Gaelic Games News round-up: Carlow football was left reeling yesterday after the resignation of manager Mick Condon, and his backroom team, just a month before their Leinster championship encounter with Longford.
Condon told county board chairman Eddie Byrne that the "unprofessional" approach taken by players before the match with Donegal last Sunday left with him no option but to walk away.
There were reports of excess drinking by several members of the panel the night before the match in Ballyshannon, which Carlow lost by 3-15 to 0-5.
Although disappointed with their actions, Condon told the players to discuss what they were willing to change before he made any final decision on his position. On Tuesday night up to 25 per cent of the panel were missing from the proposed meeting.
"That was the final straw," said Condon. "We gave the players freedom in Donegal but they took liberties and behaved in a very unprofessional manner. They showed a lack of discipline as well."
It's a backward step for football in the county, in fact Gaelic games in general as hurling manager Michael Walsh resigned last month, to be replaced by Eoin Garvey.
Condon had actively sought to raise the standards within the county this year by bringing in fitness trainer Eddie Jackman, who also resigned this week, from Waterford and even requested video equipment to analyse opposition in an attempt to bring a more modern approach to the set-up. However, the response from the players was not deemed adequate by the Kildare man's standards.
Despite a successful O'Byrne Cup campaign, which yielded a victory over Dublin before losing to Westmeath in the semi-final, they struggled in the latter part of the league. Their lowest point, before the Donegal debacle, was a home defeat to London last month.
Condon refused to be overly critical of the players he has nurtured for two years and even pointed to the loss of full back Brian Farrell and Willie Power, to injury, as mitigating factor for their poor form.
"I went in there last year and started from scratch," he said. "I don't know how much time I spent on the phone trying to get players down to train.
"A lot of this squad are from last year's under-21s, who were only beaten by a single point by Meath in the championship. I think this might bond the players in Carlow. I'm not jumping off a sinking ship, they are quite capable of beating Longford."
In the absence of a manager and his selectors, David Bambrick, Brian Dunne and Charlie Byrne, training will be taken by veteran player Johnny Nevin, while the county board met last night to discuss their future options.
