Matthew O Hanlon
By John Harrington
Matthew O’Hanlon says the Wexford hurlers were driven on by 13 years of hurt to beat Kilkenny in Saturday’s Leinster SHC Semi-Final.
The Wexford joint-captain had been bemused by the pre-match analysis suggesting Kilkenny would be the more fired-up team for the match because Wexford had beaten them in the Allianz League Quarter-Final in Nowlan Park.
He knew in his heart there was no way Kilkenny could be more motivated than a Wexford team that had suffered seven championship defeats to the Cats since their last success in 2004.
“Oh yeah, for sure,” said O’Hanlon. “You’ve seen the papers over the last couple of weeks that Kilkenny owed Wexford one, that they would be hurting from the league quarter-final.
“But how many times have we been on the opposite end of the stick?
“The last 10-15 years we’ve got some serious trimmings from them but we knew that we owed them and we still do.
“We haven’t won anything yet, we’re going up to a Leinster final up in Croke Park and it’s where we want to be.
“Games like those in front of 20,000 people is where we want to be and they’re going to bring the best out of us. We want Wexford people behind us and hopefully we can drive it on now.”
Wexford played the better hurling for most of the match but still needed to show a lot of character to win it.
Conceding a goal in the first minute and then two in quick succession in the second-half that cut a once-commanding lead down to a single point were serious test of the team’s mental strength, but they came through with flying colours.
“Yeah, you know Kilkenny always try to kill the game in the first 20 minutes,” said O’Hanlon.
“You seem them do it time and time again. It was a horrible start for us and it tested our character but there are bundles of character in that team and we knew if we plugged away score by score we would come back and then we gone on top.
“Things started going for us and we went in ahead at half-time. We knew we had a big breeze and in the second half it was going to be tough and we would have to push up on our men because if we left them off they would score from long range.
“But everybody pushed up and put them under pressure and we got a serious amount of turnovers in the second half. When we ran at them things opened up for us.”
Wexford
The final 15 minutes of the match were frantic, and in the end Wexford’s supreme physical conditioning played a big part in keeping Kilkenny at bay.
“There’s no substitute for hard work and we’ve worked hard in the pre-season and all through the league and then preparing for the championship,” said O’Hanlon.
“I think you saw out there that we had the legs in the end, lads came on and really drove the team on.
“The more games you play at the top level the better you get and the more you get used to that atmosphere and that pace.
“That can only improve us. We will look forward to the Leinster final and whoever comes out of the other semi-final.”
Wexford haven’t played in a Leinster Senior Hurling Final since 2008.
Like the vast majority of his team-mates, this year’s decider will be O’Hanlon’s first experience of the occasion, but he doesn’t think they’ll be overawed by it because so many have contested big matches at underage level.
“Minor, U21 level, everyone in that dressing room would have played several Leinster finals,” he said.
“I haven’t played a senior one yet. It’s something to look forward to, it’s somewhere Wexford should be year-in, year-out and it’s up to us to make sure we keep getting back there.
“We’ll enjoy this one but when we move into next week it’ll all be about preparing for the Leinster final whether it’s Galway or Offaly. We’re back to Croke Park where we want to be.”
