Carlow Town begin Leinster journey against Plunkett's
Carlow Town's manager Brian Delaney with his father Pat after this year's Intermediate Hurling Final. He is now looking forward to a Leinster campaign. Photo: Pat Ahern
Carlow Town champions entertain Westmeath opposition in the first round of the Leinster Intermediate Hurling Championship when St Oliver Plunkett’s come to Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday.
They are based in Mullingar and were founded in 1976. Since then they have won several Senior Hurling Championship B titles but don’t seem to be able to hold onto their senior status when they go up to the top tier. They did qualify for the 2013 senior final but lost by 1-12 to 0-11 to Castletown Geoghegan.
This year they beat a fancied Castlepollard side in the Westmeath Senior Hurling B final by 4-16 to 2-14. Up front, Rory O’Brien and Padraig Casey, pose the most danger.
Brian Delaney, the Carlow Town manager, says he has little knowledge of the weekend’s opposition.
“We don’t know a lot about them. I heard a few small reports which suggests they are similar to ourselves. Castlepollard came down and were favourites to come back up but they had injuries and didn’t get up.” Instead of worrying too much about the opposition, Delaney says Carlow Town will concentrate on their own game. With so much success this year both at adult and underage level, training was a lot easier.
“We have put in a huge effort. We have been training since last November so you could say we have been training for almost a year.
“We have had a big buy-in and had big numbers at training because the juniors were going very well too. The training has just kept going. The under 21s were out last week so we only took a few days off after the county final.” Carlow Town beat Burren Rangers in the intermediate final with a power-packed second half display. Before that final, Delaney felt a performance was in the team.
“We were confident before the county final itself. I thought we would win by roughly the score that we did. We struggled in the first half but got going in the second half. We were confident we were going to win,” he revealed.
So less than 100 metres from their own pitch on Oak Park Road, the squad will, at the weekend, make the short walk to take on the opposition.
“We are in Netwatch Cullen Park. I was in there the other night at the under 16 final and we won that as well. The pitch is a bit cut up but we would be more used to it. It is nice to have it in there,” said Delaney.
