IT feels fitting that Joe Carroll was in the middle of a training session when he got the phone call to say he will be the next Cork ladies’ senior football manager. He lives and breathes the game. A journey that started when he coached teams at Boherbue Comprehensive School now moves to the highest level.
‘It wasn’t a bad call to get,’ the Rockchapel native quips, his mind jumping back to that October week night when his UCC ladies team were training on the astro pitch in Bishopstown.
He knew that there was a meeting the same night to discuss the Cork role, so he was expecting movement.
Cork development officer Lisa Walsh delivered the good news: Carroll is the man tasked with resurrecting the Rebels following a few difficult seasons.
The serial winners, who racked up 11 All-Ireland titles in 12 seasons, haven’t won the Brendan Martin Cup since 2016, and have lost two finals since (2018 and ’20). After last year’s dismal Division 1 league campaign that ended in relegation, Cork will campaign in Division 2 this season. For a county that became accustomed to success, these are lean times, so Carroll knows the size of the job ahead.
‘We need to keep our feet on the ground and realise we are in Division 2,’ Carroll says.
‘Cork got to the All-Ireland semi-final last year and were beaten by Galway who were then well beaten by Kerry. If you are to measure it off last year, and Kerry being the best, Cork are off that right now so we have a lot of work to do.
‘We’ll go game by game in the league and let’s see where that takes us.’
Carroll’s reign as Cork manager kicks off with a home Division 2 clash against Westmeath on Sunday, January 26th, and the immediate mission is not impossible: win promotion back to the top division at the first attempt. Games against Galway (away), Tipperary (away), Monaghan (away), Roscommon (home), Clare (home) and Donegal (away) all follow, and this campaign is an opportunity for a young Cork team to make winning a habit, while Carroll builds a panel for what’s to come; he is working with a big squad right now but that will be trimmed in the weeks ahead. He also knows that the league campaign could act as a springboard for the Munster and All-Ireland championships that will follow.
‘Our target will be to get up to Division 1 straightaway and that we get properly prepared for the Munster championship campaign. We won’t be playing the likes of Kerry and Dublin in the league, but we will have Galway who were in last year’s All-Ireland final,’ Carroll says.
‘Maybe it will be a benefit in one way that we are in Division 2 because it’s an opportunity, if we get it right, to get a few wins under our belt, but we know too how difficult it will be.
‘A winning mentality will be important, and that’s where we can lean on the experienced players who backbone the squad.’
Castlehaven's James McCarthy is the lead coach with the Cork ladies footballers.
There is experience in Carroll’s impressive backroom team, too, which he feels can be the difference-maker in the year ahead. From Castlehaven’s hugely successful James McCarthy to ten-time Cork All-Ireland winner Valerie Mulcahy, Carroll looks to have all the bases covered – and this matters to him. Before he became an option in the search for Shane Ronayne’s successor, Carroll wanted all the pieces of his management jigsaw in place.
‘I had an inclination that I would go for the job, but if I didn’t get the right management team I wouldn’t have let my name go forward,’ he says.
‘To get the people involved that I have is a massive boost because you just can’t handle everything on your own at the level; the work has to be allocated out to different people.’
James McCarthy would be at the top of any manager’s wish-list, Carroll insists. Anne O’Grady (Bantry Blues) and Tadhg Buckley (Kilshannig) have both worked with Carroll before, and joined as selectors, as did former county-winning West Cork ladies manager Brian McCarthy (Clann na nGael). Brian Boyle (Douglas) has come on board as goalkeeping coach. Ann Walsh as FLO. The Cork boss views Fionn O’Shea (performance coach) and Paul Cronin (strength and conditioning) as shrewd additions, as is Valerie Mulcahy as a selector.
‘Valerie’s knowledge and experience will be huge, to our forward line in particular. She was a great free-taker herself and will be a huge help to our free-takers. When we approach big games, her experience will be important too because she has been there and done it all; she will have the advice that we need,’ Carroll says, and while he will delegate to his management team, his own CV suggests this is the right time for this challenge.
He’s been involved with UCC’s and Éire Óg’s ladies football teams, and previously managed the Cork minor ladies to an All-Ireland title in 2022 so he has already worked with many of the current senior squad. The stars have aligned to create this opportunity, and he is following in some very notable footsteps.
‘A little fact,’ he says, ‘I am the second manager of the Cork senior ladies team to come out of Rockchapel. The first was Mary Collins, who brought in Eamonn Ryan as coach for the Cork senior team and look at the success that they had.’
An encouraging omen, maybe, for a man who was born, bred and played in Rockchapel, and won a county intermediate in 1989 as captain before work as a teacher eventually took him to Macroom when he has made an impact, too. Between training Macroom teams from underage to adult, and even serving as club chairman, Carroll has a shoulder-to-the-wheel attitude he hopes can spark a Rebels’ revival. It won’t be straightforward. Expect bumps on the roads as Cork battle to put their name back into the mix for the big titles, but Carroll’s appetite for football is infectious, like it was at the start.
‘It was in Boherbue Comprehensive School that I got involved first, there was no team there so we started a team and it developed from there. We had a lot of success in Boherbue, winning All-Irelands with boys and girls teams. From there, it was a love of the game. It was immaterial to me whether it was boys’ or girls’ teams, what mattered the most was they wanted to play football,’ Carroll explains, and now he has the best ladies’ footballers in the county who want to play football too. Time to get to work.
