NHL OFFaly v Laois 16 february 2014

[Toxicity234]

Will If we playing that game kev. The performance of Kenny Vs Galway two years ago would have to be brought up. how many of the goals that day were his fault.
Ger Healion was excellent at full back over the last two years and again he was excellent against Waterford, Kilkenny and Antrim last year at centre back. Was Mullins U21 last year as well??

As for Kilmartin Sunday was the his 1st league game. Are you tell me that over the last two years that Parlon and Brady have being better than Kilmartin?????????????????????
Let not starting discarding a player after 25 mins. Sean Cleary is a fine young hurler. not sure why we play a excellent half forward in midfield ahead of Kilmartin???

John Power was awesome. He start at senior county level in 1989 as a tireless midfielder. He only moved to centre forward when he was 23 and man was he a centre forward and was 25 when he won his first lenister medal.
he was and old style centre forward who took a lot of hardship & gave it back twice as hard.
Ok. If Mahon The offaly hurler of the year isn't the best centre forward in Offaly who is??

[Bionic-eye]

Jaysus i think Conor Mahon is the height of awkwardness on a field. You have all these lads that can produce the goods at club level but they can never bring it up to intercounty standard E.G Conor Mahon

Killeighman, you haven't a clue what youre talking about there! I can tell you 1 thing, if Conor Mahon had been started at centre forward last Sunday we would not be in the position we are in right now!! By no means an awkward hurler. He breathes life into that Offaly team. An unselfish player he can give the sweetest of passes and set up scores as well as take some fine scores himself and is not cowardly!

Come out of the bushes Killeighman!! Were you the match last Sunday cos if you were you would have got your belly full of awkward players and Conor Mahon wasn't one of them!!

[Killeighman]

I'll eat my words if this fella produces wonders and assists everything when he actually plays. Btw i dont live in bushes just to claify!

[sam88885a]

great to see s dooley c mahon back .
hope g healion d kenny r hanniffy will get back soon we need points badly .
we still have a chance of getting to league quarter finals but we could get relegated too .
here hoping we get better with every game and sid settles into management after a very poor start

[Lone Shark]

I've been slow to come back to this for a couple of reasons, but primarily because it was the type of game that called for a little bit of reflection. I don't doubt the importance of the result, however I will say this - this was a league game in February, played with half our championship team absent. Indeed leaving aside issues like age, once could argue that we only had one (Joe Bergin) out of our best five hurlers available (JB + Dooley, Kenny, Hanniffy and Morkam). I know Laois were short players as well, but I'm still not convinced that this was anything more than just a bad day from a heavily depleted group.

So in that context, I'm a bit slow to get unduly carried away with the negativity.

That said, there were some hugely worrying signs in this fixture. The sheer stupidity of our play was utterly, utterly heartbreaking - how many times did Offaly half backs and midfielders hit the ball forward without so much as giving a look as to where the ball was going to go? It was jurassic stuff - get the ball out of my sector and somewhere closer to the opposition goals, even if there is just one Offaly forward and three Laois backs in that sector. I don't know which was worse - players like Kevin Brady and Brian Watkins hitting it blind without looking, or players like James Rigney who looked up, saw a load of Laois backs and hit it into that sector anyway. Then you had the high balls towards Brian Carroll and the low ball into Seán Gardiner, the utterly idiotic late hit by the same Lusmagh player to give Maher the handy free immediately after Currams goal, the inability to use our own free man to any effect, and various other moments that just made you want to break down and weep for the sheer stupidity of it all. I don't know about fat bellies and legs, but there are a lot of brains on the Offaly side that need a lot of exercise if that game is anything to go by.

I'm inclined to agree with Great Day for the Parish in the sense that we can't keep doing what we always did and expect different results. New players had to be tried and it's to be expected that in some cases, experiments won't work out. Sean Gardiner as a full forward hasn't worked, Brian Watkins at 6 doesn't work and I find it very difficult to imagine Kevin Connolly making an impact until he adds a bit more muscle to his frame. That said, things have to be tried, and I don't blame the management for that. Neither would I hang them too much for the substitutions - personally I wouldn't have taken Colin Egan off, but frankly, at that time, no player was playing well enough to be exempt from the curly finger.

I will say this though - after the game when talking to the press, Brian Whelahan spoke about how frustrated he was that the players didn't react to the Laois tactics well, and that they had prepared for it, in depth and repeatedly. That to me suggests one of two things - either there are players in this squad who are so set in their ways that they can't follow a game plan and so can only hurl in the same style all the time, or else the manager and selectors are not up to the task of explaining what way they want to play in a fashion that players can understand. I'm not going to hang the management here, but there is a failing somewhere, and it needs to be addressed fast.

Finally, I'm not privy to the squad's bleep test numbers and their body fat analysis, so I'm not going to say that Gerlock was right or wrong - only Joe Quinn and the management team are really qualified to say whether fitness is an issue or not. However there is no doubting that if we're going to play to that style, i.e. give away possession and contest it every time, then we're going to be doing a lot of tackling and it won't be good enough to be as fit as Kilkenny, Dublin and Galway - we'll have to be fitter. That's a huge ask and there is no evidence that we're any meaningful distance down that road yet.

