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Carlow GAA thread

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Leinster Championship wins are hard to come by but the feeling of getting wins there will never be matched by the Tailteann Cup unfortunately. It's Basically an All Ireland B competition. Now I would love to see Carlow progress in it or win it of course but that's unlikely at the minute. Just as unlikely for us to win Leinster anytime soon but it means more to get the odd win there. Laois 1988, Wicklow/ Wexford 1996, louth win was massive in 2011, Wexford in 2017 & louth in 2018 but the biggest of them all was beating Kildare in 2018 to book a semi final. That was an unbelievable day & we were all dreaming of a Leinster final until the old enemy across the Barrow brought us back to earth. (That was a massive opportunity lost)
Point is you can't beat the feel good factor of a leinster win, Tailteann is where we are at now but its not the same. That's why Sunday was so disappointing. Good home crowd on the back of getting promoted & we produced a performance that was worst than the London game & that says a lot

carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 329 - 14/04/2026 17:13:37    2666427

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Replying To Carlowrising:  "Why would you say they achieved nothing? Grange and The Cocks are fully aware what they won last season and there is plenty of merit winning an Intermediate, Junior A, B or C title.

Why be so adament to pretend the TC is Championship and not accept it for what it is?"
It's good to know and point out who hasn't kicked a ball or picked up a hurl before. Saying that senior is the only championship and all others are below it is hilarious. Absolutely reeks of not knowing what small parish clubs or weaker sides go through only to be told that their success means nothing. Not everyone has the privilege to be able to be from a handful of clubs who can compete at senior level of handful of counties who can compete in Sam or Liam.

CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 146 - 14/04/2026 17:19:54    2666429

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Replying To carlo:  "Leinster Championship wins are hard to come by but the feeling of getting wins there will never be matched by the Tailteann Cup unfortunately. It's Basically an All Ireland B competition. Now I would love to see Carlow progress in it or win it of course but that's unlikely at the minute. Just as unlikely for us to win Leinster anytime soon but it means more to get the odd win there. Laois 1988, Wicklow/ Wexford 1996, louth win was massive in 2011, Wexford in 2017 & louth in 2018 but the biggest of them all was beating Kildare in 2018 to book a semi final. That was an unbelievable day & we were all dreaming of a Leinster final until the old enemy across the Barrow brought us back to earth. (That was a massive opportunity lost)
Point is you can't beat the feel good factor of a leinster win, Tailteann is where we are at now but its not the same. That's why Sunday was so disappointing. Good home crowd on the back of getting promoted & we produced a performance that was worst than the London game & that says a lot"
Agreed.

The reatructure of the Tailteann Cup this year by doing away with the group stage is a welcome development also.

Regaedless of how we fair in it, it has been a brilliant year for the team winning divison 4 and hopefully we can avoid relegation in next years div 3 and maybe even break the 9 year waot for a win in the Championship!

Would be great to draw Laois at home.

Carlowrising (Carlow) - Posts: 219 - 14/04/2026 17:37:01    2666431

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Replying To carlo:  "Leinster Championship wins are hard to come by but the feeling of getting wins there will never be matched by the Tailteann Cup unfortunately. It's Basically an All Ireland B competition. Now I would love to see Carlow progress in it or win it of course but that's unlikely at the minute. Just as unlikely for us to win Leinster anytime soon but it means more to get the odd win there. Laois 1988, Wicklow/ Wexford 1996, louth win was massive in 2011, Wexford in 2017 & louth in 2018 but the biggest of them all was beating Kildare in 2018 to book a semi final. That was an unbelievable day & we were all dreaming of a Leinster final until the old enemy across the Barrow brought us back to earth. (That was a massive opportunity lost)
Point is you can't beat the feel good factor of a leinster win, Tailteann is where we are at now but its not the same. That's why Sunday was so disappointing. Good home crowd on the back of getting promoted & we produced a performance that was worst than the London game & that says a lot"
In 2018, we had a six week gap between the league final and Leinster. This year we had two.

If you can't see that the GAA themselves have downgraded the provincials, I can't help you.

It was clear the Carlow management prioritised the Tailteann. Just ask them or any of the players.

At start of year, it was 1. league 2. Tailteann 3. Leinster. That was made clear.

And if I were a current player, I'd much rather get to a Tailteann final than play the Dubs in a Leinster Quarter-Final. And I bet all of the current players would say the same.

CARPS (Carlow) - Posts: 1090 - 14/04/2026 17:37:08    2666432

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Replying To CARPS:  "In 2018, we had a six week gap between the league final and Leinster. This year we had two.

If you can't see that the GAA themselves have downgraded the provincials, I can't help you.

It was clear the Carlow management prioritised the Tailteann. Just ask them or any of the players.

At start of year, it was 1. league 2. Tailteann 3. Leinster. That was made clear.

And if I were a current player, I'd much rather get to a Tailteann final than play the Dubs in a Leinster Quarter-Final. And I bet all of the current players would say the same."
Sorry but I don't see us making a Tailteann semi final never mind a final after that performance on Sunday. I would have taken a lenister q/t final against the Dubs no problem. Some very decent teams in Tailteann

carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 329 - 14/04/2026 22:36:12    2666458

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Replying To CarlowJuniorB:  "It's good to know and point out who hasn't kicked a ball or picked up a hurl before. Saying that senior is the only championship and all others are below it is hilarious. Absolutely reeks of not knowing what small parish clubs or weaker sides go through only to be told that their success means nothing. Not everyone has the privilege to be able to be from a handful of clubs who can compete at senior level of handful of counties who can compete in Sam or Liam."
All counties bar Kilkenny do compete for Sam including ourselves, just not very well in recent times.

