Hurling in March for benefit of the Wicklow footballers

We're unsure whether Noel McCaffrey would approve or not, but the Wicklow junior hurling championship got underway on Wednesday night and featured two potential inter-county players.

On a bitterly cold evening at the exposed centre of excellence outside Rathdrum, Éire Óg Greystones and Barndarrig played out a well-contested match on a very tacky pitch.

Éire Óg prevailed 2-10 to 0-06, not a bad result considering it was the first outing of the year and they were missing a host of their more experienced players.

Both sides will most likely play their next Championship matches in July, four months from now. When hopefully the pitches are a little harder.

It was close at half-time when Barndarrig withdrew Johnny Carlin, who had been dominating at midfield.

The Donegal native has played League of Ireland football for Cabinteely and made his Allianz Football League debut for his county in 2025, having previously played for the Wicklow footballers.

He "hurled a bit" for his home club Red Hughs and it showed as he made light of the underfoot conditions in Ballinakill, which Willie Mullins would have approved of.

He also possesses a fearsome shoulder, one capable of projecting a mediocre junior hurler in his 40s through the air and over the sideline, end over end.

I know this because, dear reader, I was that mediocre hurler.

Trying to pick up a loose ball on the left sideline in front of the Barndarrig bench, I was focussed on the sliotar as I was struck on my right shoulder by something as solid and fast moving as an artic truck.

Despite the Hanna Barbera-esque explosion of limbs I didn’t think it was a foul, but the ref took pity on me as I gathered myself at the feet of the very amused Barndarrig subs and awarded us a free.

No Éire Óg player was sorry to see Carlin depart at half-time. He had already lasted 25 minutes longer than his team-mate Colm Brennan, who started at corner-forward but was withdrawn early in proceedings.

A native of Inis Mór, it’s not implausible Wednesday was the first time he had ever held a hurl. Athough it is also understood he is carrying a knock.

Settled in Laragh after moving back from Australia, Brennan is training with Oisín McConville’s Wicklow footballers. Carlin is also back with the Garden County after throwing his lot in with Jim McGuinness’s All-Ireland finalists last year.

He made his debut against Tyrone in the league at the age of 29 but found himself out of contention come Championship and can only marvel at the wealth of talent now available to McGuinness.

A carpenter by trade and living in Brittas Bay, he considered playing club with Red Hughs again this year but balked at the travel involved.

He wasn’t mad keen to chat after the game but I guilted him into it, reminding him he had ragdolled me in the first half. We’re friends again now.

Carlin’s pedigree is proven and sources within the Wicklow camp say Brennan’s potential is exciting, but neither were eligible to play county unless they featured in a Wicklow club championship match. Carlin is named in the panel for today’s meeting with Tipperary.

So that’s how intermediate hurling club Barndarrig and Éire Óg’s juniors ended up playing a junior hurling championship 'grading’ match before they'd had a league game (or even a training session for many of us).

Hurling sorting out football’s problems – not the first time.

Before the rise of Naas, before Brian Dowling arrived, before Jack Sheridan, Cathal Dowling, Muiris Curtin or David Qualter, before Kildare rose to the giddy heights of the Leinster SHC and Division 1B hurling, the only thing many associated with hurling in the Lilywhite County was Seanie Johnston’s 35-second cameo for Coill Dubh on the last day of June 2012.

The Cavan sharpshooter’s controversial transfer to Kieran McGeeney’s Kildare side was held up by the various alphabet soup committees in Croke Park, meaning he had missed the chance to line out for his new club St Kevin's in the Kildare SFC (this is in pre-split season days).

Sister club Coill Dubh eventually acquiesced to the non-hurler starting a championship match against another Éire Óg (Corrachoill) in front of a large crowd in Clane.

"I didn't envisage all the rigmarole behind it and I certainly didn't see (playing hurling championship) today," Johnston told reporters afterwards.

"I'm just happy to have everything behind me. I don't want to be, despite what people might think, in the national press, in the Kildare press."

On Wednesday there were more spectators observing underage county training than the unseasonal junior championship match taking place on the other side of the driveway at Ballinakill, while the only journalist present was struggling at wing-forward.

Carlin and Brennan aren’t household names (yet) and even McConville’s presence doesn’t bring Division 4 Wicklow into the same orbit at Geezer’s Kildare in terms of national profile.

Most of my team-mates didn’t know or care about the unusual motive behind the game, they were just happy to get an unexpected run out.

It is understood, at county board level, it was considered easier to manufacture an inconsequential hurling match than one in football – one that would have no material impact on the important championship business of late summer.

Football is undoubtedly the dominant code in the Garden County with six championships from Senior down to Junior D.

Approximately a dozen of the county’s 40-odd clubs field hurling teams - Brennan’s Laragh one of the majority who do not compete in the small ball code.

So, beyond making Carlin and Brennan eligible for the county footballers, what was the upshot of Wednesday night?

Éire Óg’s victory means they are now in a position to field a second junior team in this year’s championship and our manager is optimistic that a promising batch of players from minor, coupled with enthusiasm for a more sociable level of participation hurling, may yield the numbers required.

Good news for aging, mediocre wing-forwards who can’t take a shoulder. And good news for Carlin and Brennan.

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