Oisín McConville and Wicklow keen to push on after Tailteann triumph
Wicklow players celebrate with the Tailteann Cup. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
Oisín McConville used the word regret a couple of times in his interview immediately after the Leinster SFC defeat to Dublin in April.
With home advantage in Aughrim, and Dublin on the ropes at various stages of that game, it was a terrific opportunity to take down a superpower.
The Wicklow players couldn't lower the blade though, a dozen wides allowing Dublin to wriggle off the hook and ensuring that Westmeath's defeat of Meath in Tullamore was the surprise result from that afternoon's round of provincial quarter-final ties.
"There's going to be a bit more soul searching," acknowledged manager McConville, placing an emphasis on the word 'more' as the defeat to Dublin following a loss to Longford in Round 7 of the Allianz League which had cost Wicklow promotion.
There was another subsequent defeat to stew over too, when they lost to Laois by seven points in the opening round of the Tailteann Cup. In fact, the only time that Wicklow weren't behind at half time in a Championship game this year - and they played eight of them in total between Leinster and the Tailteann Cup campaign - was their very first provincial game against Carlow.
With all of that in mind, to stand tall now as Tailteann Cup champions is some achievement, and speaks to the remarkable determination of a team that simply refused to exit the Championship on a low.
Wicklow supporter Mick Kelly, from Kiltegan, embraces his son Michael Anthony, age 10, at the final whistle after the Tailteann Cup final. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
By McConville's estimation, the Tailteann Cup was actually won on March 24 last, at their Ballinakill training centre. That was around 50 hours after they'd coughed up an 11-point lead against Longford, when promotion to Division 3 was whipped from their grasp. And, for full disclosure, winning the Tailteann Cup was never the main target in 2026 for Wicklow, it was getting out of Division 4. So it hurt a whole pile.
But there they all were in Ballinakill, the players to a man presenting for training and for battle again.
McConville had expected a few cry offs that evening but he's clearly built something special around him and the players weren't about to desert him.
Half an hour after Saturday's remarkable Tailteann Cup final win over Down, the players were all back in their dressing-room when McConville came in after completing his media duties. Goalkeeper Mark Jackson and Cathal Baker, ready and waiting, pounced and tipped the slushy contents of a giant ice bucket over the Armagh man's head.
Smiling from ear to ear, McConville tossed the water bottle he was holding onto the dressing-room floor in mock anger, threw his arms out wide and took the cue to get another lively sing-song underway.
They'll want him back for a fifth season at the helm, to keep the revolution going, that's for sure.
"I keep saying the same thing every year now - that's not just my decision," shrugged McConville, a father of three. "There's a lot of hours on the road and I know that they're at home and I'm missing stuff with them."
It would be a hard one to walk away from, the prospect of not just All-Ireland SFC football in 2027 and the quality of teams they could potentially host in Aughrim, but belatedly getting out of Division 4.
Wicklow manager Oisín McConville before the Tailteann Cup final. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
That's a lot to leave in the rearview mirror. More than that, it's a band of brothers that McConville has carefully assembled since he took over at the end of 2022. Take Jonathan Carlin, for example, the Donegal native who was part of Jim McGuinness' panel last year but who, working in Wicklow, agreed to answer McConville's call for 2026.
"I don't think I would have gone back if Oisín hadn't been there," said Carlin, one of the stars of Saturday's decider. "I'd go to the well for him 10 times over."
That's what all the players did throughout the campaign, coming from behind to win each of their last five games in the campaign. Nine down against Antrim in the quarter-final, eight down against Offaly in the semi-final, 13 behind Down last weekend. No problem.
Perhaps most impressively, McConville didn't make a single change at half time in the final, despite the team trailing 0-4 to 2-10. It was the ultimate show of faith in a group of players he knew had the capability to redeem themselves, as they did.
"An unbelievably special group of players," was how McConville put it.
They'll dare to dream now too, about what comes next.
Westmeath won the inaugural Tailteann Cup in 2022, built on the achievement and, four years later, claimed the Leinster title. Meath, the 2023 winners, reached an All-Ireland semi-final two seasons later. Down, the 2024 winners, took out Donegal earlier this season in the Ulster championship.
"This doesn't begin or end with me, or with one or two of the boys in our dressing-room," said McConville, urging the players to be ambitious and to kick on for themselves. "It has to be about the whole county and this is a huge lift for them. It's also an opportunity now to get everyone that we want in the changing-room, at every level, and to start growing and to just keep building it."
