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Carlow GAA thread

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Replying To Onion Breath: "I don't think Dowling is county senior standard tbh. Buggy for sure. You're right about midfield. We're in trouble there. The big guys who play their for Carlow clubs are all too slow. So we're depending on breaking ball. In fairness we've lots of quick lads who can hoover it up. But Div 3 will be a struggle." Call me naive but I don't think the big lads in midfield need to be exceptionally mobile. Modern game with new rules is now a running and pressing game but if you have 6 willing lads to win breaking balls and cover the pitch in half back and half forward lines you're not doing too badly. Our biggest issues are just ball winners in midfield. Ruth last year did so much of it in the league and when out for the championship it showed. Anyone from that Ballon side to possibly come in given how young they are? CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 239 - 18/10/2026 22:41:52 2697816 Link
Replying To CarlowJuniorB: "For a team that transferred half the county into them last winter, they made hard work of that final." I doubt Rathvilly care, Finals are for winning. They are unbeaten in lge and championship Optimist2013 (Carlow) - Posts: 33 - 18/10/2026 23:10:08 2697818 Link
Replying To Optimist2013: "I doubt Rathvilly care, Finals are for winning. They are unbeaten in lge and championship" I was talking about the blues CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 239 - 19/10/2026 10:37:55 2697841 Link
Replying To Carlowrising: "Conor Doyle has to be the most consistant player for club and county this decade, deservedly man of the match and could prob go up another gear. Enjoyable County final, the better team came out on top, Old Leighlin will probably disappointed with their attacking today. James Dowling and Sean Bambrick stood out for the runners up" Enjoyable county Final???? Dualclub1 (Carlow) - Posts: 314 - 19/10/2026 11:12:01 2697846 Link
Replying To CarlowJuniorB: "I was talking about the blues" You seem to be very upset about the Blues. You had Myshall beating them a few weeks ago. Which was about as likely as Ireland flying someone to the moon. Personally, I think their current revival is great. We have half our population in the town. So we need vibrant clubs in the town area. Especially given competition with soccer, etc. CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 1153 - 19/10/2026 11:37:01 2697850 Link
Replying To CARPS: "You seem to be very upset about the Blues. You had Myshall beating them a few weeks ago. Which was about as likely as Ireland flying someone to the moon. Personally, I think their current revival is great. We have half our population in the town. So we need vibrant clubs in the town area. Especially given competition with soccer, etc." Most enjoyable seeing his rants on here about Blues over recent weeks. For a club that has seen an exodus of players for more than a decade great to see an upturn. Well done to all involved. MOH (Carlow) - Posts: 129 - 19/10/2026 14:25:29 2697890 Link
I know people are disappointed that the SFC final wasn't the final we hoped for, in terms of entertainment, but I was very impressed with Rathvilly's defensive shape. Totally clogged the middle, which greatly limited Mikey Bambrick's influence on the game. I don't think OL knew how to break it down, which is why they enjoyed alot of possession without really hurting Rathvilly. Intermediate final started off so well, but it tightened up after 20 mins and quality of shooting dropped. Was really disappointed in Tinryland's full forward line. So much talent, but out of the 3 of them, they only scored 1 two pointer. The goals conceded were poor also, and yet I couldn't see them losing it going into injury time. Ballon will need to improve alot to have any hope of staying in Senior, but they are young and have some good footballers, so the room is there to improve. I'm not sold on the Blues. Fair play to them for getting over the line, but they made hard work of it, and lucky Pal were not more clinical in front of goal. Standard in Intermediate is strong next year, they'll do well to avoid a relegation final. TaosHum (Carlow) - Posts: 253 - 19/10/2026 14:36:00 2697893 Link
Replying To Dualclub1: "Enjoyable county Final????" Did you not enjoy yourself? Carlowrising (Carlow) - Posts: 231 - 19/10/2026 16:49:00 2697922 Link
Replying To Onion Breath: "I would completely disagree with you re underage. The standard at minor this year was higher than I've seen for decades. Both Eire Og and Pal would win minor in a lot of counties. Two really strong minor teams to be fair. Both St Martins and Bagenalstown weren't far behind them either - in fact Bagenalstown shouldn't beat Eire Og. That's four very good minor teams which is not often we'd see that. I think the U16 regional championship is helping to raise the standard. I also think if prepared properly the Carlow U-20 football team next year could be very good. That's a big if I know. However, at adult level I thought the senior championship was very poor this year. Only one decent typical senior championship standard game that I saw and that was Pal Rathvilly semi final. Rathvilly were nowhere near as good today and they didn't need to be." - - - but you did say, - "Blues did enough to win Junior. They're not great though and will struggle in intermediate next year. I fear these only papers over the cracks for that club. Their underage set up is freefall. U-16 is now competing on Div 3 and beaten by about 40 point by Asca recently. If Asca can do that". 45% of the county's population are living in Carlow town, by your own admission the Blues will struggle next year at intermediate level and their underage set up is i free fall, the other great club in town is YI's and they're not setting the football world on fire either, I'm not knocking them simply making an observation., one county final in 5 years is not a lot by their own standards, they did make two finals in the previous 5 years (from memory). So, it's rural village clubs that are carrying the can over the past 10 years at least with the odd appearance of YI supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts: 3435 - 19/10/2026 21:43:17 2697965 Link
