Darragh Foley of Carlow in attendance at the launch of the Tailteann Cup 2024 at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
If you didn’t know Darragh Foley, you might have expected him to ride off into the sunset after Carlow’s season ended in 2023, content with a record-breaking inter-county career spanning 14 seasons.
After all, last year he became the county’s highest ever scorer, with a monstrous tally of 10-391 from 154 matches between League and Championship.
But Foley was never going to rest on those laurels. Now 33, he’s as hungry as ever to wear the Carlow jersey and in the five matches he’s played so far this year (all League) has added another 1-36 to his scoring record to bump it up to 11-412 from 159 matches.
You might think he has nothing left to prove, but the Kilbride man doesn’t see it that way.
“I've been around a few years but we're all competitors and when you're playing county football you have to be if you want to have a long career at it,” he says.
“I still love going training, I still love kicking around, I love the tactical battles, I love the physical battles and that's why I'm still here.
"There's nothing else once you step away from it. I never wanted to be one of these lads that was in and out of panels.
“I wanted to commit and if I was able to commit then I was going to commit fully. I'm still enjoying it and coming into the summer time now this is where you want to be.
“You want to be out playing and playing against the best lads that you can and county football gives me that opportunity.”
One of Carlow’s biggest problems has traditionally been they don’t have enough zealots like Foley who make an unstinting commitment to the cause.
Instead, players have committed to the panel for some years but not for others and so at any given time Carlow have had to do without some of the best footballers in the county.
For someone like Foley who has given his all through thick and thin, not getting the same buy-in from others has been frustrating at times.
“Ah it has,” he says. “It's been a huge bugbear for me over the years. We've such a small playing group in Carlow that you can't fall out with lads either. That's their decision and you can't force them to play.
“I always find that lads sometimes have issues with how they're treated by the county board or management but you're a Carlow person first and foremost and if you're able I can't understand why you can't just put your shoulder to the wheel no matter what your differences are with outside noises or whatnot.
“That's always been my view on it. So if I was able to play and I was good enough to play then I was always going to commit. It has been a big frustration because any time we have gotten our house in order and pushed in the one direction we've had success.”
Darragh Foley of Carlow during the 2023 Tailteann Cup Preliminary Quarter Final match between Carlow and New York at Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile
Foley was reminded just how much playing for Carlow means to him when he missed their Leinster SFC championship first-round clash with Wexford because of a torn calf muscle.
It was the first championship match he’s missed for Carlow since he joined the panel, and watching from the sideline was all the more frustrating because they were handed a heavy 4-19 to 0-8 defeat.
“It was a tough watch, to be fair, and I just felt sorry for the lads out there. It was one of those days where anything that could have went wrong did go wrong.
“We started that game reasonably well. We were playing against the wind and everyone knows going into Wexford Park it's a bit of a gale-force wind at this time of the year.
“Just a couple of goals went in after half-time and we could just never recover. I don't think our lads had much of a focus on the Leinster Championship this year.
“We were well in hunt for promotion in the League until Round 6 but then the wheels fell off the wagon unfortunately and it took us a bit of time to recover.
“The last few weeks have given us a bit of time to get things right and hopefully we'll see that now and we'll be able to right a few wrongs in the next few weeks.
“As a playing group we have to take ownership of it. We actually found ourselves in a very similar position last year when Wicklow beat us well in Aughrim in the first round of the Leinster Championship. We had to have a look at ourselves and ask what we were going to do for the rest of the year. Are we just going to fulfil our fixtures and be happy with our lot?
“The lads aren't happy to do that. They want to prove they're good footballers and getting a good run in the Tailteann Cup is the only way to do that.”
Carlow players Jamie Clarke, 15, and Darragh Foley celebrate after the 2023 Tailteann Cup Group 3 Round 3 match between Longford and Carlow at Laois Hire O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, Laois. Photo by Matt Browne/Sportsfile.
On paper, Carlow’s Tailteann Cup group looks like a very tough one.
First up on Sunday is an away fixture against a Laois team that beat them by 11 points in the League this year. And they’ll be underdogs too in their other two matches against Fermanagh and Wicklow.
But Foley is an optimist by nature and is convinced the Barrowsiders can exceed expectations in the competition this year just like they did last year when they reached the quarter-finals.
“100 per cent, that's what we're aiming for,” he says. “We had a great run last year. Two wins in the group stage and then we had New York in Carlow and that brought a big festival atmosphere and it was a great day and a great occasion to be part of.
“Our aim is to get out of the group and try to get a bit of a buzz back in football in Carlow. Because, in fairness to the hurlers, they're doing great work at the minute and that's from a very small pool of people.
“Whereas Carlow town is generally football-based and surrounding areas and we want to get that going again.
“Sometimes we say we're a small county but we have very talented lads there and if we could get the right direction and push it on and expect a little bit more of ourselves then we can improve.
“That's what we did last year. We had a good, long hard look at ourselves and said, listen lads, we need to raise our standards here and, in fairness to lads, they did, and we reaped the benefit of it. Hopefully we can do that again.”