Overnight success after a year's graft

Focus on Carlow hurlers: One of the big shocks of the hurling season came at the weekend with the victory of Carlow over hot promotion favourites, the supposedly temporarily distressed gentry of Offaly. It was the county's first win over that opposition in over 40 years.

For manager Eoin Garvey, Carlow's achievement is the culmination of a year's hard work from when he took over in difficult circumstances after the departure of Michael Walsh 12 months ago.

"It was a traumatic time to come in," says Garvey, a native of Inagh in Clare who has been teaching in Bagenalstown for over 10 years, "and we ended up in a play-off with Mayo and we managed to beat them before getting hockeyed by Laois in the championship.

"We started training for this season in early November and I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to lads so there are lots of players involved this year that weren't around last year for one reason or another. There's a lot more talent at our disposal.

"I'm like Mickey Harte in that I don't believe in five nights' collective training a week. I believe in players putting in the time all right but in giving them the freedom to work their lives around training - go training in the gym or with their clubs - and I think the players appreciate that."

It's a young panel that reflects Garvey's experience over recent years coaching the county minors. Half of the panel are under-21s, who are also under the charge of the senior manager.

"The panel is stronger but the main thing is that players have belief, although it couldn't have been expected that anyone apart from the 35 of us would believe that we could beat Offaly. We've been winning tight games even if we haven't been running up any cricket scores."

It was a memorable day for veteran Johnny Nevin who played in a novel role at full back.

"He'd a great game - at the age of 67!" according to Garvey. "It's new for him but an idea we'd toyed with. He's only 5ft 8in and was marking Rory Hanniffy, which was a slight anomaly but he was able to cope, even under high ball he was getting a stick up to it."

For Offaly manager John McIntyre it was a nasty jolt that actually places promotion beyond his team's strict control. If Carlow and Westmeath win their next matches and draw with each other, the favourites are gone.

"They beat us fair and square but it's still a shock to the system. Our league hopes are now hanging by a thread and we have to pick it up from here. They were fiercely committed and hunted in packs. They would have troubled a lot of teams on the day and the quality of their stick work was particularly high.

"They've been putting a lot of effort into this season and that showed. I would be delighted for them except that from my perspective as Offaly manager I wish they'd picked another day. It fuels the perception that Offaly hurling is in deep, deep trouble and we'll just have to dust ourselves down and not get caught up in a rash of self-pity."

Contrary to some fears Offaly will not have to worry about their place in the senior championship just yet. The 12 places in this year's McCarthy Cup are based on last season's Division One but from now on those places will be regulated by championship performance.

* EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy will open Sarsfields' clubhouse extension in Newbridge on Sunday. The project, which cost €1,500,000, is the culmination of years of effort by members and its conclusion will be marked by a football challenge between Kildare and Cavan, throw-in at 3pm.