Turlough O’Brien is hoping Carlow football will benefit long-term from this year’s high profile Championship run, but fears that the new All-Ireland football structures won’t help weaker counties.
In 2017 Carlow played an unprecedented five Championship games, beating Wexford, London and Leitrim and only losing twice to Division 1 opposition in the form of Dublin and Monaghan.
That makes O’Brien one of the most successful managers in the county’s history and he believes this summer will have a positive knock-on effect for years to come.
"We had a great summer, it lifted everyone’s spirits in Carlow and there’s a massive interest in Carlow football, an uplift all around," he said, speaking to RTÉ Sport.
"We have players who want to come in and join the panel, increased attendances at club games, big increases at Cúl Camps and increased interest all round. The panel of players we have are anxious to get back and get focused on preparing for the League.
"The support we had at games this year was phenomenal and they really were the 16th man for us. It’s something we haven’t experienced for a long time in Carlow and everyone is talking about the League.
"I was talking to a woman from the south of the county, a hurling woman, and she couldn't wait for the League to start - the football league! So that’s what we’re hearing around Carlow now.
"I do believe Carlow should be far higher up the rankings - we saw against Dublin and Monaghan that they could survive maybe in Division 2."
"The League table doesn’t lie and we’re in Division 4 so that’s our real position. Do we believe that we can be better? Yes. We had a glimpse of it this year that we can be much higher.
"Every team in Division 4 is going to be forewarned about Carlow so they’ll all be warned about us, making it a battle to win every game. If we want to progress, it’s up to ourselves and we can’t afford any of the slip-ups we had this year.
"We’ll be looking to improve on the things we struggled on this year and strength in depth might have been an issue this year and we hope to have a stronger panel next year.
"We’ll see where it takes us, but I do believe Carlow should be far higher up the rankings - we saw against Dublin and Monaghan that they could survive maybe in Division 2, definitely in Division 3."
In 2018 the early stages of the Championship will remain unchanged, though GAA Annual Congress in February introduced a new Super 8 round - two groups of four teams with each county playing three games - in place of the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
O’Brien doesn’t think this will be of much benefit to weaker counties: "We won’t know until it’s up and running, but my gut feeling is that it won’t be good for football or the weaker counties.
"It will favour the stronger counties - when you come to that Super 8 stage there will be three games in three weeks and that will favour the county with greater strength in depth. Teams working with shallower pools of players might struggle with injuries in those second and third games.
"On the plus side, you’re going to get a home game against one of the stronger teams and that’s a good promotional tool."
