In attendance at the launch of Bord Gáis Energy’s continued sponsorship of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is Bord Gáis Energy ambassador and hurling star Lee Chin of Wexford, left, with Kelsi Noonan, aged 5, at Croke Park in Dublin. The announcement marks 16 years of Bord Gáis Energy’s involvement in inter-county hurling and celebrates the excitement, spirit and pride that make the championship and its fans so unique. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
The dawn of another Leinster Senior Hurling Championship this weekend brings with it a familiar conundrum – what can we expect from Wexford?
It’s hard to know because in recent years their form has veered so wildly that each match they’ve played has almost been like an island of its own, bearing little relation to the one that went before it.
Last year they played well against Dublin but drew a game they should have won, slumped to a shock defeat to Antrim, played brilliantly to beat Galway, hammered Carlow, and then pushed eventual champions Kilkenny to a single point.
The previous year they looked like certs for relegation to the Joe McDonagh Cup after defeats to Dublin, Galway, and Westmeath, but then somehow in the final round summoned a performance many levels above what they’d previously produced to beat Kilkenny.
2022 was another rollercoaster series of provincial championship games as they were good enough to beat Kilkenny but could only manage a draw with Westmeath.
This year’s League campaign isn’t exactly helpful when trying to predict what version of Wexford we’ll see in the coming weeks.
Well beaten in their first three matches against Cork, Tipperary, and Kilkenny, the second half of their campaign was much more impressive as they beat Clare and Limerick and ran Galway to two points.
They were relegated from Division 1A but it still almost felt like a positive League campaign overall which is classic Wexford really.
In attendance at the launch of the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Hurling Championship at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny are, from left, Lee Chin of Wexford, Paddy Burke of Antrim, John Donnelly of Kilkenny, Cianán Fahy of Galway, Brian Hayes of Dublin and Ciarán Burke of Offaly, alongside the Bob O'Keeffe Cup. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile,
At they least they know what their number one priority should be coming into this year’s championship. Somehow address the wild inconsistency that has been their calling card for the last three years.
“Look that is the word, it is inconsistent,” admits team captain, Lee Chin. “It's funny because the National League, I don't know, my own interpretation of the National League, I suppose it just...this year it wasn't that I felt we were up and down in each game - our first three games we just simply weren't good enough.
“And then the last three games we performed really well you know. So I kind of looked at it as just one half we were really poor, one half we were getting our performances in, and that's something that's really, you know that's a really positive thing because you can accept being beaten if you put in a performance you know, it's easier to accept.
“If you put in a performance on most days you know you'll generally be there towards the end of games and give yourself a chance of winning games.
“It can be quite frustrating over the course of the last number of championships, inconsistency is the word, you know you're up and down, I think last year we probably should have beaten Dublin in the first round, I think we were six points up, five minutes to go, and got two late goals and then go up to Antrim and get beaten, not an ideal start to the championship.
“And then to go and beat Galway for the first time in the Championship, well, my first time beating Galway in the Championship anyway. So yeah, look very inconsistent, it can be quite frustrating.”
It’s probably not a coincidence that Wexford’s sudden improvement in form in the League coincided with Chin’s return to the team.
He’d spent three months over the Christmas period travelling in Australia and returned to Ireland a couple of days before Wexford started their League campaign.
Wexford's Lee Chin, who did not play, before the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A match between Wexford and Kilkenny at Chadwicks Wexford Park in Wexford. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
He watched their first three defeats from the stands before returning to the team to help inspire the Slaneysiders to what was a very badly needed win over Clare for the sake of everyone’s morale in the camp.
“Yeah, absolutely,” says Chin. “Again, it's a tough place to be. I suppose for me personally, you come back home and you're in, I suppose, going from the height of summer in Australia back into the depths of winter in Ireland.
