Darragh Foley happy with two-tier system as Carlow search for response

Carlow veteran Darragh Foley believes that a two-tier championship system is sufficient enough to give all counties a viable chance of claiming silverware.

The Leinster side enter the Tailteann Cup this weekend as they make the short trip to Aughrim to face neighbours Wicklow on Sunday.

They do so on the back of an Allianz League campaign that saw them finish 30th out of 32. This year's competition features Meath, a side who finished 14th overall – sixth in Division 2.

Those final standings would suggest that a chasm still exists between the top teams and those ranked as big outsiders in the Tailteann Cup, but Foley is not subscribing to the notion of a third tier being necessary.

"I think two tiers is enough, it is up to the likes of ourselves and a few teams in the bottom half of Division 4 to raise our standards, to get up to that level," he said.

"If you dilute it any more it will be very hard to keep lads motivated and bring youngsters through that want to play inter-county football. So I think two tiers is enough, as I say I just want to raise standards, to get up to the levels of your Meaths or the bottom of Division Two teams.

"Apart from maybe the top five or six teams, there is very little between the rest. The Tailteann Cup is great for that. In all of the games last year there wasn't many one sided games, it was fairly even, there seems to be great battles in it, and hopefully we will see that this year too."

Trying to raise those standards has been Foley’s modus operandi now for a decade and a half as he carries the tag of being one of Ireland’s longest-serving county players.

First invited into the panel by former manager Luke Dempsey, the Kilbride man has embarked on his 14th season in the red, yellow and green.

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