Offaly Hurling in today's Irish Times

[Loughers]

What a great day we have to look forward to on June 12th??

Days of destiny approach for Offaly
Irish Times, Daily, Sec. Sport, p 23 05-04-2005
By Gavin Cummiskey

Wed, May 04, 2005

Remember Offaly hurlers? All-Ireland champions in 1994 and 1998. Twice in the 1980s as well.

They play two season-defining games in the coming weeks; one is on Saturday against Carlow - who beat them recently - in the Division Two final. The second, the championship opener against Kilkenny next month, is being billed as a lambs to the slaughter affair.

The suspended Mick O'Hara is the only absentee this weekend but Brian Whelahan is now gone and Neville Coughlan has opted for football. This leaves manager John McIntyre predicting a three-year rebuilding process before they are serious challengers for an All-Ireland title.

Last Sunday, McIntyre, like the rest of the country, witnessed just how devastatingly good Kilkenny can be. He also noticed that they have the bit between their teeth again. Michael Jacob has a lot to answer for here.

"Kilkenny are on top of their game already and there is no chance of an ambush bearing in mind Michael Jacob's goal last year at the Leinster semi-final stage," said McIntyre.

"Kilkenny blamed that defeat for losing the All-Ireland as it forced them to take the long way to the final. They seem intent on taking the shortest route this time and in many respects we are first up for the guillotine. I suppose our supporters are fearful of an unmerciful hiding but who knows what their form will be like in four weeks' time."

The hope was that Clare would push Kilkenny even harder than last summer, when it took Brian Cody's lot a second day to remove Anthony Daly's team from the championship.

"You can't argue with the final scoreline. Clare would have been keen to win as their players have never won a league title.

"Clare were seen as a team that could shake up Kilkenny physically but the manner they pulled away in the second half fills you with dread. It looks ominous for everyone as they look revitalised. Cody has brought in a couple of newcomers and they have, as usual, fitted seamlessly into the picture. The conveyor belt really is astonishing."

How will Offaly possibly stop them? "Maybe we could set up roadblocks on the road from Kilkenny to Dublin to stop their players getting to Croke Park," McIntyre joked. An instant later he came back to reality to explain where his panel are in the current shake up. "We're certainly not going to lie down against Kilkenny. The main priority is to earn promotion back to Division One and to be honest they are not on the agenda yet as Carlow is by no means a formality.

"The first day against Carlow we were beaten fair and square. They were wound up, passionate and, most importantly, very well organised. Also, their first touch was far better than our guys expected. They showed serious character and hunted in packs all day."

Offaly's presence in Division Two has proved beneficial to some as it ensures the minnow counties have had to raise their games or face a severe beating. Carlow went one better.

"It's only when you experience Division Two hurling that you realise just how hard the teams are working to improve. I suppose our presence does invigorate them.

"We didn't take Carlow for granted. We just weren't allowed to dictate. I said to the guys after that day if we can survive defeat and go back up to Division One the whole experience will be worthwhile. If we can't do that we can forget about Kilkenny."

[Lone Shark]

Not exactly optimistic is he? This is all very worrying - that's the kind of thing you'd hear from a Laois or Dublin side about to play Kilkenny, not us.

Though that said, after looking at Monday's game, it's hard to say that it has any potential of being a contest. Realistically if you were amalgamating the teams, right now we'd have a 50/50 shot of the goalie's slot, one place for either Teehan or Franks in the full back line and one slot for either Rory or Brendy up front.

I'm looking forward to June 12 with a lot of apprehension. I have a horrible feeling that from about 20 minutes in I'm going to be looking at the game through my hands, and at the end have seen a 25 point demolition that officially signals our demise as a hurling power.

[Bord na Mona man]

It's time to put a stop to this pessimism.
We won't lose to Kilkenny by 25 points or anything near it.

We're not as hopeless a team as everyone makes us out to be. If we were so bad, we wouldn't have beaten Limerick by 7 points in 2003. A better manager on the sideline would have ensured we beat Wexford the last 2 years. We certainly didn't lose to them because they had better hurlers than us.
We are 8 to 10 points better than Laois, Down, Dublin and maybe Antrim. All Division 1 teams.
It's a joke that we are in Division 2, but that doesn't suddenly make us only as good as the teams we're playing against.

