First sightings of Carlow football champions

First sightings of Carlow football champions Jackie Carey, Liam Whelan, Johnny Giles, Tony Dunne, Paul McGrath. What binds all of these men together? One answer is that they were all great Irish footballers who played for Manchester United. Another common dominator was that all five had been first spotted by United’s famous talent scout Billy Behan. After a brief spell with the club as their goalkeeper, Behan returned to his native city and became the eyes and ears of Manchester United in Dublin.

Carey (an all-time great), Whelan (who lost his life in the 1958 Munich Air Crash), Giles (a real legend of the game), Dunne (winner of a European Cup medal in 1968) and McGrath (an iconic sporting figure) were all playing schoolboy soccer when Billy Behan’s eagle eye spotted their potential and steered them in the direction of Old Trafford.

While your scribe cannot claim to be a Billy Behan, I can reveal this week my first sightings of six players who starred in the Carlow footballers fantastic league final victory in Croke Park on Saturday night.

And all six sightings were when the boys had a hurl in their hand!

THE CLEVER CHAP

We were running a Primary Schools Indoor Hurling Blitz in the Carlow CBS Gym, a blitz with an innovative addition of a wall-to-wall ‘points’ contest before the game morphed into the usual ‘goals only’ five-a-side.

During the ‘wall-to-wall’ the boys had to remain in their own half and try to hit their opponents back wall to score a point. This was an exercise in improving their ground striking and also their stopping of the sliotar. We had Bishop Foley, the Gaelscoil, Bennekerry. And we had Askea Boys.

The early games were straight down the middle battles. Then these boys in maroon took to the court. This small, lively, energetic boy took charge of his team, placing himself just inside the half way line while instructing two colleagues to ‘mind’ each corner another in front of goal, another close to half way too. The boys in the corners, on his advice, were tipping the sliotar to the lads closer to the ‘centre-circle’, one of whom, of course, was the ‘leader’.

‘Refereeing’, I had been standing close to the side-wall out of harms way until this small energetic boy proved he also had brains as he cleverly began zipping angled shots off the said side-wall, catching out the defenders and racking up cleverly constructed points.

But what stood out the most was how this boy played the game with such fun, the sheer joy he was getting from the contest.

Who was he? John Phiri. The same John who did a power of work throughout the entire 90 minutes in Croke Park and to see the smile on his face as he celebrated with colleagues and mentors at the final whistle brought back memories of that winter evening in the CBS Gym.

THE KARATE KID

20 years ago, Sunday mornings in Carlow Town Hurling Club, the U-10s in the right corner of the field on the Oak Park Arch side, coaching and mini-games preparing the wee warriors for the battles ahead in the mini-blitzes. Some of these ‘warriors’ were a little too ‘tame’ for their coaches liking, others needed to maybe be ‘tamed down’ a little! We had had no serious injuries and many minor ‘injuries’ were cured by the ‘bravery point’ introduced into games which saw the wounded warrior earn a point for their team if they recovered quickly from their ‘knock’. Then a couple of new recruits arrived, brothers. Word was karate was their first love. ‘No lack of bravery so’, says I. Damn right. Competitive too. Sure were. Then one of them, I always get the boys mixed up so not sure which one, damaged teeth. Remember their mother’s concern. Remember the boy’s real bravery Who were they? Mark Furey, who played his usual ultra-determined game in the middle third last Saturday and his brother Johnny, the sub goalkeeper. And dare say Peggy Furey along with the many other dearly departed Carlow supporters enjoyed a celebratory drink in a Heavenly Tavern on Saturday night.

‘OUR CAPTAIN’

We’re back two decades again, 2006, a group of us had inherited a Carlow Town Under 16 hurling team who as Under 14’s had won a couple of ‘B’ finals which were, in fact, a decider for teams who had finished 5th and 6th in a 7-team group. Seamus Kenneally, Jimmy Holden and myself told the boys we had no interest in a ‘B’ final, we wanted to make an ‘A’ semi-final. We did. We were working off a tight panel. We also had to move training to every conceivable day of the week to facilitate other codes, other obligations. Throughout it all but especially in the matches themselves one man stood out, not so much for his hurling - though that was good and he had strong hurling pedigree - but for his work-ethic, his leadership. We picked him as our captain.

