THE ST. PATRICK'S senior football decline continues, and the once-powerful club which backboned the Carlow teams of the late '50s and early '60s seems to be heading for a return to the intermediate grade after only a few seasons among the hierarchy.

Ironically, they have quite a few players who would win berths on other senior selections but once in blue and yellow they disintegrate.

Soccer and rugby is proffered as an excuse for the fall from grace but in the second most populated town in the county it does not appear a believable reason for such a collapse.

Heading the queue of frustrated officials is chairman Chris Murphy who insists that, wherever it may happen, the team must taste victory again.

"The difficulty that I see is that we lost a number of games by a point and that undermined the confidence of the players, and the one we lost against Palatine last year was a colossal game. There was a wrong referring decision and the tide then turned against us, and in fact the whole year did."

Chris reckons that many youngsters in Tullow are burning out because of all the soccer and rugby. "Many actually stop playing when they come to 20 and 21; just gone from all sports."

Tony Maher has a list of players going back over the under 16s and minors who played in the last ten years and there are 80 players who are not playing Gaelic games or indeed any sport. "I think that the good players get burned out and those on the fringes just get fed up."

Yet St. Patrick's hurlers are on a high. "As you see from the hurling if you give them a few results suddenly confidence is renewed which led us to the junior hurling last year' and they carried that through to the intermediate grade.

"In our first match we were two points up against Naomh Brid and with a minute to go they scored a goal. After a trouncing against Rangers we played the match of the year in Fenagh when drawing against Myshall and Myshall recognised that it was as good a game as they played this year."

Yet half of the hurlers are playing football and the others just for the enjoyment of hurling, but Chris believes that their results are building confidence.

"Winning is the most important thing, whether you do it at senior, intermediate or in challenge matches…you have to learn to win because that feeling generates belief in yourself and in other players, and when in trouble you have something to call on and grind out results."

The chairman saw positives from their recent defeat by Palatine. "We got as good scores as Pal but we just didn't get enough of them…but some play as good as you'll see, but we're not replicating it."

Wherever it he insists that belief will only return when they start winning. "The numbers are there, and they seem to be putting in the training, and the facilities are as good as anywhere in the county. We start in February and go for six weeks or so but then lose a few matches without lads who are caught in the end of the soccer or rugby seasons."

He thought the O'Hanrahans 'break' may have been the correct route. "Maybe they did the right thing by pulling the plug, taking a break and reassessing…they rose like the Phoenix again."

Remarking on the alarm among the players of the '50s and '60s (see elsewhere this page) at Tullow's slide Chris recalled: "Look back to, I think ' 68, when they played their last major match…this is not something which started in the last ten years. From 1968 until '07 Tullow did not win a senior championship match (relegation games aside), so it's not the group of players today.

"We won two intermediates in the last ten years and had we the team in the senior in 2005 they'd probably have done very well, but to carry that forward is the problem. Some players thought that was the plateau and in the following year, with the same management structure, they were in a relegation battle."

Again referring to the concerns of the older corps, Chris felt there was profit in the assistance of anyone who wishes to help, "but negativity is not going to be any help at all. We've made a huge commitment in the last five years putting up lights, nets, realigning the pitch, scoreboard and re-doing the banks, the gym…huge structural work which was neglected for a number of years, but the results on the field are very disappointing…somebody has to look in the mirror."