townman wrote:
why were you at the tipp cork match, cork ran in 5 goals again the tipp
'why was I at the tipp cork match'? are you losin it townman, I wasn't at any match.
and the lads here at work are makin a feck of me now thanks to you. I mentioned the 5 goals & they told me it was a tournament match where tipp had one of the regular backs. first you talk about league matches & now your on about CHALLENGES. funny tho you forgot to tell me that tipp bet offaly in the football championship last year. tanx to clearhead for that. what happened to you, was there a tournament on the same day??
and one lad here is really takin the mickey. he sez that a lad from his club scored more than the whole offaly minor team the other nite when tipp bet Kerry in the minor football. that's hardly true is it? and surely you didn't forget again that there was a championship match on...
what facilities are there in the county for doing strength and conditioning work with both adult and underage squads??
Are there any?
Where do teams currently do their strength and conditioning work?
Is there a plan in place for that?
Is there someone overseeing the S&C work?
Ive asked before man and really i dont think there is positive answer. I asked about this two years ago when training a club underage hurling team as we were thinking about implementing something along the lines of what we thought the hurling development squads were doing. After contacting a county board official, we found out, the plan was that there was no plan, nor was there a plan to make a plan so we just did a bit ourselves with the lads ourselves with some limited knowledge and help from a local fitness instructor.
A few clubs would have their own gyms etc or bits of gyms maybe but really, i dont think there is too much going on in terms of long term development plans for this. Some guys would probably do a bit by themselves but most would not id say. Unless it is an organised strategic move on co boards part, this will remain to be the case. This is in stark contrast to the likes of Longford, Kildare and Dublin, and tipp Clare & Cork in hurling where paid professionals monitor such activities and hence the difference in conditioning.
In fairness, while it is most important, i think this is far from the mind of the county board at the present. Apparently, the minors were struggling to get pitches for training this year and could only notify players last minute (day before). If this is true and apparently it is, then a joined up thinking approach to S&C is a long way down the pecking order. The dinosaurs just dont get it.
and it aint going to change any time soon im afraid........
I understand where you are coming from and the fact that the county board has no plan to tackle this area is a real concern
Even more concerning to me is no one is asking the county board why they have no plan
The value of a strength and conditioning program is there for all
Why are people not asking more questions of the county board, if this was Kilkenny or Cork the board would be bricking it at the thought of the back lash
Maybe the fans have lost their backbone i don't know!
townman wrote:
why were you at the tipp cork match, cork ran in 5 goals again the tipp
'why was I at the tipp cork match'? are you losin it townman, I wasn't at any match.
and the lads here at work are makin a feck of me now thanks to you. I mentioned the 5 goals & they told me it was a tournament match where tipp had one of the regular backs. first you talk about league matches & now your on about CHALLENGES. funny tho you forgot to tell me that tipp bet offaly in the football championship last year. tanx to clearhead for that. what happened to you, was there a tournament on the same day??
and one lad here is really takin the mickey. he sez that a lad from his club scored more than the whole offaly minor team the other nite when tipp bet Kerry in the minor football. that's hardly true is it? and surely you didn't forget again that there was a championship match on...
you see you are wrong again you dipshit, tipp weren't playing kerry the other nite as you say
if it wasn't for you townman I wudnt be up to speed at all. you know all about the big ball & things no-one knows (or gives a sh1te about) tournaments challenges etc. keep me informed pls. were there any tournaments/challenges last nite?
your right about Kerry. I already got slagged about that by the north tipp lads & I barely in the door this morning. tipp are playing Kerry in the munster final, twas cork they bet on wed nite & cork had bet Kerry. think im rite on that now. im told theyre goin for 3 inarow in munster. youd be able to confirm dat townman, your the man with the know-how.
the Shannon rovers lad said that offaly hadn't a chance agin Kildare when Kildare had hammered kk, said the offaly lads wud have been mesmerised by dat, ya know how dey fawn over kk. baxtards!
tell me it isn't true that a Roscrea lad scored more on wed nite than the whole offaly team v Kildare. I don't want to bring it up in case im wrong again. help me out townman...pls
christ I was pure delighted with dat townman & said id sow it into the Roscrea man.
boy was I sorry. he asked me are we still using the abacus to count in biffoland. said the 2011 minors are now only under 20, another year at U21. ya have to wait for lads to develop, cant win with youngsters he said. also said the 2012 munster winners are now U19 and this years minor team are still U18 if I wanted to check. then he went off laughing.
but he came back to tell me dat the last offaly minor team in a leinster final are now in their 40s. dat cant be true townman can it? then said the previous winners of a leinster minor title are close to drawin the pension now, theyre in dere 60s. the whole fcuking place was doubled up townman. your landing me neck deep in the sh1te now.
