Carlow football manager Turlough O'Brien has said that the credit for his side's amazing season should lay at the feet of the players, not him or his backroom team.
Joining Off The Ball to discuss Carlow victory over Kildare at the weekend, O'Brien said that he feels too much praise is given to the management end of things these days, and that the players are the ones who deserve most of the credit.
"You have to give credit to the players really at the end of the day because it's the players who are going out there and performing. I think there's too much made of management and coaches, obviously you're a part of it but the credit has to go to the players. We just try to put the pieces together so that they can perform to their maximum".
O'Brien and his coach Steven Poacher have been given a huge amount of praise for the achievements Carlow have achieved this season, namely getting promoted out of Division Four and reaching the Leinster Championship Semi-Final. That's understandable considering the lack of success the county's footballers had recently before this management team took over, but O'Brien says that the talent was always in the county and they've simply given the player a bit more structure.
"There's too much emphasis made on managers and coaches when the players are the ones actually executing everything. The players are very experienced and they have a lot of input to this themselves".
"The fact that 10 of them have been there for 10 years now means that they're guys who are experienced and well conditioned, then I suppose we've put a few other strings to the bow over the last while by being a bit more tactically aware now and we've a very well polished gameplan, and we've a gameplan that suits our players".
While O'Brien continued to laud his squad for the work they've put in, he also mentioned the arrival of Poacher as a big part of the county's fortunes changing.
"Steven's arrival has been a real catalyst for us".
"He comes from a northern coaching background and you know football in Ulster is very tactical, and in some respects Carlow and some other small counties would be naive tactically. If you go to an Ulster Championship game you'll see what I mean, these guys are so well prepared and Steven's brought that too us and the lads have bought into it. They've relished it really, it's brought a new lease of life to lads that have been there for 10 years, that they're now preparing on the same level as the top teams from all over the country".
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