New Wicklow manager Oisín McConville has said that the Garden County must learn to aim high and admitted that the introduction of the Tailteann Cup was one of the key reasons why he took the job.
The Armagh native was speaking to RTÉ's Sunday Sport and pointed to the progression of Derry, who were alongside Wicklow in Division 4 in 2019 and have since secured a first Ulster title since 1998 and will be pushing hard for Division 1 football next season.
"If my aims going into Wicklow are not promotion and winning the Tailteann Cup then I might as well stay in Cross because both of those are tangible for teams like Wicklow now.
"It’s a completely different job, I’d question if I would even be there if there wasn't a Tailteann Cup, if there wasn’t something tangible for these guys to fight for."
"I do think that there is a hunger for success," he added.
"I do think they're unhappy that they've languishing around Division 4 for some time, with little patches of improvement getting into Division 3. The consistency and sustainability has not been there. That's the thing to work on.
"I'm not going to say this is a long-term project because inter-county managers don't get to fulfil long-term projects. There’s only a couple of managers in the country now past the five-year mark.
"The improvement will have to be fairly quick but also looking to the future to make sure that if you do get to Division 3 that you’re able to sustain that the following year.
"There’s plenty of challenges, plenty of bumps in the road, and it's up to us how we react to them and how we react to them will determine our season."
McConville confirmed that Joe Cawley, who he has worked closely with at a number of clubs, will be coming along as his chief coach with the rest of his backroom team to be finalised.
If things had worked out differently, his coaching career could have been veering elsewhere.
The Crossmaglen man was part of Ray Dempsey's ticket for the vacant Mayo position, but they ultimately lost out to Kevin McStay.
McConville explained how the move to Wicklow materialised so quickly after that rejection.
"I had an initial conversation with Wicklow probably a number of years ago. Just purely for family reasons, it just wasn't a runner.
"That was resurrected this year, but by the time it was resurrected, I'd already agreed to go in with Ray Dempsey into Mayo, should Ray have been able to get across the line. Obviously, that didn't happen, and the Wicklow thing was resurrected again.
"It was done fairly quickly after that. Look at, with all of these things, there's a process to go through. I'd be accepting that there were a lot of worthy candidates who had a shout for that job and I’m sure will have a shout again in the future.
"I was delighted to get the opportunity to try and make a difference in Wicklow."
"If you have the appetite, an understanding family at home then if the opportunity arises it’s the natural progression.
McConville also said that he felt he has done his time in preparing for the inter-county stage, and he is excited about the step up.
"It's the natural progression," said McConville.
"I’ve done 10, 11 years now at college level [with Dundalk IT], I've learned a little bit about different styles of management.
"I’ve obviously played under a lot of good managers and I’ve been involved in the club scene more or less when I stopped playing with my own club.
"I was with Senechalstown in Meath and I’m currently with Inniskeen in Monaghan, this is the third year with them.
"I do think that going into Wicklow, there's a serious opportunity for us to improve and improve quickly. Everything seemed to fit, and everything seemed to align. That's how I ended up there."