“You're getting beaten in your first three games and you're sitting off in the stand and you're watching this. Training is a tough place to go, the mood is down in the camp. And then, obviously, you kind of work your way, you get focused on the small few things and you get back into the side and go down to Clare and get a win.
“It helps the mood in the camp. It even helped me settle. Probably when you get back home for a while, the mind is a bit foggy and you're a bit kind of questioning a few things and whatever.
“That's what hurling does, you get a win and all of a sudden you just reset yourself. Yeah, the win against Clare provided that, I suppose, for ourselves in the camp.”
While in Australia he met up with his former Wexford team-mate, Matthew O’Hanlon, who had broke the news a few weeks previously that he was retiring from inter-county hurling.
Two more long-time soldiers in arms, Diarmuid O’Keeffe and Liam Óg McGovern called time on their inter-county careers during the closed season.
Lee Chin of Wexford in action against David Fitzgerald of Clare during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A match between Clare and Wexford at Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
Their departures really brought it home to Chin that, at the age of 32, his own window of opportunity to hurl at the very highest level is closing fast.
“Oh, it does, it does hit you,” he says. “I met Matthew before the both of us went to Australia, I was gone before him. So we met and he had broke the news to me that he was...and it's not something that you would be predicting because you'd always expect a lad to maybe, 'Ah there's more in him, there's another year in him' but he told me, and obviously it was tough to hear.
“And then I was abroad when I was in Australia I remember Dee O'Keeffe had rang me when I was abroad and told me. And then Liam Óg sent me a message, it was one after the other and it was, it was tough to take. It does remind you yourself at times like, 'Jesus, am I next or whatever?' but I suppose you just kind of consider a few things in your own life and what your body's still able to do and produce.
“You don't necessarily think of retirement, you just think of some of the lads that you played with throughout the years and that they're finished, the dressing room's going to be a different place now.
“The environment might be a different place for a certain period at the start but you kind of just, yeah, reassess yourself and you just kind of know what you're wanting to get out of it, just what you can still get out of your body. And you just dive back into it and you go again, and you get energy from the new guys.
“You get energy from the lads that are coming in to take their opportunity now and the dressing room again, it doesn't feel too unfamiliar anymore. It's just like another dressing room again now and that's the way things go.”
Lee Chin of Wexford signs autographs for supporters after the 2024 Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4 match between Carlow and Wexford at Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow. Photo by Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile
This will be his 14th championship season with Wexford including one with the county senior footballers but he’s feeling fresh.
The three months in Australia recharged his batteries and he also believes a healthier mental approach helps keep his energy levels high.
Where once he was obsessed with the game, now he makes it fit around his life rather than the other way around, and he’s reaping the benefits.
“The older you get, you start looking after yourself a little bit more, making better decisions, making more selfish decisions,” says Chin.
“Probably, I find at the minute I do more things for my mind now than my body because I've looked after my body now for a lot of years and that comes second nature and I probably wasn't very good at looking after the mind in terms of getting the break here and there and switching off.
“Even the last year or two I picked up golf, just trying to get out, play a bit more golf out in the open, switch off. It helps.
“There's just things like that that have helped me over the last year or two, some different aspects.”
Wexford hurler Lee Chin poses for a portrait with the Bob O'Keeffe Cup at the launch of the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Hurling Championship at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile.
So, back to the million dollar question – what can we expect from Wexford this year?
If they can address the inconsistency that has hobbled them so often in the past, are they genuine contenders for championship silverware this year?
"Sure, every year you like to have a good feeling about it, you know, it's just the competitor in you and you're optimistic you know and you feel like if you can get off to a good start you know anything could happen,” says Chin.
“You have to believe in your potential and what you're capable of. And for ourselves, obviously every day you just go out and the small wins you know, you have to try and hit your numbers, your KPIs, and you want to get your performances in.
“And you know that if you meet those performances you know, more days...you might win more often than not you know, if you can get your performances in and hit your numbers. We do still believe in ourselves and what we can achieve.”
