Carlow Forum

Carlow Minors & U20's

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Replying To Onion Breath:  "Reminds me of the 90's early 00's when we were consistently beaten by any team in Leinster in round 1 and frequently only managed 3/4/5 points in a game. Our senior team's relative upturn in recent years is mainly grounded in the 2007 Leinster final minor team but they're on the way out now after many good years of service. We've had nothing since and seem to be going backwards.

Very slow to criticise volunteers but what Carlow Colts doesn't seem to be improving things at all, at least not in football.

I think we'd benefit though if some of our stronger clubs entered the minor (and maybe younger) underage leagues in Laois and/or Kildare, even Dublin maybe. Playing in Kilkenny has been a factor in our hurling improvements I think that's very clear."
Yeah I wouldn't go in for criticizing anyone giving up their time either, it's concerning though, not sure if the fault lies with the colts as they only take in players from clubs, maybe the issue starts there. MLR didnt send anyone in after reaching the minor final. I know the focus is hurling there but they had a few exceptional footballers too.

That's not a bad idea entering outside leagues particularly at juvenile level for stronger team, it does nothing for the rest though. I wonder are our clubs aside from the big couple offering their kids a good pathway to the senior ranks it seems possibly not

Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1321 - 14/12/2020 15:52:14    2322334

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What stood out for me is that out of the two teams that contested the county final, only 6 players were on the panel (6 Eire Og/ 0 MLR). 6 lads from Eire Og is good in fairness to them, but a couple of lads I was surprised weren't in there. MLR not having any player in there was poor form, literally offering nothing to the county team.

Carlow can't hope to compete against anyone if they are missing so many of the best footballers at that level. Tough enough even with full commitment.

TaosHum (Carlow) - Posts: 116 - 14/12/2020 16:39:29    2322350

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Replying To TaosHum:  "What stood out for me is that out of the two teams that contested the county final, only 6 players were on the panel (6 Eire Og/ 0 MLR). 6 lads from Eire Og is good in fairness to them, but a couple of lads I was surprised weren't in there. MLR not having any player in there was poor form, literally offering nothing to the county team.

Carlow can't hope to compete against anyone if they are missing so many of the best footballers at that level. Tough enough even with full commitment."
Poor form??? really? MLR ( A Rural club) are the biggest supporter and supplier of players to county teams and usually have 10 or more players on county hurling panels at all grades. How many players did Carlow Town or its surroundings with its large population send in to the hurling panel? An effort could of been made to get some of them mlr players in after the minor hurlers were beaten but I doubt that happened.
Co football management teams don't usually like picking players from south of the county .

Dualclub1 (Carlow) - Posts: 266 - 15/12/2020 11:53:20    2322568

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Replying To Dualclub1:  "Poor form??? really? MLR ( A Rural club) are the biggest supporter and supplier of players to county teams and usually have 10 or more players on county hurling panels at all grades. How many players did Carlow Town or its surroundings with its large population send in to the hurling panel? An effort could of been made to get some of them mlr players in after the minor hurlers were beaten but I doubt that happened.
Co football management teams don't usually like picking players from south of the county ."
Have to agree here with you dual club. Nothing to do with the young lads or management etc but a bigger picture. Unfortunately dual club/players are trying to keep 2 codes going at club level and committing to 1 county panel. V hard do the 4 - 2 club and 2 county. Most county minor panels are 3 times a week. So v hard to do both even in our small county. Hats off to mlr as a club to promote both codes even though their eye might be more on hurling. They are still hugely competitive at all levels but it's not possible to give anymore and ultimately something has to give.

Oldyellar (Carlow) - Posts: 41 - 15/12/2020 12:46:09    2322588

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Very accurate Old Yeller. Good to get a response from someone who's obviously involved at the coalface of hurling/football and knows what its all about.

Dualclub1 (Carlow) - Posts: 266 - 15/12/2020 14:24:03    2322634

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Replying To Dualclub1:  "Poor form??? really? MLR ( A Rural club) are the biggest supporter and supplier of players to county teams and usually have 10 or more players on county hurling panels at all grades. How many players did Carlow Town or its surroundings with its large population send in to the hurling panel? An effort could of been made to get some of them mlr players in after the minor hurlers were beaten but I doubt that happened.
Co football management teams don't usually like picking players from south of the county ."
The best team (should have beaten EO in the final) in the county at that level offering nothing to the county team is poor, especially when there is literally nothing else going on at the moment competing against the football. I dunno what went on for that to happen, I'm not blaming anyone in particular, but Carlow can't expect to do anything at that level when you have no contribution from arguably the best team in the county. Result on Saturday no real surprise.

If roles were reversed and Carlow Town were in the same position in the hurling, I'd say the same thing.

TaosHum (Carlow) - Posts: 116 - 15/12/2020 15:01:34    2322646

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Its hard to believe that 3 years work was put into this minor squad and produced only 5 points (3 from play). In fairness Laois are at a different level and it was a total mismatch. Laois play Meath this weekend and Meath are fancied to win well, just sums up where we are at. Fair play to the management team who stuck with this squad even though they struggled for results all year. Part of the problem in my opinion is a lot of starters play division 2 in carlow and it was notable there basic skills were poor and not at the pace. Theres a problem with the foals/colts system in that every year there is a new management team assigned to an age group. There should be continunity in that managers and selectors should know there players inside out, strengths and weaknesses. The problem is a lot of time is wasted in trying to get to know the players. This years team never actually played as a unit till saturday, due to covid and lack of games. If the management team had worked with this group throughout there development it might have prepared them better.

jigger (None) - Posts: 72 - 15/12/2020 21:12:33    2322744

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So we need all of our best players playing divsion 1 football let's stop beating around the bush,most clubs are only barely plodding on. either cannon fodder to the big teams or down picking up bad habits in divsion 2. I saw a good few club minor games this year I though the standard of divsion 2 was appalling, same with under 15 and 13, you can pick out good players but it's some step up expecting them to play inter county after that.

The solution is obvious and if they don't show a bit of courage and do it we will never improve, clubs need to start joining up at underage so every player has the chance to play divsion 1 football if they are good enough. Most clubs can't field a single age team bar the big two, so you could have an under 13s team going out with lads from 10 to 13. It's the same with under 15 and 17. If clubs were joined up you would be able to run leagues from 11 up on a single age so 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 league instead of what we have now which is 11 13 15 17. Pooling resources human and financial would be another advantage, but most importantly more meaningful games. We are a small county which has drawbacks but we really don't help ourselves much either.

Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1321 - 15/12/2020 23:45:48    2322785

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