What’s rare is beautiful

There are certain counties where one club dominates all others. Arguably the two most dominant clubs in their own counties in recent times have been Crossmaglen in Armagh and Portlaoise in Laois. Both fantastic football teams that are short odds for provincial and All Ireland honours at the start of any season. Yet both were beaten in dramatic fashion this summer.

Maghery Sean MacDermott’s became only the third side in twenty years, as well as Pearse Óg in 2009, to win the Armagh championship. For 18 of the last 20 seasons it has been Crossmaglen. Incidentally it was Cullyhanna who beat Crossmaglen in the semi final this year. Meanwhile down in Laois, a last minute goal from Stradbally prevented Portlaoise from claiming their tenth title in a row.

So perhaps the Armagh and Laois football championships will become more difficult to call for the next few seasons. But what county championship is the most difficult to predict every season? Which title is genuinely open to a dozen teams or so? Sportstalk took a look. The answer we came up with – the Wexford Football Championship.

In the last ten years from 2007 to 2016 there have been eight different winners. Clongeen, Kilanerin, Horeswood, Castletown, St Annes, St Martins, St James and Gusserane O’Rahilly’s have all been victorious. The only two teams to win the title more than once in that period are Horeswood and St Annes who both won twice. Not only that, but there have been different teams reaching the final. Glynn Barntown, Fethard and Starlights all got to the final in the last ten years without winning. Eleven different finalists in ten years.

Historically it has been a championship where the spoils are shared around. No one team has a haul of titles to dwarf the rest. St John’s Volunteers of Wexford Town sit atop the winners list with 11, next come Ballyhogue and Castletown on 10 each, Starlights have 9, Duffry Rovers 8, Kilanerin have 7, Gusserane O’Rahilly’s 6. Then there are three teams with 5 titles each, a further three teams with 4 each. St. Munn’s, Taghmon have 3 titles. Six teams have won it twice. Fifteen teams have won a solitary championship. In fact in the last ten years, three teams have won the title for the first and only time in their history.

Admittedly there have been some periods of dominance down through the years. St John’s Volunteers won five in a row between 1939 and 1943, while Gymnasiums, New Ross won four in a row between 1899 and 1902. There is one run however that stands out from the rest, as it is a bit odd. As we have already mentioned, Duffry Rovers have 8 titles. What is quite unusual about this is that seven of these eight came on the trot, between 1986 and 1992. They won their eighth and final title in 1994.

So who will win the 2017 Wexford Football Championship? It’s anyone’s guess. Whoever the winner will be, it would be great for Wexford football if the winner went on a run in Leinster. No club football team from Wexford has ever reached a Leinster senior final. This October Gusserane O’ Rahilly’s were on the end of a 5-22 to 0-4 beating from Rhode of Offaly. Last year St James were hammered in the first round by Killoe Young Emmets of Longford on a score line of 5-11 to 1-04. The year before in 2014 Wexford did not have a representative in the Leinster club as the county final was not played until November 16^th by which time the preliminary rounds and quarter final of the Leinster club had already been played. The year before this, in 2013, Wexford did manage to get their championship played off in time to enter the provincial competition. However St Martins may have wished they hadn’t been given the opportunity as they were walloped 2-13 to 0-04 by Moorefield of Kildare.

The situation has not always been so dire for Wexford clubs. They were competitive five years ago. In 2012 St Annes ran Killoe Young Emmets close, losing by just three points. In 2011 Horeswood gave St Brigids of Dublin a good game. In 2010 Castletown lost out to Skyrne of Meath by the bare minimum. Hopefully 2017 will be the year that a Wexford club breaks the sequence of losses. It’s great having an unpredictable county championship. It would be even better to have what happens to the winner a bit less predictable.