Carlow will be competitive, Turlough O’Brien tells ‘naysayers’

Turlough O’Brien won’t be looking to exchange bainisteoir bibs with Jim Gavin after full-time tomorrow evening, but there was a time when Dublin paraphernalia meant plenty to him.

“I’ve been a fan of Dublin, myself, all my life,” says the Carlow manager. “My father [Jim] was county secretary in the ’70s and ’80s. I was 13 years of age and I cycled to Athy to buy a Dublin outfit. That’s a fact. You wouldn’t do it now, but I did it. Bought the outfit and came home, proud as punch.”

O’Brien has taken in talks Gavin has given and watched how his team have dominated Gaelic football this decade. They are the known entity, but Carlow aren’t. No Division 4 team really is, he believes.