Offaly minor Hurlers 2013

[Plain of the Herbs]

Leix make three changes too. They line out as follows -

Enda Rowland (St Lazerian's Abbeyleix)

Ronan Broderick (Clough Ballacolla)
Ryan Mullaney (Castletown-Slieve Bloom)
Evan Cuddy (Castletown-Slieve Bloom)

Dwayne Palmer (Camross)
Ciarán McEvoy (Portlaoise)
Colm Stapleton (Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton)

Leigh Bergin (Shanahoe)
Ronan Delahunty (The Harps)

John Lennon (Rosenallis)
Joe Campion (Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton)
Aidan Corby (Clough Ballacolla)

Darragh Cripps (Colt)
Conor Ryan (Portlaoise)
Stephen Bergin (Clough Ballacolla)

[Turenne]

suckindeisel, who did Laois beat in Munster last week?

[townman]

Turenne what are cork minors like this year, ye will have a good under 21 side this year.
don't mind suckindeisel you know laois football is really fcukde when you have them on here talking
about hurling,

[Plain of the Herbs]

Suckindiesel is welcome to post here any time he likes.

[Turenne]

Turenne what are cork minors like this year, ye will have a good under 21 side this year.
don't mind suckindeisel you know laois football is really fcukde when you have them on here talking
about hurling,

Minors are probably our best team for years. Very strong and physical but a bit short on pace. Patrick O'Callaghan at full-forward is the star of the team and will be a Cork senior in a few years. Tipp are faves for the AI, and Limerick and Waterford are strong as well.

U-21s are decent but the grade is very strong in Munster, and I'd expect Clare to win it out.

I'd be surprised if either team got out of Munster.

[kinnittyman]

Half Time: Laois 3-9 Offaly 0-05.

Seemingly Offaly have the wind in the second half. It seems they'll need more than just that.

[kinnittyman]

Lost 4-16 to 0-13. Only 0-03 from play. The future is bleak.

[Bord na Mona man]

The bigger the hammering the better at this stage.
Time to tear it up completely and start again.
You can't blame the players who've been mostly reared on out of date thinking, bad coaching or no coaching.

[joe bloggs]

It gives me no joy in saying it but I am not too surprised. The writing was on the wall for this team early in the year going by how the schools got on.

What is important now is that there are a few good prospects in the team are quickly introduced to the senior panel i.e. next year or two and they receive kind of training that is required to survive at i.c. level.

With regard to the result it is yet another in an ever growing list. Where do we start. Is it the clubs, or is it the county board?

With regard to clubs we need to increase participation. John Leahy probably had less than 150 players to choose from. That means that 1 in 5 lads playing minor hurling in the county would make the panel. As stated elsewhere there was a ridiculous amount of walkovers in the minor league as clubs could not even get 13 lads together. I hope the go games philosophy works and in 5 or six years we will have greater participation.

For the county board they have a hard task on their hands. Everyone says get the right people in, but just who are they?
It is hard for them to get anyone to commit to actually taking over a development squad. And on the other hand when people do, often they don't get proper support.

One thing i know for sure, if things don't change soon we will be entering the all Ireland B championship

[Plain of the Herbs]

I make it Offaly's heaviest defeat to Laois at Minor grade since a 5-4 to 0-0 reversal back in 1951.

And if ground hurling was the panacea, puckouts would be taken off the ground.

[fifitrixiebelle]

Turenne what are cork minors like this year, ye will have a good under 21 side this year.
don't mind suckindeisel you know laois football is really fcukde when you have them on here talking
about hurling,

id say your not doin too much laughin at laois now townman

[fifitrixiebelle]

laois have been rewarded with a good draw for the semis, theyre playin wexford. kk & dubs on the other side.

