Offaly Minor Hurlers

[bazza]

Westmeath 1-10
Offaly 1-7

Full time score-line from Cusack Park. ..

[red exile]

no way !! is that scoreline a mis-print

[sammythesnake]

thats not a mis print,offaly scored their goal with the last puck of the game too deep in injury time. surely time for johnny pilkington to go..beaten by carlow last year and beaten by westmeath today,great record johnny...take a bow!!

[bazza]

I'm half thinkin of changin my tipsters thing and going for a Shamrocks win over K/K tomorrow, given Johnny's record! Does anybody have any idea why our minor hurlers are gone so bad?

[faithful till I die]

Does anybody have any idea why our minor hurlers are gone so bad?

Not sure if I can answer that one but I can make a stab at answering why we were so poor today. To be honest we were out fought & out played. The conditions were terrible which played into their hands completely. It was trench warfare out there & quite simply they were more up for it than us. We didnt get the ball into our hands anywhere near enough & just never got going. Scoring 1-1 in the second half when playing with a massive wind was simply not good enough. Our fielding, lifting & striking of the ball was as poor as I have seen from an Offaly team. Not making excuses but the ref was a disgrace. He totally played to the crowd, gave frees that no one else could see & when he thought Westmeath might not score from theirs he moved them in nearer to help them out.

On a further point the Westmeath management were a total disgrace. Their manager practically reffed the match & was on the pitch as much as his players. Why the ref waited until half time to speak to him only he can know. The Westmeath mgt were clearly trying to intimidate the ref screaming at every decision & it got to the ref in the end. They were turning around to the crowd with clenched fists at every score & slapping each other on the back like it was the All Ireland. To make matters worse one of them knocked over a young Offaly player on the sideline. Pilkington reacted with a jostle. Pity he didnt react as quickly in making the necessary changes ! To top it all off the Westmeath fans took to booing Offaly players taking frees. The total scumbags

[faithfulman]

Lads, its time to say goodbye to johnny p. and the rest of the management team.Beat by westmeath and carlow a couple of years ago.simply not good enough for a county like offaly.They havent won a match of note since the boys took over and the team selection today showed how good johnnys management skills are.theres a few lads that were playing that are simply not up to that level.the county board needs to get rid of them and get in a good quality management team for next year.

[Offalys Future]

Every since he was appointed last year i was telling ye that it simply couldnt work.
Johnny Pilkington was a disgrace when he hurled with Offaly and the way he has carried
on in the last two games and over the last two years adds further to that.

People like this had no honour or pride in the jersey when they hurled themselves and here
they are at a very critical time in Offaly hurling been allowed take care of our best hurlers.
Its a comple joke.

And i was told after the kk game that Johnny said " we just havent got them"
Complete and utter bullshit. There is a serious bunch of young hurlers in Offaly at the moment
but they are been ruined by him and his management team.

Just for the record here are the results over last 2 years:
2009
16th May - Westmeath (1-10) Offaly (1-7)
2nd May - Kilkenny (4-18) Offaly (1-8)

2009
17th May - Wexford (1-19) Offaly (1-7)
4th May - Offaly (4-12) Kildare (1-7)
13th April - Offaly (1-10) Dublin (1-10)
29th March - Carlow (2-13) Offaly (1-9)

In two years his teams have managed to beat KILDARE and thats it.

This man hasnt a clue and i knew sooner or later he would be found out.
He was ran out of Castletown after last year, he should get the sack now from the minors.
And also he will be ran out of kilkormac/killoughey by the end of the year.
Do us all a favour johnny GET LOST!.

[gutless08]

Johnny Pilkington was a disgrace when he hurled with Offaly .

While no one can defend his management record you simply cannot say such a thing.Johnny pilkington was a fine hurler who gave over ten years to Offaly hurlers ,winning numerous leinster and all Ireland medals. A fine hurler who got vital goals and points and a great exponent of the ground hurling game.He played in a different era where people had a beer the week of a match,he wasnt alone.The man suffered broken bones and numerous injuries representing the county.

I rarely post here as most posts end in an argument however i cant have that said about one of our finest HURLERS of the nineties.

[uibhfhaili]

PATHETIC.All involved from management, County Board,players and clubs should hang their heads in shame. Offaly hurling is dying.

[Offalys Future]

Johnny Pilkington was a disgrace when he hurled with Offaly .

