What a difference a year makes for Carlow footballers
Carlow footballer Mikey Bambrick during the launch of the 2026 Leinster GAA Senior Football Championships at Killashee Hotel in Naas, Kildare. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
What a difference a year has made for the Carlow senior footballers.
This time last year Shane Curran stepped down as team manager citing “player-related issues” and the team’s short-term future looked bleak.
The players trained themselves for a period of time before Joe Murphy was eventually appointed as Curran’s replacement just six days before their Leinster championship opener against Meath.
It’s a testament both to the players themselves and Murphy’s stewardship of the team that, 12 months on from that difficult period, Carlow football is in such a good place.
Their Allianz Football League Division 4 Final win over Longford was the county’s first Croke Park victory in 55 years and has put a serious pep in their step ahead of Sunday’s Leinster SFC first-round clash with Wicklow.
“Right now we are in a very different place to where we were 12 months ago,” says team captain, Mikey Bambrick.
“It is probably about a year ago, this week last year, when Joe stepped in.
“Before then we were training ourselves, we didn’t have a management team. The guys who stepped in to take that training session were the guys who were with us now. We are in a very different place now.
“As players you realise who has your back and who supports you and what are you really doing it for. From talking to every player, it became clear, pretty quickly, that if they did not really care about what they were doing then it would have been easy for them to step away.
“But we all realised how embedded GAA and Carlow are in your life. In one way it nearly gave us a drive to push on and come closer together.
“As I said, those guys who took our training sessions are still with us now. It has been a really enjoyable year because off the back of such a low point, you have reached such a high and it is brilliant.”
Carlow captain Mikey Bambrick lifts the cup after the Allianz Football League Division 4 final match between Carlow and Longford at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
Bambrick believes having a native Carlow-man like Joe Murphy in charge of the team has helped to raise the team’s standards because the county means as much to him as it does the players.
“I am all for it but we do not just have a home-grown management team, we have a quality management team,” he says.
“A lot of our management team have left the county and been successful elsewhere, Joe in Naas, Barry (Hayes) in Ballinglass, even James Darke with Laois previously.
“We have managed to get that quality back to Carlow. It is brilliant to have. Seeing their emotion after winning in Croke Park, I am sure other management teams would have been delighted, too, but would they have had tears in their eyes after seeing your team win if they are not home grown? I don’t know.”
The outpouring of emotion from Carlow players, management, and supporters alike after their extra-time Allianz Football League Division Four final victory over Longford showed how much it mean to everyone in the county to win some silverware at headquarters.
“I think it was a few things,” says Bambrick. “Coming in with a new management team was one, then the fact there has not been a result (to win in Croke Park) in 55 years. Then of course to get back into Division 3 after so many years, that was a big thing.
“Now, going into the game I didn’t think it would mean that much to win it, but it is only after you win it that you realise how much it meant to everyone there.
“For supporters, who were coming up to you and clapping you on the back, it was brilliant.
“The whole argument that the League does not really matter is crazy. If you are not enjoying the idea of going up to Croke Park, winning a game, and going home with silverware, then what are you enjoying football for?
“I just can’t understand that argument at all.”
Louth’s provincial success last year has given every other county in the province the belief to set their sights higher than they previously might have done.
Louth’s Leinster title success last year has given every other county in the province the belief to set their sights higher than they previously might have done and Bambrick sees no reason why Carlow can’t now be optimistic about having a good cut off provincial championship.
“If you asked any person, they would say yes,” says Bambrick. “Do I believe it? Yes, 100 per cent.
“If you look at what Wexford are doing, what Louth have done, they are the blueprint for all of us. At the end of the day, there are no aliens out there so why can’t we go and compete against any other teams?
“Leinster is probably more competitive now than it has been for a good few years. Even Division 3 next year has six Leinster teams in it. So it is going to be incredibly competitive.”
