Leaving aside all the back and forth over the past week, which never really went anywhere, the footballers should not have been beaten by 11 points by a team they bet twice this season. There is never anything in it between both sides. Yes turnaround time was not ideal, but the Longford final beats any number of challenge games. As League Champs they should have it in their locker to be at least competitive. The narrative almost is is we are never going to win Leinster so its almost we did ourselves a favour ... IMHO if we have anything about ourselves we should be trying to be at least competitive amongst the 'best of the rest' in the next season or so.

There is a big panel which seems to used sparingly, should that have been utilised better ? No matter what a big day in NCP against the Dubs would have created a huge buzz, and who knows, they are not the force they were. Anyway, 'tis Tailteann Cup for us now ... which we should be targeting the business end of

Bainisteoir (National) - Posts: 611 - 17/04/2026 12:23:56    2666908

Huge game for the hurlers tomorrow against Laois in NCP. With a few bodies back and batteries recharged after a tough league campaign, lets hope they can go to the well again for us. Laois are coming in with confidence after an easy league and trying to limit the influence of Aaron Dunphy and Mossy Keyes will be crucial for us. They've a strong half back line as well so can't afford to be lorrying ball down on top of them.

No games on TV tomorrow evening so hopefully a decent crowd can get in to support them.

ACarlowGael (Carlow) - Posts: 40 - 17/04/2026 15:16:52    2666950

Best of luck to the lads today. Won't be easy as Laois will be on a high after winning promotion but I'm sure our lads will put in a hugh display. The last puck of the game in the Mcdonagh game against Laois last year really hurt & that has to be a motivating factor.
Hopefully we can get a result & build some positivity to go along with our u20 hurlers beating Westmeath last night

carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 331 - 18/04/2026 13:50:30    2667037

Good luck to the hurlers this evening. We've now got our full squad back, I can't see anyone missing, even Jack McCullagh is back in I see and James Doyle is starting. It's by far the strongest squad we've had for any game this year. Hopefully a big step up in performance but as mentioned earlier we really need to also change tactics or we'll just be giving the ball back to Leix. They also have a strong squad, and it looks a good bit stronger than when they caught us with a last minute goal last year. After the start to the year we've had and looking at the Leix team being stronger than last year, I'd take a draw again now if it was offered but be great to get the win.

Regards underage, while results have been disappointing so far in hurling and football at least the minor footballers won the other night v Wexford and so made the knock out stages again this year. Last year the minor footballers topped the group, this year they've come second, so not all doom and gloom. I said before I think there's a number of very talented young footballers coming through, some from last years minors and some from this years. For a small county it's seldom we'll get them all coming together the one year to make a generational team but I can see the makings of a very good county U-20 team in a couple of years as the ages tend to converge post minor.

Then last night the U/20 hurlers had a great win by 2 points v Westmeath. I didn't see that coming as I thought we were awful when losing to Kerry last time out but fair play the players and management turned it around last night. Although not a top tier county Westmeath are making great strides at underage hurling so it's always good to beat them at underage and hopefully that helps keep our noses just in front of them at senior. We'll need to keep ahead of them if we're to get back into Liam McCarthy hurling.

Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1823 - 18/04/2026 14:01:02    2667038

Carlowtothecore1 (Carlow) - Posts: 130 - 18/04/2026 20:21:44    2667105

Great to beat them across the river. Love to see it. Amazing result

CarlowJuniorB (Clare) - Posts: 148 - 18/04/2026 21:57:46    2667116

Brilliant from the hurlers last night. You could see right from the start that they were hugely motivated presumably after last years experience. They in fact went and won the game twice last night, being 7 up at ht and then back to one point game 10 mins into the second half but they surged again and fully deserved the win and the margin of it. In fact it could have been more when you think Brian Tracey had no save to make other than the goal he could do nothing about whereas the Leix keeper made two brilliant certain goal saves from Chris Nolan in the first minute and another in the second half.

We're well set up now for this competition but three away games is going to be difficult and none easy. Starting next week in Mullingar. Leix play Antrim next Saturday too which will be more than interesting now as the losers will be in deep trouble with two defeats. After Westmeath we've Down also away. They've put themselves in a great position too.

Onion Breath (Carlow) - Posts: 1823 - 19/04/2026 09:11:49    2667164