“He changed his boots for Croke Park and that was his mistake”

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If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Paul Broderick knows that now. The Carlow corner forward has established himself as one of Gaelic football's sharpest shooters over the last year. With a left peg the rest of us can only dream of, the Tinryland star has been slotting the effortless points, both from frees and from open play that have played a huge part in the Carlow Rising. On the back of their historic victory over Kildare at the weekend, and with the Scallion Eaters now in preparation for a Leinster semi-final against Laois, their manager Turlough O'Brien was on Monday's GAA Hour Show to discuss the story of the summer so far. Indeed, that last four clash is guaranteed to have a bit of bite about it. Laois defeated Carlow twice in Division Four, including a feisty final and there won't be much love lost between the two teams. One guarantee going into the game, is that Carlow's free-taker Broderick will be wearing his tried and tested Asics boots. With his consistency from the boot a key part in this Carlow Rising, his errant shooting on League final day played was a telling blow for them. That, rather than Broderick being overawed by the occasion, was instead put down to a decision he made to change his boots for the game, according to O'Brien.

"It was something much simpler than that, he changed his boots for Croke Park and that was his mistake," said O'Brien.

Now we all know shooting is a fickle, confidence game. Even the smallest of doubts creeping into a player's mind can cause problems, and Broderick has since recovered from the minor blip by returning to the boots that served him well in the past. In that League final, he wore the most reliable, renowned boot in the GAA, in the famous Adidas Copa Mundials. It may seem ironic that these are the boots he'd found fault in, given they're the most widely respected in the GAA, but it just goes to prove that different strokes work for different folks. Indeed, Broderick himself has used these bad boys to good effect in the past, as this video of him slotting five 45s in 45 seconds shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9qGj6akPPs But he's a different man now, and up to that League final, he had been wearing Asics Lethal Speed Football boots. With the change not treating him kindly, he was back wearing his Asics on Sunday against Kildare, and back to his best too, scoring 11 points from 11 shots.

"We're back on track, he's back on track. He was immense again yesterday. I thought he gave an exhibition from play and from frees. He's a super footballer, a joy to watch. It's great to see players like him on a big day like that doing so well," said O'Brien. "Both Carlow and Laois have some very talented footballers, it's going to be a great battle."

Hear, hear. Paul Broderick will be going to battle in his Asics, that's for sure.