Oisín McConville hoping to give Wicklow fans day to remember

Michael Bolton

Wicklow manager Oisín McConville hopes the Tailteann Cup final on Saturday will give the fans a day to remember as they face Down in Croke Park.

In the past two seasons, Wicklow have shown they are a side that has made huge strides under his management, but some of the biggest moments have slipped away.

The 2025 season saw a close defeat to Kildare in the Leinster quarter-finals, while last year's semi-final defeat in the Tailteann Cup to Limerick is a game they were left scratching their heads, wondering how they didn't win.

After running Dublin close in Leinster, Wicklow never looked back, digging deep in their past two wins against Antrim and Offaly to make Saturday's decider.

Wicklow is a side with huge work-rate, but McConville hopes their quality will also be a talking point come Saturday.

"When we won the quarter final in Antrim, the majority of what I read for the next couple of days was about their attitude and their heart and their desire and all those things.

“They are all key ingredients to winning matches but I felt as if people missed the quality with which we played. Not just the quality with which we played, but the way we went about it.

“That wasn't a gung-ho performance, we constructed the way we came back that day really well. We did the same thing the last day against Offaly.

“I'm not advocating we go 8 or 9 points down on Saturday because I don't think that's going to end well, but the quality is there. If you can match the quality with all that heart and desire and all the things that are very obvious in this squad, then we start to go places and we start to win things.”

McConville's side will be the underdogs in Saturday's decider, in what will likely be their biggest challenge since their defeat to Dublin in April.

Down previously won the competition in 2024 and would likely have had their sights on the All-Ireland championship.

A man who has had his own big moments in Croke Park, the former Armagh footballer is confident of causing an upset.

"People always talk about where you get your resilience from and unfortunately, it's usually with tough times and we've had a few tough defeats over the last couple of years.

"That definitely has helped us in regard to realising that we have the potential to challenge anybody and be up there with anybody, but at the same time, there's got to be a stage where putting up a good show has to go, and we have to replace that with a winning mentality.

"That's the last piece of the jigsaw. It's great to be in a Tailteann Cup final, but it's not worth a big pile unless we actually go and win it."

Since McConville took charge of Wicklow in 2022, the journey this side has been on has been one of progress.

A side that has made fans across the country take notice, support has grown for football within the county, and silverware on Saturday, and a place in next season's All-Ireland would be the prize that would fill the county with pride.

"It's about the players," the former Armagh star explained.

"It's about the bigger picture as far as supporters, too. I think it would just give everybody a massive lift.

"I think supporters are hungry to get behind this team, to find a team that they can really latch on to.

"The support that they've shown in the last two years has been outstanding.

"As I said, we have tried to be patient at times because we've come up short a few times, but they've been there for us and they will be there again at the weekend."