OFFALY V KILKENNY.

[uibhfhaili]

Lets have some honesty here. Our Kilkenny "friend" cuts very close to the bone unfortunately. Offaly hurling's days as a serious senior intercounty side are over. Can anybody say with any degree of certainty to we'll be back in the medium term? Obsolutely not. We are better off in the Christy Ring. Annual humiliations at the hands of KK and the Munster sides do nothing productive.

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly hurling's days as a serious senior intercounty side are over. Can anybody say with any degree of certainty to we'll be back in the medium term? Obsolutely not. We are better off in the Christy Ring. Annual humiliations at the hands of KK and the Munster sides do nothing productive.

That's entirely the wrong attitude.
We shouldn't aim to find a cosy comfort zone for ourselves in the Christy Ring or wherever.
We should move heaven and earth to put us back up with the elite.

[uibhfhaili]

Offaly hurling's days as a serious senior intercounty side are over. Can anybody say with any degree of certainty to we'll be back in the medium term? Obsolutely not. We are better off in the Christy Ring. Annual humiliations at the hands of KK and the Munster sides do nothing productive.

That's entirely the wrong attitude.
We shouldn't aim to find a cosy comfort zone for ourselves in the Christy Ring or wherever.
We should move heaven and earth to put us back up with the elite.

And do you believe, in all known past performance, that the Offaly County board are going to move heaven and earth to get Offaly back?Or will they just bury their heads in the sand and sprout sh1te about what a great wee County we are and how things will work out for Offaly eventually if we just give it time.

[Bord na Mona man]

And do you believe, in all known past performance, that the Offaly County board are going to move heaven and earth to get Offaly back?Or will they just bury their heads in the sand and sprout sh1te about what a great wee County we are and how things will work out for Offaly eventually if we just give it time.

I don't think I can speak on behalf of the county board, but the attitude of wanting to hide out Christy Ring cup and register a few meaningless wins against nobodies is preferable than trying to compete with the best surprises me.
We should measure ourselves against the Kilkenny's and Cork's and try and reach their level again. Not be looking to see how we can slog it out with the Wicklow's and Meath's of the hurling world.

If Offaly adopted that defeatist attitude three decades ago, there would have been no breakthrough in 1980.

[uibhfhaili]

And do you believe, in all known past performance, that the Offaly County board are going to move heaven and earth to get Offaly back?Or will they just bury their heads in the sand and sprout sh1te about what a great wee County we are and how things will work out for Offaly eventually if we just give it time.

I don't think I can speak on behalf of the county board, but the attitude of wanting to hide out Christy Ring cup and register a few meaningless wins against nobodies is preferable than trying to compete with the best surprises me.
We should measure ourselves against the Kilkenny's and Cork's and try and reach their level again. Not be looking to see how we can slog it out with the Wicklow's and Meath's of the hurling world.

If Offaly adopted that defeatist attitude three decades ago, there would have been no breakthrough in 1980.

You seem to be missing the salient point that we are no longer capable of competing with KK/Cork/Galway/Tipp ect. Humiliating defeats is our lot. What good those this do hurling in Offaly? There is absolutely nothing to suggest that this will change anytime soon. We live in hope that a miracle group of players spring from somewhere or even the miracle of the County board actually doing soemthing to adress the state of hurling in the county but both scenarios are whishful thinking.

[mad biffo]

Forget the Christy Ring Cup for starters. This team is still very young and need the experience of playing the so called big guns. And in all fairness the u21's got to the leinster final last year and dont forget they beat the Glorious Cats in the semis in nowlan park! All is not lost it is just a bad period. Offaly hurling will come good again the defence showed great spirit last sunday! Thats what its all about. And another note they only lost by a couple of pints to Tipp last year in the qualifiers and they should have won that game!

[uibhfhaili]

Forget the Christy Ring Cup for starters. This team is still very young and need the experience of playing the so called big guns. And in all fairness the u21's got to the leinster final last year and dont forget they beat the Glorious Cats in the semis in nowlan park! All is not lost it is just a bad period. Offaly hurling will come good again the defence showed great spirit last sunday! Thats what its all about. And another note they only lost by a couple of pints to Tipp last year in the qualifiers and they should have won that game!

Unfortunatley this is denial of where Offaly currently stand and are like to stand for the forseeable future. Losing to a Tipp side in chassis last yr is no grounds for future optimism. Dublin were hammered in the U21 final yr. THere is currently nological basis for saying that Offaly will come good again in the medium term. All indicators predict otherwise in fact. In general Offaly people are in a state of denial over the stae of hurling within the county.