Why is that hilarious - Intermediate and Junior by their definition are below senior?

Getting back to the only point I made is simply Tailteann Cup games aren't Championship games that's all. Not saying they aren't meaningful but they are just not on a par with Championship matches that's all. I didn't expect this to be such a controversial observation.

Carlowrising (Carlow) - Posts: 219 - 14/04/2026 23:14:07    2666468

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Replying To Carlowrising:  "All counties bar Kilkenny do compete for Sam including ourselves, just not very well in recent times.

Why is that hilarious - Intermediate and Junior by their definition are below senior?

Getting back to the only point I made is simply Tailteann Cup games aren't Championship games that's all. Not saying they aren't meaningful but they are just not on a par with Championship matches that's all. I didn't expect this to be such a controversial observation."
Well it's just blatantly wrong that's why its being seen as controversial. As for people saying there was too much celebration after the league win, get a grip. Our first bit of silverware in how long? God forbid people enjoy it. Bad result obviously but we were going to end up in the tailteann either way even if it would've been great to get a day out against the dubs this week.

Collio (Carlow) - Posts: 97 - 15/04/2026 10:24:42    2666503

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Hello to my fellow Carlow Gaels..I'm a Louth man travelling down to Carlow for our game with Wexford this Sunday and was looking for stand tickets but none for sale at present, just terrace..is this the norm or should stand tickets become available for sale later in the week? Thanks in advance

Walter_White (Louth) - Posts: 7 - 15/04/2026 10:34:45    2666506

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Replying To CARPS:  "In 2018, we had a six week gap between the league final and Leinster. This year we had two.

If you can't see that the GAA themselves have downgraded the provincials, I can't help you.

It was clear the Carlow management prioritised the Tailteann. Just ask them or any of the players.

At start of year, it was 1. league 2. Tailteann 3. Leinster. That was made clear.

And if I were a current player, I'd much rather get to a Tailteann final than play the Dubs in a Leinster Quarter-Final. And I bet all of the current players would say the same."
Should your post be 1. League, 2. O'Byrne Cup/Shield, 3. Tailteann, 4. Leinster?
Does anyone accept that at this stage carlow, and teams on Carlow's level, should not be in the Leinster championship, and go straight to Tailteann.
Fulfilling fixtures for the sake of it is pointless in competitions that are 3rd/4th priority and where we are completely out of our depth.
The players rightly celebrated winning division 4 as it took a massive effort to achieve, that's our level whether we like it or not .

Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 128 - 15/04/2026 11:33:12    2666524

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Replying To Collio:  "Well it's just blatantly wrong that's why its being seen as controversial. As for people saying there was too much celebration after the league win, get a grip. Our first bit of silverware in how long? God forbid people enjoy it. Bad result obviously but we were going to end up in the tailteann either way even if it would've been great to get a day out against the dubs this week."
So you believe the Tailteann Cup is blatently equivelant to the Leinster Championship?

Carlowrising (Carlow) - Posts: 219 - 15/04/2026 11:44:44    2666529

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Replying To Carlowrising:  "So you believe the Tailteann Cup is blatently equivelant to the Leinster Championship?"
What does that have to do with anything? To claim the tailteann isn't championship is laughably stupid. The Leinster being a higher standard is completely irrelevant. Again as previous posters have said is any game outside of senior club or Liam McCarthy hurling not championship? If that's your view on things you're utterly delusional.

Collio (Carlow) - Posts: 97 - 15/04/2026 13:48:26    2666561

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Replying To Carlowrising:  "So you believe the Tailteann Cup is blatently equivelant to the Leinster Championship?"
Interesting article by Spillane online today, basically the current Tailteann cup contains too many strong teams not giving the likes of us a chance to win silverware. My taughts entirely, need for a lower tier competition.. and win your right to compete at the Sam Maguire.. basically junior inter and senior championships..

Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 128 - 15/04/2026 14:10:29    2666569

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Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "Interesting article by Spillane online today, basically the current Tailteann cup contains too many strong teams not giving the likes of us a chance to win silverware. My taughts entirely, need for a lower tier competition.. and win your right to compete at the Sam Maguire.. basically junior inter and senior championships.."
Wouldn't work as it would be a repeat of the Tommy Murphy cup. Two tiers in football is enough and Div 4 teams prefer to play higher quality teams from time to time.

carlovia (None) - Posts: 1546 - 15/04/2026 14:48:32    2666582

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Replying To Carlowtothecore1:  "Interesting article by Spillane online today, basically the current Tailteann cup contains too many strong teams not giving the likes of us a chance to win silverware. My taughts entirely, need for a lower tier competition.. and win your right to compete at the Sam Maguire.. basically junior inter and senior championships.."
Oh great another talking head from a historically successful county with a pocket full of medals telling weaker counties what's good for them. We should be very grateful we can even play one match in the same competition as the like of other good teams.

CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 146 - 15/04/2026 19:16:41    2666633

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