Dean Healy of Wicklow during the Tailteann Cup launch at Croke Park in Dublin.
By John Harrington
When the question was put to Dean Healy at the Tailteann Cup launch it’s one he was ready to answer because he’s heard it plenty of times before.
What motivates you to play for Wicklow for 12 years when you have to put in the same effort as a footballer from Dublin but with nothing like the same success in return?
“It's funny you should say that because I work in Dublin and my partner and her family are originally from Dublin,” said the Wicklow captain.
“Over the years there has been questions raised in terms of would you like to be from another county and get that bit more exposure. Listen, my family take great pride in me playing for Wicklow.
“GAA came along for me at a time for me in my life where it steered me in the right direction. It wasn't a big thing for me underage.
"My club, to it's credit, and then the county later on put me on a path in life that's given me ample opportunity. It might not have given me much exposure, but exposure means very little to me.
“I take enormous pride in representing Wicklow. My family do too. I have a young daughter who is 14 months old and she's travelling the length and breadth of the country and experiencing all these grounds.
“It means very little to her now and she won't remember it but it'll mean a lot to me in years to come when you're showing her pictures of all of that.”
Dean Healy of Wicklow celebrates scoring a point during the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship Round 1 match between Wicklow and Laois at the County Grounds in Aughrim, Wicklow.
As Healy alludes to when he talks about GAA steering him in the right direction, one of the reasons he’s happy to give such commitment to the sport he loves for club and county is because doing so has had a very positive impact on his life.
“I had some troubles throughout my later teens,” admits the St. Patrick's club-man. “GAA wasn't a big thing for me. I played on all the underage squads with the club. GAA was never really a big focus for me.
“When I was 16 or 17-years-of-age, it was something that I put enormous energy into in terms of trying to make myself a better person. I can't speak highly enough about my own club back home, and what Wicklow has given me over the years.
It's funny, it's come full circle. Gary Duffy, who took on the interim Wicklow management role, he would have had a heavy influence on me in and around that period, along with a number of other lads in the club.
“It's just crazy how it's come full circle. He initially took me on at minor, and I was fortunate enough to play a year or two with him before he suffered a bad cruciate injury. Then he ended up coaching us to success back home in a number of championships. Then he got the opportunity to come in with Wicklow this year.
"It's just one of those things that came full circle. He took me under his wing when I was 17-years-of-age, and here I am, 13 years later, and he's managing me at inter-county level.”
Healy doesn’t mind admitting that Wicklow as a county punch below their weight when you consider their population and the strength of the club game in the county.
Over the course of his 12-year career at the highest level he views player retention to be the single biggest issue.
In attendance, from left; Mickey Quinn of Longford, Evan O’Carroll of Laois, Kevin Maguire of Westmeath, Declan McCusker of Fermanagh, Darragh Foley of Carlow, Martin O’Connor of Wexford, Conor Murray of Waterford, Killian Clarke of Cavan, Conor Stewart of Antrim, Teddy Doyle of Tipperary, Barry O’Hagan of Down, Mark Diffley of Leitrim, Dean Healy of Wicklow, Niall Murphy of Sligo and Johnny Moloney of Offaly during the Táilteann Cup launch at Croke Park in Dublin.
Quite often talented young players are thrown in at the deep end, struggle to stay afloat, and end up deciding the commitment required isn’t worth it.
There’s certainly no shortage of promising young players in the county right now thanks to the good work being done in the Garden County Academy.
Healy, one of the few veterans on the current Wicklow panel, hopes the generation of players coming through now sticks together and fulfils its potential.
“One thing I will say is that over the years we have seen a couple of good minor squads under Kevin O'Brien and that crossed over into the U-20s as well,” he says.
“Speaking to some of the other lads here today, in so called weaker counties you have talented young players thrown into the cauldron a little bit quicker than in the top counties.
"There's an introductory phase you probably should go through, whereas if you show any potential at all at young age then a lot is expected out of you.
“You're going into Division Three or Division Four where there are lads who are battle-hardened and it's all about experience and the next minute you're thrown in as an 18 or 19 year old where you can find it a little bit uncomfortable unfortunately.
“The panel that we have there at the minute is predominantly young. The age-profile of it outside of myself, I think there are just three or four lads in their thirties and the bulk of the rest are from a couple of minor teams that had decent results in recent years.
“You're just hoping for that continuity in terms of hoping the spine of this squad stays around to build next year.”
Player retention is always more difficult when Championship campaigns tend to be short and painful ones, which is why Healy hopes the Tailteann Cup will be a positive development for Wicklow football.
It offers the opportunity to play a matches at the height of the season against counties at a similar level which could only accelerate the development of a promising young team which Wicklow clearly are given the evidence of their Leinster SFC victory over Laois.
Kevin Quinn of Wicklow celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship Round 1 match between Wicklow and Laois at the County Grounds in Aughrim, Wicklow.
There’s also the prospect of playing matches in Croke Park if you make it to the semi-finals and Final, an opportunity that Healy admits “would mean the world to me”.
As he looked out over the broad green expanses of the Croke Park pitch from the Cusack Stand at Monday’s Tailteann Cup launch, he couldn’t help but imagine how much a Wicklow attack that scored a combined 6-27 in the Leinster SFC matches against Wicklow and Meath would relish playing there.
“Yeah, it's very, very potent. It would suit a lot of lads, playing fast. One thing we've always been sure of is that we're a hard ground team.
“We're light and rely on young lads specifically. When you're playing National League football in Fraher Field on a Saturday night in February, you need to be experienced and have your body conditioned.
“When it comes into summer and it gets faster, I do really think some of our lads come into their own.”
Before they can really start dreaming of playing in Croke Park they must find a way to beat Waterford in the preliminary round of the Tailteann Cup on Saturday afternoon in Aughrim.
It’s a winnable game for Wicklow, but Healy knows Waterford will be viewing it exactly the same way.
“We played Waterford in a challenge in the build up to Laois and they're going to be well aware of us and we're going to be well aware of them,” he says.
“I was speaking to (Waterford footballer) Conor Murray this morning when the draw was made. They are happy with it, we are happy with it. They obviously see it as a positive draw, and listen, I'm not going to lie, we do as well.
“Speaking about it collectively, they were one of the teams that we did earmark. Hopefully, that won't come back to bite us.”
