While Wexford might be currently missing a host of star names, defender Mary Leacy reckons their form in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Camogie Championship shows they have impressive strength in depth.
Wexford have claimed a spot in the knockout stages of the Championship for the ninth year in a row – despite the fact they have been without some of their more established players.
Karen Atkinson, Mags D'Arcy, Ursula Jacob and Una Leacy have not featured in the Championship because of injuries while Josie Dwyer and Noeleen Lambert quit the inter-county scene after last season.
So far in the Championship Wexford have suffered just one defeat while they won their other two games and will take on Cork their final outing in Group 1 on Saturday.
And Mary Leacy believes the fact Wexford are assured of a place in the quarter-finals with one series of games remaining is testament to the quality of their squad.
She said: "There is no doubt the strength of our squad has been seriously examined in the Championship but I feel we can be quite happy with how we have coped.
"Everyone involved has really stepped up to the mark and the players who have come into the team having had little or no previous Championship experience have been fantastic.
"It was a blow to lose Mags, Josie and Noeleen before the season even started and then Karen, Ursula and Una suffered bad knocks. Looking past the group phase, Karen, Mags and Ursula should be in a position to return and that would be terrific.
"It would obviously strengthen us more for what would be the important part of the competition – but for now we are concentrating on the Cork game."
The showdown at Ballincollig will be the first time for Cork and Wexford to go head-to-head since their meeting in a semi-final replay in the 2014 Championship.
On that occasion Cork came out on top by an impressive margin of 10 points before going on and claiming the title.
They restricted Wexford to just one point in the second half but Leacy knows the Model County came away from the game having picked up a valuable lesson.
Leacy added: "I think you leave every game looking to see where you might be able to improve on – regardless of how the result went.
"But we really learned plenty from that one against Cork. You never like to lose such a big game like that one and the fact it was a heavy defeat made it that bit harder to take.
"The big problem we had was trying to handle the defensive style they adopted.
"We found it really tough to break them down – especially in the second half. But we had plenty of time to reflect on it in the months that followed and consider how we might have done better.
"They were very impressive and underlined that fact in their next game in winning the All-Ireland."
Wexford launched their latest Championship campaign with a victory over Offaly and followed up with a win against Limerick before Galway ended their 100 per cent record. Galway came out on top by 1-11 to 0-6 but Leacy says the outcome was harsh on Colm McGee's Wexford side.
"Galway played well that day but I think it would be fair to say the game was generally closer than the scoreline at the end suggested," she recalled.
"There was little between us for much of it and really it could have gone either way until the closing stages when they managed to pull away a bit.
"Thankfully, though, it did not set us back too much as we had the wins from the first two games already to our credit. We are still into the quarter-finals and that was the absolute minimum we wanted at the start of the group.
"While it would have been preferable to have been able to go straight into the last four, unfortunately that is beyond us at this stage.
"At least after the Galway game we will have a break of two weeks before the quarter-final goes ahead. Since we first played in this year's Championship we have been out every Saturday and it has it can be tough not getting much of a breather between games.
"The fortnight without a game will be a big help to allow us to regroup and hopefully come back fresh for the next challenge that comes."