[kingscounty]

The way I look at this game is, it was our first league game under the new management , Laois have manager for few years now and the team were use to the way he wanted them to play. Yes we were poor but theres no point given out and fucking at young lads who were making their debut , the team didnt go out to lose the game. Laois can never be under estimated when it comes to playing Offaly, in the 80s and 90s Offaly always got it very hard to put Laois away, we are a county that when it comes to playing the so called weaker counties never put them to the sword the way say Kilkenny/Tipp would do. We should at least give Sid time to bed in and not be so negative after the first the game, what would we say if Laois were to put it up to Cork at the weekend , JBM should go??? The best thing about the league is we have more games to right the wrongs and where better to start than with a win against Wexford. Fair play to Laois , leinster hurling needs Laois/Carlows/Westmeaths the effort these teams are putting in deserves rewards .

[joe bloggs]

I'll eat my words if this fella produces wonders and assists everything when he actually plays. Btw i dont live in bushes just to claify!

Its not all about looking stylish when judging a hurler. I could find plenty of skilful players across the county but they couldn't do the job that Mahon does at cf. His swing might not look pretty but look at the golfer Jim furyk, it gets the job done. Mahon has the size, strength, speed, determination and now also the experience required to man the no 11 jersey. He was voted player of the year in Offaly on merit last year. His scoring rate was hugely impressive for a player who I'll admit that a few years ago was very raw, but has now developed into a vital asset for his club and county.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

"So in that context, I'm a bit slow to get unduly carried away with the negativity.

That said, there were some hugely worrying signs in this fixture. The sheer stupidity of our play was utterly, utterly heartbreaking - how many times did Offaly half backs and midfielders hit the ball forward without so much as giving a look as to where the ball was going to go? It was jurassic stuff - get the ball out of my sector and somewhere closer to the opposition goals, even if there is just one Offaly forward and three Laois backs in that sector. I don't know which was worse - players like Kevin Brady and Brian Watkins hitting it blind without looking, or players like James Rigney who looked up, saw a load of Laois backs and hit it into that sector anyway. Then you had the high balls towards Brian Carroll and the low ball into Seán Gardiner, the utterly idiotic late hit by the same Lusmagh player to give Maher the handy free immediately after Currams goal, the inability to use our own free man to any effect, and various other moments that just made you want to break down and weep for the sheer stupidity of it all. I don't know about fat bellies and legs, but there are a lot of brains on the Offaly side that need a lot of exercise if that game is anything to go by."

I like the way we are all tarred as negative, some of these and indeed the last one are up there with the most negative of the last few days!
But your points are the same as everyone was making, taking into account new mgt, new players, all of this, .....its fierce disappointing to see the style of hurling that we produced on the day, without doubt.
I dont buy into just an off day either, this was Brian Whelehan's (our finest hurler), making his debut as Offaly manager, many players making debuts and playing against our neighbours, (who would have inflicted pain on some of these debutants at underage). The panel have trained together, played some games, and the key point is that when you go out for the first game in the league ,in Feb, on poor sod, the game plan will be simple with a few little moves thrown in.
But the lack of passion, thought, vision is disappointing. Only a point from play in the first half.
This is definitley a factor with our football and hurling teams over the last few years, a lack of creativity in our forward play.

All in all for whatever reason one would like to take from the performance, we are all pretty disappointed.
But its easy for us to give out, I wont be heading to Wexford or Cork, but will be behind the lads over the crucial games v Lim & Ant.
And hope to take in a few of the football games as well.
Keep the faith lads!

[Daleamar]

.... When are we going to give up this hurling mullarky. A little county like ours cant do both.... Burn them south Offaly peoples hurls and give them footballs.... blah blah blah....

Is Laois a bigger or smaller county than ours?

[This Year's Model]

I haven't read all posts on this thread but, as a neutral observer last Sunday, I would have to emphasise one thing: this was a very impressive Laois performance. The touch from their players on a heavy sod in February was very, very impressive. But for some poor shooting under no pressure they should have been 8 or 9 points up at half-time. Their use of the handpass was excellent, especially coming out from defence, but generally all over the pitch. Their reaction to the two late goals from Offaly which reduced the deficit to a single score each time, rather than panic because they should have been out of sight, was to go straight up the field from the puckout and score a point to extend the lead again. It was admirable stuff from a confident team.

Offaly were poor, no question, but if Laois play like that against Antrim and Wexford they will beat both of them. And is anybody else more than curious to see how they do at home to Cork tomorrow evening?? I hope it's on Radio 3 ....

Finally, I should find myself in New Ross on Sunday, so I should be able to report back whether Offaly's performance last week was a once-off ....

[Plain of the Herbs]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and answer this as if it were a serious question -

Offaly population:
1996 was 59,117
2002 was 63,663
2006 was 70,604
2011 was 76,687

Laois population
1996 was 52,945
2002 was 58,774
2006 was 67,012
2011 was 80,559

So the conclusion is that Offaly has more natives but Laois has more settlers.

Is Laois a bigger or smaller county than ours?