The Faithful County put there differences behind them on Wednesday night to win the Walsh Shield title, running out 12-point winners over Carlow in a poorly-attended final.

Explaining that 'off the pitch' matters played no role in his side's victory, Carroll said: "I don't think that had any bearing on it being honest.

"Every game you go out you want to win. I don't think what has gone on over the last couple of days has anything to do with it really."

Carroll, who scored four points from corner forward, admits that it is not difficult for the Offaly panel to keep focused at present.

"Not at all, what goes on outside of the hurling field has nothing to do with this at the moment. We'll just concentrate on hurling. That is what we want to do and that's the way we'll continue."

There has been little discussion in training about the row over training access, according to the 28-year-old.

"Not a word, not a word. We are just...what happened happened, you know, and we are just going to move on and that is the way it is.

"This is the run of the mill in the GAA. It has nothing to do with us, the players are just here to play. That is all left aside, we are here to play."

When asked if he was giving Dooley and the management his full support, he said: "Sure of course Joe has our full backing. He is manager of the team, of course."

Carroll has been struggling with an ankle injury of late which he aggravated in the Walsh Shield final win.

However, the Coolderry clubman is hopeful that he will be fit to face either Laois or Cork in the qualifier clash tomorrow week.

"We will come to Portlaoise on Saturday (to watch Laois and Cork). It will be some food for thought.

"Laois themselves are a proud hurling county and everybody is writing them off, so they aren't going to come here and lie down on their own home patch to Cork."

He added: "For our point of view, It is always nice to win a bit of silverware, but I suppose the most important thing for a few of us is that we got 70 minutes (of action).

"We needed that out there, with a few of us carrying ankle injuries. I suppose we are just glad to get 70 minutes under our belts more than anything else and it was a good competitive game there for most of it in fairness.

"It was much better than a challenge game, because challenge games tend to peter out. There's a load of subs which would start to come on towards the end of a match.

"At least just five subs could come on and there's a competitive edge to it, and it was much better in fairness."

Carroll was delighted to see Brendan Murphy hurling again in an Offaly jersey. The Ballyskenagh clubman is a trainee doctor at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise and work commitments have ruled him out of Offaly's Championship campaign.

But he was introduced as a substitute in the fourth quarter against Carlow and contributed a point to the Offaly tally, and Joe Brady, who has been batting a troublesome hip injury, also made an impact.

"It was great to have Brendan and Joe Brady back. Joe caused a lot of havoc in the last 10 minutes.

"The more players we have, the better it is for everyone. We have a small hurling base as everyone knows in Offaly and at the end of the day we need everyone that is fit and available to hurl for us."