Advertisement
day in the sun

'They do look flawless. They're winning All-Irelands year in year out'

Turlough O’Brien’s men face a daunting task in Portlaoise tomorrow.

HOW DOES A Division 4 team go about taking down the back-to-back All-Ireland champions?

That’s the task facing the Carlow footballers tomorrow evening in Portlaoise.

Carlow’s reward for a first Leinster victory since 2011 is a showdown with Jim Gavin’s all-conquering side. It’s a daunting task, but one they’re looking forward to.

While they had six weeks to put together a gameplan to face Wexford, Turlough O’Brien has had just two weeks to prepare for arguably the greatest Dublin team of all-time.

It’s been suggested by some that Carlow should go ultra-defensive to avoid taking a heavy beating from the champions, but that’s not an approach they’re likely to take.

The Barrowsiders are hoping to make the most of their day in the sun by keeping defensively sound but they also intend on playing some football.

“I’m delighted I’m not coming up with any sort of gameplan against them because they do look flawless,” said wing-forward Eoghan Ruth.

“They’re winning All-Irelands year in year out at this stage. It’s something you have to admire more than anything.

“We’ll go about out our business in trying to put in a good performance and hopefully try to keep morale high for the qualifiers.

The42.ie / YouTube

Rather than focusing on Dublin, Carlow are concentrating on getting a performance out of themselves.

“You can’t take on the team as a whole, they’re a superb outfit,” said Carlow skipper Darragh Foley.

“Probably the best team we’ve seen play Gaelic football. If we take it individual to individual and see how that goes.

“We have nothing to lose and everything to gain from it. It’s on the biggest stage possible, live on Sky and a chance for our lads that haven’t got exposure before to go out and showcase what they can do.

“The buzz at training all week has been great and everyone’s just excited to get going.”

“You’d imagine it’ll have a big knock-on effect,” added John Murphy. “When we were growing up you were going to Eire Og matches, even Carlow were in Croke Park a few times winning All-Ireland Bs.

“I remember growing up and going to those matches so I hope it’ll drive the young lads on.”

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!

GAA players are a special case – so they should be drug tested even more

McGeeney includes 4 championship debutants in Armagh side to face Down

Your Voice
Readers Comments
10
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.