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Rathvilly look to be the team to beat, Eire Óg and Pal then probably joint as second. Would give an outside chance to bagnelstown but unlikely.
Collio (Carlow) - Posts: 144 - 21/08/2026 14:00:25 2690761 Link 0 |
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Very little between EO, Pal and Rathvilly for me. I don't trust Rathvilly to see out tight games though and they'll probably have to do that twice to be champions. Next week will be interesting between Pal and YIs. Winners make the semis. All 3 will still make the semi anyway but none will want a quarter final. Agree re Bagenalstown. They'll be the 4th semi finalist I'd say, especially if they get a handy enough quarter which they will if they beat OL next week which would probably leave OL the champions facing a relegation play off! If OL beat the town the same 2 would probably meet again in the quarters. Bagenalstown are very capable but they play a bit in fits and starts. They will need absolutely everybody fully fit but if they are all fully fit they are capable of beating any of the other 3 semi finalists. Hard to see them winning against 2 of the top 3 though which they would have to do to win it. I'd love to see it happen, it would be great for football in the county to see new first time senior champions. For a town its size there's a potential sleeping giant there and same for tullow it would be great if St Pats could win intermediate but Tinryland look to have too much for all in that grade despite a slip up at the start. Junior is very interesting. Blues v Asca will be worth seeing next week. Both rely a lot of their midfield pairings - both very strong. I think the winners of this game will end up winning it out. Sneaky feeling for Asca, I think there's more in them than the Blues especially the two midfielders should have more legs than the Blues. Can't rule out Myshall or Leighlin yet though. Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1895 - 23/08/2026 11:54:53 2690939 Link 0 |
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Hot take but palatine seem to have a great young team and are very capable of beating anyone in junior A don't be suprised to see them in a final
Carlowbushultra2021 (Carlow) - Posts: 8 - 23/08/2026 23:57:32 2691020 Link 0 |
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Provided they avoid each other I think the junior semis will be Myshall, leighlin, pal and blues. Myshall have only to focus on football now and apparently should have got results from both leighlin and pal matches with little football in the legs. Asca playing blues will tell a lot of their strength but I don't trust the blues to close it out if I'm being honest. Pal are young as you said but look to have brought a good few lads through.
CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 213 - 24/08/2026 13:14:54 2691064 Link 0 |
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Anyone showing in either code for possible inclusion in the hurling or football senior inter-co panels on the games seen so far ? Bainisteoir (National) - Posts: 624 - 24/08/2026 18:03:11 2691147 Link 0 |
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What does everyone make of the new football format for all the Championships bar the Junior C which is still the same? To me it has worked well, more matches have given teams a chance to recover from a bad day out, also having a few weeks gap works well, I hope it stays for awhile. MickyMouse (Carlow) - Posts: 2 - 24/08/2026 23:32:27 2691177 Link 0 |
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Absolutely destroying the ethos of the GAA club, "to facilite all codes'. It is rewarding the Gaelic - soccer dual club. . How can you make a statement like that with the number of lob sided games multiplied the fold and supporters paying good money to look at them. the town are the one club who's players have totally supported the dual role and they look like they're slipping with the extreme demands on their players on bad pitches. And that's with limited county players who were slogged up to June. No balance on player welfare and carlow county board needs to be held to account urgently. Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 168 - 25/08/2026 12:54:36 2691229 Link 0 |
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What do you sugguest should happen? There is no 100% perfect solution. They current system at least allows both codes to operate in July & August rather than running one competition off in 5 weeks in September/October in miserable conditions. Favouring one code over another benefits noone.. Optimist2013 (Carlow) - Posts: 25 - 25/08/2026 13:43:03 2691237 Link 0 |
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Don't think I'm the biggest fan of the format. There's not much risk for the big teams. It will rarely if ever happen to the likes of pal, rathvilly and eire og but at least in the previous format pal and eire og were in a relegation play off in recent years. Having so many games means teams have too long to sort it out so having a lot of dead rubber games means nothing.
CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 213 - 25/08/2026 14:21:28 2691245 Link 0 |
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There was famously no lobsided games before this and dual players never had to play multiple weeks in a row… New system has been great, nice to see lads able to go to electric picnic as well which wasn't always the case. Fair play to the county board, not often they get credit so they deserve some here. Collio (Carlow) - Posts: 144 - 25/08/2026 14:25:09 2691248 Link 2 |
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There's playing multiple weeks in a row and then there's this format. Week 10 in a row now for dual players, 11 if they're playing hurling semi finals, 12 if they're then playing football quarter finals. God only knows what will happen next year if we have a 7 team senior hurling championship and a potential Joe McDonagh final in early July. 12 rounds of group games bet into 8/9 weeks? These clubs don't have 30 players of senior quality to rotate or aren't like the Kilmacud's or Na Fianna with only a handful of dual players. The traditional football clubs will get stronger and stronger while others like MLR, Fenagh, Bagenalstown etc. fall away. ACarlowGael (Carlow) - Posts: 54 - 25/08/2026 15:11:59 2691254 Link 0 |
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Too many football games now, not enough jeopardy. With the old format (2 groups of 4) every game mattered, now it fesls like the championship is only starting at the quarter final stage.
Carlowrising (Carlow) - Posts: 226 - 25/08/2026 15:39:33 2691263 Link 0 |
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Strange take considering this is the last round of games, and the two semi final spots are still up for grabs and there are still 4 teams in contention for relegation.
Collio (Carlow) - Posts: 144 - 25/08/2026 16:59:58 2691279 Link 2 |
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5 games are too many for any big team to be at risk. It's like the Champions league new format where big teams will just do enough to get through. Too much shadow boxing and dead rubbers leading to soft games.
CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 213 - 25/08/2026 23:54:05 2691315 Link 0 |
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Again this is loaded for the GFC-FAI duals, not the GAA players. You'll hardly see too many senior hurlers there with semis on following weekend, no break for the genuine club GAA player. EO format has definately achieved its goal and changed the Gaelic Football championship to the premiership, where the top 3/4 will always remain as the top 3/4 protected. If it's more games EO wanted why bother with byes to semis? Give everyone a Q/F with bottom two doubling as a QF / relegation final. This entire structure only suits GFC clubs not GAA clubs Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 168 - 26/08/2026 00:55:44 2691319 Link 0 |
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Last year's senior champions in danger of being in the relegation playoff seems like a bit of jeopardy to me.
MickyMouse (Carlow) - Posts: 2 - 26/08/2026 01:33:34 2691320 Link 1 |
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5 group games is too much and dilutes the importance of each match. No surprise to see attendance down this year for the group stages. Rathvilly confirmed in the semis now and truth be told the loser between Eire Og and Pal will almost certainly wind up in the Semi final also. The old format was perfect. Having more games is almost an attempt to compensate for a lousy league that teams aren't buying in to. If the league was connected to the championship in some way it might entice teams to commit. For example, if we reverted to the old format (2 groups of 4) the final league standings could determine the draw for the groups: Winners drawn in group A with 4th & 5th and 8th, Runners up, 3rd, 6th & 7th place finishers in group B (This would still allow intermediate teams to play in the div 1 if they are good enough while senior teams who are in div 2 will be rightfully punished rather than having no meaningful consequence for being relegated from div 1) Carlowrising (Carlow) - Posts: 226 - 26/08/2026 08:37:31 2691324 Link 0 |
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I agree 100 percent on the Blues not finishing it out. It seems like they think they have it won already, and I think that might come back to bite them, even with the win last night. Our boys must win the game against Eir Óg again, but to be honest, I fear Myshall more than I fear the Blues if we are talking about teams with 100 percent firing power. If they can pull their team together, they will be very hard to beat on the day, despite their inconsistency. They have players who can score from 50 yards out, whether it's from a dead ball or from play. They have the ammunition.
Ceatharlach7000 (Carlow) - Posts: 47 - 26/08/2026 10:48:20 2691348 Link 0 |