[Bord na Mona man]

You seem to be missing the salient point that we are no longer capable of competing with KK/Cork/Galway/Tipp ect. Humiliating defeats is our lot.

We can either accept this as a given or try and rectify it.
Personally I favour the latter.

[DD]

There certainly is no quick fix to our hurling woes and we have to be prepared for plently of beatings like sunday before we get back to the top table.
The work really needs to be put in from age 8 to 14 to firstly get as many young fellas as possible out hurling and secondly give them the appropriate coaching, not the shite that currently passes for coaching in too many clubs and the County academies. From that base we could begin develop players and become competitive on a consistent basis at minor level.
Until that happens we will just have to put up the best showing we can with the resources we have - let Joe Dooley run his term (or even longer) and continue to build a team even if there is another hammering or two along the way.

[duckdiggler]

I suppose we are in a limbo situation , Not good enough to compete seriously for all ireland at the moment, but too strong for christy ring teams and i take uibhfhailis points completely on board

You have to strive to maximise your potential in sport as in life - if you can't be the best, be the best that you can be.
I would rather fail trying , than not try at all though.

therefore the all Ireland should be your goal not the Christy ring - granted we are shipping heavy defeats in recent times but if we work on not conceding goals then we will be in the running in a lot more games. I also think we need to decide on the spine of the team for this year and just stick with it . A settled team can hurl more instinctively. I think it would give Cleary Healion Bergin Molloy etc more confidence to know that position is theirs and just get on with it.

Offaly currently need to get as many summer games as possible against top championships teams as it is all experience for a young team- and as long as they are putting in the effort and commitment to compete they deserve that opportunity. 70 minutes intensity needs to be worked at, and with so many u/21's on the current panel, they would not have the 3 /4 years endurance work behind them that other more seasoned counties would.They also need to ensure Div 1 status hurling and that is up to the players to acheive and maintain that as one of their first goals moving forward.

I would also suggest that if we are not competitive at inter county at the moment , then maybe we should be running our own internal county championship in tandem with LHC and qualifiers as competitive games bring on players much better than any inter county friendly could ever do. Its worth running the risk of injuries as we have no Sid's or Johnnie Dooleys to look after / wrap in cotton wool.Would I be right in saying that we have only had one round of SHC in Offaly so far this year - could 3 extra rounds have helped hone touch , pace, and endurance for players moreso than training would - IMO it can only have helped in tandem with intercounty friendlies / training at this stage.

With regard to the County Board , it is they who are ultimately responsible for setting structures in place and commiting proper funds to coaching & development to make us competitive again, which is no quick fix. I do think they need to address who they have been recruiting to coach at all levels in both codes for our county teams, and ensure coaches with proper methods are appointed, particularly to underage teams, with some form of cohesion / transition being applied
e.g. Phil O'Reilly ( as an example only )coached Tullamore minors to success , offaly minor football team well a couple of years ago, coached Tullamore well in SFC last year, get him involved in some way at U21 / senior county level next year if hes available, with a view to taking on SFC mgr job in a couple of years. Earn your way up mgt ladder within the county in hurling or football to get the top job. ( yes I know they lost to Eire Og after that but remember I am only using him as an example of a manager making progress from underage onwards )

[royalblue]

Duckdicker you are right in what you say at the moment there is no progression for Management in Offaly for example you have lads like Michael Duignan and Johnny Flaherty going to Coaching meetings in Tullamore court and saying that only people who hurled intercounty should be allowed as a underage coach or selector this is totally wrong other people mightened have hurled or kicked football at that level but might know as much when it comes to coaching Alan Walsh for example and are willing to give their time and effort their time and effort since 2003 we havent qualified for a Leinster Minor Final they werent happy with selectors they had broiught likes of Johnny Dooley and Pilkington in and end up losing to Carlow twice. Alan Walsh never got a chance of the coaches job even though he was a selector when the y won the Minoe in 2000, Lads like Eugne rEYNOLDS ,nOEL Russel Ray Flannery Martin Buggy werent giving a go they did well underage with all these lads but were repaced by ex county stars

[Sydthebeat]

After the game last sunday, whilst i walked back to the car i saw possible 15-20 young kids playing hurling with their fathers/older brothers, or whatever, into the training goals of portlaoise gaa.. id say they ranged in age from youngest of about 3 to 15ish................ They were ALL kilkenny........ i did not see any young offaly kid with a hurley. Perhaps this is the problem....... success breeds success....... humilating defeats dont do anything to promote the game in our county.
Obviously we have a much smaller traditional catchment area in the county for hurling, therefore we need to be measuring ourselves against the likes of Clare or wexford, not the corks and kilkenny, our 'golden' teams come once in a blue moon.