We were always going to operate at 60-70% throttle in most games in Division 2.
Carlow caught us when we played below cruising mode, but that's always the risk.
Yes, we should have gone out in every game to put 6 or 7 goals past every team, but it hardly enhances us greatly.

The current team has better players than the one that lost to Kilkenny in 2002 in Thurles.
Kilkenny should have given up on punishing us for past defeats by now.

Despite all the bullsh1t and brazen lies that Cody and Carey etc will come out with in the next few weeks i.e. Of how lucky they'll have to be to beat us, how tough a battle it'll be blah blah, Kilkenny don't expect a tough contest from us. Which is understandable.

The players have been training for the last 6 months for this game, they're going out to give it a go and not to sit back to admire Kilkenny! It's time we put up a fight, and we will.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Some interesting comments by McIntyre, more for what he doesn't say, rather than what he does.

Ironically, Kilkenny's performance in the league final was just what we needed, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it shows us where the bar is, obviously, and that to compete, Offaly will have to perform at a level this team hasn't before.
Next is Kilkenny. They can't help but be complacent facing Offaly. No matter how much they tell themselves they'll need to be on their guard, there's no way they realistically expect to be beaten by Offaly. Clare was a grudge match. I was worried at half time with the possibility of a Clare win and wholesale changes to KK in both lineout and attitude for the next day. Remember, no team is unbeatable.

The last c'ship meting was 3 years ago, when with any good fortune, a disjointed Offaly could have led at half time. Interestingly, 6 of the KK league final team from 1 to 8 lined out that day. Ryall & Tyrrell for Kavanagh & Larkin are the changes. With proper coaching, preparation & application, Offaly can challenge them on 12th June.
And keep up the Cloak & dagger stuff betwen now and then, Mac.

More about this as the weeks pass and May gives way to June.

[Lone Shark]

Firstly, it shows us where the bar is, obviously, and that to compete, Offaly will have to perform at a level this team hasn't before.

At the risk of sounding patronising, which is most certainly not the intention, if I was to enter the Olympic Pole Vault, I'd be able to see where the bar is. It's from there on that things would get tricky.

My negativity comes from the fact that I can't see how our boys are going to be able to compete in so many key areas. The half lines are everything in hurling nowadays, and Kilkenny are going to line out with probably four all stars including two former hurler of the year winners there. We'll have a centre back who to be honest I think is barely one of our best fifteen if at all, a debutante at wing back, a tiny nippy corner forward on one wing, and a guy who has played with the necessary level of aggression once in his intercounty career five years ago on the other.

We have a distinct lack of leadership out the field, and no matter how well our backs play, Henry Shefflin will still score, Larkin will still put over the frees, and Gorta/Brian Barry/Lyng will all be a threat from range. You can't say that about our forwards, all of whom can have complete off days.

No team is unbeatable, but that depends who you put up against them. Chelsea were proven to be beatable a few nights ago, but I'm pretty sure if I was to round up ten mates and take the field against them, their record would be still running.

I would love to believe - I really would. It's just been nearly seven years of hammerings at every level by Kilkenny teams, bar a few wins for Birr, and pretty soon you start to get the message. I know it's what they'd want, but it's just too hard to fight.

25 was maybe exaggerating - Kilkenny by 18.

[Loughers]

The further we go without beating KK, the quicker the memory fades. We are heading to pre-1980 stages here. That's why I think it would have been great to have Sid breaking hurls before this one. As it stands, of the players who have been on teams that have beaten KK, how many are born leaders?

[the bare biffo]

Hate to be so pessimistic but looking from a distance, surely we're already gone back to pre 1980 standards. Just run through the names on those 80's and 90's teams and look at whats there now. I don't mean disrespect to the fellas there now but they are not really at the races with the Coughlans, Delaney's, Fogarty's, Kelly's, Currams, Berminghams, Carrolls, Corrigans, Flaherty's and Horans etc etc.

Hope to jay I'm all wrong.