‘Wexford are just lacking a little to be genuine All-Ireland contenders’

Three-time All-Ireland winner Diarmuid O'Sullivan has said that Wexford won't have enough to contend for an All-Ireland title following their Leinster championship win over Kilkenny last weekend.

Wexford secured their first Leinster Senior Hurling Championship since 2004 with a three-point win over the Cats that saw the county seal their first piece of silverware under manager Davy Fitzgerald. Wexford will now progress straight through to the semi-final where they will play the winners of the quarter-finals at the end of the month but O'Sullivan feels that their young group still needs to develop before they can seriously contend for an All-Ireland title.

"Wexford are probably still a bit short to win the All-Ireland just yet," O'Sullivan wrote in his Paddy Power column. "I'd love to say they are contenders but I don't believe they're the finished article at the moment. There’s quite a number of young lads who need to develop a small bit more before you can really take them seriously as contenders. "Will they cause someone massive problems, will they put up a serious fight in an All-Ireland semi-final? Absolutely. Have no doubt in your mind. "But, they probably just lacking a little to be genuine All-Ireland contenders at the moment."

Meanwhile Kilkenny have now gone three years without winning a Leinster senior title and O'Sullivan says that their downfall in big games stems from a lack of leadership on the pitch.

"Kilkenny are certainly lacking leaders at the moment. Look at what happened with 68 minutes gone on the clock. There was three minutes of injury time. That’s five minutes of extra play they had from there.  But, Kilkenny started going for goals. They were looking to drop the ball in short. "You have to keep tapping the ball over the bar. That’s where experience comes in, that’s where game management comes in. "When it came to the critical point, when they needed someone to manage the game on the field for them, they found themselves forcing the issue constantly. "They could have actually gained a draw if they had put a couple of the 65s and frees over the bar."