While no one can defend his management record you simply cannot say such a thing.Johnny pilkington was a fine hurler who gave over ten years to Offaly hurlers ,winning numerous leinster and all Ireland medals. A fine hurler who got vital goals and points and a great exponent of the ground hurling game.He played in a different era where people had a beer the week of a match,he wasnt alone.The man suffered broken bones and numerous injuries representing the county.

I rarely post here as most posts end in an argument however i cant have that said about one of our finest HURLERS of the nineties.

Your entitled to your opinion. My opinion is that he was a disgrace as a hurler. He was a pure waste of talent. He got 1 all-star and he could have had 4 or 5.
He didnt bother, he had this attitude that was very negative and on many occasions he let Offaly down.
I wouldnt cross the road to see Johnny Pilkington and in my opinion its attitudes from people like him that has ruined talented hurlers like
Dylan Hayden and Stephen Brown.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

PATHETIC.All involved from management, County Board,players and clubs should hang their heads in shame. Offaly hurling is dying.

Unacceptable, I can not allow that to stand. By all means blame the county board, the management and clubs, in fact blame whoever you want; I don't care. But to ask the players to 'hang their heads in shame' is intolerable. These players are but teenagers embarking on their inter-county careers, representing their county. I have no doubt that they tried their best in what can only be described trying circumstances and with that being the case ‘shame’, no matter what the result, never enters the equation. Quite simply a stupid comment if ever there was one ‘uibhfhaili’and you would do well not to repeat it in the future.




To any minor players who are reading this, let it be known that the above quoted views by 'uibhfhaili' are by no means representative of Offaly supporters. It is an unfortunate fact of life that empty vessels do in fact make the most noise, so just ignore any fools with whom hindsight is always 20/20.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for your efforts during the year in representing Offaly in what were less than ideal circumstances and hope you are met with better success in the future. Let this defeat not discourage you and remember you will always have the support of true Offaly followers.

[Lone Shark]

i would like to go along with the above post - some of the stuff here is over the top. Obviously it is a hugely disappointing result however a bad day can happen to any team, and i'd say there are lessons for both management and players to take on board in that tradition and reputation will win nothing by themselves. It can be an advantage, it can be a disadvantage, but you will stand or fall as a team by how you prepare, how you train and how you perform. I don't think any of the Offaly players or management would say that they ticked all these boxes on Saturday so hence we got the result that we got.

Regarding Johnny P, we've had this debate on the board before too, and I would go along with the belief that he seems to be in over his head as a manager, however to call his reputation as a player into question is too far. Some would say that he underachieved for his talent, i don't know if that's true - he was a fine hurler, but I don't think Johnny himself would ever argue that he was in the same bracket as lads like Whelahan, Johnny Dooley or John Troy for pure talent. He was a hard working midfielder who read the game well and fitted perfectly into the type of game Offaly had at the time, and I think he has a lot to be proud of. He may not have won as many all star awards as some others, but he played a huge part in many famous Offaly victories and that's much more what the game is about.

Having said all that, I can't see him getting too many phone calls for more management jobs after this weekend.

[Offalys Future]

i dont think i said anything over the top to be honest.Two years ago i was slated on this forum
when i said the management was a joke and it was a wrong decision. Now 2 years later after been beaten
by Westmeath, carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford i have unfortunately been proven right.


I dont think the players are at fault. But what i do know is that these players have missed 2 years in development.
So they wont be good enough for u-21 in 2-3 years.
Unless we get the structures in place we are never ever going to have success at minor or u-21 again.

All i am asking is that a review is done now and changes are made. Not next January. NOW

[faithfulman]

Lads, I was chatting one of the young lads that was playing against westmeath the other day.When he told me what went on in the dressing room at half time i was appalled.there were a few players that were singled out for special treatment by the management.Johnny pilkington told 2/3 certain players that they were "an effin disgrace to ye're county".what was to follow was even worse.One player, of only 17 or 18 tried to gee up and encourage his teammates.Pilkington responded by saying and i quote,"sit the f*** down and shut the f*** up you useless b******".How could this man be let manage our minors,or any team for that matter.This is simply not good enough.

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Well if that's true-then it is shocking and a disgrace from Johnny! It is now time to appoint next year's management team and not have the farce like we had with the under 21 management this year being appointed 6 weeks before the championship. It is obvious Johnny Pilkington is not working. Eugene Coughlan has done great work with Clareen and he knows the underage scene in Offaly well and he should be appointed minor manager for next year. Johnny Pilkington watched very few minor club matches in 2008. He can be criticised as a manager but I had great time for him as a player and those comments earlier were totally unfair and no need for them.