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“Any time you play them, when it's Dublin versus Wexford, it's going to be a close battle." - Paddy Doyle on Wexford tie

“Any time you play them, when it's Dublin versus Wexford, it's going to be a close battle." - Paddy Doyle on Wexford tie
By Paul KeaneTue, 17 February 2026

Since breaking into the Dublin hurling team in 2023, Paddy Doyle has started 18 of the 19 Championship games that the Sky Blues have played. For the record, he came on in the other one too.

So missing Allianz National League game time as he rehabilitates and recovers from an ankle injury doesn't sit particularly comfortably with the Naomh Barróg defender.

He's hoping to be 'back integrated over the next couple of weeks' but has acknowledged that this Saturday's Division 1B showdown with Wexford will come too soon for him.

He'll be there at Croke Park though, offering any support he can, and he looks almost aghast when you suggest that he might use his sick note to skip the tie.

"I've been going to the games, yes," he said. "Of course. You're part of the group. You go and support and give what you can to the group."

And Dublin will need absolutely every resource available to them to overcome Wexford this Saturday because, put simply, it's a game that both teams feel they can't really afford to lose.

Doyle conceded that losing to Clare in Round 1, albeit after a strong performance, has robbed Dublin of a 'safety net' of sorts in the promotion race. If they were to lose again, it would be asking a lot to lock down one of the two promotion spots at the end of the campaign. Wexford, meanwhile, have six points on the board and are keen to retain their winning habit with huge ties against Dublin and Clare still to come for them.

Throw in the fact that it's always a very close contest between Dublin and Wexford - just four points separated the teams when Dublin beat the Model County in last year's Leinster SHC - and you have the ingredients for a cracker.

"Any time you play them, when it's Dublin versus Wexford, it's going to be a close battle," said Doyle. "We've a history of those close games over the last number of years that I've been involved anyway. We're looking forward to it. They're always a tough side to come up against."

Doyle isn't as keen to delve into promotion talk. He's always been a game-by-game operator and anyway, when he glances at the table and sees Wexford and Clare leading at the top, and Dublin currently on two points, albeit with a game less played than the other two, it seems a little strange to be talking about going up.

"The reality is that we've only got two points on the board - Clare and Wexford have six points," stressed the 22-year-old. "We want to be playing Division 1A hurling next year. But I suppose there is a bit of a safety net gone there for this weekend (having already lost to  Clare)."

One thing's for certain, Dublin won't lack confidence returning to Croke Park for the first time since last year's All-Ireland semi-final against Cork. That game ended in defeat to the Munster champions but, prior to that, Dublin scored a landmark win over Limerick.

It is put to Doyle that it must have brought great confidence, beating a Limerick side full of generational performers, though he doesn't fully agree.

"To be honest, I think we would have had that kind of self-belief prior to that win," he said. "I think in the dressing room, we believe in ourselves anyway. That win, more than anything, just showed other people what we're capable of. For ourselves, we don't ever compete to lose. We compete because we know we're good enough and everyone knows we're able to mix it with the top teams in the country. I think we just want to find that kind of consistency within the group."

Dublin stuck 1-22 on the board against Clare in Ennis, in Round 1, but still came up two points shy. They struck the same total, 2-19, in Round 2 against Kildare and this time won by 14 points, restricting the Joe McDonagh Cup champions to just two points from open play.

Doyle said that Dublin did their 'due diligence' after both games, crunching the numbers to see what areas they needed to improve on.

"There were some aspects we were happy with," said Doyle of the narrow loss to 2024 All-Ireland winners Clare. "There were obviously some aspects then we came away with and we'd look to improve on.

"I suppose there were a couple of chances to kick on and we didn't do that and kick on in the game."

Again, it comes back to being consistent for 70 minutes, or as close as possible to that. Game after game. Season after season.

"Exactly," nodded Doyle. "We've been saying it for a while now. We spoke about it there about last season as well - if we had that consistency, it would have left us in a better spot last year. This year, this is our focus and that's what we're striving towards."

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