|
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." Is the League more important than Championship?
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20327 - 21/07/2026 21:23:04
2686537
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Viking66: "Is the League more important than Championship?" For Carlow footballers, yes, because we are not exactly in contention for Sam or Leinster. But for the hurlers, it's different because the current format is effectively two leagues, at lower grades.
Two different set ups.
CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 1134 - 22/07/2026 10:42:33
2686569
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Viking66: "Is the League more important than Championship?" 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.
Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 164 - 22/07/2026 12:23:21
2686588
Link
0
|
|
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." 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.
CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 1134 - 22/07/2026 14:17:01
2686608
Link
0
|
|
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." lol
Collio (Carlow) - Posts: 130 - 22/07/2026 15:15:06
2686618
Link
0
|
|
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." 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, 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) or Tullow involved in the senior panel.
I wish this were not true. But it is.
CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 1134 - 22/07/2026 16:18:36
2686631
Link
1
|
|
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." There's a fair gap between your hurlers and Donegal or Wicklows in fairness.
You made the Joe Mac final which would put you as 13th best team in hurling. And this year there wasnt much of a gap between yourselves, ourselves and Kildare. You wouldve been much closer to us than Wicklow or Donegal in hurling.
Your Footballers went well in div 4 of the League, but you still lost twice in it. The only group match your hurlers lost in Championship was when they fielded a second team in Antrim.
Carlow hurlers beat every other Joe Mac team in a Championship game this year.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20327 - 22/07/2026 16:55:55
2686636
Link
1
|
|
Replying To Viking66: "There's a fair gap between your hurlers and Donegal or Wicklows in fairness.
You made the Joe Mac final which would put you as 13th best team in hurling. And this year there wasnt much of a gap between yourselves, ourselves and Kildare. You wouldve been much closer to us than Wicklow or Donegal in hurling.
Your Footballers went well in div 4 of the League, but you still lost twice in it. The only group match your hurlers lost in Championship was when they fielded a second team in Antrim.
Carlow hurlers beat every other Joe Mac team in a Championship game this year." There's honestly still a massive gulf between Wexford and Kildare, no matter how the media spin Kildare being the next hurling giant to rise. It was laois a few years ago when they beat Dublin, it was us when we had a good campaign drawing with Kilkenny and it's Kildare now after winning the Joe Mc the year before and putting in some decent performances in Leinster. The level between the Joe Mc and Leinster alone is huge and a county bridging that gap like Offaly this year requires a lot of back ground work and financial backing. The last team to make the jump were Dublin, where 25 years ago they couldn't hurl snow off a ditch and within 10 years won a league, Leinster and incredibly unlucky to not make the final. It far outweighs anything their footballers achieved.
The difference in quality to the Joe Mc and Christy ring is nearly just as big. Derry will ship a few hammerings again. Hurling needs a huge boost as a whole unfortunately and it's not just a county board problem.
CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 199 - 22/07/2026 22:05:04
2686670
Link
0
|
|
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." Carps you are most def in La La Land. Maybe best you put your last post in the national football forum and see what the real footballing nation make of your logic…
I doubt Jim McGuinness or any donegal folk will argue they are ranked no 1 based on winning league..
They're view is that the season was a poor one based on their championship performances.
Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 164 - 23/07/2026 00:10:26
2686682
Link
0
|
|
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." Carps you are in La La Land.
Perhaps put your last post in the national forum and lets see how the neutral national footballing folk views your opinion on league v championship.
Doubt Donegal will argue they should be ranked no 1 in 2026 based on league success.
BTW I'm a football folk who spent good money following our limited but embarrassing championship games this year. At least the hurlers gave us some great days again this year, showed real pride in performances including final when nothing was going right for them.
Based on 2026 championship results what counties are you putting behind us to reach 26th?
Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 164 - 23/07/2026 10:24:27
2686703
Link
0
|
|
Replying To CarlowJuniorB: "There's honestly still a massive gulf between Wexford and Kildare, no matter how the media spin Kildare being the next hurling giant to rise. It was laois a few years ago when they beat Dublin, it was us when we had a good campaign drawing with Kilkenny and it's Kildare now after winning the Joe Mc the year before and putting in some decent performances in Leinster. The level between the Joe Mc and Leinster alone is huge and a county bridging that gap like Offaly this year requires a lot of back ground work and financial backing. The last team to make the jump were Dublin, where 25 years ago they couldn't hurl snow off a ditch and within 10 years won a league, Leinster and incredibly unlucky to not make the final. It far outweighs anything their footballers achieved.
The difference in quality to the Joe Mc and Christy ring is nearly just as big. Derry will ship a few hammerings again. Hurling needs a huge boost as a whole unfortunately and it's not just a county board problem." Agree 100%, hurling needs massive attention from the national governing body, not just at a county by county level.
As regards where we were this year we werent anywhere. I wouldnt say we were miles ahead of you, Laois or Kildare. We only pulled away in the closing minutes of the Kildare game because we had a bigger pool of players and therefore slightly better subs than they did. We lost every other game.
Its up to the players and new management to do do better next year. Which is well within their capabilities.
Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20327 - 23/07/2026 10:53:35
2686714
Link
0
|
|
Good weekend of football coming up. Four interesting games in Senior.
Rathvilly v Bagenalstown
Intrigued to see how Bagenalstown get on this evening, a tough start for them in the first two games but if they can run Rathvilly close then they'll believe they will have a part to play in this championship. They were effective enough with the ball against Eire Og but winning kick outs was a problem. Also conceded too many scoreable frees.
Didn't learn much from Rathvilly's performance against Grange. You'd imagine Conor Doyle will start tonight and they have plenty of firepower with Conor, Liam Gavin, Kevin Murphy, Peter Burgess, Padraig Bolger along with a strong bench which may be too much for Bagenalstown.
Old Leighlin v Palatine
Good game on paper and rematch from last year's semi final. Some felt Pal were a bit undercooked after sailing through their group last year. If Niall Roche is out, that would be a huge loss to OL and they'll be relying on the starting 15 to get them through whereas the impact off the bench for Pal may see them through. Mark Buggy seems to be a star for the future and really adds a significant threat when you add him into a forward line that includes Conor Crowley, Shane O'Neill, Jamie Kenny and Josh Egan.
Grange v Fenagh
Huge game in terms of the relegation battle. Loser will be in a bad spot afterwards. Fenagh probably showed a bit more last week than Grange did. They've some nice footballers with Cormac Lomax, Padraig Hynes, Ian Craddock and Jack Treacy. Grange still relying on the likes of John Murphy and Henry Hegarty for scores.
Eire Og v MLR
MLR will improve as the championship progresses as I suspect they've little football done at this stage. Kevin McDonald also didn't play any part last week. Eire Og should get confidence from last week's win especially after a poor start and should be extra motivated from the hurt from last year's championship exit to MLR. Lee Moore will probably track Chris Nolan and if he can keep him at bay, it's hard to see MLR getting enough on the scoreboard to trouble Eire Og.
ACarlowGael (Carlow) - Posts: 48 - 23/07/2026 12:21:14
2686732
Link
0
|
|
Replying To ACarlowGael: "Good weekend of football coming up. Four interesting games in Senior.
Rathvilly v Bagenalstown
Intrigued to see how Bagenalstown get on this evening, a tough start for them in the first two games but if they can run Rathvilly close then they'll believe they will have a part to play in this championship. They were effective enough with the ball against Eire Og but winning kick outs was a problem. Also conceded too many scoreable frees.
Didn't learn much from Rathvilly's performance against Grange. You'd imagine Conor Doyle will start tonight and they have plenty of firepower with Conor, Liam Gavin, Kevin Murphy, Peter Burgess, Padraig Bolger along with a strong bench which may be too much for Bagenalstown.
Old Leighlin v Palatine
Good game on paper and rematch from last year's semi final. Some felt Pal were a bit undercooked after sailing through their group last year. If Niall Roche is out, that would be a huge loss to OL and they'll be relying on the starting 15 to get them through whereas the impact off the bench for Pal may see them through. Mark Buggy seems to be a star for the future and really adds a significant threat when you add him into a forward line that includes Conor Crowley, Shane O'Neill, Jamie Kenny and Josh Egan.
Grange v Fenagh
Huge game in terms of the relegation battle. Loser will be in a bad spot afterwards. Fenagh probably showed a bit more last week than Grange did. They've some nice footballers with Cormac Lomax, Padraig Hynes, Ian Craddock and Jack Treacy. Grange still relying on the likes of John Murphy and Henry Hegarty for scores.
Eire Og v MLR
MLR will improve as the championship progresses as I suspect they've little football done at this stage. Kevin McDonald also didn't play any part last week. Eire Og should get confidence from last week's win especially after a poor start and should be extra motivated from the hurt from last year's championship exit to MLR. Lee Moore will probably track Chris Nolan and if he can keep him at bay, it's hard to see MLR getting enough on the scoreboard to trouble Eire Og." Fair summary there i wouldn't disagree with much of that.
I noticed Jack McCullagh was missing last week for Bagenalstown I'm not sure why as he has been hurling. For me he wasn't far off being the footballer of the year in Carlow last year but another like Chris Nolan for whom hurling is his main game. If he's back tonight and Rathvilly are in strolling mode like last week I'd give the town a shout but you're right about kickouts being a problem for them. Rathvilly have the best team in the county on paper but i don't trust them. Verdict: Another Draw between these two.
I can't imagine Niall Roche is fit for Ol and they'll hardly chance him anyway as they'll want him 100% for the knock out stages. Pal have too much firepower for them for me, and Buggy is a county senior star of the future and a big boost to Pal. The investment in underage set up is now really starting to bring dividends for them. Verdict: Pal by 5.
You're right about Fenagh and Grange. The latter are just too reliant on John Murphy and he seems to be carrying his leg more than last year and his shooting was a bit off last week. Can't see Grange winning this but it might be Fenagh's only win. Verdict: Fenagh by 4.
MLR will improve for last week alright but so will YIs especially when they bring in C Hulton and Adam McCarron. Verdict: EO by 6.
Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1880 - 23/07/2026 14:34:38
2686776
Link
0
|