Lads I think as this is a topic thats being discussed nationally, I feel maybe we should look into it on our own set ups and structures. Now remember before I set off lads on a mad rant, some of these are ideal proposals for hurling to prosper, not what might happen.. 1. Either have a proper league with all teams competing, or play 12 games in championship (football div 1 has 11 league games alone) 2. Look at combined colleges teams - my hobby horse! 3. Revamp u21 championship to 2 groups to give an extra game at least or have an u20 league to be played over the course of the year, underlights etc 4. Dual players - do we make them choose at minor onwards to commit to one squad or the other? 5. Get another team or two to play in senior - amalgamate if necessary 6. We need to get traditional football clubs to buy into the need to promote underage hurling.. Or force them to field! We only have 1 hurling team, Carlow town from a pick of Tinryland (can field 2 u14 teams some years), o hanrahans, eire og, rathvilly, palantine. clonmore could combine with tullow perhaps.. Some of our largest population centres are un tapped. 7. Could we get our underage teams into kk/wex/laois etc leagues/tournaments more? We have an All Ireland u16 club competition in carlow town club but I dont think many if any carlow clubs play in it. Great to play a different team and maybe in a higher standard- has worked well for the clubs who took the kk and leinster leagues serious at senior level.. Just my thoughts..

old yellar (None) - Posts: 2631 - 30/10/2009 01:28:35    470477

Great post old yellar. Seen it in the national forum as well.
1. May not need more games, league etc as most clubs are competing in an all county, south north junior, leinster leagues. Playing each other over and over is prob not great for "relations". Familiarity breeds contempt....
2. Agreed 100%
3. A critical grade to get right, the fall off between 18 and 21 is huge a revamped competition here perhaps? Would it run into similar issues like in point 1?
4. No need for commitment
5 and 6. The town centres, traditionally football do need to come on board. In many counties they have amalgamated teams in order to provide for all potential senior hurlers to play. In Kildare South Kildare hurling, in North Tipp football amalgamations. THis is another good idea.
7. Agreed, but if you have a combined schools team you may be over stretching the commitments of a certain few underage players. Guys getting dragged everywhere. IRFU underage models are of a selected panel, who are trained well but not overplayed. We shouldn't be nervous about copying best practice models in other codes either.

getonwithit (Carlow) - Posts: 527 - 30/10/2009 13:51:30    470818

Many Carlow clubs dont enter the All-Ireland U16 because of the Junior Cert and it costs €200 to enter.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 30/10/2009 19:46:16    471300

think the do the junior cert in other counties.. yeah, i agree on the over familiarity thing. just the idea behind that was to get more games. i suppose with only 7 senior teams, thats always a problem..

old yellar (None) - Posts: 2631 - 31/10/2009 12:54:15    471666

Old yeller,

If you notice that the teams that enter the U16 All Irelnad are from Cork, Wexford, Kilkenny, Limerick and so on....
These teams would have a great number to pick from unlike Carlow. Our U16 County Champs Muinebheag had 30 on their panel in the County Final. 12 of which were U14s and were only brought on to the panel in the latter stages of the championship. That leaves you with 18 U16s.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 31/10/2009 13:37:25    471703

i answered ur first point - the all do junior cert exams in other counties.. you can still enter the competition irregardless of the number of lads upto the age. it happens in other counties, some clubs have small picks, younger lads, it aint a carlow thing..

old yellar (None) - Posts: 2631 - 31/10/2009 17:52:17    471826

But if you look at the teams that enter it they would be from very strong hurling counties.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 31/10/2009 19:21:20    471894

st rynaghs from offaly enter it every year and do well in it. This year rangers seniors went up to them and beat them in the leinster league. Point is we can match teams in other so called stonger counties if we work hard.. The thread is about how we can improve hurling things in the county. Lets be positive..

old yellar (None) - Posts: 2631 - 31/10/2009 21:24:50    471972

Fair point. Rangers are at the top and teams have to get to their level, like Kilkenny and the rest of us.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 01/11/2009 00:25:38    472067

looking at posts on this site i see where people are saying that carlow are in the top 12 hurling teams in ireland yet your senior champs.play in the intermediate leinster championship, your senior hurling champs. were beaten in the first round of this same competion last year which was won by the meath champs. now im reading about m.l.r. beating junior teams from stronge hurling counties in mickey mouse competions you all live in dream land in carlow when you ever win something of importance then talk not b, c ,or d rated competions, an A, rated competion be it football or hurling your laughable

bowsey (Carlow) - Posts: 102 - 01/11/2009 09:56:33    472107

bowsey, mlr bt a senior team in st rynaghs. The were bten by a point by tullamore, who won the county championship. As a laois man bowsey, u dont wind us up down here. Ye got a few whippings in the last few years, prepare for another one next year.. try make a decent arguement, and then we ll talk..

