Replying To CARPS:  "I am primarily a hurling man, but that's totally unfair. The reality is only maximum 20 counties (if even) take hurling seriously, but 31 give it a lash in football.

Thus, for the first time in many years, the footballers will be playing at a higher league level than the hurlers next year. They will be in the third tier of four, whereas hurlers will be in third tier of three (de facto).

You can be pro Carlow hurling without deluding yourself. Hurling in Carlow faces many challenges right now. Underage results have dropped off and MLR, Myshall and Mullins have all fallen back a bit at underage, whereas the rising teams (Burren and Carlow Town) are from football first areas where lads will be less likely to push on adults.

If the footballers were to stay up in Division Three next year, it could change a lot of things."

Replying To Viking66:  "Is the League more important than Championship?"

Replying To Viking66:  "Is the League more important than Championship?"

Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "It is for Carps as we got hammered in football when team got their best teams on the pitch, as you should do for championship.
Much more potential in Carlow for hurling but the board is controlled by footballers unfortunately.
Lets rank the two codes based on championship which is the real form, hurlers top 12, and fbailer top 30 based on the hoganstand 2026 rankings forum, https://hoganstand.com/Forum/Details/113649?Latest=1, only ahead of New York, London, Waterford.
That's the outside neutral view unfortunately."

Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "It is for Carps as we got hammered in football when team got their best teams on the pitch, as you should do for championship.
Much more potential in Carlow for hurling but the board is controlled by footballers unfortunately.
Lets rank the two codes based on championship which is the real form, hurlers top 12, and fbailer top 30 based on the hoganstand 2026 rankings forum, https://hoganstand.com/Forum/Details/113649?Latest=1, only ahead of New York, London, Waterford.
That's the outside neutral view unfortunately."

Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "It is for Carps as we got hammered in football when team got their best teams on the pitch, as you should do for championship.
Much more potential in Carlow for hurling but the board is controlled by footballers unfortunately.
Lets rank the two codes based on championship which is the real form, hurlers top 12, and fbailer top 30 based on the hoganstand 2026 rankings forum, https://hoganstand.com/Forum/Details/113649?Latest=1, only ahead of New York, London, Waterford.
That's the outside neutral view unfortunately."

Replying To CARPS:  "Those "rankings" are nonsense. Wicklow, who came third in Division Four, 16th best in the country? Come off it.

And the whole problem with this year's Tailteann was that Carlow didn't have their best team on the pitch. And the same applied to many others. You do realiise that not every county has fully bought into the Tailteann? There are real question marks over how well some prepare and how strong their panels are.

The fact is that the hurlers are something like 14th or 15th of roughly 20, on this years overall form, and the footballers are something like 25th or 26th of 31. But whereas there is a considerable gap between 10th and 20th in hurling (Wexford would destroy Donegal or Wicklow), there isn't a huge gap between 20th and 30th in football.

These are just the facts, sorry. I prefer hurling to football, but pretending they are exactly the same in terms of competitiveness is ridiculous.

I actually agree hurling has more potential in hurling, but there is no point in even talking about that when he have 20 football clubs and only 10 hurling. To realise that potential, you would need the likes of Eire Og, Rathvilly, Tullow and Palatine to become dual clubs, and you'd also need to see people in Clonmore, Grange, Tinryland etc picking up their hurls in some capacity.

If we had a full county hurling program, yes, we could possibly win a Leinster inside the next 20 or 30 years. But we don't, and it's not going to happen when there's not a single county hurler from Carlow town (which is half the population of the county).

I wish this were not true, but I am not going to live in La La Land, like some of the hurling folk in Carlow."