TEARS were shed when Steven Poacher met Turlough O’Brien to break the news to the Carlow manager that, after three action-packed years, his time with the Barrowsiders had come to an end.
With a new job at St Joseph’s High School, Newry, a role with Down minors and ever-increasing family commitments to occupy him, Ballyholland native Poacher decided that he could no longer commit to travelling 1,000-miles a week to pour heart and soul into the Leinster county.
“For three years I gave the county everything I had and that’s the truth,” said Poacher and you won’t find many in Carlow who will disagree.
In his first year alongside the tireless O’Brien, Poacher’s counter-attacking gameplan saw success-starved Carlow beat Wexford, London and Leitrim in the Championship and battle gamely against Dublin (in Leinster) and Monaghan (in the Qualifiers). In his second season (2018) Carlow clinched promotion to Division Three for the first time in 33 years and although the luckless Barrowsiders were relegated last season, Poacher originally intended to combine his involvement with Down minors with a fourth season at Carlow.
But when he added it all up, he decided the time was right to walk away.
“It was an emotional day on Saturday,” he said.
“It was a bolt out of the blue for Turlough but he said in the last couple of weeks he had maybe sniffed that I was angling this way.
“It was an emotional conversation in his kitchen, it was just me and him and there were tears shed to be honest. But I have made a friend for life in that man; he’s a phenomenal man and probably the only inter-county manager in the country who was doing the job for the right reasons. He wouldn’t even claim and expense, he does it because he’s a proud, passionate Carlow man who just loves his county.”
He added: “It’s time for me to step back for myself and my family. My wee girl has started secondary school and my wife Marie has been good enough to accommodate the time for me to drive 1000 miles a week for three years.
“That wasn’t an easy commitment but it was made easier by the fact that they are a fantastic bunch of lads to work with, they’re a fantastic group.
“When I weighed it up there was a whole load of little issues and for me to give my best to that group you need to be 100 per cent mentally and physically ready for that and I felt I wasn’t going to be.”
Poacher’s time with Carlow will be remembered for packed houses at Dr Cullen Park and grateful fans paid him generous tributes on social media after he’d announced his decision. For many, the Championship run in the summer of 2017 was the highlight of his stay.
“In 2017 we played five Championship games in the same season for the first time in 75 years and two of them were against Dublin and Monaghan, both live on Sky,” he recalled.
“That was massive for the county and it kick-started 2018 for us, we got promotion to Division Three that year.
“We had Monaghan beat at one stage and if we had had a bit more experience and a wee bit more strength-in-depth coming off the bench we could have beaten them. For 40 minutes we gave the Dubs a belly-full of it, there was only three points in it at that stage.
“Those days were fantastic for Carlow as a county; it gave the young people something to aspire to and a chance to see their heroes on TV.”
Always well-organised and hard to break down, Carlow’s style during Poacher’s time was often criticised, even lampooned, by some pundits but the Down native cut his cloth to suit. Without the same resources in men and finances to draw on, he came up with a gameplan that allowed the traditional minnows to punch above what many considered as their weight.
“If you have a gameplan, and it might not be the best gameplan in the world, but if every single player buys into it 100 per cent then you can make progress,” said Poacher.
“Everybody was singing off the same hymn sheet, we had a fantastic spirit on and off the field and that carried us through and got us some brilliant days, some fantastic days.
“Coming from Down, you’re judged on Ulster and All-Ireland titles, when I went to Carlow it was six or seven years since they’d won a game in Leinster. When you get that momentum and you get that bit of a buzz it’s fantastic because it continues and there’s a real feel good factor around the county which filters into the clubs.”
