Kavanagh and Nolan lead Carlow to comfortable win in Tralee
Carlow's Marty Kavanagh scores a fine point against Kerry in the first half.
There will come a day when the likes of Marty Kavanagh and Chris Nolan have hung up their hurls and all Carlow fans will have are the memories of days like this.
Yes, whenever those days come, and hopefully that won't be for many years to come yet, there will be memories of more spectacular wins. Many of which ended with silverware.
But this was a day when they were so good that you were left open mouthed at their absolute brilliance. This is a young Kerry side but they went to Newbridge last week and ground out a one point over a Kildare team who beat Westmeath in the second round so they are no mugs, even though they were without Padraig Boyle and Shane Conway.
There will come a time when Carlow won't just rock up to venues like Tralee and come away with wins as comfortable as this but this truly is a golden period for Carlow hurling.
There was a massive gulf between the teams and Carlow had scored more than Kerry's final total by the 22nd minute.
It's sometimes unfair to single out the wonderful scoring duo as it can sometimes overshadow the other talent that Carlow possess. James Doyle is another player who could play for any other team in the country, while Paddy Boland and Jon Nolan were also exceptional here. It's not just in attack either, Carlow have been rock solid in the backs all year but there is no doubt that Nolan and Kavanagh add a sprinkling of magic dust to this team and sometimes it's good to take note of just how good they are.
Conor Kehoe got the first of Carlow's three goals in the tenth minute after a pass from Kavanagh and the best goal of the game was in the 16th minute when Boland delicately controlled Jack McCullagh's long ball, before spinning away from his marker and finishing superbly from 20 metres.
Nolan added the third 20 minutes from the end and Carlow had chances to get close to the six goal total they managed in the opening round against Down but the home goalkeeper Louis Dee stopped the game from being a complete massacre.
The only black spot on the trip to Tralee came when Kavanagh was shown a second yellow for something said to referee Caymon Flynn after he failed to spot a clear foul on the Carlow sharpshooter by Flour McCarthy.
It mattered little by the final whistle. With two games played in the competition, Carlow have scored 9-50 without conceding a goal. There are bigger tests to come and nobody will getting too carried away with big wins over teams whose only realistic aim is avoid relegation but Carlow could hardly have done much more in their opening games.
C Nolan (1-5), M Kavanagh (0-8.4fs), P Boland (1-2). C Kehoe (1-1), J Nolan (0-4), T Joyce (0-2), K McDonald (s/l), J Doyle, J McCullagh, J Treacy, and C Whelan (0-1 each).
D Moriarty (0-6, fs), L Crowley and S Nolan (0-3 each), O Maunsell (0-2), P O’Connor, T Doyle, and S Brosnan (0-1 each).
Brian Tracey, Paul Doyle, Dion Wall, Páidí O’Shea, Evan Kealy, Kevin McDonald, Jack McCullagh, James Doyle, Fiachra Fitzpatrick, Jon Nolan, Conor Kehoe, Ciaran Whelan, Chris Nolan, Martin Kavanagh, Paddy Boland. Subs: Ted Joyce for J Doyle (55), Jack Treacy for C Kehoe (58), John Michael Nolan for C Nolan (65), Fiach O'Toole for P Boland (68), Richard Coady for C Whelan (70).
Louis Dee, Kyle O’Connor, Flor McCarthy, Dara Kearney, Darragh Shanahan, Kevin Goulding, Seánie McGrath, Paudie O’Connor, Dáithí Griffin, Tom Doyle, Killian Hayes, Luke Crowley, Darragh Conway, Oisín Maunsell, Dylan Moriarty. Subs: Rory Mahony for D Griffin (52), Shane Nolan for S McGrath (55), Seanie Brosnan for D Moriarty (60), Luke Rochford for K Hayes (68), Niall Mulcahy for L Crowley (68)
Caymon Flynn (Westmeath)
