By Damian Lawlor

Just two days after the ball stopped rolling in Wexford's ill-fated 2015 campaign their manager Liam Dunne started the process of recovery and preparing for the season ahead.

On the Wednesday after that senior championship setback to Cork, the county's U21 team beat Kilkenny in the Leinster final. It was a massive haul for Wexford and identified the potential for the Purple and Gold in the years to come.

But it also contributed to some impatience within.

There were some who sought a change of direction at the helm of the senior side, feeling that the youngsters should be fast-tracked with their U21 management team. Ultimately, the county administrators retained their trust in Dunne, a fitting nod to one of their greatest ever servants. It was refreshing to see and untypical of the see-saw movement of traffic that fast-lane inter-county managers must negotiate these days.

"I was at Croke Park for the All-Ireland football final last year and a staunch Wexford supporter, Gerry Forde, turned to me and asked if I was bringing in many more young players" Dunne recalls in an exclusive interview for gaa.ie.

"I looked straight at him and said, 'Gerry, I think I've already brought in quite a few. I'm not sure there are too many more left to bring in.

"Gerry only meant well but there is an expectation out there that you must bring all these guys in and let them have a cut straight away. But you have to protect them too," the Wexford boss warns.

"For most of the group I have worked with since taking the job, it was about getting them to think differently, upping the bar across the board in terms of conditioning, lifestyle, the usual things.

"That foundation work had to take place but through the relative high of 2014 when we beat Clare and acquitted ourselves well, to the disappointing low of last year when we just didn't perform, the young lads playing for me have learned a lot. And I have learned much myself in that time.

Three nights after they lost to Cork last year Dunne rang his fellow county man Billy Walsh, the former Irish Amateur Boxing head coach, and they spoke for an hour on the phone. That conversation set the recovery plan in motion.

"Later, I met Billy at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel in Dublin and spent another two hours with him and started to put out a new plan. He gave me another two hours a few days afterwards as I explained where I was coming from and where I wanted to go with this team. He certainly gave me lots of direction. It was fantastic,” revealed the Wexford boss. 

"It's hard to believe Irish boxing let him go in Ireland. When he comes back from his stint in charge of the US team just wait and see...the Great Britain team will come looking for him."

There has been plenty of time for reflection since last summer but Dunne wasn't long formulating that new-look action plan and he's confident of a good season ahead.

Despite their recent narrow defeat on the All-Ireland semi-final stage, the sight of Oulart-The Ballagh finally ending their hoo-doo and winning the AIB Leinster club championship is serious grounds for optimism. Oulart finally won their first provincial title last winter - after so many years of failure at the finishing line and many moments of crushing disappointment.

"We were beaten in the quarter-final of the Wexford championship the year before and that gave everyone a long time to reflect and see where we wanted to go," says Dunne.

"Then Frank Flannery came in. The players wanted him, and backed him all the way. It's the old cliché - you talk the talk and then you walk the walk. In fairness to the lads they have done that ever since.

"They have some great young lads added to those with huge experience. Some fellas have up to nine county medals as well as having lost two finals. Some guys have played in 11 finals and featured on the side that played four Leinster finals in row and were beaten in all of them.

"The lads who won have given some service. I had a few years in charge of them and all those fellas gave me huge commitment. When Frank came in he brought his own ideas and he delivered for our club. Winning that Leinster final was the greatest day in my life in club hurling circles since we won our first county title."

After his own success as Oulart manager, Dunne was fast-tracked into the Wexford set-up and while the pressures are immense, he says it's immensely enjoyable when the players are so committed.

"When you have talented players that are committed it makes the deal a lot easier," he says.

"But there is a huge amount in it. It's a great experience as well; a great life experience, I mean just as much as a sporting one. You are dealing with a huge amount of different people - strength and conditioning experts, doctors, nutritionists, the county board, players, sponsors. It might not be a level playing field out there in terms of finance or player resources and you only get a certain amount of time at it but that's life.

"And the Wexford regime is always evolving. The average age of our squad is 22 now but that is the way the game has gone.

"When we won the All-Ireland in 1996 I was 28 but it just felt like my career was only starting.

Now it's mostly only younger guys who can commit with the amount of time going into it. The older guys know there is no hiding place and that they can be found out further down the road. And no-one wants that, to get destroyed by a young lad of 21."

He looks at the likes of Richie Power who was forced to retire at 30, but points out that the collection of eight All-Ireland medals will make that enforced call more bearable over time.

"A great player and Kilkenny are just so good at what they do. When we played them last year they had the likes of Paul Murphy, Jackie Tyrrell and Joey Holden in the full-back line and people were saying that it was a weaker team than usual. And they had (TJ) Reid, (Richie) Hogan and (Eoin) Larkin in attack. But then a guy we had not heard of (Ger Aylward) scores 3-5 against us. It's just what they do.

“They are the bench mark but catching them is the challenge,” adds Dunne.

This Saturday, Wexford embark on their Allianz Hurling League Division 1B campaign away to Limerick. It comes on the back of a disappointing defeat to Dublin in the Bord na Móna Walsh Cup final in Croke Park.

On May 21, Wexford make a Championship return to Croke Park for the first time since 2008 when they meet the Dubs in a Leinster quarter-final.

Everything is about marking that return to GAA HQ in the Championship with a suitably big performance – and it’s about showing Wexford are far from Dunne.