CARLOW manager Bobby Miller, who resigned earlier in the week from the Eire Og club coach's position, has said that although he will be without three of the club's players for the coming Leinster championship, he is hopeful that the others will be available.
Eire Og, the club which Miller led to two unsuccessful All Ireland finals, including this year's has provided the bulk of the county team since Miller took over as county coach nearly two years ago. Up until then, many of the club's players had been reluctant to become involved with the county.
Full forward Colm "Rooster" Hayden, who has played for Leinster and received an All Star nomination, has emigrated to the US and is not expected back before Carlow start their championship campaign against Wexford on Sunday week. Also gone are Derek Wynne, who has declared for Sligo where he is now resident and Jody Morrissey.
Others, including Garvan Ware, Hughie Brennan, Anthony Keating and the more recently returned Joe Hayden, have been, in training. "I'll be losing my power in the club," says Miller, "but there'll be goodwill I suppose, which is important because otherwise you're teetering on the verge of football bankruptcy."
Meanwhile, Westmeath hurlers who begin their summer against Carlow with the first championship match of the year, have selected a full strength team, according to manager Georgie Leahy.
The county had a mixed League campaign with a number of miserable results redeemed by a last day victory over Dublin which kept them in Division Two.
"It was a poor League," says Leahy. "We drew our first game with Down, had a bad run and beat Dublin on the last day. The opposition was hard, very competitive Limerick, Wexford and Laois but I think we're after improving.
"Commitment is better in the summer. Before the winter matches, you don't get full turnouts in training. We had a good response for the Dublin match but when things are going badly, it's hard to keep going."
Last summer, Westmeath had a surprisingly good championship and emerged from the preliminary pool by defeating Carlow, who had previously beaten Meath. The gloss, however, was rubbed off the achievement by a six goal shellacking from Wexford.
"We didn't hurl well against Wexford. People say it wasn't our true form, but I don't know no one can say one whether it was or not.
"When I went up to them, they were in the third (division) and now they're in the second. That's progress, but you'd want to be up here to see how tough it is. What do the players see at the end of the rainbow when training in February or on a wet night in December?"
Survival in the second division constitutes the start of a successful year, but Leahy is frustrated by the difficulties involved in preparing for championship matches.
"Top class teams don't want to know you they're not going to improve. Everyone's talking about improving the game and helping out the weaker counties, but you can't get teams to play you.
Limerick, in fairness to them, promised us a challenge game after we played them in the League, and they came through. It wasn't their first team, but it was a good second team and that suited us. They could have played their best and hammered us but that type of match doesn't help.
"We played Limerick and were well beaten but played reasonably well. If you make a mistake against Limerick, you're in trouble and we made mistakes. But the exercise was quite satisfactory."
