Carlow boss quits after players miss training

CARLOW football manager Mick Condon and his selection team yesterday tendered their resignations, following the absence of a quarter of the panel from Tuesday night’s training session.

The low attendance follows the serious indiscipline that marked Carlow's last league trip of the season, away to Donegal on Sunday.

The Leinster men stayed in Bundoran's Holyrood Hotel the night before and a number of players were seen in the hotel's night club until the early hours of Sunday morning. Condon, who led Carlow to a shock O'Byrne Cup victory over Dublin in January, described the number of absentees at Tuesday's training session as "the final straw".

His resignation, with their Leinster championship opener against Longford only a month away, has thrown Carlow into crisis.

"The shenanigans that went on last Saturday night was bad preparation for playing one of the top teams in the country.

"When you are playing the likes of Donegal, you can't be staying out late. They showed no respect for the jersey in doing that," Condon said.

"That is not the commitment they should show playing for Carlow.

"It has been a difficult time for me. I have been very successful with every team I have been involved with and then to get involved with a county team and you are pleading with the players to give the right commitment. It is not a good situation. Nobody wants to get involved."

His selectors, David Bambrick, Brian Dunne, Charlie Byrne and trainer Eddie Jackman have also all stepped down, leaving the Carlow County board with the daunting task of finding a replacement, just a month before the first championship game of their summer.

It was Condon's second year as Carlow manager, and it was a season that has started so promisingly with that O'Byrne Cup win over Dublin and beating Monaghan early in the league, before running both Roscommon and Offaly close in subsequent games.

Ironically, Condon had this year seen the county board respond favourably to his requests for improved facilities video analysis of each match and his own choice of team trainer only for the players to let him down.