Carlow captain Mikey Bambrick is ready to bury the hatchet on Shane Curran’s controversial departure, having praised new boss Joe Murphy.
Curran left in dramatic fashion mid-way through the season and on the eve of their Leinster SFC loss to Meath in March. He was in the position for just seven months.
The former Roscommon goalkeeper cited ‘player-related issues which he believed were beyond the scope of the management team’ for his decision to quit the club. Management also claimed several squad members failed to return home following an NFL game in London.
That sparked an angry response from Carlow players who said those claims were “unfair and misleading.” A joint statement also confirmed the players had been communicating their frustrations to management and the county board for many weeks.
However, ahead of their Tailteann Cup opener against Fermanagh on Sunday, Carlow’s captain says Murphy’s arrival has been a breath of fresh air around the place.
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.”
Reflecting on a tough period under Curran, Bambrick says the players have now moved on and are completely focused on the upcoming challenges on the pitch.
He added: “It was building for a few weeks, it wasn’t really out of the blue.
“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.”
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