Talking Points: What's rare is wonderful for Carlow at Croke Park

Plus Kerry's second-heaviest loss in Croke Park in their history.

Mon, 30 Mar, 2026 - 06:36

Carlow’s success underlines how hard – and rare - it often is for some counties to win in Croke Park

The contentment, satisfaction and pride was oozing out of Joe Murphy as soon as the final whistle blew after Carlow defeated Longford in the Division Four final in Croke Park on Saturday evening. It was still steaming out through Murphy’s pores in his post-match interview. “There’s no manager, if he wasn’t a Carlow man, that this could mean more to than it does to me,” said Murphy.

It wasn’t just the Carlow manager. The whole management were basking in that warm afterglow because they were so heavily emotionally invested in the victory. “It’s the one thing I really, really wanted to go with, a full Carlow management,” said Murphy. “Even down to the physio, the nutritionist and liaison officer. We’re all Carlow stock and now they can enjoy it as well and be proud of what they contributed.”

Murphy’s core message was how this success was built on identity, constructed entirely from within, and from the bottom up. It may have been an unintended reference but Murphy’s sentiments were still pointed towards the modern inter-county landscape where a lot of managements are loaded with outside backroom teams.

Much of that is down to the manager’s attitude towards recruitment and trying to assemble the best management package possible. Certain people with a particular area of expertise are often not from the county – or are not available - but that’s still largely another debate in relation to Murphy’s core emotion; success meant so much because national titles are so rare in Carlow.

Saturday was just the county’s third national title in their history; the Division Two NFL league title in 1934-’35, when Carlow beat Cork in the final by one point; the 1994 All-Ireland B, a side which Murphy was part of.

Saturday’s victory secured the first piece of silverware Carlow had won since the 2002 O’Byrne Cup. Carlow football’s biggest win was the 1944 Leinster senior title but the side were narrowly beaten in the All-Ireland final by Kerry.

Carlow are a different galaxy away from that world now but Saturday was still a new stratosphere because it was the first national football title the county had won in Croke Park.

It was the first game Carlow had won at Headquarters since 1971. Back then, they beat Wicklow in a league game played as a curtain-raiser for Wicklow’s All-Ireland Junior hurling final win against Hertfordshire, with Wicklow having already beaten Roscommon in the ‘home’ final.

When Carlow’s flagship team was Junior in the early part of the last century, Carlow won Leinster Junior titles on Jones’ Road in 1913 and 1923. Prior to Saturday though, Carlow had only won four senior football games in their entire history in Croke Park; the 1941 Leinster semi-final third replay, against Wexford; 1953-’54 NFL semi-final v Armagh; 1961-’62 NFL playoff against Cork; 1971 game v Wicklow.

Carlow had two chances to win there in 2018 when they secured promotion from Division Four for the first time in 33 years, under Turlough O’Brien, and then beat Kildare in a sensational performance to qualify for the Leinster semi-final. However, Laois beat them in the Division Four final, and in that provincial semi-final.

It's rare that a county would only win five games in Croke Park in their entire history – especially a Leinster side – but it’s often taken for granted by the bigger teams how hard it is for some counties to have a day in the sun in Croke Park.

That history is often so unique that threads invariably connect that history together. When Carlow previously won their only league title 91 years ago, Tom ‘Drakes’ Walker was playing. On Saturday night Drakes’ grandson, Lee Walker featured for Carlow. That 1934-’35 team were awarded medals but there was an asterisk beside that title as the northern winners (the league back comprised northern, southern, eastern and western divisions) did not contest the knockout stages.

There was no asterisk around this title though. Pure, unadulterated joy.

Kerry’s suffer second heaviest defeat at Croke Park

Just after Shane O’Donnell’s opening goal for Donegal yesterday, Keith Evans kicked a long ball into David Clifford, but it was immediately cut out by the outstanding Caolan McColgan. Kerry were seeking an immediate response to that strike but within a couple of minutes, Donegal had chinned Kerry with two more goals. And knocked them out cold.

By that stage, Kerry were looking at the biggest Division One league final beatdown in history. Kerry made sure that it wasn’t but Donegal still went on to record the highest scoring total (29 points) in league final history.

As the last quarter got underway, Kerry were looking at possibly posting their lowest score in Croke Park since the 2015 All-Ireland final. They finally got the scoreboard moving, scoring more in that fourth quarter (1-6) than they had in the three previous quarters.

Finishing with 2-10 was somewhat respectable but Kerry had to summon something to protect themselves from total embarrassment. Still, this was humiliation when it comes to Kerry in Croke Park.

In the last decade, Kerry had hit less than 16 points (2-10) on six occasions at Headquarters. Four of those had been championship matches but two were narrow wins and two were narrow defeats.

However, the two league games that Kerry had bombed in at Croke Park in the last decade – 2016 league final against Dublin, and 2018 regular round against Dublin – were lost by margins of 11 and 12 points. Yesterday though, Kerry lost by 13 points.

After the 15-point hammering from Meath in the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final, this was Kerry’s second heaviest loss in Croke Park in their history. Donegal were outstanding but a defeat of that magnitude is never acceptable in the Kingdom. Especially on Jones’ Road.

Heroic Wexford just fall short

With just eight minutes remaining in Croke Park on Saturday evening, Wexford looked set to cause a huge shock. They had Down penned to the canvas after pummelling them over the previous 25 minutes. Wexford could have been out of sight if a Mark Rossiter fisted attempt hadn’t hit the butt of the post.

And yet the most incredible aspect of Wexford’s display up to that point was that they had only turned over the ball in possession just twice in over an hour. Down had backed off Wexford because they didn’t want to concede 2-pointers (Wexford had raised 24 orange flags coming into the match), and especially long-range frees to goalkeeper Darragh Brooks.

Still, Wexford’s ball retention, especially under heat in possession from Down, was exemplary. When Down finally began to push up though, and apply more heat on Wexford in possession, they finally got at their opponents.

Of Wexford’s eight turnovers in the first 62 minutes, six had been from shots dropped short or a spilled possession in an attacking position. In the last 28 minutes though, including extra-time, Wexford were turned over in possession nine times. And Down really cashed in on that spilled ball.

Wexford were out on their feet by then but they were heroic throughout. They had to be when more than just a national title was up for grabs - Sam Maguire football was also on the line. There wasn’t any green flags raised but 10 goal chances and a host of last-ditch goal-line defending further underlined just how crazy and hectic the match was.

And Down eventually just managed the chaos better.