only last night I heard we’ve drawn the ‘Harriers in the first round of the championship, and that is all I’m focussed on.

“I really want to go back to the club and contribute again. That will be a strange experience, because for quite a number of years I haven’t been able to train with them in months like March, April, May, June and July owing to county commitments. It’ll be great to be back with Oulart-The Ballagh full-time.”

This man’s not for turning.