Longford captain hails 'great buy-in': 'It creates a good buzz when you have all the best players in the county available'

As Longford captain Barry O’Farrell gripped the O’Byrne Cup after his team’s outstanding performance in last Saturday’s final, the Carrickedmond man was in jovial spirits as he described how he came to be named as captain for the day, and thus put in place to become the fourth Longford man ever to lift this trophy, following on from Brendan Barden (1965), vice captain Cathal Conefrey (2000) - captain Enda Barden was sent off during the game precluding him from accepting the trophy, and Michael Quinn (2020).

“I only found out last night that I was captain today so I nearly didn’t get a wink of sleep last night,” he says, presumably in jest.

After all, it would be impossible to reconcile the tireless performance O’Farrell produced with the idea that he would have been exhausted taking to the field!

“Ah no, it’s great,” he confirms.

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“There’s not too many players who have captained Longford to a trophy so it’s a great privilege. Being from Carrickedmond, there are not too many of our club men who have captained Longford before, so it’s great for the club as well.”

As he accepted the trophy from Laois GAA official Martin Byrne who is the new Leinster GAA vice-chairperson, Barry spoke about the O’Byrne Cup being a worthwhile competition and he thanked his squad for the massive effort they had put in.

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He also poignantly expressed sympathy to County Board Chairperson Albert Cooney on the death of his mother, Loretto, during the week.

While the status of the O’Bryne Cup has been put under immense scrutiny this year following the decisions of Louth, Carlow, Kildare and Offaly to give walkovers at various stages of the competition, O’Farrell feels that the games that Longford have played will put the county in good stead as they prepare to try and push themselves into the promotion mix over the next couple of months.

“It was fairly tight out there, it was only for the goals; they separated the sides at the end,” he observed.

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“Louth are in Division Two and they will be pushing hard there so it’s a good test to get before next week. Fermanagh away is a tough one to start off with, so those games against the likes of Meath and Laois are good. They are experienced sides, and if we’re looking to progress throughout the League and perform as well as we can, then we have to learn from those games and be better for having played them.”

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The positivity continued as O’Farrell outlined how the new management setup has made a wonderful first impression with the players, as well as pleasing supporters by delivering this particular piece of silverware to launch the 2023 campaign in the best possible way.

“There’s been a great group there the last few months,” O’Farrell said.

“Danny Doherty was there with us last year doing a bit of strength and conditioning. We were back a bit earlier on that side of things, so we could concentrate on a bit more football when we were allowed back on the pitch.

"We have a load of lads back there (in the dressing room) that are working hard and who could easily play a big role. I think there was a panel of 40 or 45 before the start of the year and nobody has dropped off.

“There’s a great buy-in, and it creates a good buzz around the place when you have all the best players in the county available.”