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Carlow GAA thread

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Wicklow have pulled out of the hurling which makes a mess of the competition in that it's now 5 teams meaning one team has no game each week. Why Wicklow were invited I don't know. Surely with the help Kilkenny provide for Carlow hurling clubs one more of their clubs should have been invited along with Barrow Rangers. At least with kilkenny hurling, unlike Wicklow, you know they'll turn up and commit to it. One of the city clubs would surely have committed to it.

Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1686 - 31/10/2025 18:28:07    2642422

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Replying To ACarlowGael:  "Think it's the region with St Martins, Kildavin, Fenagh and Myshall in it that pulled out. They'd probably be relying on decent numbers from St. Martin's. It's U16 only as well so U15s can't take part. Some of those smaller clubs might only have 7/8 lads of that age.

Would it be better ran in April/May time? I appreciate you wouldn't have the U16 winners available or any U16s who are playing on county minor teams.

Just there might not be much appetite for lads in dark evenings with bad weather and soft pitches especially if they're playing soccer on a Saturday."
I don't think that timing would suit. I think Friday nights this time of year is ideal, weather being the only downside. No clash with other sports on Friday nights and it serves as a useful trial for next year's county minors.

Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1686 - 31/10/2025 18:33:37    2642423

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Replying To Onion Breath:  "I don't think that timing would suit. I think Friday nights this time of year is ideal, weather being the only downside. No clash with other sports on Friday nights and it serves as a useful trial for next year's county minors."
It's a waste of time. On the ground, there's very little interest in it. Widespread coverage of it last year, all over social media every week, but on the ground, the chaps didn't take it seriously. After the season, they have other priorities (school sports, soccer rugby), which are much more preferable than dreary fenagh in the rain and wind. I don't think exposing lads to 4 or 5 games like that every week will have any long term impact on Carlow football or hurling.

CW88 (Carlow) - Posts: 37 - 01/11/2025 16:34:53    2642520

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Not a good day in Leinster for Carlow football teams. All the talk about football improving in the county wasn't bourne out today. Grange absolutely hammered today & it's actually embarrassing. I know they were celebrating all week but to lose by that much is a joke. Just shows how poor the interimediate championship was. A 40 something man in John Murphy basically won that championship by himself which tells its own story. As for Old Leighlin they have never performed in Leinster & they did so again today. I would put my money on Eire Og, Pal or Rathvilly putting up a better fight tonight. They won their County title & fair pay to them but they never produce in Leinster & was close to men & boys tonight. Our County not in such a good a shape as some people think

carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 291 - 01/11/2025 19:44:18    2642547

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Replying To carlo:  "Not a good day in Leinster for Carlow football teams. All the talk about football improving in the county wasn't bourne out today. Grange absolutely hammered today & it's actually embarrassing. I know they were celebrating all week but to lose by that much is a joke. Just shows how poor the interimediate championship was. A 40 something man in John Murphy basically won that championship by himself which tells its own story. As for Old Leighlin they have never performed in Leinster & they did so again today. I would put my money on Eire Og, Pal or Rathvilly putting up a better fight tonight. They won their County title & fair pay to them but they never produce in Leinster & was close to men & boys tonight. Our County not in such a good a shape as some people think"
Watching that today shows why Carlow football is leagues behind others. The physicality from Port was head and shoulders above OL today. Whether it was naivity or lack of nouse from OL today, even when pushing with the extra man they didn't look like they could do anything.

Chatted to an umpire a few weeks ago at a game and commented on how the standard across the county really showed. Quite poor overall. Honestly there's only three teams in the county that can win outside of Carlow and that's Eire Og in football and then MLR and St. Mullins in hurling. Rathvilly couldn't give a toss after getting out of Carlow, 2021 being the shining example of that. Pal beat a poor Wicklow side and then utterly stuffed by Port as well.

Lot of self reflecting needs to be done within the county again as per.

CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 41 - 01/11/2025 20:32:40    2642556

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Replying To CarlowJuniorB:  "Watching that today shows why Carlow football is leagues behind others. The physicality from Port was head and shoulders above OL today. Whether it was naivity or lack of nouse from OL today, even when pushing with the extra man they didn't look like they could do anything.

Chatted to an umpire a few weeks ago at a game and commented on how the standard across the county really showed. Quite poor overall. Honestly there's only three teams in the county that can win outside of Carlow and that's Eire Og in football and then MLR and St. Mullins in hurling. Rathvilly couldn't give a toss after getting out of Carlow, 2021 being the shining example of that. Pal beat a poor Wicklow side and then utterly stuffed by Port as well.