old yellar (None) - Posts: 2631 - 01/11/2009 14:24:39    472233

typical carlow we'll beat you next year we'll beat this we,ll beat that, when the truth is you never win anything of significance 2008 laois whipped you in d.c.p. this year laois beat you in portlaoise and after next year you will be back in the ring cup which by the way carlow are favourites for in 2011 thats your level and thats where you will be oh by the way it will be some laugh if mlr dont win the intermediate i'll be watching cant wait

bowsey (Carlow) - Posts: 102 - 01/11/2009 14:45:47    472248

Our county champions lost to the Kilkenny Intermidiate Champions last year by a point 2-13 to 2-12. That team was Erins Own Castlecomer who got to the Kilkenny Senior semi-final this year. MLR only lost to Ballyhale Shamrocks by 5 points 2 year ago.

Its not our fault that or champions are in the Intermidiate grade its Leinster Council. They should be in the Seniopr grade because Westmeath champions are and their in the Christy Ring.

Bowsey, if your from Laois, Well done to your county champions on LOSING to Clonkill from Westmeath by 6 points. According to the rankings Westmeath are 19th in Ireland.

Over and out,

Hurlingguru.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 01/11/2009 16:44:38    472306

hurlingguru leinster club championship is seeded and the reason carlow champs are intermediate is of all the beatings they have taken over the years you who thinks he knows it all should know that and your senior champs.last year were still beating by an intermediate team

bowsey (Carlow) - Posts: 102 - 01/11/2009 17:03:26    472318

So you're trying to tell me that Westmeath are better than Carlow and they were in a relegation final in the Ring Cup this year. Yeah that makes sense.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 01/11/2009 17:58:30    472347

bowsey, quit wasting your time trying to wind us up.. Ur best player of the last 10 yrs has retired and it got bout 5 posts on your page. Shows ye what ye are really interested in up there.. Hurling guru, u got any good development ideas there for us? I was thinking myself again, and maybe we need a secondary cup of sorts where intermediate and senior teams can play, open draw.. Hard to shake things with the small number of clubs we have..

old yellar (None) - Posts: 2631 - 01/11/2009 20:43:21    472478

Most ideas have been said. Maybe get Hacketstown, Pal, Rathvilly all them clubs maybe try to produce a hurling team between them. I know theres Carlow Town but you cant expect people to drive in and out for every training session there needs to be another. Hurling in the north of the county is very weak.

Something needs to be done at U21 level in hurling. Teams play two matches and have it won. Maybe have it like the Senior.
Hold trials like what Justin McCarthy did in Limerick. So players from some weak clubs get a fair chance.
Combine schools together to produce brilliant colleges teams like Dublin, Wicklow, Offaly, Laois.

The main point would be to get proper training into the primary schools. What Nevin and Hayden do is not up to the standard required. In btown, students in transition year from PDLS coach them but it isn't much.

Maybe more of our teams could enter the Leinster League.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1847 - 01/11/2009 23:27:38    472639

MLR beat Offaly Senior Co Champions Tullamore by eleven points in Tullamore last Saturday and were missing James Hickey. They beat Clonkill comfortably last weekend also and were missing a number of the county final team. I think carlow clubs deserve to be in the senior chship but in saying that unless they win the intermediate first they will be forgotten about so heres hoping...

Dualclub1 (Carlow) - Posts: 286 - 02/11/2009 10:49:46    472792

One of the main problems that is coming down the line is the scrapping of the Under 12 championship in 2 years time. This will leave the young lads who start training with us at 5-6 with 6-7 years of no competitive games before they begin in the under 14 championship. This to my mind is a total joke. Kilkenny at the moment have no under 12 cship but the have a very strong schools competition which is the equivelent of an under 13 cship. What is going to happen now is that KK will pull further ahead while we feld under twelves in mickey mouse go games which they dont want to play in anyway. We will lose lads who want to play competiitvely at 10, 11 and 12 years of age to soccer or other games that will give them real games.
It will be fine for under 8s and maybe even some under 10s but for under 12s it will a complete waste of time.

We also have problems with the county board and allocations of resourses. We have been promised each year trainer who will call each week or at least every 2 weeks to work with our teams. I think they called twice this year in total. That is a huge problem and needs to be addressed.

Sorry to be negative but these are serious issues and will cause us to lose young lads over the coming years to other sports unless they can be addressed.

aragorn1 (Carlow) - Posts: 156 - 02/11/2009 13:08:14    472894

bowsey, you must be the most negative poster out there! List all the 'beatings' that you say Carlow teams have been handed out over the years. Give the scores if you know so much.

Then let others be the judge. You seem to have judged without any facts to base your point.

carlowman (Carlow) - Posts: 1879 - 02/11/2009 21:28:21    473449