Replying To supersub15: "- - - but you did say, - "Blues did enough to win Junior. They're not great though and will struggle in intermediate next year. I fear these only papers over the cracks for that club. Their underage set up is freefall. U-16 is now competing on Div 3 and beaten by about 40 point by Asca recently. If Asca can do that". 45% of the county's population are living in Carlow town, by your own admission the Blues will struggle next year at intermediate level and their underage set up is i free fall, the other great club in town is YI's and they're not setting the football world on fire either, I'm not knocking them simply making an observation., one county final in 5 years is not a lot by their own standards, they did make two finals in the previous 5 years (from memory). So, it's rural village clubs that are carrying the can over the past 10 years at least with the odd appearance of YI" Surely, Palatine are a de facto town club now? Look how the town has expanded and where they are pulling players from? That would partially explain why O'Hanrahan's are struggling for numbers and Eire Og are less dominant than before. I noticed that Pal's top scorer in the minor final is the son of well known Blues player from the 1990s. Also, when we say the town population is 45% of the county (which is correct), we also need to take into account the changed demographic makeup and the rising popularity of soccer. When I was a young lad, Carlow didn't even have a soccer league (there was one club in town and they played in Kilkenny), now how many soccer clubs are in Carlow town? Five, is it? CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 1153 - 20/10/2026 11:46:18 2697996 Link
Replying To CARPS: "Surely, Palatine are a de facto town club now? Look how the town has expanded and where they are pulling players from? That would partially explain why O'Hanrahan's are struggling for numbers and Eire Og are less dominant than before. I noticed that Pal's top scorer in the minor final is the son of well known Blues player from the 1990s. Also, when we say the town population is 45% of the county (which is correct), we also need to take into account the changed demographic makeup and the rising popularity of soccer. When I was a young lad, Carlow didn't even have a soccer league (there was one club in town and they played in Kilkenny), now how many soccer clubs are in Carlow town? Five, is it?" You are correct when you say, we also need to take into account the changed demographic makeup and the rising popularity of soccer, rugby is catching the imagination of men and women across the country in no small numbers too. There is a little bit of disparity across the county that doesn't help either; then of course there is that bit of visible imbalance. At the end of the day, we are not doing too badly with what we have at our disposal. PS. I remember in the late 90's the blues were in bad shape, facing relegation and being hammered out the gate, when all of a sudden Michael Dempsey appeared out of nowhere, he took over O' Hanrahan's he put a team together, in two seasons had them in a county final, the following year they won it, the following year they won a leinster senior title, shortly after that Michael and the club parted company and before you know it the Blues were sort of struggling again, I think there's a story there, sort of anyway. That paragraph is from an ageing memory that may account for one or two inaccuracies not intended. supersub15 (Carlow) - Posts: 3435 - 20/10/2026 19:30:02 2698055 Link
An U-21 C football championship comprising of just 4 teams, what's the point, just stick to A and B MickyMouse (Carlow) - Posts: 6 - 20/10/2026 20:24:57 2698059 Link
Anyone hear why the county board is looking for all the trophies back? icarlowt (Carlow) - Posts: 5 - 20/10/2026 20:37:51 2698065 Link
Replying To icarlowt: "Anyone hear why the county board is looking for all the trophies back?" Yeah apparently to be back by Friday Ceatharlach7000 (Carlow) - Posts: 50 - 21/10/2026 10:12:01 2698078 Link
Anyone at the minor hurling final on Monday? Looked like a cracker based on the highlights on social media. ACarlowGael (Carlow) - Posts: 64 - 21/10/2026 11:44:38 2698095 Link
Replying To icarlowt: "Anyone hear why the county board is looking for all the trophies back?" damage done to the senior football cup apparently Dualclub1 (Carlow) - Posts: 314 - 21/10/2026 14:54:12 2698128 Link
Replying To Dualclub1: "damage done to the senior football cup apparently" Don't think thats true, seen a social media post earlier of a school visit and the cup looks fine. Optimist2013 (Carlow) - Posts: 33 - 21/10/2026 16:20:05 2698134 Link
Replying To Optimist2013: "Don't think thats true, seen a social media post earlier of a school visit and the cup looks fine." True unfortunately Dualclub1 (Carlow) - Posts: 314 - 21/10/2026 16:51:37 2698139 Link