[old yellar]

The minors wouldnt have set the schools scene alight over the last 2 years. Infairness to laois, their schools have been quiet successful this year - rathdowney winning the voc all ireland and heywood winning the leinster b title, so the omens were good for them this year. But we all know only a handful of any minor team come through to senior - look at the 2000 team as an example. Ye havent won a minor since then but are competitive at senior level in the interviening 13 yrs. Even down here with us, the team that got through to the leinster final - beating ye in semi (cant resist!!) has only 5 (not sure of all subs) that are now involved in the senior panel for yesterdays game. I d say ye have as many from your panel that day? And i d hope we d give ye a v good rattle at senior at the minute. You imagine we d be pinning our hopes on bringing the lot of them through - they d be 25 now, but doesnt work that way. A lot of the current team/panel have had little or no success at county level - some had minor b wins. The MLR intermediate all ireland win was though a huge boost - 6 starting yesterday.But that 06 minor team didnt even win the u21 B afterwards at their age so a lot can happen. Sometimes you got to accept that talent is natural too no matter how much work you put into lads too. We all have these sort of lads in our clubs. Working with them makes them better.. Playing numbers i think are really hitting counties like us. We ve 7 minor hurling teams that are fielding - i use that term loosely as its at best 13 aside for lge games. But supposedly the numbers are there. In carlow town they have 4 teams at most ages in soccer and 1/2 clubs just outside that have teams at same age, yet the town struggles to field at hurling - setanta, a new club in fairness are addressing this. I think its a huge growing problem in the gaa - loads of training, little fun and few games. Hard to blame them. And lets not get started at senior level!! So dont despair for Offaly hurling, ye are always able to pull the rabbit from the hat when we least expect it!

[Sharp Eye]

Offaly Hurling must have a very challenging future following a dismal performance by the county minor team managed by a full-time coach. This years minor team have under gone "coaching" with Offaly Development squads since they were 12 years old. Many many questions on our underage coaching/development structures must be asked. The genuine interest/serious support of the Offaly County Board must also be questioned. Why were games fixed in the Offaly Club Championship involving county minor players within 6 days of a knock-out Leinster championship game?. What has the County Board done regarding the creation a centre of excellance??. Do they expect County Team Managers to beg clubs allow them use club-pitches in the worst of weather conditions. The first interest of every club must be to their own playing members and we cannot be depending on their continuous goodwill. The County Board must provide our county team managers with proper training facilities. At Under Age Level there must be one night each week designated as "Development Squads Night" with No club games on that night. Offaly needs to Re-Introduce the "Dual-Player" at under age level. Good players form South Offaly will no longer attend football trials and players from North Offaly are also declining the offer to attend hurling trials. When Offaly last won Leinster Minor Titles, Dual-players played a major role.

[old yellar]

"Offaly Hurling must have a very challenging future following a dismal performance by the county minor team managed by a full-time coach. This years minor team have under gone "coaching" with Offaly Development squads since they were 12 years old. Many many questions on our underage coaching/development structures must be asked"

I think thats very unfair on the management team headed by john leahy. We got a hammering off ye and our minors were managed by his counterpart here in Carlow Johnny Nevin. No one questioned his commitment etc or ability to coaching these lads. He too is a full time coach BUT like john, he has to cover a huge range of other duties in his role, Hes not paid to look after this team for 100% of his time (he takes the North Offaly Schools team also - side note - we played them over the easter hols and he was on his own, no help from any of the schools represented - i dont know what was the story on other match days but that was what was going on that day). And i would say its worked into his hours for his job - no extra expenses dispite the after hours nature of the work. If you anything about the man you would not put coaching into "" as hes well respected in Leinster. Sometimes you ve got to except ye were beaten by a more talented team. It happens. Anyone with a passing knowledge of both counties at this age group would have hotly tipped the Laois team. Like i said ye ll have days like this.. also as clubs ye ve to look at what ye do. Minor management/development squad management can only work with what puts infront of them by the clubs - clubs/schools have them for a huge period of time. I can honestly say we would have beaten dublin 3 years ago in minor in dr cullen (lost by 2) only we had to spent too long working in training on basic skills rather than team play etc. Lads not able to strike on both sides, on the move etc.. Also i rem being asked by a big club in Offaly not to play some of their players in the tony forristal on a saturday as the had championship the monday night after. Crazy on 2 fronts! Lastly, i dont see one post thanking the young lads for committing 3 nights a week for the last few months. Why be so negative? A lot of these are probably doing the leaving and irregardless of win/loose/draw they have to balance this too. You d often wonder where as an organisation are we going. What do we expect of our young lads?