Carlow hurling has given us some unbelievable days in the last 20 years. I'll never forget beating Wexford in leinster minor Q/t final in 2006 & Offaly in semi. Winning back to back Christy ring cups in 2008 & 2009 Christy ring again in 2017 Joe Mac against Westmeath in 2018 Drawing with Galway in league in 2019 Beating Offaly in relegation final in 2019 Beating Offaly in Joe Mac final in 2023 Drawing with Kilkenny in Leinster Championship in 2024 Beating Waterford in league in 2025 I was lucky to be at all of the above & them lads have given us unreal service. I'm not here to write them off as I firmly believe if we get all our players fit & out on duty we will give the Joe Mac as massive cut this year. But but eventually all good things come to an end & we are not producing the same calibre of player to replace these lads so when they gone we will realise how good we had it for a time. Heads up lads & give the Joe Mac an almighty push. You owe us nothing
carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 315 - 08/03/2026 21:49:49
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I mentioned how bad days were ahead for Carlow hurlers last year to which I recieved a bit of hate and people saying lets revisit this in a few months and that I would be wrong - well here we are. As I said at the time it shouldnt be viewed terribly negatively as we should be so grateful for how good our team was and how much it punched above its weight. We were blessed with a golden generation but much like any county its cyclical and rebuilds happen.
I just think at inter county level to achieve what we have achieved with the playing population and tiny number of successful clubs of recent has been excellent.
A lot of backlash this year for hurlers and management which can also be put down to the fact we have set ourselves a high ceiling and expect better but thats because we have been so good. I know its a harsh reality but we are blooding in new lads and dont have the same quality that we once did so obviously results and performances will suffer and continue to suffer. Just think we should acknowledge that and realize bad days are ahead thats not being pessimistic just realistic.
I would have been alot more and am alot more critical of the footballers than the hurlers as the hurling has been and is quite literally David and Goliath stuff
Replying To FearCeatharlach: "I mentioned how bad days were ahead for Carlow hurlers last year to which I recieved a bit of hate and people saying lets revisit this in a few months and that I would be wrong - well here we are. As I said at the time it shouldnt be viewed terribly negatively as we should be so grateful for how good our team was and how much it punched above its weight. We were blessed with a golden generation but much like any county its cyclical and rebuilds happen.
I just think at inter county level to achieve what we have achieved with the playing population and tiny number of successful clubs of recent has been excellent.
A lot of backlash this year for hurlers and management which can also be put down to the fact we have set ourselves a high ceiling and expect better but thats because we have been so good. I know its a harsh reality but we are blooding in new lads and dont have the same quality that we once did so obviously results and performances will suffer and continue to suffer. Just think we should acknowledge that and realize bad days are ahead thats not being pessimistic just realistic.
I would have been alot more and am alot more critical of the footballers than the hurlers as the hurling has been and is quite literally David and Goliath stuff"
Good man, make sure to keep criticising our county teams that will really bring out the best of them. Your doing gods work.
I wouldn't be too hard on the lads playing yesterday. If you look at the 17 players who played against Laois in Joe McDonagh last year, we were missing Paul Doyle, Dion Wall, Tony Lawlor, Evan Kealy, Jack McCullagh, Ciaran Whelan, James Doyle and Conor Kehoe for one reason or another. Marty and Paddy Boland probably carrying knocks as well.
They could have totally crumbled after going 17 points down but dug in even playing the guts of 20 minutes with 14 men after Marty was harshly sent off.
The three lads playing in the full back line are very unlikely to be playing in the full back line for their clubs in the club championship so it was a difficult task for them yesterday.
I'm still not a fan of easily conceding the puck out especially against teams who like to work it through the lines like Kildare. It also put our inexperienced full back line under pressure as it allowed Kildare to deliver good ball into their forwards. The Kildare wing back was putting over points for fun because he had no one to mark! We pushed up before Marty got sent off and got a bit of joy from it.
While it has been a disappointing campaign, a number of players have got game time at a higher level which should benefit them for the Joe McDonagh and likely Division 2 of the league next year.
People here say we swing back and forth massively with the footballers but you'd swear we were division 4 hurling with the comments here. Are things bad? Yeah but it's not the ending of it all. Noted we were down a few regulars yesterday and if we can get lads back for Joe Mc we can give it a proper go.
Think there's a bit too much of a focus on underage teams performing here. Outside of the minor side that made the final, before and after we rarely achieve much. We don't make u20 finals, we don't push in minor and are all dominated by the biggest counties. Going back as far as the mid 00s we win at best 1 match a year in u20. Minor isn't a whole lot better either. The football side is the same, we don't produce great underage sides at all. Not fair to use them as a barometer of where we are going or are given historic results.
Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom, look forward to the Joe Mc and push on.