Quinn hopes Wicklow footballers can learn from tough defeats

By John Harrington

The Wicklow footballers have had to swallow some sore losses in the last couple of years.

A last-gasp defeat to Kildare in the 2024 Leinster SFC quarter-final, a second-half collapse against Limerick in the 2025 Tailteann Cup semi-final, and something similar against Longford this year in the final round of the League have all been windows of opportunities they haven’t climbed through.

They have a lot of very good young footballers in their ranks like talented forward Kevin Quinn who knows they will have to learn from those experiences if they are to realise their full potential as a team.

“You do look back and you always think, ‘what if?’”, admits Quinn.

“Obviously when you are losing you always have something to learn from it. I think it's built a lot of character around the team. It's built a bit of an edge in some players.

“Defeats like that do hurt. When you put so much into football as well it's hard not to take them bad. The best thing about football is there's always matches coming.

"That defeat against Longford... three weeks later you're looking at Carlow (in the first round of the Leinster SFC this weekend) and you're on to the next thing.

"We do have to look forward and I still think that with a bit of luck on our side that something is coming hopefully. We're kind of waiting for that break. I feel like we've been on the end of unfortunate results down through the years.

"You look at Kildare that year (2024), Limerick last year, Longford this year. We have been on the end of unfortunate results but we're hoping that we if stay at it and stick with Oisín and that our day will come hopefully.”

Quinn is in his sixth season of senior inter-county football but still only 24 years of age.

He’s at the peak of his powers right now and knows it's time he achieved something tangible in the county’s colours.

“100 per cent, and there's a lot of lads around my age group as well and maybe a year or two younger,” he says.

“We are coming to the prime of our careers and it does creep up. I still feel, probably because of COVID happening, that I'm 20, 21. The years do go by quick.

“We are coming into our prime now. It is about time that we do start kicking on and looking around us. As you said, we do have firepower there and raw talent in our group.

“We just need to put it all together now and hopefully drive it on. There's a lot of resilience in our group. Obviously, we spoke about the bad defeats and that, but no-one ever thinks about dropping the head or leaving or quitting.

“We're always back there driving each other on. I think we need to continue that. As I said, we're a close-knit bunch.

“We get on very well together and I think that will stand us eventually.

“I think when we do play our game and play to our best we are a very good team, but our goal should be to get out there on the pitch every match and play our best.

“Sometimes it doesn't always go that way with us unfortunately.”

Inconsistency, both from match to match and within matches, has bedevilled this Wicklow team.

At times they’ve looked sensational such as when they scored 2-26 against London and 3-19 against Tipperary in the League.

But that second-half collapse in the final round match against Longford that cost them a place in the final when they lost a 12-point lead illustrated also how vulnerable they are when they struggle to win primary possession in the middle third of the field.

“I think we really try to go at teams and play football, kick the ball, what people probably want to see, and when we do that well, it really does suit us,” says Quinn.

“I think when we get a run on teams, we are a hard team to manage. A lot of big lads up front that can kick scores and get the scoreboard moving. Obviously, with Jackson in the goals, very good man-marking defenders, big running around the middle, we're a well-rounded team.

“If you look back at all the Division 4 games, I think a good start was the main thing that set you up throughout the game. We always did chase that and we did want to get a lead but I think in the back of our minds we knew we weren't going to be able to play at that pace for the whole game.

“When things went against us we found it hard to get momentum back into things where we would have liked to slow the game up and hold the ball a bit better.

“I think it comes back to game management and being able to see out games a bit better. We just need to start kicking on and driving it on.”

Some of Quinn’s most vivid childhood memories revolve around going to watch Wicklow play during the halcyon era when Mick O’Dwyer was team manager and his uncle Kevin was a team selector.

Huge Wicklow crowds turned out to roar their team on to some famous victories, and Quinn hopes he and his generation of players can give the county something to shout about again.

“I loved those days, they're great days to look back on,” says Quinn. “I would have went to a lot of the games. Because my uncle Kevin was selector I used to around to him and go to the odd training session and I'd meet Micko.

“Micko came to my Grandad's funeral and I went up and I remember kicking football around trying to catch his eye and he used to always just say, ‘kick with the right and with the left’.

“I remember going to the Down match when they beat them by a point and Tony Hannon kicked the winner.

“I remember all of them, they were all good days. I remember just the crowds in Aughrim, that's something as well you'd want to see more of again.

“We had it last year against Dublin and it's something we'd like to achieve again, get good support from the Wicklow people and get football back on a high in the county.

“The footballing people are there in the county. It's just putting together performances so they can get behind us. That's the aim.”