Carlow were defeated for the third time this season in division 2A of the hurling league at the weekend.
Offaly got the better of Tom Mullally’s side on a scoreline of 1-19 to 1-12, with the Barrowsiders doing their best after both Jack Kavanagh & Diarmuid Byrne received their marching orders. Despite Cillian Kiely also receiving his marching orders for Offaly, a staggering 36% of their points were stored when Johnny Kelly’s side had an extra man.
Speaking to KCLR Scoreline Mullally lamented his sides conversion rates, despite Offaly actually registering more wides overall;
#AllianzLeagues Hurling Division 2 Tables after Round 4#gaa #hurling #gaaleaguetables pic.twitter.com/SxIgGdReKR
— GAA League Tables (@GAALeagueTables) March 12, 2023
See also: The promotion dream is over, relegation is still a possibility for Carlow hurlers
“To be fair to Offaly, their performance deserved the win. I have to credit our own players for staying in the game when things were not going to plan.”
“When you break it down and look at the final scoreline, it was probably the conversion rates that were ultimately the differences between the two teams.”
“It was not a great game of hurling, that was the game we had to play. I suppose we failed to adapt to the opportunities that we did create. As I said, our conversion rate really was not good enough to win this time of game, you have to be able to put the frees over the bar. that is something we have to learn from.”
See also: Catch five games live on KCLR this St. Patrick’s Weekend
Derry is up next for the Barrowsiders with that game live on KCLR, just one of the five games broadcast this weekend. No doubt Mullally will continue to try things out as he waits to settle on a starting 15 for the Joe Mac;
“We are happy, with trying out things, we were not sure if we would make the league semi-final. We all know the day we will be playing in the Joe MacDonagh Cup, and what that entails. That has been our target, were our test lies. Whether we will be good enough only time will tell.”
Listen back to the full interview below on Scoreline Extra:
