Offaly Senior Hurlers 2024

[joey1001]

Laois put up a cricket score on meath today , expect us to do the same with little fuss. Would be a good chance to get hurling into likes of Oisin Kelly etc

Meath's poor showing is a good omen for Offaly. The Kerry game is 3 weeks away and Offaly need that time to allow injured players recover.

Kerry are very poor wouldn't be anyway worried about them, westmeath are very poor and were very poor today, if Offaly played to their best and were more clinical they'd have beaten them well. Down will probably beat Kerry tomorrow.

[Faithfully]

Massive relief to win that. We were definitely the better side. Fair play to the lads because I genuinely feared the worst after the red card.
Westmeath offered little threat in the forward line and their tackling lacked discipline throughout.

No slip ups now, win the next 3 and we're in the final. Down and Kerry in particular will require full blooded professional performances to get the job done.

On another note, Westmeath's goal was scored by Tubber man David O'Reilly...pity as he would be a big player for our 20s in another world...

[G91]

Massive relief to win that. We were definitely the better side. Fair play to the lads because I genuinely feared the worst after the red card.
Westmeath offered little threat in the forward line and their tackling lacked discipline throughout.

No slip ups now, win the next 3 and we're in the final. Down and Kerry in particular will require full blooded professional performances to get the job done.

On another note, Westmeath's goal was scored by Tubber man David O'Reilly...pity as he would be a big player for our 20s in another world...

We gave away our fair share 4 in a row if i remember before half time but 2 were actually a disgrace of a decision

1 in front of the terrace 2 players got tangled offaly got penalised free out for westmeath

2 Charlie Mitchell won the ball fairly the westmeath corner back lost his hurl actually laid over the ball now that i can think of it and Charlie got penalised

I hope all these injuries recover quick

[frankthetank]

With Meath up next it would be the perfect opportunity to rest our U20’s ahead of their Leinster Q-Final. However relations between the respective Senior and u20 managers are rumoured to be frosty to say the least so can’t see it happening.

Senior management will more than likely use a mounting injury list as a reason/excuse to use them.

[Doon Exile]

Obviously delighted with a 6 point win but it was a nervy last 20 minutes. When Duignan missed that free to put us up 4 points and they got a point straight away to reduce to 2……

Didn’t actually see the Sampson incident for the red card but did a Westmeath lad not strike one of our lads about ten minutes later in near enough the same spot and not sure if he even got a yellow????

Always like to start with the negatives so I can finish with the positives.

Whilst they had plenty of wides so had we. BD simply missed way too many frees. Didn’t strike the second penalty well either.

ThoughT our handling and first touch was poor at times.


On the positive we scored 2-23. Loads of good turnovers. Ben was brilliant as was Cathal king, Kiely , and Charlie was very good throughout out. In fairness I thought Duignan was good from play and worked really hard throughout.

As for us being strong favourites. I think it’s more realistic to say we’re strong contenders as Kerry and Laois will be giving themselves a chance too.


Timing is pretty good that we have Meath next and then Kerry in Tullamore. Whilst it’ll be far from easy I’d still fancy us to get the win.

Well done team and management .

[Doon Exile]

And just to say that Oisin doesn’t look fit. He’s needs a solid 70 minutes v Meath. Be mindful not to underestimate Meath either as our record against underdogs over the years hasn’t always been brilliant.

[private joker]

Meath conceded 50 points today. They are in terrible turmoil after a great year last year. Offaly will annihilate them.

[kingscounty]

A vital win, we were by far the better team and still it could have slipped away from us. Our movement and stick work was impressive, we could have had 2-3 early goals as we carved open their defence.
Their main threat came from Doyle at centre forward and he was dangerous in possession and very accurate from placed balls. Duignan showed very well at 11, Mitchell was excellent looking for and winning his own ball and should have scored much more. Discipline is vital for us going forward it has let us down so many times before and today could have proven a disaster after the sending off after 20 seconds, yes it’s frustrating when someone is pulling and dragging out of a player but we need some maturity and discipline to not lose the head.
We can’t take any of the remaining games for granted, we need to treat each team with respect and do what Laois did today, no half arse efforts, full tilt from here on out.

