"Really, we are driving to win two-in-a-row"

As the days count down to the start of the senior football championship, the focus will surely be on the Group 2 game where the senior champions of 2023, Éire Óg, clash with Clonmore who won the intermediate last season? In fact the newly promoted senior side won the junior the year before. Their rise has been meteoric.

Their meeting is part of a double header on Friday next which also includes Old Leighlin and Tinryland.

Mark Furey, captain of Éire Óg, is hopeful that the holders are in good fettle and are ready to defend their title.

“At the minute I think, we are going ok. Training has been good. Really, we are driving to win two-in-a-row. The big thing I suppose is getting the mentality right. Two years ago, it was a transition period with Joe Murphy leaving and Turlough (O’Brien) coming in. It took getting used to,” he says.

Last year, the YIs were written off on these pages but Furey says there were reasons why Éire Óg never fully got going two years ago but did so 12 months ago.

“Players such as Eoghan Ruth and Chris Blake had left. It was nearly like a rebuild. For myself, it was an unusual one. A lot of the lads I had grown up with and played with had gone.

“I was one of the older lads and it was about trying to find consistency in performance and consistency in training. On and off the field, it was showing younger lads what it takes to win a championship.” For most of the players in the county, the gap between the league and championship meant all they got were challenge games. At least the intercounty players had tough and testing games but what they learned about themselves can sometimes be forgotten about because of the paucity of competitive action.

Furey is in two minds about the lack of games.

“Between the league and the championship it is a long gap. It is no harm in some ways in that we can plan our holidays and stuff like that. It is a big wait in between, there is no doubt about that. It suited us as county players because we did have championship and Tailteann Cup. But for the Carlow leagues, those players have nothing for 4-5 months which is not perfect,” he says.

With only three games in the group losing the first one makes life hugely difficult. Momentum has to be built up and while hitting the ground running is a much-used cliché, it is apt in these circumstances. Losing the first game can see teams struggle as they try to atone.

“It could be too late then. It is hard to find the balance. If there was games such as league closer to championship might be better. You are relying heavily on challenge games which is difficult as well. They only show so much.

For us, I enjoyed the break but it is a long wait for some lads,” concludes Furey.