Immigration of club players

[Lone Shark]

With regard to emigration taking a huge toll on individual clubs, that's a different issue and one where I agree completely - it can do a lot of harm.

I don't know enough about Daingean's situation to know whether it was a chicken and egg job, or what happened. Did they lose players and then get relegated, or did they get relegated and then lose players? Did they lose them through unavoidable reasons, or was it that the club had problems, didn't deal with them well and thus more players left?

After all, the absence of personal responsibility has played a huge part in creating the enviroment where so many people have to leave Ireland to get employment, it shouldn't be ignored now in this situation either. If the local GAA club is not attractive to people, be they talented or not, then of course they will reap what they sow in the long run.

[Conrad]

Here is an incomplete, maybe inaccurate list of hurlers abroad but if we could expand this list with ye're knowledge there would would be the makings of strong county team...
Football list would be interesting too..

Birr: Stephen Brown,
Belmont: David Kenny,
Coolderry:
Clareen: Kevin Murry, Barry Bergin,
Drumcullen:
Lusmagh: Kevin Birmingham,
Shamrocks: Stephen Delaney, Stephen Dunne,
Shinrone:
K/K:
Tullamore:
St. Rynaghs: Diarmuid Horan?, Kevin Kelly,
Kinnitty:

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Belmont: David Kenny

Hadn't heard this.
Say it ain't so. Please.

[durra1]

Belmont: David Kenny


Je5us...

Can anyone in West Offaly confim this and if so is he likely to retuen for the championship?

[tacmot]

Indeed David kenny has been offered a job in england, london i tink,. He certain to take it , word is that he will return for offaly games but reckon that hes club cud see very little of him this year.

[Fargo Boyle]

In relation to Daingean, they lost an inter county star in the late 90 s to Tullamore prompting their relegation to inter.

They then won the inter in 2002 and lost 5-6 players the following season to emigration and retirement so losing any players has a massive affect which they still haven't recovered from.

[Oceans 15]

In relation to Daingean, they lost an inter county star in the late 90 s to Tullamore prompting their relegation to inter.

They then won the inter in 2002 and lost 5-6 players the following season to emigration and retirement so losing any players has a massive affect which they still haven't recovered from.

Can you please name the 5-6 players that Daingean lost to emigration & retirement...????

[townman]

Indeed David kenny has been offered a job in england, london i tink,. He certain to take it , word is that he will return for offaly games but reckon that hes club cud see very little of him this year.

he was doing waterboy for the hurlers on saturday again NUIG in Banagher, yes i think he will be in England working sign of the times i think there will
be a lot more gone the way it is going, maybe Brian Cowen will fly kenny home each weekend for training

[backofthenet]

This is going to affect every club to some degree. Any clubv that only loses one or two players will probably be ahead of the pack to be honest.

Very true lone shark.. If you look at county champions Coolderry, they seem to be lucky enough to have a fairly homebound group off lads. I only know of one player (damien murry) to immigrate and still he was around when it came to crunch. Probably abit fond of their mammys..
Mollycoddled you could say..

I know I shouldnt react but I have to. There are actually quite a few from Coolderry that went from Ireland in the last year or two for varying amounts of time Damien Murray, Ray Murray, Stephen O'Connor, John Brady, Shane Hall. Kevin Teehan, Donnacha Tynan, Tomas O'Toole.

5 of those have been involved with Offaly at some grade. I think Coolderry are very lucky that we have a strong set up and when a player leaves we have someone to take their place, this in turn makes players not want to leave as when they come back they might be sitting on the bench.

[Bord na Mona man]

Emigration will be a huge challenge for clubs. A lot of them are going to have to change how they operate.

During the boom years, clubs could cream off the best 4 or 5 players from a minor or U21 team. They could afford be to relaxed about whether the rest stayed involved or not. Now that the attrition rate is big, there is simply no margin for complacency.

Another factor is that a couple of years back, lots of young men could get jobs locally. Meaning they'd be able to train midweek, be available and visible. The ones who were away at college could slip off the radar quicker. Now the choice for most 18 year olds is either emigration or 3rd level (and then emigration), the Wednesday night U21 training session is likely to be a smaller affair.

More work is going to be needed to keep the connection with players who are away. In 3rd level institutions, unless they are close to county standard, they probably won't be catered for by college GAA teams. The link up here with their home clubs needs to be improved on somehow.

[Conrad]

I know I shouldnt react but I have to. There are actually quite a few from Coolderry that went from Ireland in the last year or two for varying amounts of time Damien Murray, Ray Murray, Stephen O'Connor, John Brady, Shane Hall. Kevin Teehan, Donnacha Tynan, Tomas O'Toole.

5 of those have been involved with Offaly at some grade. I think Coolderry are very lucky that we have a strong set up and when a player leaves we have someone to take their place, this in turn makes players not want to leave as when they come back they might be sitting on the bench.

How many of these lads worked for more than 2weeks abroad.. holidays dont count! Kevin Teehan and D.Murray are senior hurlers and have contributed to coolderrys success but they were around for the knockout stages. The rest of the lads wouldnt have been used or contributed anything worth talking about to coolderrys senior team last year. Shane Hall may have but is more of a liability than anything. Ray Murray lost out to Stephen Corcoran in goals and rightly so. Stephen O'Connor is a prime example of what i mentioned in a previous post. And the other three lads are average intermediates and will never hurl senior championship again even if they stay around.