It may have been a testing week for some Wexford folk in high profile roles, but the county's football manager isn't likely to be subject to a confidence vote anytime soon.
John Hegarty's side are preparing for a big day out in Croker after winning seven from seven in Division 4, securing promotion with two weekends to spare.
Twelve months ago, they were denied promotion to the third tier in gratuitously unlucky circumstances. Two points ahead away to Leitrim in Round 3, they conceded a penalty in the dying seconds - a decision so contentious that footage of the incident posted online by ex-player Adrian Flynn almost went viral, as supporters squinted to see any sign of a foul.
Wexford wound up with the same points total as Leitrim, and boasted a drastically superior score difference but were edged out by Andy Moran's side on the head-to-head rule. Quite aside from the notorious penalty call, it raised the question at the time as to whether 'head-to-head' was the fairest means of separating teams on the same points across a seven-game campaign.
"We knew our league was effectively over that day in Carrick-on-Shannon," Hegarty tells RTÉ Sport.
"We really felt an injustice but there wasn't anything we could do with that. Our response was to try and accumulate as many points as we can and see where that takes us. Ultimately, it took us level on points with Leitrim and we'd a far better score difference.
"Ultimately that decision cost us. In my experience, I've never had one decision that had such a big impact on a season.
"It was difficult but the group responded in the best possible way. They just went about trying to win games. They did win the next four league games and the first championship game (against Carlow) comprehensively.
"The season didn't finish as we'd like. The origins of this year came from the Tailteann Cup defeats, where the players came together and the players felt they wanted more.
"It hasn't been out of a sense of bitterness or anything like that because we've moved on past it. But there was a desire to set the record straight."
Since that late sickener in Carrick-on-Shannon, Wexford have won 11 league games on the trot, a decent portion of them by double-digit margins. As a result, they're roaring back to Division 3 with the maximum 14-point tally, four more than any other team mustered across the other four divisions.
Their reward is a shot at silverware and a first run-out in Croke Park under the new rules. While the lower tier division finals carry more weight for some teams than others, Hegarty stresses that Saturday's game is important, as much for maintaining momentum as anything else.
"Very clearly, the primary objective is to try to move up the divisions. That goes for every Division 4 team.
"At the start of the year, the league is their championship. We have been very clear about that.
"We were in an unusual circumstance in that we had achieved that after five games. So, if that satisfied the lads, it would have been easy in our sixth game, when things weren't going to plan against Tipperary, and we were eight points down with 20 minutes left, for them to go 'look, not our night, we're still qualified for the league final.' But the lads' reaction showed their that wasn't their attitude.
"It's so hard in Division 4 to generate momentum. Even a loss there, it hands some of the momentum away. It dissipates very quickly. It took us until the 73rd minute that night to go into the lead. Apart from the result, it spoke about the ambition within the group.
"The primary objective was promotion but if you don't have a target beyond the target, it can fall apart quickly. To win six was important to us, to win seven last week in Longford was important and, ultimately, the league final is important.
"Wexford teams, in general, hurling and football, don't get the opportunity every year to compete for silverware. With Wexford footballers, that's certainly the case. So, it is important to us on Saturday."
What of the rest of the season?
It's three years now since then Longford manager Billy O'Loughlin declared war on tradition and baldly announced that league was no longer league - it was now their championship, stressing that once their Division 3 campaign was complete, they "didn't really care what happens."
Hegarty isn't quite so forthright, though he does stress that Wexford will start next year in a better place, regardless of what transpires over the summer.
"At the start of the year, all you're worried about is the league. I would say that regardless of what the rest of the year holds, Wexford football will start the 2026 season in a better position than it has for the last few years. That's progress. But progress shouldn't be limited.
"I guess if you're one of the top four or five counties that know you'll be in the latter end of the Sam Maguire competition, you can plan what your goals are for the whole year.
"But from a Division 3 and 4 perspective, your goals have got to be flexible. Depending on how you come out of the league... I'm sure the lads in Offaly would have a different target for championship than they might have had. So, you've got to be flexible."
During his own inter-county playing career, which spanned from 1995 to 2006, Hegarty saw the league from both perspectives. The first half of his career was played out with Wexford languishing in the bottom tier - "wins, league or championship, were very precious because they didn't come around too often."
By 2005, they had improbably progressed to the point where they reached a Division 1 final, losing to Armagh. (The system was slightly different then, with Wexford placing second in Division 1B and then shocking Division 1A table-toppers Tyrone in the semi-final.)
"I think you reach a point in league football when you're in Division 2 and you're competitive, yes you'd like to push onto Division 1, but at that point the leagues reduce in importance.
"But when you are trying to build something from the bottom, the league is all encompassing. Because it's the only way you'll improve. If a county can get that exposure to top level football in the league, that's how you'll build something that'll last over a long period."
It's been a turbulent winter and spring for a number of counties in the lower divisions. Carlow are searching for a new manager 11 days out from championship, with Shane Curran, citing "player-related issues." Leitrim, now Division 4 bound again, infamously forfeited their away game to Fermanagh and heavily lost what games they did play.
Despite a very flat Tailteann Cup campaign last year, at odds with much of the rest of 2024, the prevailing mood in Wexford is very different.
"Player retention is difficult because there aren't the same perks and perhaps the same opportunities for players," says Hegarty.
"But at the same time, it hasn't been an issue for us. At the end of last year, every single one of the players wanted to go back. Any change in personnel we've had was about freshening things up.
"Sometimes, in an inter-county squad, cracks are papered over during the year. But at the end of the season, or when things aren't going as you'd like, that's when things can become fractious.
"But it was the opposite response. We had a very sudden and disappointing end to last year and the response to that was a real show of unity and confidence.
"It gives you continuity and it gives you something to build on. And that's not always the case in Division 4."
Follow the Allianz Football League finals on Saturday and Sunday on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Listen to updates on RTÉ Radio 1
