Just For The Record

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Great post Over The Black Spot and met with full and complete agreement by me.

The arrogance, ignorance and utter unashamed pessimism of OF is nauseating. The vitriol he spreads is poisonous to the uneducated (such as himself) and thankfully do not represent the opinions of anybody else. His arguments are nonsensical, jumbled, inflammatory and utter unadulterated rubbish. In short they are written in the finest tabloid prose. Just complete effluent. In addition his use of the mechanics and spelling of the English language is pathetically poor while also being slyly selective.

Funnily OF, you actually believe yourself to have the best interests of Offaly hurling at heart. This may be the case; however you reek of an ulterior, more personal motive.

If this were a political forum, you would be the Socialist party. Hospitals and you're the Arkham Asylum. A crèche and you are the petulant child consistently crying. Pacifists and you’re the IRA. In short you are the raving, fringe lunatic that unfortunately every free society must suffer but that are thankfully largely ignored. You are the laughing stock.

No doubt you will retort with the same septic slurry in the same condescending tone about facts and truths and how 'you’re just calling it as you see it'. Save yourself the time and just remember that the GAA is a democratic organisation, if you want change just get involved and desist from clogging this otherwise good forum with your monotonous opinions. Honestly, the sheer repetitiveness of them is mind numbing. You bore me.

Does the fact that so many people disagree with you so often never strike you as strange? That perhaps you may be slightly misguided on some of your beliefs no matter how strongly you may hold them? That some revision in light of new facts may be needed? A fool is never somebody who is wrong; it is the person who refuses to admit they are wrong. Consistently you have proven yourself to be a fool. But ignorance they say is bliss, so on you plough your lonely furrow.

To finish, I finish with an about turn, a change of heart if you will; Offaly’s Future (a name never more mismatched with the persona) do not get involved with the GAA. Never. To see your malign influence spread beyond empty mindless rhetoric would indeed be a sad day and would lead more people to suffer what is fast becoming insufferable.

[swiftpost]

Some very valid points from OF, a lot of other points i wouldnt entertain but has a few good points. How a county like Offaly can afford not to have
Barry Teehan, Shane o Connor, Damien Murray, Ciaran Slevin, Dylan Hayden, Sean Ryan, Niall Claffey, Gary Haniffy
hurling for us is beyond belief. (Gary Hanniffy the exception - work commitments).
However I do feel you are being too hard with Joe Dooley, give him a chance. Underage structures need to change...but im a little like Enda Kenny in that regard...iv no answers.

[Bord na Mona man]

You'll always have a few lads who won't be on the county panel for different reasons. If you get 25 of the best 30 players in the county a panel, you are doing well.

Of the players named, I don't think any of them would make a huge difference. Only 3 or 4 would be in with a genuine shot of making the starting 15.
Time moves on and you have to work with the players who are currently there.

[joe bloggs]

As a hurling manager at senior level Joe Dooley has never won anything. Nothing not a piece of silverware.

Do you mean at Inter-COunty or Club level??

now please tell me u aint going to come out and say he helped Clareen to a junior title. jesus chriest.

As for the comment previous about dismissing the limerick result. Yes it was a good win fair play. But was it that limerick were bad or Offaly were very good?
Limerick got rid of their manager and it has been said that things weren't great in their camp.
Instead of pinning our hopes on a win against a poor setup i look to other performances and results to make my mind up.
Walsh Cup, League and Championship.
we got bet by antrim in waslh cup with 3/4 of our championship team, we lost to laois and never won a game in the league and we got hammered by Kilkenny
and lost by 6 points to Waterford who ended up getting hammered also by kilkenny.

And to the person who made the comment that i show no solutions. i have explained in previous posts that the problem in Offaly
is at underage level with the academies and the people who are running and are over the teams. Johnny Pilkington and Johnny Flaherty and Adrian Cahill
are certainly not the answer.
Take time to look at my previous posts and come back to me then.

You should be a politician anwering a simple question in the way you did. Can you name who should be in charge of the academies, remembering that while you can trot out various names from our recent glorious past, how many would be willing/able or have the time to volunteer their services.

[turk]

Offaly's future is an excellent contributor. The forum needs views that challenge the consensus

[Offalys Future]

I dont have all the answers but can i just say that all i ever want to do is highlight to ye what problems i
think exist and the solutions that are needed. The figures below dont lie so its pretty obvious serious
change is needed.

You will not meet a more passionate mad within Offaly hurling as myself.
I have travelled for years from one end of the country to another and to every club hurling game in the county
that i could possible attend at all grades supporting Offaly hurling.

But in the last few years i have looked in to things a bit more and to see the setup in our county at the moment
its really just sad.
I will only talk about the hurling side of things.

I have argued constantly that we have alot of very talented hurlers in Offaly and especially at underage level.
But you have to do the business at your own age group before you should be given the honour of been allowed
where you county senior jersey. In my opinion that is not the case at the moment.

But they simply are not getting the coaching, guidance and advice that is needed to bring them through.
I went and watched these academies in operation last year and i posted on this forum how much of a joke they were.
Remember large sums of money are been wasted on these with absolutely no results to date to suggest that they
are working. Where is the report on the academies to see if they are working?

I don't know Johnny Pilkington or Adrian Cahill personally, but what i do know is that when they were hurling they
showed no respect to their club or county jersey, and made into these cult heroes that in my opinion they are certainly
not. They are the last 2 people i would want over the best young hurlers in the county. Again thats my opinion and i am entitled to that.

Look below and you will see the last time Offaly were successful at any level and look at all the other counties that are after having
success while we have been left behind. Left behind due to a lack of leadership, guidance and cop on at county board level.



Last Leinster SHC Title - 1995 - Kilkenny(10), Weford(3)
Last Leinster MHC - 2000 - Kilkenny(6), Dublin(2)
Last Leinster U-21 - 2000 - Kilkenny(5), Weford(2), Dublin(1)
Last Walsh Cup - 1994 - Kilkenny(3), Wexford(8), Dublin(1), UCD(1), Antrim(1)

Last Leinster SFC - 1997 ----- Dublin(5), Meath(2), Kildare(2), Laois(1), Westmeath(1)
Last Leinster MFC - 1989 ----- Dublin(4), Laois(6), Meath(4), Kildare(1), Westmeath (2), Longford(1)
Last Leinster U-21 - 1995 ---- Laois(3), Dublin(3), Westmeath(2), Meath(3), Kildare(2)
Last O'Byrne Cup - 1998 ------ MEATH(3), Dublin(3), Kildare(1), Laois(1), Louth(1), Longford(1), Carlow(1)

Oh yes i nearly forget i checked it out last night with a man who played with Clareen in 1988 and both Joe Dooley and Eugene Coughlan
trained the team to their first county title that year.