[faithfulfanatic]

Great to get the win today, better team all over the pitch.

Ref was very poor in my opinion. Definitely was poor from an Offaly point of view anyway, wouldn’t be right of me to try comment for Westmeath but 44 frees given in a game of hurling? There’s no match where that amount can be justifiable. Very hard to be a defender coming to a ball and a free is given if your man gets there first at all and feels contact.

I see Offaly will appeal Sampson’s red. I didn’t see it so I’ve no idea if it was on the soft side but if there was a striking action at all, it’s very hard to see it being overturned.

Offaly u20s are out Wednesday week, so you’d expect they will leave them off versus Meath next week where possible.
You’d expect the likes of Ross Ravenhill, Oisin Kelly, Padraig Cantwell, Jack Clancy, Leon Fox will see 70 minutes. Expect the more fringe members of the squad such as Jack Screeney, James Nally, Paul Cleary, Kieran Connors, Luke Watkins to see game time too.

David Nally looked in right bother with his left knee.

Oisin Kelly looked dangerous and if nothing else he kept Jogger Doyle occupied and away from the play at the edge of the square.
He went up full forward for Westmeath last week and scored 1-1, but they didn’t dare move him away from Oisin today.

Mightily impressed with Donal Shirley and Cathal King, 2 savage performances.
Our goalie has a great hurling brain and gives a lovely ball to the forward’s advantage.

Ben Conneely was outstanding.
David King and Eimhin Kelly got through a mountain of work.
Brian Duignan did very well, although I worried the missed frees would be costly.
I can’t agree with posts above about Charlie Mitchell, I thought he was very poor for 60-65 minutes.
Dan Bourke is a lovely little hurler, while his brother Sam and Padraig Cantwell struggled today.

We caused Westmeath so many problems when running at them.
However, this was nearly our undoing as we ran too far for a period in the second half and spurned easy points.
There were a couple of more chances where we could have had goals but the pass went astray. The top level teams punish you all day long in those situations and that’s where we need to get to.

Westmeath face Dublin tomorrow in u20, where a few of those lads will appear.
David Williams the youngster was the top scorer overall in the division 1 league (was taking the frees instead of Doyle then), he only registered a point today.

Away to Meath, away to Down and home to Kerry. Our fate is in our own hands.

P.S. interested to hear what the Tubber connection for David O’Reilly is? Looks a decent hurler.

[Faithfully]

P.S. interested to hear what the Tubber connection for David O’Reilly is? Looks a decent hurler.

Lives in Tubber/Offaly, has done his whole life. As far as I know, the father's side has always been more Rosemount so he has always played for them. The Offaly/Westmeath border changes a few times in a short area as Tubber and Rosemount are the one parish.

I'm sure if there was close inspection done, we've benefitted over the years from similar cases!

[G91]

Kerry didn't exactly blow down out of the park today

[private joker]

They were playing Down.

[G91]

They were playing Down.

Sorry meant down , anyways point still there kerry didn't won by a massive margin , wouldn't take anything for granted going up there

[Toxicity234]

A good win.
Jason Red Card is a joke
If ref are going to run like this the Munster championship will be 2 a side.

We out worked Westmeath and if we had 15 men we could have won by more.

Westmeath are a decent team but we played well.

Focus on Meath and back up the performance and out work them as well.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

A good win.
Jason Red Card is a joke
If ref are going to run like this the Munster championship will be 2 a side.

100%, and should be recinded, Westmeath player should be ashamed of going down like that, (not saying our guys wouldn't do it either), but if recinded suspension should reverse onto diver.
And at the same time we talk about how sporting the games are and the lads all going mad to shake hands afterwards!

Lads can belt away like fuck in Munster