CARLOW CLOSING GAP ON BIG BOYS
They’re one of the stories of the summer and with Limerick visiting, it’s little wonder that...
IN the summer of 1962, a young boy went to Birr with his father and uncles to watch a hurling match. His beloved Galway were playing Carlow in the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final. The Tribesmen were defeated and the boy cried in the car, all the way back to Tuam.
That young boy was Joe McDonagh. Long-standing Carlow GAA official Tommy Murphy was reminded of it last week when his county won the Cup named for the late GAA President. Telling Colm Bonnar the story on Monday afternoon, he wondered if there was a bit of cosmic intervention in what happened in Croke Park.
But there was nothing other-worldly in Carlow’s achievement. This was a victory based in hard work and self-belief. And according to the former Tipperary great, who has steered this ship for the past two years, lifting that trophy in Croke Park was only the start of what has been the hurling success story of this summer. The Carlow players will get a taste of what is to come this evening in Dr Cullen Park as Limerick arrive in town for a Championship match. The prize is an All-Ireland quarterfinal against the losers of tomorrow’s Leinster final replay. And next summer, there’s the possibility of Galway or Kilkenny coming to Carlow or the welcome mat in Nowlan Park or Pearse Stadium being put out for the Barrowsiders.
‘It is crazy to think about it,’ Bonnar admitted during the week. ‘Bringing Limerick to Carlow for a Championship game. Playing Galway and Kilkenny next year, but these players deserve it. They have worked really hard to get where they are. And this journey hasn’t reached the end, just because we have got to the Liam MacCarthy. We want to go further.’
Given the dour, defensive armwrestle of a Leinster final that followed it, it made Carlow’s tally of 2-26 in last Sunday’s curtain-raiser all the more impressive. Talented inside-forwards James Doyle and Chris Nolan, particularly, caught the eye. When a goal chance appeared, they weren’t afraid to go for it.
‘We are delighted to have scored 2-26 in Croke Park. These players have that capability. We scored 5-24 in last year’s Christy Ring final against Antrim. It is nice to show what we can do on a stage like that,’ Bonnar explains.
So how did a man so associated with Tipperary hurling, and latterly Waterford IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup, end up in Carlow? All it took was one phone call from county chairman Sean Campion in September 2016. He invited Bonnar along to Dr Cullen Park where the county championship semi-finals were on as a double-bill.
‘So, I went up there to watch it and felt there were plenty of good hurlers in both games. I was very impressed by the quality of hurling. I didn’t know too much about Carlow hurling, apart from the likes of Marty Kavanagh, who I would have come across in Fitzgibbon, playing for Carlow IT. But I felt there was something to work with here.’
Although the two-time All-Ireland winner had managed Wexford, Bonnar garnered his managerial reputation with Waterford IT, where he lectures, in the Fitzgibbon Cup. Inter-county management is a bit different. ‘In Fitzgibbon, you only have the players for two months. It is an intensive two-month block, really. With county teams, it is more drawnout. You go on more of a long journey.’
At the start of this journey, they did hit an early roadblock or two. Antrim defeated them in the 2017 Division 2A final. ‘We were still getting to know the players, figuring out the best style to play with what we had,’ Bonnar recalls. Interestingly, they have played three finals since then — last year’s Christy Ring, the 2A final and Joe McDonagh this year — and won each of them comprehensively. They have clearly absorbed lessons.
‘I think our performances over the past two years have shown that the team are on their way up,’ Bonnar insists. ‘But this is only the start of a new horizon. We are now going up to Division 1B and the senior All-Ireland Championship. It is massive for Carlow.’
And it hasn’t all been plain sailing. They had to recover from a few blows this year. From the side that defeated Westmeath in the Division 2A final earlier this year, they had lost a couple of important players for the Joe McDonagh Cup campaign. Marty Kavanagh, who for years has been Carlow’s go-to forward and nailed 4-31 during the League, opted to go to America for the summer to play with Tipperary in San Francisco while wing-back Eoghan Nolan is out with a long-term groin injury.
Given that Carlow have such a small base to pick from — there
This is not the journey’s end, we want to go further
are only four senior hurling clubs in the county — those losses would have floored the team in years gone by. Instead, this year, it galvanised this group of players, who are determined to be accorded the respect their talent deserves.
‘What these players are doing is that they are just fighting for a bit of respect. That is all they want, they want a bit of recognition for what they can do and that they are good hurlers. I think we will get some now,’ the Cashel native says.
Bonnar accepts that few would have predicted Carlow to be the first Joe McDonagh Cup champions. Laois were heavy favourites going into it, or even Antrim, who ended up in a relegation play-off. But there was a quiet confidence within the team.
And the competition itself was a wonderful advertisement for the developing and improving hurling counties. It may have been played off in the shadows, as the re-structured Munster and Leinster Championships hogged all the headlines, but Bonnar feels there is vast potential in the newly-formed second-tier competition.
‘For a few years now, they were trying to find somewhere to fit in these counties who are just below the Liam MacCarthy level and too strong for some of the teams that compete in the Christy Ring. And I think they have found it. It is a great competition and one that will only grow.
‘And media coverage will grow too, especially next year when you will have the likes of Offaly competing against Laois. It was hard this year to have any sort of profile when all focus was on the two provincial championships but that will change in the coming years.’
For now, the Joe McDonagh Cup will be known as the launch pad for this rising force in hurling. And Bonnar reckons that Carlow are going to be around for a long time yet. They are backboned by young hurlers — Doyle is only 23, Chris Nolan is only 20.
‘This team is going to be around for a while. They will improve by being in Division 1B next year and playing the likes of Galway, Waterford and Dublin. And then they will get to play four Leinster Championship games next year. It is all step by step for a county like Carlow.’
It may well be, but they are making significant strides. If he was still around, that 10-year-old boy from Galway that was left in tears by Carlow hurlers all those years ago would feel pretty proud at the progress they are making.