Pat Spillane is predicting that the Tailteann Cup will be "a huge success".

Carlow's surprise first round victory over Tipperary last Sunday has left Spillane in no doubt that all of the competing counties are taking the new second-tier football championship seriously.

"The Tailteann Cup is starting to be a huge success. It's going to be a huge success," the Kerry legend told the RTÉ GAA podcast.

"When I saw the Carlow players celebrating after that victory, I said 'that's it! That's brilliant'.

"Take Leitrim and Sligo, one of them is going to get into a Tailteann Cup semi-final. For one of them, it will be their fifth championship game of the year. Not alone that, but they'll be playing that fifth game of the championship in Croke Park and it will be live on RTÉ television.

"I've looked at the teams still in it. No-one has dropped out. They're committing, they're training hard, they've full-strength teams."

He continued: "Carlow, who were humiliated in the league - one victory against Waterford - who were humiliated in the Leinster championship. The easy option for Niall Carew and his players was to say, 'ah, feck this anyway...'

"They said, look, we'll give it a crack, this is our level. They trained hard, they had challenge games and they mightn't win another game but yesterday was their day in the sun. And I thought, 'this Tailteann Cup, it's good'."

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