The Wicklow senior hurling panel that will contest the 2023 Nickey Rackard Cup Final.
By John Harrington
After five years coaching his club’s senior footballers, St. Patrick’s of Wicklow town, Casey O’Brien had planned a year off in 2023.
Instead, he’ll be prowling the Croke Park sideline on Saturday hoping to help mastermind his county’s first ever Nickey Rackard Cup success.
He had rebuffed the Wicklow County Board’s approaches when they first came calling last year, but when they came back to him again after struggling to find a suitable candidate he relented.
You could understand why they were determined to get their man. In O’Brien’s first stint as Wicklow hurling manager he led them to League titles in 2011 and 2014 as well as two Christy Ring Cup finals in 2011 and 2012.
So, why did he change his mind about taking a well-earned rest in 2023 and instead throw himself into the highest level of management again?
“We'd gotten relegated out of the Christy Ring last year but I knew there were plenty of players out there who hadn't been playing with us and I felt if we could get a good team together we'd could achieve something,” says O’Brien.
"I brought Leighton Glynn on board and Billy Cuddihy and Graham Keogh and we said we if we could the best players out we'd have a decent team so I decided to have another crack of it.
“We were delighted with the response and it's great to have everyone commit. For a couple of years not all the Bray guys were there for whatever reason, but we've a lot of that contingent back now.”
The Wicklow senior hurling management team, left to right, John Barrie (S&C), Leighton Glynn (hurling coach), Richie Doyle (kit man), Michael Dunne (goalkeeping coach), Billy Cuddihy (selector), Casey O'Brien (manager), Graham Keogh (selector), Dave Murray (kit man), Mick Hagan (team admin), Anthony McGrath (physio), and Shauna Kelly (GPS coordinator).
O’Brien has gotten this Wicklow team humming nicely. They’ve won all five matches they’ve played in the Rackard Cup and haven’t lost a game since they were defeated by Donegal in the Allianz Hurling League Division 2B semi-final by a single point.
It’s Donegal again who will provide the opposition in Saturday’s Final. It’s the fourth occasion the two teams have played one another in competitive action, with Wicklow winning two of them.
That one they lost was a sore one, but it helped refocus everyone’s minds for the Rackard Cup campaign.
“At the start of the year we had two goals and one of them was to try to win the Nickey Rackard and the other one was to try to win the League even though Meath were there,” says O’Brien.
"We had been going okay. Meath beat us by 10 points in the first match but we didn't think it was a 10 point game so we were hoping to get back to having a crack at them again. It didn't work out, Donegal came down and really worked us out of the game in the semi-final, to be honest.
“Their work-rate was very good that day and they deserved to beat us on the day. It was a kick in the arse we needed, a bit of a wake-up call to be honest.
“This will be the fourth match we've played them this year but the last game had no bearing on the championship so there was probably a bit of a shadow-boxing going on from both camps.”
O’Brien is expecting another tough test on Saturday against a Donegal team that knows its way around Croke Park having won Rackard Cup titles in 2018 and 2020.
“They're a very experienced team,” he says. “I think we've only three guys who have experienced playing in Croke Park and we spoke about that at the start of the year, that a lot of the teams we were playing in the Nickey Rackard have all been there or there abouts and experienced Croke Park and what it's all about whereas it's relatively new to our squad.
“Donegal won't be fazed at all by playing in Croke Park because so many of them have played there before. They've been there a few times and that could be a little bit of an advantage for them.
“To be fair to our players, they've put in a huge effort and commitment this year. John Barrie our strength and conditioning coach has them very fit. I think summer hurling probably suits them better and hopefully that will tell in Croke Park.”
For the second year in a row Wicklow were Celtic Challenge All-Ireland champions in 2023.
Wicklow hurling looks like it’s on an upward curve. Bray won the Leinster Intermediate Club Hurling Championship last year, Wicklow’s U-17 teams are consistently winning All-Ireland titles in the Celtic Challenge, and the game is now growing in the west of the county away from its traditional powerbase.
O’Brien’s team has a youthful age profile and if they could win an All-Ireland title in Croke Park on Saturday it would could act as catalyst for further progress in the future.
"It would mean everything, to be honest,” says O’Brien about the prospects of impact of winning a Rackard Cup. “We've lost a few times there. I've lost there as a player and I lost there as a manager in a Christy Ring Cup Final.
I think the last time we won a Cup in Croke Park was 1971. Paddy Reilly captained Wicklow to a Junior All-Ireland. 52 years is a long, long time so it would mean a lot to everyone.
“You'd love to keep this team together for as long as we can and whenever we as a management team go that we leave good standards there.
“When you look at what Carlow are doing and Kildare are doing, they've pushed on, and I think there's no reason why we can't be emulating what those counties have achieved. They're neighbours of ours and it's not so long ago that we were on a par with them.
“They've moved on but there's no reason why we can't achieve what those guys have.”
