Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The negativity that exists is phenomenal and it’s due to the analysts, clowns that have never coached in their lives, it’s TRIPE POACHER HITS BACK AT THE CARLOW CRITICS CARLOW v LAOIS, TOMORROW, CROKE PK,
STEPHEN POACHER’S road to Carlow’s rising actually began in Manchester. The year was 1997.
“Ach, they were good days,” beamed Poacher, the man credited with the tactical masterplan that turned the Barrowsiders around and put them within 70 minutes of a first Leinster final since 1944.
“Oasis. Man Utd. A wonderful time to be alive. The Hacienda. Tiger Tiger. I could tell you some juicy stuff.”
Poacher was 19 when he moved from his home in Down to study in Manchester University and he quickly set up the college’s first
Gaelic
Football team.
“I went to the local bar and asked them that if we come in here on a Sunday, and drink on a Sunday, will you sponsor our kit,” he recalled.
“And I swear to God, three years later when I left, it was probably the most popular Irish student bar in the village.”
A couple of pristine pitches on university grounds was one legacy of the 1996 European Championships and, working with the likes of Tyrone’s Darren Mcelroy, Poacher’s coaching career was up and running.
A decade later, Poacher guided his own school, St Columban’s, to a Vocational Schools All-ireland, the smallest school to ever achieve that mark.
“That gave me the bug then to push on and get involved at club level,” he explained.
He met Turlough O’brien in 2016, when O’brien attended one of the school conferences Poacher ran at his school at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, and he agreed to take the Carlow footballers for some sessions.
Poacher had fallen out of love with elements running football in Down, and they with him. Two years on, he’s a fully fledged part of the O’brien revolution.
“I feel like a Carlow man,” he declared. “I maybe brought in a little bit of attritional Ulster warfare to the set-up. The lads have enjoyed that - a different culture, a different accent, personality at training. And I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Carlow hit the headlines last summer when they employed an ultra-defensive formation against Dublin.
Poacher and O’brien have been evolving the gameplan since then, while keeping the emphasis on a miserly defence.
This year they’ve earned promotion from Division Four and also Championship wins thus far this summer against Louth and Kildare (above).
“For me, you’re building a house,” Poacher said. “You have a strong foundation, build up.
“In any sport, you start with your defence, you get it sorted out and you build out.
“Formations evolve, teams change. Rugby’s exactly the same, hockey – why is Gaelic Football any different? I think the game’s better than ever. The ball’s in play a lot more, there’s more scores, players are in better condition, it’s faster.
“If everybody played the same way, it would be a very boring spectacle. Does it really matter?
“The negativity that exists around the game is phenomenal and it’s because the people that are doing the analysis are poor.
“We don’t have any real, decent, strong analytical views on the game. I look at Aidan O’rourke there and he’s started to write a few articles for RTÉ and they’re brilliant because he’s coming from a coach’s mind.
“You listen to some of the tripe that’s out there at the minute – clowns that have never coached the game in their lives, just sensationalist, craving attention.”