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Replying To Viking66: "Have you an influx of Dubs? They usually say "wallsh"" Well, for years now we have had an influx from all over, mainly dubs, all trying to improve their pronunciations. No spinoff on the hurling of football fronts as yet, but hopefully, that will come.
Freethinker (Wicklow) - Posts: 2005 - 12/01/2026 13:12:46
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Replying To Carlowrising: "Great performance from the lads yesterday, dominated most the game and it was brilliant to see us starting fast building an early lead. Laois might not have had their best side out but you can only beat what's put in front of you - so good to finally shake off the 23-year hoodoo with a win over our noisy neighbours.
Hulton and Conor Doyle were excellent again they will be huge players for us this season. Amongst the new comers both Tadgh Roche and Pádraig Bolger have impressed. Next Fridays game should be a good opportunity to get more game time for the likes of Mikey Bambrick, John Murphy, Niall Hickey, Niall Roche and Aaron Amond.
The Wicklow game sets the tone for the season ahead, firmly identifying them as our main rivals in 2026, with three crucial derby clashes against The Garden county on the horizon. Next Friday presents our first opportunity to win silverware since 2002. The league encounter will be pivotal in determining promotion, while the Championship meeting offers a chance to secure our first Championship victory since 2018. Wicklow also provide the ideal benchmark, as both sides will rightly fancy their chances of promotion from div 4.
After putting an end to some long standing negative streaks with wins over Wexford and Laois, Carlow now have the opportunity to win 3 games in a row for the first time in 8 years (2018 National League - 6 consecutive wins). These might sound like small wins but they are exactly what we need to turn the tide of Carlow football slowly but surely. If we could beat Wicklow 2 out of 3 times this year I believe it will lead to a successful season overall.
As much as it would be magnificent to lift the O'Byrne Shield, the priority for Carlow footballers is very much the league. After 3 games in 8 days and now another big one Friday, I just hope we haven't over leveraged ourselves before the league. A prime example of this being Longford winning back to back O'byrne cups under Paddy Christie in 2023 and 2024 only to be relegated in div 3 of the league in 2023 and finish midtable in div 4 in 2024.
Antrim Watch: From the outside looking in, our preparations for our opening league game v Antrim look to be going well in comparison to theirs. The Saffrons are now off the back of two heavy losses albeit to top opposition. Most notably they are struggling In the scoring stakes, in the 2nd half v Derry they scored zero, just 3pts in the 1st half v Donegal and 4pts in the 2nd half. Meanwhile, We are starting to score more freely with 1-8 in the 2nd half v Wex, 1-8 in the first half V Laois and 1-7 in the 2nd half.
In Joe we trust." Well done on winning at the weekend, no complaints Carlow deserved the win the other day in Rathvilly. Laois were missing about 10 maybe 11 starters as McNulty prioritized playing Cavan the following day and rightly so.
Mainly because The O'Byrne Cup is basically a glorified friendly competition and absolutely nothing should be read into it from Dublin to Carlow to Meath to Laois.
Joe Murphy is a very good manager and I've no doubt he can achieve something with Carlow in the coming years. But as a county, you've an awful habit of getting carried away on the back of a win here and there.
Best of luck for the year anyhow, it would be good to see Carlow back in Division 3.
Gonzalez (Laois) - Posts: 18 - 12/01/2026 14:44:12
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