McDonald: We have to make sure we stay in Leinster
It’s five years since Carlow last competed in the Leinster SHC round-robin and key defender Kevin McDonald is keen to keep the Barrowsiders at hurling’s top table for as long as possible.
Tom Mullally’s men will play in Division 1B of the league next year after securing promotion – although they went down badly to Laois in the decider – so McDonald wants to maintain their place in the top tier after last year’s brilliant Joe McDonagh Cup success.
“It’s not the case that we can fall off now this year and then next year regroup, we’re going to have to try and stay at the highest standard for next year for the League,” McDonald said.
“So our main aim for Leinster is to make sure that we stay there for next year, that we compete in a couple of these games, get the wins when we have to get the wins and hopefully, by the end we will be after staying up for next year.
“It’s hard because there’s only a few players who come through every single year from underage panels and the main thing in Carlow is we’re trying to get two or three players a year. That’s all. It is difficult. You have some lads there that are playing for the last 10 years.
“They would have played at different levels, whether it was Division 2, Division 2B, Christy Ring, we have been all over the place as such. It would be great for us in the future to go at a steady pace at the top table.”
Carlow kick off on Sunday with a trip to Pearse Stadium to face Galway – who they competed well with in 2019 before falling by six – before welcoming Dublin to Netwatch Cullen Park the following Saturday and McDonald is optimistic.
As Antrim and Westmeath have shown in recent years, there is always the chance of taking a scalp while the addition of a sixth team since their maiden round-robin voyage gives them a realistic chance of survival.
“It’s a little bit less intimidating. We would have had great games against Antrim throughout the years, whether it was Christy Ring or whether it was
Joe McDonagh when that was formed. We would have had great battles with Dublin as well,” the 26-year-old said.
“I know we haven’t pipped them yet, we haven’t got the win against them in a proper championship game but they’re teams that we have played against before, lads have experience playing them so it’s nothing to fear too much but it will be another step up from last year.”
The Mount Leinster Rangers clubman is a big advocate for retaining the preliminary All-Ireland quarter-finals – a reward for the McDonagh Cup winners and runners-up – and he hopes that they can build on last year’s showing against Dublin as the big guns await, starting with Henry Shefflin’s Tribesmen.