he finished by sayin the present tipp seniors aren't good enough, wud bate bad teams in the qualifiers like last year but that they had got to the McGrath cup final batin cork on the way. then he said he had to head to the jax to get sick, he had such bad cramps in his stomick.
now Ahlethimoutwithit »go easy on poor ole townman hes feelin tender @ the moment.
he'll be better shortly when Kerry win the football. limerick win the hurlin & laois get bet at sumptin
Here lads, could ye just set up a thread just for slagging each other off; entertaining and all as it does be sometimes, it doesn't contribute to the discussion about the topic. There are some very interesting points made about the underage structures in both hurling and football in Offaly; it seems that Offaly minor teams aren't playing on a level playing field vs other counties in terms of strength/ conditioning work (doesn't matter whether it's Birr or O' Connor Park or any other field for that matter, before someone else gets in with that comment!!). So far, the county board, the management, the local media, the schools, the clubs and the players have all been blamed- there doesn't seem to be much more wrong apart from that. So what suggestions might help improve the situation? A few years ago after doing the level one coaching, there was a couple of nights organised where there were speakers a la Ger Loughnane, Colm O Rourke and others talking about coaching and training; I thought that these were very informative and interesting, and brought people from all clubs who had an interest in coaching underage together where ideas could be shared and discussed. While all clubs are in full swing now, and will be for the summer, maybe in the backend of the year if something like this was to happen again, it could benefit clubs by outlining strategies that could be implemented that could help clubs to develop best practices in strength and conditioning across the board, and not just for the few elite players that would be doing this (presumably) in the development squads. I don't know- it might or might not work, but it could be something that could help.
Many people on this site would have an idea of what needs to be done, but the appetite needs to be there to do it. I would say that pretty much all clubs are represented on this site. Would someone be prepared to draw up a draft suggestion of what could be done in terms of getting a plan together, and get this into Club Faithful, and it could be something that they might be interested in coordinating as a link between supporters & clubs and the County Board.
I think there also needs to be a piece, where what exactly is happening in underage coaching in Primary school, Secondary school, and in club underage.
For example, is there a program in place in clubs for players to work on development over the winter in groups? How are we doing in secondary schools, and how are the schools working with County underage panels and clubs? What is the plan to make Gaelic football and hurling more attractive than Rugby or soccer?
We are now in competition with them, its as simple as that. The days where a guy would play a bit of rugby from Oct to March is gone. These seasons are eating into the GAA time and we need to ensure that we are really focussing on the players who do not play other sports and that they start to be treated like the elite, and pushed to prepare as such.
Finally, there needs to be a compilation of best practice on Offaly's website of whats expected of players, coaches, full lists of drills and games, templates to draw up your coaching plan for the year. This is out there on the web, but guys are spending a lot of time looking it up, others are not looking it up and flying by the seat of their pants through training sessions.
So is there anyone interested in getting the ball rolling on this and lets get a bit of structure together on a proposal?
agree there needs to be a lot done to get the best out of our minors. thinking back of a good few years ago and a big nite in the court hotel and all the big names photo,s in the papers ,couple of sundays in the fields more photos in the papers ,promise after promise and when all the lime light was gone so were all the big names and the promises and here we are again.this time the plan needs to be got right.put some people together (not all big inter county names ,that most will walk away ) that will be in it for the long haul,this is not an easy fix ,all the best young players will be tempted with other sports so its up to offaly gaa each an everyone of us to sell gaelic football to them. this time lets taKE OUR TIME AND GET IT RIGHT.
I think there is an urgent need to start selling Offaly GAA to the best young players in the county. If things are done correctly with players treated properly with proper support structures in place re strength and conditioning, physio nutrition advice etc, then players will choose GAA over rugby and soccer. While such support is going to cost an element of money, would it be overly costly? To be honest i dont think so if the right people are shared out among.
If this is done and the best young hurling and football coaches in the county are involved in managing the teams, then players will want to play and we will not reach a scenario like this year where possibly 10 of the best minors only line out with the county minors. Just to note, only one player from the top 3 minor teams this year (Edenderry, Ferbane and Clara) were involved v Kildare. If this is done and it could easily be, then the underage teams would have reasonable chances of success.
Does any body know of any good news stories in Offaly GAA at all, everyone seems to be so miserable and downtrodden that if we dont regain some positivity soon, then we may aswell forget about it altogether.....
whats stopping the county board getting hold of a coaching program that they run in other counties that includes S&C? - up the north, across the shannon. counties we don't directly compete against.
Putting a plan together isn't rocket science either. And doesn't need to be expensive. All you need is a big hall and some dumbbells, med balls, hurdles, plyometric boxes.
