Jacob urges Wexford supporters to show patience with rising stars

By John Harrington

Former Wexford hurler, Rory Jacob, has urged the county’s supports to show patience with the new generation of exciting young players who caught the eye during the victorious Walsh Cup campaign.

Five players who Jacob coached at U-20 level in 2023 and 2022 – Cian Byrne, Corey Byrne Dunbar, Conor Foley, Eoin Ryan, and Cian Molloy – all played in last Sunday’s impressive Walsh Cup Final victory over Galway.

Wexford’s promising start under new manager Keith Rossiter and the form shown by their young guns has led to an early-season buzz on Slaneyside.

But Jacob thinks it’ll take some time for the players he worked with at U-20 level to really find their feet as senior inter-county hurlers.

“Wexford people would want to show patience and don't get too excited with these lads too early because we're inclined to do that down here at times,” he told GAA.ie.

“A fella comes in and we make him out to be maybe be a little bit better than he is at the moment, when what he needs is to be given a bit of time to breathe and develop in his own time. 

“All of those fellas have had good underage careers with Wexford and they're good prospects. But they still have a good bit to learn about the game, and a good bit of developing to do physically.

“They have potential and they have ability, but they need to keep applying themselves to training, keep humble, and keep working at the game because none of them are the finished article by any means yet. 

“There's a period now where Keith and his management team will have to give those lads a bit of time to develop but also they're going to have to be pushed hard from a training point of view to get them to a level where they're going to be able to perform consistently. 

“Wexford need these fellas to come through but you have to be careful with that because they can't be expected to be the main men too quickly.”

The Wexford U-20 teams managed by Rossiter and coached by Jacob in 2023 and 2022 were somewhat unlucky not to have won at least one Leinster championship.

They were beaten by a single point in 2022 by a Kilkenny team that went on to win the All-Ireland title, and then last year a very good Offaly team beat them by two points in the Leinster Final.

Cian Byrne was the main score-getter on both of those teams and he was ably assisted in attack by Corey Byrne Dunbar.

Both players were blooded at senior level by then manager Darragh Egan last year, and were very impressive last Sunday against Galway, scoring five points between one another.

An outstanding forward himself for Wexford for 14 years, Jacob knows a thing or two about attacking play and is excited by the natural ability of both players.

But he thinks it would be unrealistic to expect them to shoulder too much of a scoring burden on this Wexford team just yet.

“Both of them are exciting players when they're at the top of their game,” he says. “They have an eye for goal and a natural instinct for hurling. They're good stick and ball players. You don't need to tell them where to go, they have a fair idea of what to do themselves on the pitch.

“There's still a bit more to go for them both from a strength and conditioning point of view. They're probably a little bit off that level.

“Even though they're exciting and are good hurlers and have that natural forwards instinct that you can't coach, I'd be realistic about things and they have a bit more to go to be really influencing senior inter-county games.

“Corey is a very fit young fella and I see Keith has him playing out around the middle of the field at the moment which is probably a position that suits him because he's sort of a free spirit so let him go hurl rather than get caught up in the moment in physical exchanges with a man-marker because he's probably a little bit off that yet in terms of strength and conditioning. But they both have the ability to be serious players.”

Conor Foley is another who was given game-time by Darragh Egan in 2023 and should benefit from that experience.

Comfortable in a variety of defensive positions, that versatility makes him a very useful man to have in the panel. 

“Keith and the lads have him playing full-back now which is probably his best position, I would say,” says Jacob. “He reads the game well and is really excellent stick player and he's good in the air as well.

“Conor has a lot going for him and I believe this year he's really pushed on with his training a lot from a physical point of view and that's probably something he needed to look at. For the last couple of years he was at a reasonable level but probably needed to push on more.

“I believe he's training very, very well with the seniors and he's pushing on with his strength and conditioning and he needs to keep doing that because he's a player that Wexford will need in the next few years to play in a central position in the backs.”

Cian Molloy’s development will be interesting to watch over the course of the coming League and championship campaign.

Centre-back on the Wexford minor team that won the county’s first provincial title in that grade for 34 years back in 2019, he’s been touted as a very promising talent ever since.

He didn’t feature at senior level under Darragh Egan, but Jacob has high hopes for him if he applies himself under Rossiter.

“He's a good marker, he's a very strong competitive sort of fella,” he says. “He has all the ability in the world, to be honest with you.

“He's one of these fellas who can hurl every way. He can hurl with the right hand on top or the left hand on top. He has that sort of quality.

“He actually takes sidelines and frees hitting them both ways. And looks just as natural hitting them with whichever hand he has on top. That's the sort of ability that fella has.

“It'll be interesting to see what happens him because of all the players that have come from those U-20 teams, if you were to go back three years ago he was the most highly regarded of any of them.

“But as a senior inter-county player he still has a bit to go because he hasn't been involved at county level since playing for the U-20s two years ago so has a bit of catching up to do. But if he puts in the required S&C and the required level of training, that fella has all the ability in the world to be whatever he wants to be.”

Eoin Ryan is probably the least heralded of the U-20 graduates to have featured so far this year for the county senior team, but Jacob thinks he’s made of the right stuff because he has the attitude to get the most from his ability.

“He did very well for us at U-20 two years ago,” says Jacob. “He was our go-to man-marker for picking up the opposition's best forward. He was on Billy Drennan in that Leinster Final and Billy was the hot-shot of that championship and did very well in the All-Ireland FInal, but Eoin Ryan didn't give him much in the Leinster Final.

“He's doing well now with the seniors and improving all the time, he has a really good attitude and he's really fit. He's a nephew of Darragh Ryan so there's good pedigree there. He's a lad who probably didn't make minor teams when he was younger, but he's blossoming now.

“He's fast, he's sticky, he's a good marker, he's a good tackler. And he has that bit of bite. He probably needs to fill out a little bit more and become more powerful, but I think he has the potential to be a very good player.

“I coached him in St. Peter's and he was always a lad who was very, very disciplined and very tuned in to the whole thing. He's a high achiever and if he puts his mind to something he's the sort of fella who really applies himself.”

It’s surely a positive for this emerging generation of Wexford hurlers that they have a manager in Keith Rossiter who knows them inside out having worked with them at U20 level for two years.

If anyone can get the best from them it's him, and the fact he also worked with the majority of the older players in the panel when he was a popular coach under former manager Davy Fitzgerald means he has the instant respect of the dressing-room.

Jacob has nothing but respect for his former club and county colleague who he says has a ruthless edge and a winning mentality, but he hopes that the county’s supporters don’t heap too much expectation on his shoulders in his first year in the job.

“It’s an exciting time in a way, but it's a big job that Keith has on his hands and Wexford people need to give him a little bit of time and a little bit of space to develop the thing,” says Jacob, who himself will coach the Dublin U-20 hurling team this year.

“It's important Wexford supporters don't get too high if we win something, or too low if we don't do something. Just be level and give it time and see how Keith develops things.

“Let him try to develop the team and develop players and hopefully Wexford can be competing strong. They still have it within them to compete very strong in Leinster this year. They're not that far off it in a lot of ways.

“And I believe the training has upped an awful lot in the last couple of months from an S&C and hurling perspective. All the vibes are that the training is at a very high level and the players are very happy with how the thing is going.

“But you don't have to look too forward into the future for a challenge, because Sunday against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park we'll get a nice little indicator of where we are.

“It's still early in the year, but it's an important game at the weekend and Kilkenny won't be making it easy for us.”