Who was he? Eoghan Ruth, who produced a massive performance in Croke Park in his 109th competitive appearance with the county’s flagship side and sure that two-pointer from the Cusack Stand wing into the Hill 16 posts will go down in Carlow football folklore.

THE DUBLIN BOY

We’re back with the U-10’s of 2006, many of those wee warriors happy enough to get in a good ground strike and get stuck into the rucks which the coach confined to four; if a fifth joined the schemozzle it was a free against his team. Methinks the present adult game could do with that rule to rid itself of the unseemly pile-ups. Anyway, back to the U-10s. One boy who often crouched cleverly on the fringes of these rucks was a boy who could comfortably jab lift or roll lift the sliotar and who with jinks and turns and twists was able to manoeuvre space to get in a clean strike, strikes which often ended in scores. His parents were from Dublin, the father doing a good bit of refereeing, the mother a regular attender at games.

Who was he? Colm Hulton, whose jinks and turns and twists in Croke Park on Saturday night played a huge role in Carlow’s possession-game. Usually a regular scorer, one point was his lot on this occasion as he sacrificed his usual game to play a kind of quarter-back role in his team’s keep-ball policy which was laid the foundations for Joe Murphy’s charges success.

HUGHIE’S LAD

The green field at the back of Askea Boys was the site for after school hurling where one of the highlights would be the tussle competition, a brand new sliotar the prize for the eventual winner. ‘The Ring’ in which the one-on-one contests took place was surrounded by the other players whose cheering an encouragement made for a great atmosphere. Alas we were often low in numbers and approaching one match I asked teacher Eamonn Ellis if he could entice a few of the footballers to attend hurling training. He did. Out came one boy, a live-wire, who was able to pick and strike with stylish ease. Having heard of the sliotar prizes this new recruit enquired if there was to be one this evening. There was. A long puck competition. The new recruit won the sliotar. In fact he ‘won’ a few?! Apart from the ball for having the longest puck, a couple more well struck sliotars were ‘unfortunately’ ‘lost’ in a St Partrick’s Avenue backgarden. I was reliably informed the location of these missing objects was subsequently found to be very close to a relation of the striker! The coach smiled at the tactical astuteness involved.

Who was he? Lee Walker – “Hughie’s Lad” – and Lee Walker put in a fine shift in Croke Park against Longford, scoring a brace of points, unlucky not to locate the net. Lee has a lad called Drake, called after his grandfather Tom ‘Drakes’ Walker, the first Carlow man to play Railway Cup with Leinster and who was on the Carlow team that won the NFL Division 2 title in 1935.

A COACHES NIGHTMARE

The Leinster School of Hurling in St Kieran’s College, the brainchild of the late Lester Ryan, was a platform for the Carlow U-14 teams to learn from the very best coaches in the province, our own Brendan Hayden among them. As their ‘minder’ for the week in Kieran’s I got to witness some of our greatest ever hurlers showcase their teenage talents, not only in the matches but in the many excellent coaching drills which focused on proper techniques. Then one year this Carlow boy landed in the famed Kilkenny college holding the hurl in the wrong hand and the toe of the bás turned in. He was, I suppose you could say, a ‘coaches nightmare’. There were murmurs of ‘changing him’. Until a mini-match got underway. The speed. The ball control. The accurate strike. ‘Leave him alone’ whispered one witness, he’s his own man and it works for him.

Who was he? Sean Murphy aka Choo-Choo, who for a few years was the Carlow’s hurlers top scorer from play, but who has given the footballers trojan service and came on as an impact sub in Croke Park on Saturday night, his speed, as ever, a huge asset.

HURLING LENS

Add in another impact sub, Chris Blake, who was once gifted a hurl in an effort to entice him to play Under 14 (he didn’t!) and Kyle Nolan of the extended panel (our scoring ace on the Setanta U-15 team who qualified for a championship semi-final) and the figure for this hurling lens on Carlow’s football champions increases to nine.

Well done one and all, delighted for ye.