09-05-2025
Carlow captain admits tension was brewing under Shane Curran ‘for a few weeks' before his acrimonious exit
MIKEY BAMBRICK has lauded new boss Joe Murphy as a passionate Carlow man who would 'die for the jersey'.
Murphy stepped in to pick up the pieces after
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Alongside Liam Coleman of Wexford at Tuesday's Tailteann Cup launch in Croke Park
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First-year boss Curran irritated players with the content of his resignation statement
Curran walked because of 'player-related issues which he believed were beyond the scope of the management team'.
The ex-Roscommon goalkeeper went into specifics when he said some squad members 'failed to return home with the team' after their league game in London.
That prompted
They moved on under Murphy who took charge of Carlow for their Leinster SFC loss to Meath.
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And with five weeks of training behind them, they will hit Sunday's Tailteann Cup opener against Fermanagh with fresh enthusiasm.
Captain Bambrick praised Murphy.
He said: 'You can see his enthusiasm, he was just itching to get into it. It's great to see that and it's great to have a Carlow man of the highest coaching standard coming in and taking us over. It's brilliant.
'You see managers going out to different counties and, yeah, they're passionate and they want to win. But it's a different level when you're from the county that you're coaching.
'It's the same if you've a club man taking over their club, you know they'd die for the jersey and die for a win.'
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Bambrick said it was difficult being plunged into a media storm just as they were preparing for the Championship. But he admitted he felt it coming as tensions brewed in the camp.
He said: 'It was building for a few weeks, it wasn't really out of the blue.
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"There was stuff building there, we were having conversations with the county board for a few weeks. It wasn't a surprise.
'As players we wanted to move on as quickly as we could and it was only when the statement came out from Shane that we felt we had to set things right as players.
'We never really wanted any of that. It's not what we wanted to be doing, talking to the media. We just wanted to be playing football so it is what it is.
'We've moved on now. That's all stuff in the past. We've moved on to a lot better things with Joe and the set-up we have now.'
Carlow were wiped out by half-time against Meath in their Leinster opener, trailing by 0-22 to 0-5. But they won the second half when they shot five two-pointers.
Bambrick is upbeat about what they can do in the Tailteann Cup, particularly on the back of five weeks of Murphy's guidance.
The versatile forward said: 'If you look at the individual match-ups from that game, you can say there wasn't a whole pile between a lot of them.
"They're a well-drilled team, physically they can compete with anyone in the country.
'But we would still feel that if we were to face them again, we could give them a rattle. That's the standard you want to get to.
'That's where we want to get to and those are the teams you want to play against.'
But this weekend's trip to Fermanagh is likely to be tough. Bambrick said: 'They're coming off a very competitive game against Down so they're probably in a better place.'
