Carlow kingpins Éire Óg are looking forward to the visit of star-studded reigning All-Ireland champions Kilmacud Crokes in an intriguing Leinster championship clash
Éire Óg captain Jordan Morrissey celebrates victory over Tinryland in the Carlow SFC final at Netwatch Cullen Park. Photograph: Evan Treacy/InphoRoss Dunphy’s individual award may have come on the back of his excellence in the second tier Tailteann Cup competition with Carlow but it remains a landmark achievement all the same.
Galway’s Shane Walsh, nominated for Footballer of the Year in 2022, Paul Mannion, man of the match for Dublin in July’s All-Ireland final, and the evergreen Rory O’Carroll are all current or former All-Stars. There are plenty more All-Ireland medals, for club and county, jam packed into that high-achieving group too.
An alternative take is that, in provincial terms, there’s as good as nothing between these two teams. Crokes have six Leinster titles but Éire Óg have five. And if Éire Óg had held on to their late lead in the 2019 decider against Ballyboden St Enda’s, instead of losing narrowly, they’d be evenly split on six apiece.
That’s a statement that neatly sums up Éire Óg’s latest journey to the provincial quarter-finals. They needed extra-time to defeat St Joseph’s of Laois in Round 1 and, at one stage in that additional 20 minutes, were four points down. Rewind back even further to the county semi-final against Rathvilly and they were 3-1 down early in a penalty shoot-out.
“You need a blend of both. You won’t get too far without football ability either. I think it’s hard work that gets you into those positions to win games and then it’s your football ability that comes to the fore. We feel like this group has a blend of both.”Éire Óg were down four of their county final players – Cormac Mullins, Darragh O’Brien, Reece Denieffe and Kelvin Chatten – for the St Joseph’s game.
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