‘It happened exactly as we thought it would’
HOW the county final unfolded came as no surprise to Paul Carley. He expected Carnew to come out all guns blazing in the opening half and he expected the game to open up and for this lethal attack to put them to the sword.
‘It happened exactly as we thought it would,’ he said after the game in Aughrim. ‘I just knew Carnew would come at us for the first 20 minutes to half an hour. We just needed to suck it up and stay at it and stay disciplined and that’s what we did. The thing is, you just can’t keep that work-rate up for 60 minutes. The game opened up for us in the second half when they looked to get tired. We spoke about this for the last two weeks. It was the very same going in against Pat’s, we just needed to stay in the game and then...
‘I think a lot of teams try to come and be physical with us rather than try and hurl us. I just don’t think that works. I just don’t understand why it is in Wicklow that you have to try and physically mark your player rather than hurl.
‘I came here three years ago now, and last year we had an allout brawl at the end of a match and I just said, ‘look, lads. If that happens again, I’m not here’. In my opinion it’s hurling. You can be physical - and it’s controlled aggression that wins matches – but if you go out focused on physically beating up a team, you’re not focused on hurling. And teams are coming at us like that, and that’s fine. If that’s the way they’re going to try beat us, that’s fine. We just stick to hurling and try to stay disciplined.
‘They had a purple patch for about 15 minutes at the end of the first half. In that purple patch they got a goal. Their purple patch was that they turned us over and different things but they didn’t punish us (on the scoreboard). They were focused on stopping us rather than doing the hurling themselves. We just kept hurling and, in the end, it just opened up for us,’ he added.
John Henderson was left free for most of the afternoon due to Carnew setting up to protect their goal and keep the Bray score down. Paul Carley says that the last man he would leave loose if he were on the opposing team would be John Henderson.
‘That was their doing. We knew that they were going to try and play defensively and we had organised that certain fellas go with certain fellas and we’d try and get John loose. If I was on the other team, the last lad I’d be leaving loose would be John Henderson. But then, in fairness, they marked him in the second half and the other lads were comfortable. Daire (Henderson) came into the game, Seanie Maloney came into it. Our lads are comfortable playing that sweeper position, but it was enforced on us and we just said we’d go with it.
‘It does (suit Bray) because our lads use the ball very well. They get the head up and use it. There were times when they were under pressure to use it but that’s what we try to do, use it and try to work a score rather than hit the ball away,’ he said.
Bray’s bench was another major factor in the win. When you can onload Eoin McCromack and Shane Lohan in the second half of big games you are at a significant advantage.
‘It is (a strong bench), and, look, even today from last year you don’t have Peter Walsh, Cian Lohan, Conor McNally, Ronan McMahon, four of them started in the county final last year and three of them are coming back from injury and Ronan is injured. There’s still more to come from the lads. It’s just case of keeping the hunger and keeping the appetite.
‘If we talk about the rugby squad it’s all about finishers. And there are times in games where you need an injection into the team. Against Pat’s he (Eoin McCormack) did that for us. Today, we were ahead but he still came on and won brilliant ball. It’s good to have that luxury but you don’t have it unless lads work hard.
Bray full-back Karl Lacey missed the county final due to suspension having been sent off in the semi-final victory over St Pat’s. Carley says he told his players that they owned him something given how excellent he has been for them over the last number of years.
‘We spoke about Karl (Lacey) the other night in training. Karl has been immense for us the last two years. If I said to Karl to sit on the corner flag, he would do that. It’s a shame for him to miss it but you have to take your punishment and that’s it. I just said to the lads, for two years he’s been brilliant and we owe him something,’ he said.