Referee Darragh Byrne with the Carlow captain Darragh Foley as they await the arrival of the Meath captain before the 2023 O'Byrne Cup Group B Round 1 match between Carlow and Meath at Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow.
By Kevin Egan
It might not be the level where counties aspire to play their football, but this Spring, Division Four of the Allianz Football League felt like the place to be. Five counties made a serious shot at promotion, four of them were still right there in the mix on the last day, so there was plenty of drama for supporters and players alike, with everything going right down to injury time in the big game at Carrick-on-Shannon.
To a certain extent, Carlow were the outsiders who lost their invite to the party, and who were on the outside looking in. A first round draw with Wicklow and an away win against Waterford in round two suggested that they would put themselves in the mix, but instead their season petered out with four defeats from their next five.
For Darragh Foley, who shot 0-47 for Carlow in that league campaign, this Sunday’s trip just across the border to Echelon Park in Aughrim offers the perfect chance to press reset, and get things moving back in the right direction.
“We were very disappointed with our league performance, we hoped to be in the mix come the end of it but it didn’t work out that way. There’s probably a few games that we left behind, we were making the same mistakes and not learning from them. But we have drawn a line under it now and we’re focused on Championship, trying to get a couple of wins under our belt and get the performances back right”.
For Carlow players – and supporters – of a certain vintage, this year’s Leinster Championship draw has been kind. Past history, and this year’s league draw, would suggest that they will make the short trip across the county’s eastern frontier with no small amount of optimism in their luggage, while the carrot of another derby clash with Kildare in the quarter-final for the winners is doubly appealing.
Darragh Foley of Carlow during the 2021 Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship Round 1 match between Carlow and Longford at Bord Na Mona O’Connor Park in Tullamore, Offaly. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
Foley was part of ‘Carlow Rising’ under Turlough O’Brien, which peaked in 2018 with their incredible Leinster quarter-final win over Kildare at Glenisk O’Connor Park in Tullamore. 17 shots on goal yielded 2-14 that day as they knocked over Kildare by seven points, and Foley himself chipped in with a goal in the first half.
“That is definitely the highlight of my career” he says.
“2017 and 2018 were two years I will never forget. Mixing with the top teams and really putting it up to them was a great experience. Looking from where we are now, we’re back down near where we started but the reason I’m still playing is because I believe there is a calibre of player there that we can push on and progress and get back to the height that we did and become very competitive again.
“There is a team there that is good enough to get out of Division Four, it’s just the consistency we need to get right and hopefully we can get that right over the next couple of months. That’s kind of the aim for Carlow at the moment to improve our standards and get back up to where we know we can be and where we can compete”.
“Playing Wicklow whets the appetite, it gets lads excited. Then you have the carrot of going to play a Kildare team in two weeks which is great. They’re the games you want to be playing in. It’s a winnable championship game and first round wins for teams like ourselves in Division Four don’t come around very often so you want to take that chance whenever it arises”.
Some amount of regression from those heady days four or five years ago was inevitable, but Foley would like to a lot more emphasis on putting the building blocks in place to ensure that there’s a higher floor for where Carlow football can go to in future. Watching the neighbours secure promotion from Division Four, while also showing lots of promise in the Leinster U-20 football championship, has concentrated his thoughts somewhat.
“In fairness to Niall (Carew) and the management team, that came in after Turlough, a lot of lads that were there stepped away at the one time, so rebuilding was necessary.
“In fairness to Wicklow they seem to be doing an awful lot right over there, promoted now to Division Three and they have a good underage structure, their U-20s are strong. We haven’t had a minor or U-20 team that has competed at a consistent level for some time and it is something that needs to be looked at. We need to bring them lads through and have a winning mentality and that they’re used to winning games, so that they’re coming in and they’re ready to drive things on. The management team are trying to instil that in senior players and hopefully we’ll start to see the results of it soon enough.
“Sunday would be a good time to start!”
