All eyes are on Carlow this Sunday in Kerry.
There will be no shortage of action, and history too, when the first shots in the battle for the 2016 Bob O’Keeffe Cup are fired in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship this weekend.
Monday evening saw the launch of the Round Robin stages of this year’s Leinster Senior Hurling Championship with Carlow, Offaly, Westmeath and Kerry all competing for two quarter-final places over three weekends in May, beginning this weekend.
Kerry are making their debut in the Leinster SHC, coming as a result of their Christy Ring Cup triumph last year, and also marking their return to provincial championship action for the first time since 2004. It’s a fact that Carlow GAA Chairman Sean Campion isn’t overly enamoured with (largely the distance and Kerry getting home games for Leinster fixtures). They’ll host Pat English’s Carlow side in Austin Stack Park at 1pm with Westmeath taking on Offaly at the recently renamed TEG Cusack Park at 3pm.
[irp posts=”4331″ name=” It’s not going to be an easy task to go down there” – Sean Campion on Carlow’s hurling championship opener”]
Leinster GAA Chairman John Horan said at the launch, held in the Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise, that he was very confident the upcoming games will provide an exciting start to the Leinster Championship.
“All four counties have shown good form at different stages this year and I expect they will all be competitive matches,” he said. “Each county should benefit greatly from three championship games and I hope that their supporters come out in big numbers to give the players the encouragement they deserve.”
This season, Kerry and Offaly consolidated their place in Division 1B of the Allianz National Hurling League, winning two games each. Last year’s Kerry manager, Eamonn Kelly is now in charge of Offaly and he has been replaced in The Kingdom by Limerick legend Ciaran Carey.
Kerry’s defeat of Offaly was perhaps the highlight of their league season, having been promoted from Division 2A in 2015. Despite the disappointment of that result, the Faithful County’s campaign included victories over Wexford and Laois.
Meanwhile, Carlow and Westmeath occupied the top two places at the conclusion of Division 2A, each winning four games out of five. Westmeath went on to defeat Carlow in the Division 2A final by 0-10 to 0-8.
Last year was Michael Ryan’s first season in charge of Westmeath and they progressed from the round-robin series of games with two wins out of three, before losing to Wexford by only six points in the quarter-final. Pat English is also enjoying his second year at the helm in Carlow and he will also hope to build on last year’s displays in the round-robin, when they defeated Antrim and only narrowly lost to Westmeath and Laois.
Meanwhile, Leinster GAA has confirmed that special admission packages will be in place for the Round Robin Group Phase of the Senior Hurling Championship with admission free for U16s. Adults will be €10, Students and Senior Citizens with appropriate ID will be €5.
Live Commentary
KCLR will have live commentary this Sunday of Carlow v Kerry with thanks to Dooley Motors Carlow, authorised Ford dealer serving the South East for 25 years.
