Carlow have finished up their Leinster Senior Hurling Championship campaign, and with it have been demoted back down to the Joe McDonagh Cup.
Carlow have made huge strides in the past few years in the Christy Ring Cup and Joe McDonagh competitions, and put in decent performances in the Leinster Championship this year.
However the structures of the championship have come back into sharp focus again, as some feel Carlow’s demotion is unfair and they’ll never progress if they’re yo-yoing between the Joe McDonagh and Leinster Championship. Waterford on the other hand didn’t win a game in the Munster Championship and they wont be relegated.
On Thursday night, Carlow hurler Paul Coady has his say on the matter on Twitter on a thread. We’ve put the tweets into text below…
I write the below with my Carlow hurling goggles firmly on, as a present Carlow hurler/fan with a worry for what’s ahead. They’re many counties the same but I’m just sharing my Carlow perspective. Apologies for the long thread and understand many will disagree. That’s ok.
Firstly I understand the consequences of finishing bottom of the Leinster Liam McCarthy group meant demotion to the Joe McDonagh for Carlow hurling.
I believe we have got to experience Liam McCarthy hurling to learn from it, at the moment I believe Carlow are about 8-14 points behind the teams we played; but how do we ever get this gap closer if at a best case scenario we just Yo Yo up and down from Joe Mac?
This year the intensity, hurling ability, tactics and preparation from opposition teams and from us against opposing opposition was something that Carlow hurling never experienced before this year and I do believe experience will provide growth. More experience = more growth!
I live and breath Carlow hurling nd I’m too worried about the future of Carlow hurling to not at least ask these questions to the GAA. Is Carlow going down to the Joe McDonagh the best thing for Carlow hurling? What’s a best case scenario here for Carlow over the next 1/5/10 yrs?
Why is there a relegation from Leinster but not from Munster, regardless if we’re even at Waterford’s level yet it is still hugely unfair, relegating Waterford would be wrong because it wouldn’t do anything for Waterford hurling and it’s a shame the same doesn’t apply to Carlow.
Hurling has top 9 counties all at a relatively similar level, for 100 years aside from the Offaly and Antrim no other teams have ever featured in the All Ire. The GAA have had 100 years to bridge that gap from d other 21counties and have never done? Is this not a massive failure?
For Carlow to close the gap, similar to Laois, Westmeath etc, we need serious help from the GAA, serious financial help, serious coaching, more officers and planing. The 9 counties ahead of us are heavily finically backed; big hurling populations, development officers, sponsors.
All well ahead of Carlow. Incidentally I’ve not asking that the top 9 counties loose any of this, rather help the counties of Carlow, Laois, Westmeath etc to also become exposed to the same resources.
For e.g our training for pre championship was a day in tramore where other counties in the Liam McCarthy in “19 are able to head to a foreign country for a full weeks training n tactics, its not the making of a successful team but it’s a help to show the gulf between the counties
Coaching grants from croke park 2007-2018. Dublin €17,916,477 and Carlow was €856,897. Let’s talk Per player then and not population (€856,897 / 5,930 = €144.50 cw pp)
(€17,916,477 / 39,197 = €457.09 dub pp).
Games development in 2018 for Dublin was €1,303,630 and Carlow was €128,733.
Another massive issue is how big county’s are able to work off huge sponsorship deals compared to other counties but still receive the same levels of grants funding.
9 of the 10 Liam McC had games shown live, 1 team hadn’t. 1 team had a 2 minute voiceover every Sunday night with every other team having highlights/analysis? 1 of 10 teams needs the promotion more than the other 9. That 1 team obviously Carlow. Not looking for more just the same
Off topic but at least a 2 minute voiceover was more than the 0 coverage the Joe Mac teams get, with those counties also crying out for promotion. This is why Gaelic Footballers don’t want a 2nd tier cause they know it will get no respect or coverage and they’ll all but forgotten
This year Carlow hurling had attendances for the first time in my career, it had colour, it had kids playing hurling more than ever, it had a buzz within the county, take the Liam McCarthy away and Carlow hurling looses that.
Do Carlow hurling go quietly and make as little noise as possible, take this as our peak and thanks for the memories and just watch as the county will eventually slip backwards in a hurling regard and spend the next 100 years where we’ve spent the last 100?
I realistically think on some days that the other 21 counties would be better coming together and boycotting the GAA until serious promotion, financial aid and planing was put in place to help these counties wanting to improve climb these levels.
So lastly I believe Carlow hurling is at crossroads like many counties in hurling, there is an ambitious talented group there doing there best at the moment and for the next while we can try squeeze as much as we can out of the little we have and try fight the drowning water
The obvious thing been this generation moves on, the hurling population continues to decrease in Carlow, the county eventually just slides back down the ladder and all we’ll have were good memories.
If the GAA really helped and wanted to see us continue climbing the ladder I believe we at least might have a better chance at long term success 🤷🏼♂️. The present way we definitely don’t!
Noise might help, but no noise certainly won’t help 😕!
Apologies for the Long Thread 🇬🇳
