County finals

[corner back]

When are they on?

Why is the second hurling semi not on the is weekend. I'd play off the championships as quickly as possible while the days are half decent.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Football final fixed for Sunday 5th October; hurling for the following week.

The Birr / Kilcormac semi final is fixed for Saturday week at 5pm. i suspect a the weeks deferrment to some sleight of hand on Birr's part. The extra week will be more of a help to them.

When are they on?

Why is the second hurling semi not on the is weekend. I'd play off the championships as quickly as possible while the days are half decent.

[Lone Shark]

Football final fixed for Sunday 5th October; hurling for the following week.

The Birr / Kilcormac semi final is fixed for Saturday week at 5pm. i suspect a the weeks deferrment to some sleight of hand on Birr's part. The extra week will be more of a help to them.

When are they on?

Why is the second hurling semi not on the is weekend. I'd play off the championships as quickly as possible while the days are half decent.

I suspect it's the usual attempt to feck up the footballers. Give them six days, and you couldn't have the two teams out the one weekend.

[baz]

we dont need slight of hand to win mate considering the county board done their best to break up the birr club for years ,we rise above that type of dribble to get to all irelands .as for fecking up the footballers ,havent seen one of them in offaly in years .why were these 2 semis played on a football pitch in tullamore (dont care about paying of the stand ,whats best for hurling should be the issue ) and reffed by football people ( gavin might be inter county ref in hurling but like dempsey of wexford as doddgy as anything).nothing wrong for generations in these matches played in rath or banagher ,but then too many football people have too much say in hurling issues (look at state of football in offaly when they ripped apart the parishes at county board level ,dire )people voted with their feet as less than 3 hundred turned up on each day .hurling people livid and realised why games in tullamore ,stayed away ,normally wouldnt miss these games .no doubt officals will be whinging over the like of this ( which is the truth anyway ) but sure arent the reason offaly gaa is where its at now , low .

[Bord na Mona man]

Talk of "football people" and "hurling people" is nonsense.
I quickly lose sympathy for someone's argument when they resort to that sort of one-eyed, blinkered stuff.

Brian Gavin not being a suitable ref because he comes from a strong football club? This should be mentioned to Croke Park before they accidentally give him another All ireland semi final to ref. Do they not do any sort of background checks on their officials at all these days?

[Phoenix]

Just as a normal supporter sitting at one end of the stand it seemed like there was a big crowd in Tullamore for the Birr- KK match. KK always seem to bring out a lot of support and there were a lot of neutrals there also.

The pitch looked good and conditions were perfect for hurling. The ground has been slightly lengthened last year and the score of 0-17 to 0-13 doesn't indicate that it was too easy to score.

[bazza]

have to agree wit me name sake baz.. in offaly, junior/intermediate football people or B clubs (whatever you want to call them) have way too much say in hurling and football matters in offaly. look at all the people in the county board.. they're all from intermediate or junior football clubs..

[GreatDayForTheParish]

I arrived at the Birr-K/K match with 5 minutes to spare and found myself a seat right in the middle of the stand. This seat was itself surrounded by many other empty seats. Now I know Tullamore has a large capacity but I can't agree that there was a big crowd at the game. At best it was a very average turnout. As for the issue of Tullamore being a 'football field', that is a spurious argument at best. I agree, Birr should the be venue of all the latter stage club games but in its absence it is only correct and logical that Tullamore with its intercounty standard facilities and superior playing surface should host.

[Gustavus Adolphus]

people voted with their feet as less than 3 hundred turned up on each day .hurling people livid and realised why games in tullamore ,stayed away ,normally wouldnt miss these games .

Is 300 an estimate baz or is that the official attendance? I was at both games and while I'm no great judge of crowd size I would've thought there was at least twice that at both matches with a bigger crowd at the Birr and K/K match. The crowd looked small in the context of the stand but there was surely more than 300 there? I get your point though and I definitiely agree that there would've been more at the matches if they were held in Birr. But owing to the fact that Birr is unplayable at the moment I think its only right to play the semi finals and final of the hurling in Tullamore. No disrespect to banagher and rath, both fine venues, but for the players and the parishes involved I think it would take away from the overall sense of occasion to play the SHC semi finals or finals at these venues.