NHL Cork Vs Offaly.

[Toxicity234]

J. Dempsey,
N Wynne, R. Hanniffy, J Rigney,
C. Parlon, G Healion, D Mooney,
D Kilmartin, S Ryan,
K Connolly, J Bergin, C Mahon,
B Carroll, D Currams, S Dooley.

Aw where to start. Jesus Christ Kelleher, Gardiner, Sean Cleary and Quirke must be wondering what Parlon and Bergin have to do to be drop.
Don't agree with Hanniffy at Full back but he look great because he got a good defender in front of him.
Parlon must be blackmail his way into the team. its the only way he could be getting on the team. If some players were drop last week he should have being one of them.
Gardiner was the best half back the last day and he gone out of the team.
So happy to see Healion in the defence. Mooney must be in last chance saloon but he has got to listen to Healion and hold the defence in place.
if you see Healion around midfield then were be in trouble.

Like the Midfield.

Connolly in the half forward line is a joke. no one going to believe that.
Bergin at Centre Forward a bigger joke he a full forward or a bench warmer that it. He too unfit, doesn't work hard enough and not capable of hurling centre forward for more than 15 mins a half. don't get me wrong, he an awesome skilful hurler but he has to prove it. they more chance of that happening at full forward.
If this is a ploy to get him fit. It hurting the team and that not good.
and Conor Mahon the man that have to do the work of 3 men and the offaly management will make him work so hard that he will get injury. Its only a matter of time.
You can 't make a man carry a half forward by himself. It not player welfare its player and team abuse.
Dan Currams was great the last day. how he Kilmartin, Mahon and Quirke didn't start against Laois is shocking.
Carroll has being great when he got ball in at corner forward.
Dooley shouldn't be starting, he needs fitness and we shouldn't be killing him trying to wining games in march when we need him more in april.

My big fear is that we move Carroll in the half forward line. he looking like a great corner forward again. if we are moving out someone it got to be Currams. he mobile, fast and can win the ball.
The down side is that we be missing a great full forward.

I See problems with at full back. Wing back and Wing Forward or Full forward.

Let hope that our management team put someone up into the stand and away from the sideline so they can see what going on in the field because there subs for the first two matchs have crap.

We can have a good crack at this if we can set up the defence correctly and it hold it position. Midfield second day out as a pair. they still be learning each other game but they worked well the last day for 50 mins. but management has got to make chance's when they have run themselves into the ground.
I can see our half backs struggling but at least we have one defender in there. that was one of big problem area the last day the other one the half forward line.

if we line out the half forward line name we be beating off the field by half time. Connelly is a corner forward. Bergin a full forward. So it Mahon against Eoin Cadogan, