RTÉ hurling analyst Shane Dowling suggests there may be something 'deeper' going on in Wexford in the wake of their abject start to the 2023 Division 1 campaign.
Darragh Egan's side shipped a frightful beating against Clare in their most recent outing, the Banner outfit running up a scarcely believable tally of 6-25 in front of a bewildered home crowd.
Prior to that, Wexford were handily dismissed by Galway in the opening league game, registering their only win in a desultory 11-point win over a game Westmeath outfit.
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast, Dowling suggests that Wexford's malaise is even longer running, pointing back to their heavy loss in last year's league semi-final, as well as their patchy championship performance.
"I think there may be something deeper going on. If you go back to last year's league's semi-final against Waterford, they leaked six goals that day and they were hammered.
"Sometimes, you lose games by eight or nine points and it's not great but then you can say, okay we were missing x, y or z...
"But when I see stuff like that, I think 'is everything right?'
"If you have everything right, you might have an off day and you might lose by eight or nine points.
"You don't leak the goals that they leaked. The effort and the energy they showed would concern me. Losing a game, that happens in every sport. But it's how you lose is the thing."
In Egan's first season, Wexford managed to escape the Leinster round robin, recovering from a seemingly fatal second-round loss to Dublin, and third-round draw with Westmeath, to turn over Kilkenny in Nowlan Park. They were subsequently reeled in by Clare in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
While it was a so-so 2022 campaign, Dowling points out that the manager will not get "a pass" in year two.
"Like, Clare were useless against Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds but at least they went down to Wexford the following week and showed there was something there.
"So, they'd a bad loss, something was going on. But obviously, there's nothing too deep.
"It's Darragh Egan's second year. He probably got a pass in the first year. You don't get a pass in your second year.
"I admired his interview afterwards, where he said the lads who came in, they're not showing it. They may not see game-time next. He laid down the law for everybody. But I would be concerned."
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