GAELIC FOOTBALL NEWS:SOMETIMES THE highly improbable result just happens, and it tends to occur more often in Gaelic games than other sports, but nonetheless for Carlow to become the GAA's mid-summer surprise would require a large dollop of luck, an equal measure of self-belief and perhaps a thunderstorm over Croke Park this Sunday from around 2pm.
Wexford must be talked up too – not that this is difficult, as Carlow manager Luke Dempsey will show – and Wexford must capitulate.
Also, everything that has gone before when Carlow get to Croke Park needs to be emptied from the collective psyche.
The recent surprise defeat of Louth should provide sufficient belief. The opening 30 minutes of that encounter and final 10 minutes, when they registered four unanswered points, three off Brendan Murphy’s boot, shows they possess the ability to trouble any mid-tier county.
The bookmakers’ spread is seven points and before Dempsey attempts to convince us of Wexford’s brilliance let us examine the enormity of the underdogs’ task.
It is 53 years since Carlow last made it to a Leinster football semi-final and on many occasions that required a single victory. Also, the small midland county that hugs Wexford’s northwest border has only ever captured one Leinster title – and that was back in 1944.
The 3-40 Jason Ryan’s team has registered in victories over Offaly and Westmeath makes the points spread seem reasonable, generous even.
“There is no getting away from that,” said Dempsey. “Jason Ryan has pinpointed a style of play now that is effective. Colm Morris acts as the free man who gets on the ball and sets up the play from deep – the idea being to get quick ball into the forwards.
“You mentioned 3-40, well, 3-33 of that has come from (Ciarán) Lyng, (Redmond) Barry and (Ben) Brosnan. If they beat us you are already talking about All Star nominations for those three.
“For us it will be about containment around the middle third.
“But Wexford are flying at the moment and come in as hot favourites. We can’t control any of that. All I want to see is our team playing to their maximum ability.”
“The hard work is done,” Dempsey said in reference to a solid two-week lead in where Seán Gannon cancelled a planned holiday and Murphy was able to stall Army duties to focus on an inter-county career bubbling over with potential.
“We’ve had Brendan Murphy for every session and the lads are buoyed by the opportunity to go to Croke Park on merit.
“Many have not been there since 2007 when the minors lost the Leinster final to Laois. I remember that day well because I was sitting beside Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh in the commentary booth and was hugely impressed by Brendan Murphy. Carlow lost but he was the dominant player on the field.”
It was in 2008 the senior team last graced Croke Park, but it is a dark memory as an unrelenting Meath humiliated them 1-25 to 0-8. That was a campaign that also marked Wexford’s last appearance in the provincial decider, although they too will wince at the memory. Granted, they recovered to make an All-Ireland semi-final but the 3-23 to 0-9 beating inflicted by Dublin proved a harsh, albeit valuable, lesson.
“Look, our approach is straightforward,” Dempsey explains. “We want them to go out and perform on the day to the best of their ability and not tighten up just because it is Carlow in Croke Park.
“The Louth win and build up to Sunday has given the people of Carlow a great lift. That’s what the GAA can do. It is a really exciting time all around the county. In sport you have to savour these moments as they don’t always last that long.”