Lot of self reflecting needs to be done within the county again as per."
Was there tonight. Most depressing aspect was how easy a club player from Port could get the better or our marque county players.
And hense there lies the problem with carlow football, there are no players that would make a division 2 team, and maybe not even a panel, too many one trick ponies.
Our senior club standard is average inter iat best in any div 1 or 2 counties.
Some or our hurlers are the top players in Leinster and respected throughout the country as so. Can we just get out and witness their class!
In relation to punching nationally with sport imo.. no.1- hurling, 2- ruggers, 3- soccer, 4- GA

Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 82 - 01/11/2025 21:27:24    2642560

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Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "Was there tonight. Most depressing aspect was how easy a club player from Port could get the better or our marque county players.
And hense there lies the problem with carlow football, there are no players that would make a division 2 team, and maybe not even a panel, too many one trick ponies.
Our senior club standard is average inter iat best in any div 1 or 2 counties.
Some or our hurlers are the top players in Leinster and respected throughout the country as so. Can we just get out and witness their class!
In relation to punching nationally with sport imo.. no.1- hurling, 2- ruggers, 3- soccer, 4- GA"
Our best hurlers wouldn't get near a KK,Tipp, Galway, Wexford,possibly Dublin team, never mind Limerick or Cork ,You're living on a different planet pal.

1884 (Carlow) - Posts: 12 - 01/11/2025 23:34:23    2642577

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Replying To 1884:  "Our best hurlers wouldn't get near a KK,Tipp, Galway, Wexford,possibly Dublin team, never mind Limerick or Cork ,You're living on a different planet pal."
Id say Keith Rossiter would find a place in the team for Chris Nolan and Mouse Kavanagh. Marty would definitely be more reliable on the frees than Lee Chin. Maybe James Doyle also.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17353 - 02/11/2025 10:16:11    2642600

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Replying To 1884:  "Our best hurlers wouldn't get near a KK,Tipp, Galway, Wexford,possibly Dublin team, never mind Limerick or Cork ,You're living on a different planet pal."
You clearly don't know much about hurling. Carlow drew with Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC last year. We play in the second tier, and won 2 drew 2 and lost 2 this year.Our leading club sides have been competitive in Leinster for twenty years now. Can't even remember the last hammering.

Marty Kavanagh and Chris Nolan would walk onto any team in the country. Probably half of our team would make the Wexford starting fifteen. Indeed, if we had Lee Chin and Kevin Foley we'd be challenging in Leinster.

Our problem In hurling is that while we have a lot of excellent players, we don't have enough depth. If we had either a) just two more clubs at the same level as MLR and St Mullins or b) another three or four at the Myshall/Ballinkillen/Bagenalstown standard we'd be in business.

CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 959 - 02/11/2025 10:40:55    2642607

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Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "Was there tonight. Most depressing aspect was how easy a club player from Port could get the better or our marque county players.
And hense there lies the problem with carlow football, there are no players that would make a division 2 team, and maybe not even a panel, too many one trick ponies.
Our senior club standard is average inter iat best in any div 1 or 2 counties.
Some or our hurlers are the top players in Leinster and respected throughout the country as so. Can we just get out and witness their class!
In relation to punching nationally with sport imo.. no.1- hurling, 2- ruggers, 3- soccer, 4- GA"
To be fair, saying Carlow football is below rugby and soccer isn't accurate. We have two mediocre junior rugby clubs in the county and not a single senior or intermediate soccer team. We also have no real presence at schools level in either code. As far as I know, Podge Amond is the only player from Carlow in the League of Ireland at present. If I am wrong on that, feel free to correct me. Those of us of a certain vintage would remember Pat Walker of O'Hanrahan's playing for Bohemians against Johnny Giles' Shamrock Rovers and Turlough O'Connor's Athlone Town.

Things aren't great, but let's not fall into hyperbole.

CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 959 - 02/11/2025 10:51:57    2642609

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Replying To CARPS:  "You clearly don't know much about hurling. Carlow drew with Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC last year. We play in the second tier, and won 2 drew 2 and lost 2 this year.Our leading club sides have been competitive in Leinster for twenty years now. Can't even remember the last hammering.

Marty Kavanagh and Chris Nolan would walk onto any team in the country. Probably half of our team would make the Wexford starting fifteen. Indeed, if we had Lee Chin and Kevin Foley we'd be challenging in Leinster.

Our problem In hurling is that while we have a lot of excellent players, we don't have enough depth. If we had either a) just two more clubs at the same level as MLR and St Mullins or b) another three or four at the Myshall/Ballinkillen/Bagenalstown standard we'd be in business."
I meant o say "we play in the second tier [of the league]."

CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 959 - 02/11/2025 11:12:13    2642616

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Replying To CARPS:  "You clearly don't know much about hurling. Carlow drew with Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC last year. We play in the second tier, and won 2 drew 2 and lost 2 this year.Our leading club sides have been competitive in Leinster for twenty years now. Can't even remember the last hammering.

Marty Kavanagh and Chris Nolan would walk onto any team in the country. Probably half of our team would make the Wexford starting fifteen. Indeed, if we had Lee Chin and Kevin Foley we'd be challenging in Leinster.

Our problem In hurling is that while we have a lot of excellent players, we don't have enough depth. If we had either a) just two more clubs at the same level as MLR and St Mullins or b) another three or four at the Myshall/Ballinkillen/Bagenalstown standard we'd be in business."
Carps the last time we played Wexford they pumped up 1-13 to 2-36. We struggled massively in the Joe Mc last year, I love hurling but let's chill with the hyperbole.

CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 41 - 02/11/2025 11:53:56    2642623

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Replying To CarlowJuniorB:  "Carps the last time we played Wexford they pumped up 1-13 to 2-36. We struggled massively in the Joe Mc last year, I love hurling but let's chill with the hyperbole."
a) We weren't' in the Joe Mac last year. We were in the Liam McCarthy.

b) you are cherry picking the Wexford game. In the same group, we drew with Kilkenny and lost to Dublin by only five.

c) In this years Joe Mac, we were robbed against Laois. Even Laois people admit that.

CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 959 - 02/11/2025 13:33:12    2642640

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Have to back up CARPs a bit here tbf. Firstly a poster saying none of our hurlers are good enough for certain other counties is either a wum or hasn't a clue about hurling. The other post saying we struggled in the joe mc last year! We lost 1 game by 6 points which was the only poor showing and possibly the only county to be eliminated losing only one game! I'm a supporter of both football and hurling in carlow but lads seriously it's difficult to read such nonsense aimed at our county hurlers, their ability and achievements.

Unusedsub (Carlow) - Posts: 132 - 02/11/2025 15:29:05    2642651

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Replying To CARPS:  "a) We weren't' in the Joe Mac last year. We were in the Liam McCarthy.

b) you are cherry picking the Wexford game. In the same group, we drew with Kilkenny and lost to Dublin by only five.

c) In this years Joe Mac, we were robbed against Laois. Even Laois people admit that."
By last year I mean the year just gone, bad phrasing on my part.

I'm not cherry picking the Wexford game. You said half our team would walk onto their panel. Kilkenny was a well got draw but against an odd kilter Kilkenny side. They had a bucket load of wides. We were very unlucky against Dublin to not get a result.

This year's Joe Mc campaign was a mixed bag. Robbed against laois yes but the Kildare match was a poor one.

Again, the hurlers are the much stronger of the two sides, it's stupid to just point at one over the other as a stick to beat the footballers with.

CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 41 - 02/11/2025 15:29:47    2642652

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Replying To CARPS:  "To be fair, saying Carlow football is below rugby and soccer isn't accurate. We have two mediocre junior rugby clubs in the county and not a single senior or intermediate soccer team. We also have no real presence at schools level in either code. As far as I know, Podge Amond is the only player from Carlow in the League of Ireland at present. If I am wrong on that, feel free to correct me. Those of us of a certain vintage would remember Pat Walker of O'Hanrahan's playing for Bohemians against Johnny Giles' Shamrock Rovers and Turlough O'Connor's Athlone Town.

Things aren't great, but let's not fall into hyperbole."
Not sure about that!
There's prob only 4/5 GA teams worse than ours, and we're prob lucky there's only 34 county teams, to keep us in the top 30. Brendan Murphy was the last marque player we produced that' would make top tier county teams..

Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 82 - 02/11/2025 17:01:18    2642666

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Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "Not sure about that!
There's prob only 4/5 GA teams worse than ours, and we're prob lucky there's only 34 county teams, to keep us in the top 30. Brendan Murphy was the last marque player we produced that' would make top tier county teams.."
Surely have a few lads played Sigerson?

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17353 - 02/11/2025 17:43:37    2642677

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Bad weekend for Carlow football. I'll give grange a pass as I'd imagine fatigue played a big part in that but also sallins are a serious side. I think their average winning margin in kildare was 12 points they literally strolled up to senior this time .

Old leighlin were poor enough last night but look they are a small club winning a championship was a serious achievement for them. Really the bigger clubs in the county need to take a look at themselves

The gap between the league and the championship is ridiculous if this doesn't change I can't see much improvement for football. I hear they are looking at going to a 10 team senior. I'd be for this on the basis that it gives an extra game. But realistically we don't have ten senior clubs we don't have 8 if we are honest

Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1731 - 02/11/2025 19:20:26    2642695

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People are forgetting Portarlington are a seriously strong team I feel like they arent getting enough credit here tbh they have won 5 in a row in Carlow - these generational teams come along and are just simply better than others like the EO team of a few years back - I do think OL wouldve struggled against any team as I have said before they are one of the weakest teams I have ever seen to win a champ but biggest heart but that wont cut it at this level either. The grange match was just men against boys Sallins could easily go and win an All Ireland i have been following the kildare champ and they are outrageously good - they will win leinster at least i can promise you that. I do agree though Carlow are underperforming and not up to standard but playing a seasoned winning team (port) and the best team in the province (sallins) is not a good indicator either really

In relation to the hurling Carlow 100% have 2 or 3 players who would start for almost every team in the country excluding a Limerick Cork Tipp. I do think Carlow have been on the end of a few bad beatings though in the hurling so no point trying to say otherwise. I say this alot but I really think we need to be more positive about our hurlers atm and realize we are in a freak golden age, Carlow hurling is going to fall off a cliff very soon so supporting our fellas and appreciating them is important while we are in the good times.

FearCeatharlach (Carlow) - Posts: 44 - 02/11/2025 22:27:30    2642729

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