leinster junior hurling championship

[kingscounty]

ballyragget 2-18 brosna gaels 1-04 ; another big defeat for an offaly team in this championship by a kilkenny team thats a lower grade, with drumcullen getting hammered by john lockes last year. this just proves that senior club hurling in offaly has really only 3 or 4 clubs every year that are capable of winning the championship with the rest making up the numbers. there must have been very little fight or interest from brosna gaels going into this game?

[bracknaghboy]

Have to agree Kingscounty. The Kilkenny junior champions should not be hammering our Intermediate winners like that. Whats worse is that Gaels were just down from senior so have been hurling at a high level in Offaly for the last 2-3 years. Perhaps there is an explaination for the result (weakened team, men sent off etc) but looking at them against Rynaghs a few weeks back I thought they looked very sharp.

[Greenwhiteandgold]

St patricks ballyragget would not be your average junior team. They are a very young up and coming team, and no doubt they will do very well in intermediate and will potentially be senior when these young players reach there peak. They have many players who have represented kilkenny minors, u21s and intermediates. Home advantage was also a help for them. I wouldnt put brosna gaels down as a failure after this and I think they will be well able to compete in senior next year.

[corner back]

Accepting that Ballyragget are a good junior team, I think that scoreline reflects very badly on a team that hurled senior last year in Offaly. I'm glad Coolderry won yesterday because this result really is a worrying one for hurling in the county.

[joe bloggs]

As i have said before, we have too many "senior teams" in offaly, and this result proves it.
8 teams in senior with 4 clubs going down to intermediate, with 8 teams there also and so on.
Play a league among all 8 to then determine a knockout championship

[townman]

Drumcullen also got a bad beating by John Lockes from Callan last year, so to see Brosna Gaels losing by so much isn't a surprise
as most levels of hurling is strong in kilkenny i have seen junior hurling in kilkenny and the standard is quiet hight.

maybe there is to many senior clubs in offaly i don't know but i think Coolderry winning yesterday was a good lift for offaly hurling.

[DoonGael]

To say brosna gaels went into the game yesterday with very little interest is very wide of the mark!from being someone that played wit all them lads up until recently i can say every player/mentor goes into every game weather it be a challenge,league or championship giveing 100%.ok they were beaten well but it definately was not from lack of interest.

[llkj]

While it is a disappointing way to finish the season, I would say that Brosna Gaels will be delighted with their year overall.

There is a lot to be said for keeping lads hurling into the middle of November, as it is perfect preperation for returning to Senior next season. With no football to worry about, the last couple of months would have allowed the lads to focus on hurling alone, and brought some of the lads on a huge amount, as dual players make huge strides when they can consistently play hurling 3 or 4 times a week.

Also, taking a beating in the final game, will help to focus the minds for next year, and drive it home to them that they need to step up a level again in the Senior championship. I believe that they will be very competitive next year and wouldn't be surprised to see them reach the knockout stages, if they keep improving.

In the overall scheme of things, there is never going to be any debating that the teams ranked 10-15 in Offaly are going to be as strong as the ones around the 20 mark in Kilkenny. The sheer playing numbers and the fact that most clubs are hurling only, will dictate that. Offaly's hope each year is that the top clubs are competitive with the top clubs from KK and that the other clubs keep improving and supplying some players of county standard.