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timber wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 2:30 pm For me, the weekend before the leaving cert should have been straight up non runner for Offaly and refuse to play it. You cannot expect lads doing leaving cert to be preparing for the biggest game they have ever played in to be 3 days before starting their exams. We talk about player welfare and all that but this is ridiculous. You talk about stress. This is stupidity. Whatever about anything else, Sunday 4th was the worst possible outcome of this from an Offaly perspective as obviously we have a younger team and are more affected by leaving cert unfortunately. It is an issue, that should not be taken too lightly.

Downey is available for Cork now also but I reckon he would have been regardless. Ben O' Connor has been pretty vocal about that issue and would of made sure he had him. He said in interview after munster final that Downey was "being punished for being good. He's too good by the way playing with the 20s so he'll play with senior. If your too good at something". So thats how good they see him.

G91 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 5:35 pm For me it's not really about the games being moved I'm more concerned that there's an attitude that offaly are in trouble without Mitchell and don't get me wrong he's brilliant but surely we have another player that can do a job maybe not as good sure but why is the narrative all about missing Mitchel and not similar to the senior vs carlow we have players that are carrying a few niggling injuries that need a week or two witch there is ?

Anonymous1 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 4:23 pm

timber wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 2:30 pm For me, the weekend before the leaving cert should have been straight up non runner for Offaly and refuse to play it. You cannot expect lads doing leaving cert to be preparing for the biggest game they have ever played in to be 3 days before starting their exams. We talk about player welfare and all that but this is ridiculous. You talk about stress. This is stupidity. Whatever about anything else, Sunday 4th was the worst possible outcome of this from an Offaly perspective as obviously we have a younger team and are more affected by leaving cert unfortunately. It is an issue, that should not be taken too lightly.

Downey is available for Cork now also but I reckon he would have been regardless. Ben O' Connor has been pretty vocal about that issue and would of made sure he had him. He said in interview after munster final that Downey was "being punished for being good. He's too good by the way playing with the 20s so he'll play with senior. If your too good at something". So thats how good they see him.

The thing is, it was Offaly who requested it be moved to June 3rd/4th so they were obviously ok with it.

Good point re Downey, Cork would’ve left him out of the senior team this Sunday if the U20 final was next Saturday so the argument that moving the U20 final back a week benefits Cork because Downey can now play is bogus.

private joker wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 6:30 pm

Anonymous1 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 4:23 pm

timber wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 2:30 pm For me, the weekend before the leaving cert should have been straight up non runner for Offaly and refuse to play it. You cannot expect lads doing leaving cert to be preparing for the biggest game they have ever played in to be 3 days before starting their exams. We talk about player welfare and all that but this is ridiculous. You talk about stress. This is stupidity. Whatever about anything else, Sunday 4th was the worst possible outcome of this from an Offaly perspective as obviously we have a younger team and are more affected by leaving cert unfortunately. It is an issue, that should not be taken too lightly.

Downey is available for Cork now also but I reckon he would have been regardless. Ben O' Connor has been pretty vocal about that issue and would of made sure he had him. He said in interview after munster final that Downey was "being punished for being good. He's too good by the way playing with the 20s so he'll play with senior. If your too good at something". So thats how good they see him.

The thing is, it was Offaly who requested it be moved to June 3rd/4th so they were obviously ok with it.

Good point re Downey, Cork would’ve left him out of the senior team this Sunday if the U20 final was next Saturday so the argument that moving the U20 final back a week benefits Cork because Downey can now play is bogus.

I don't think Cork would've have left him off to play. He didn't play in munster final did he? Limerick played all ireland final last year without a senior panel member.

Anonymous1 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 2:15 pm I get the sense I’m in the minority here but I fully agree with decoupling the U20 final from the Joe Mcdonagh. I’ve already outlined why yesterday but just to summarise; It allows Mitchell to play in both games, it allows Rigney and Miller time to recover from their injuries and gives Screeney and Kavanagh an extra weeks rest off the back of their own injuries but aside from all of that it prevents a situation where one team loses in the first game and takes the air out of the stadium leading to a knock on effect for the second team or potentially trying to organise a celebration for one team as champions while the other team will be in mourning.

The suggestion here that we need 20,000 fans to beat Carlow in the Joe McDonagh is ridiculous. The seniors have been playing to small crowds all year from Ballycran to Hawkfield, if anything a massive crowd could throw our lads off, if we’re good enough to beat Carlow then we’ll beat them, we’ll still outnumber the Carlow fans in Croker.

The minors beat Clare last year in Thurles so it won’t faze any of them and I actually think we’ll get a bigger crowd in Thurles on a Sunday than we would’ve got in Croker on a Saturday. Anybody who wants to go see Offaly in an All Ireland final isn’t going to be put off by the fact the Joe Mcdonagh isn’t also on, the diehards will be at both and if we’re being honest a lot of the bandwagon crowd wouldn’t even know what the Joe Mcdonagh is. Thurles is also a shorter drive and doesn’t put off those who don’t like travelling into cities.

Oh and let’s all collectively put our biases to one side and cheer on the tribesmen in the minor semi so we won’t get a cork double header!