By Cian O’Connell

Jordan Lowry nods as the question is being asked.

Between 2012 and 2017 Éire Óg didn’t hoist a Carlow Senior Football Championship title. For a club with such a proud and decorated history is it fair to class that spell as a famine?

“Yeah, every year you put on a jersey for Éire Óg you are expected to win a County Championship no matter if it is Junior, Intermediate, Under 21, minor - whatever it may be,” Lowry replies instantly.

Expectation is part and parcel of being an Éire Óg footballer. It is something to be dealt with. There is no massive issue with the players about it. Now busy preparing for Sunday’s AIB Leinster Club Senior Final against Ballyboden St Enda’s, Lowry can make sense of those demanding days.

“We had a real dark period there,” Lowry recalls. “My first year on the panel was 2008, we won the County Championship and I felt to myself - naive I suppose - that this is going to be it every year. Then we went without one until 2012. Then again until 2017.”

Enter Joe Murphy, who was a player on all five successful Leinster winning outfits in the glorious 90s era.

“Such a big gap in between so when Joe came in his focus was always on Leinster,” Lowry reveals. “He said there is a Leinster in ye guys.

“We were happy enough to get to a County Final because we had been falling short for a few years. So eventually getting to a County Final, winning it.

“The next step was retaining it, get further in Leinster, and retain it. Then try to win Leinster. That is where he has us now.

The plan has worked for him definitely. It is not easy when you play in a club like Éire Óg and you do go without a County Championship for a few years. It is tough going.”

Murphy had worked with different clubs as a trainer and manager before returning to his own. How significant is the history and for the current crop of Éire Óg players?

“I spoke to a few people in Dingle not too long ago who knew who Éire Óg were because of what happened in the 90s,” Lowry says. “The club is well known around Ireland which is a great thing. There is a sense of aura or respect given to Eire Og because of that entitlement having won five Leinsters before.

“So coming into our Leinster campaign does it matter? It does, it can wreck your head almost that you are playing with a senior club, Éire Óg , now, but you haven't got a Leinster Championship.

“It has been said to us and I'm going into my 11th year now in senior football, it has been said to me nearly every year. You are reminded about it.

“As a young lad you watched those games, you went to those games in Newbridge, Tullamore, Portlaoise. I've watched them on video I don't know how many times. You want that. You want that Leinster title for yourself, to say you have it, to say you lived the dream.

“So it can help and so far in every big game we've had coming from the semi-final of our own Club Championship we've had someone from that 90s team come in to give a few words of experience and motivation I suppose.”

That connection counts with Lowry stressing just how much manager Murphy rates the current crop of players.

“I think Joe often says 'I hate going back to it, but..'' that is the phrase, you know when he says that he is going to talk about the team in the 90s,” Lowry remarks.

“He is right in a way and in a lot of the things he does say about that team of the 90s. He often says that the team wouldn't get near the team we have now. Joe holds us in such high regard.

“He well and truly believes that there is a Leinster and an All Ireland in this team. Now we are only seeing that in ourselves. It has taken a while to get that belief in ourselves, that we do have a very good panel together, that we could do something special.”

Being underdogs for the provincial decider doesn’t bother Lowry in the slightest. “We've been underdogs in the last two games,” Lowry remarks.

“Against Sarsfields no one gave us a chance, they even put it down that they were missing two lads, who went away to Australia. We turn up then against Portlaoise, no one gave us a chance and we beat them by eight points, I think, in the end. I'm happy enough to go into this game as underdogs, but I'm more than confident in the players we have.

“I believe in the players we have. If we can turn up on the day we can beat Ballyboden, but they are a serious outfit. We have been hearing a lot about them in the last couple of weeks.

“We played them earlier on in the summer, we know what they are like and how physical they are, how well drilled they are. It all just comes down to the day itself. If they underperform and we perform to the capabilities I know we have then we might come out as winners.”

The diligent manner in which Murphy has organised Éire Óg throughout 2019 provides a source of hope and optimism. “Yeah, defensive duties are something that has been questioned over the past five or six years with the club really,” Lowry acknowledges.

“Since Joe came in four years ago that is one thing he wanted to set up, to get it right. So defensively our structure is much more compact now. We get numbers back and we try to tackle in numbers to see if we can get a two on one situation. If we do great.

“Thankfully this year especially it has come to the fore. I think against Portlaoise we got great recognition on the TV and that from how well we set up defensively and how we defended.”

A counter attacking style has given Éire Óg many good moments throughout the campaign. “Yeah, I think (Stephen) Poacher brought that into Carlow three or four years ago,” Lowry replies.

“Some of the county boys came back living off that, they wanted to see how it would work with us - the transition. We wouldn't classify ourselves as a defensive team, we just get numbers back. Then we all break as many as we can during the game. Every team does it, Dublin do it, Kerry do it, they can just do it with a bit more flamboyance than a club team like ourselves. It is working. It is effective at the moment, so no complaints.”

Lowry has occupied an important and central role. Éire Óg are most certainly relevant again in Carlow and Leinster.