Kennedy Cup team on track again after disruptions

The Kennedy Cup is one of the most prestigious cup tournaments for young boys in the country. So often it can be the start of something huge and a big career ahead, whether that be at League of Ireland level or other.

Some of Carlow’s best players have all gone to the Kennedy Cup, or in the case of Dean Kelly, more than once. However, in recent years the tournament seems to have lost a lot of its prestige, it no longer feels like that important stepping stone, at least in Carlow.

Manager David O’Connor has once again had to step in to lead the team and pick up the pieces, after a lot of the players left the set up to either go to League of Ireland or to focus on other sports, and the coaching staff nearly all walked away.

Despite the difficulties they’ve faced, O’Connor says they’re getting into a good place and are feeling ready for the tournament that starts in less than a week.

“We’ve been training well for the last six or seven weeks, I’m feeling really positive, they had a few really good results in the last month so they’re starting to look like a Kennedy Cup team at last.

“They had their struggles early in the year, they lost some players and some coaches but they’re back on track now for Kennedy Cup. Other sports play a big factor in it, and so does the League of Ireland. It’s not like it’s even one club pulling from us, there’s about three or four different clubs from across the region looking at our best players.

“They’ve played a year and a half with us and suddenly they’re gone playing League of Ireland. It’s not like it used to be where you would play Kennedy Cup and then go to play League of Ireland. That’s the reality of football at the moment where League of Ireland clubs are looking for your best players. We just have to get on with it, there’s plenty of players in the league with ability who may not have been able to show their ability first time they trialled but when they came back in when we were looking for new players they show it. It’s a good thing because it means clubs are producing players. We’re happy with where the guys are at and with their focus.”

Carlow face Donegal, Sligo-Leitrim and Wicklow in the group stages of the tournament and whilst it might look like a tough group on paper, O’Connor says they’ll fear nobody and there’s not much between the sides.

“We already played Sligo-Leitrim in the Quarter-Finals of the Interleague and there was only a goal between both sides, we played Wicklow a couple of weeks ago, same thing, just came out a little stronger on the day, Donegal we know what they’re going to be like, they’re going to be big, strong, physical, technically they’ll be very very good. We don’t fear anybody, we go and we believe we can win every game, and we’ll try win every game.”