36-year-old Ben Brosnan reaches another milestone for Wexford
Dioralyte The Cup Of Final Against Brosnan Picture: Wexford Kildare At Wexford O'byrne Quarter Sam Ben During Barnes/sportsfile Park
Unfavourable weather and unplayable pitches meant the setting for Ben Brosnan’s little piece of Wexford history got moved from pillar to post before a viable stage was eventually found.
The Wexford-Tipperary Division 4 clash was originally scheduled for Templetuohy. But when the Templetuohy field was ruled out of order last Thursday, and with an alternative venue in Tipperary unavailable, the game was moved to Enniscorthy.
A pitch inspection deemed St Patrick’s Park unplayable on Saturday afternoon, and so the county’s centre of excellence in Ferns became the latest venue to be handed the torch for that evening’s Round 6 Allianz Football League game.
No ball, though, was ever kicked at Ferns, it too incapable of absorbing the unceasing rain in the south-east. And so the venue was kicked back up the road to Tipp, Fethard playing host to the postponed fixture on Sunday afternoon.
Exactly three quarters of an hour had elapsed when Ben Brosnan was introduced for Sean Nolan. His introduction was no inconsequential substitution in a game the visitors had long wrapped up. Brosnan’s introduction saw his total number of competitive appearances for the Wexford footballers climb to 174, equaling record holder Brian Malone.
In a 17-season inter-county career that includes a nine-point haul during the narrow 2011 Leinster final defeat to Dublin, an All-Star nominee the same season, and last year bringing his career tally beyond the 500-point mark, Sunday was another milestone for the 36-year-old.
“When I finished last year, I was on 165 games. It never really came into my mind at the start of this year that, right, I want to go back so as to get close to Brian's record, or equal Brian's record,” Brosnan explains.
“I said to myself, do I still enjoy playing inter-county football? I did, and I still do. The second thing was, am I good enough to still contribute something to the team because it is easy to get into a mindset when you are there for so long that you think, what's another year to go back. But you want to be able to bring something.” That he has featured in each of their three O’Byrne Cup and six League outings to date - kicking 4-29 (0-22 frees) - would answer that latter question fairly emphatically.
A pair of converted frees meant he was again on the scoresheet during Sunday’s historic outing.
“It’s really nice to have achieved this. And it is not just for myself, it is a family thing. I remember my dad, Dan, bringing me over to the local field when I was 14 to take frees, just me and him. That's the kind of thing you think of.
“He has literally been at every single one of my Wexford games from U14 up. I can't remember him not being at a game. For my family, for my wife, Annie, and my kids, I really do feel like they are a part of it because only for them it wouldn’t have been possible.”
Longford visit the south-east this Sunday afternoon. Brosnan can assume the outright lead on the all-time appearances chart and Wexford, currently second in the table, can clinch a promotion ticket to Division 3, albeit they’ll need at least one other result to go their way.
“If I was to break it in Wexford Park in the last game of the league, and I know there is still a lot to play for, it would be great if I was able to top it off with that.”