MARTY Kavanagh has broken the scoring record for a Carlow senior intercounty hurler after his thirteen points in the recent Allianz Hurling League win over Down brought him 11 clear of his St Mullins club man, Pat Coady.
Marty Kavanagh became Carlow’s all-time top scorer during the recent win over Down Photo: michaelorourkephotography.ie
The new record holder has scored 29 goals and 600 points (687 points) in 106 games and is now ahead of Coady who annexed 14-634 from 128 games. The St Mullins club, with Red Liamy Walsh’s 56 goals and 266 points (434) complete a clean sweep of the top three placings.
Going into the game, the record holder in waiting was not concentrating on the possibility of breaking the record.
“I wasn’t really aware of it. Pat Coady texted me a few weeks ago. I knew then I wasn’t that far away but I didn’t look into it,” said Marty after the game.
“No-one knew. I thought there was a chance and it was only confirmed when Brendan (Hennessy) and Tommy (Murphy) caught me at the bottom of the stairs. Jack (Marty’s brother) was beside me and he just said congratulations. No-one knew,” repeated Marty.
“They left me alone as they didn’t want to put pressure on me,” the St Mullins sharpshooter related.
After coming back into the side late in the season this year, Kavanagh is now making up for lost time. After their comprehensive 5-24 to 1-19 victory against Down on Sunday, they need to win against Offaly in two weeks time and follow up with a home victory against Derry if they are to have any chance in making the knock-out stages. After that, it is straight into the Joe McDonagh Cup.
“It is obviously a nice thing to have the record but we had a good day overall. The performance was good. It is obviously nice to do but at the moment we are determined to get a bit of silverware this year. That is the main objective and hopefully we can push on. Everyone is training hard and it is very positive,” he recounted.
In 2019 Kavanagh’s late free out on the left and into the O’Hanrahan end of the ground in Netwatch Cullen Park against the mighty Galway gave the sides a share of the NHL 1B points at 0-20 each. In the Leinster senior hurling championship the following May, Carlow travelled to Salthill and put up a highly respectable performance before losing to the Tribesmen 1-24 to 1-18. Marty, affectionately known as Mouse, scored 0-11 with five of those points coming from play. There was another individual accolade for him that day.
“I got the Man of the Match and the award with my name on it sent down to the house was a nice touch.”
In his intercounty career so far, he says Eoghan O’Donnell, the Dublin defender, has been his hardest opponent. As far as the St Mullins man is concerned three Carlow hurlers are not that far behind.
“Alan Corcoran (Bagenalstown Gaels) and Shane Kavanagh (Naomh Eoin) would be right up there. Paudie Kehoe (St Mullins) would be very hard to mark in training,” said Marty who describes an intercounty career highlight when he captained Carlow to a 2017 Christy Ring Cup success in Croke Park.
“To be up in Croke Park and to receive the cup and having an acceptance speech on behalf of the Carlow hurlers was huge. Growing up and watching the Kilkenny’s you would dream about doing that kind of stuff.”
Carlow’s top six hurling scorers
Total Hurler Score Games Average
687 Marty Kavanagh (St Mullins) 29-600 106 6.48
676 Pat Coady (St Mullins) 14-634 128 5.28
434 ‘Red’ Liamy Walsh (St Mullins) 56-266 82 5.29
321 Mick Murphy (Borris and Ballymurphy) 17-270 92 3.48
302 Des Murphy (Naomh Eoin) 62-116 149 2.02
271 Chris Nolan (ML Rangers) 18-217 73 3.71
Marty has scored 25-162 (237) from play, 4-438 from placed balls.
