We know that Gaelic football is as far down the priority list in Kilkenny as tiddlywinks is in other counties, but the scale of last night’s under-21 defeat to Louth must still have come as a shock to the system.
In Ballyragget last night, the Louth under-21 footballers subjected the Cats to a beating that the Kilkenny hurlers would struggle to inflict on the weakest counties, racking up a whopping 6-34 in a 50-point victory over their Leinster rivals.
The Wee County led by a barely believable 1-21 to no score at half time and although they scored just over half as many points after the break, they more than made up for it in front of goal by raising the green flag five times in the second half.
The Louth men got plenty of target practise in a ridiculously one-sided affair, but it was hardly of any use in terms of preparing them for their meeting with Longford in the next round.
The Kilkenny team that did take to the field last night deserve a huge amount of sympathy as they were forced to endure the humiliating ordeal for the entire 60 minutes, with reports suggesting that 11 of the panel failed to show up and that they were left with the bare 15 players.
The Louth lads can hardly be blamed for the slaughter; they were only beating what was in front of them after all, but it raises serious questions about the apparent disregard for Gaelic Football in Kilkenny, whose senior side are subjected to regular heavy beatings – if not on the same scale – in the National Football League, and don’t compete at all in the senior championship.
