Padraig O'Toole in hunt for for Garden County stability

Wicklow captain Padraig O'Toole believes that the side’s ascension doesn’t have to stop at Division 3 should a period of stability play out in the Garden County over the next number of years.

Despite their Tailteann Cup opening loss to Carlow, it’s been a good season for Wicklow with new manager Oisín McConville guiding them to Division 4 promotion, losing just once in their seven league games before Sligo bettered them in the final at Croke Park.

Sunday’s loss to Carlow, when they conceded six points on the trot in a 0-17 to 1-13 defeat, was a blow, but O’Toole is optimistic about where this group can go.

"Ideally our county, where we are, we need to be making this progress up to probably Division 2," he said.

"Then in Division 2 you’re coming with the likes of Westmeath, Louth, Kildare that you can go [to] every week and compete with them. That’s the level we want to get to, a positive year but we want to keep moving that way.

"Realistically one of the main challenges for Wicklow is player retention and that comes with managers changing over the years," he continued.

"It comes with game time, lots of different factors, but what we really need next year going into Division 3, we need the panel we have this year along with more and we need to hold that core group of players together because it is very hard to make progress when you hold on to 15 players but you lose ten and then a new ten come in.

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"So player retention is huge and if we continue with that panel and return with 90%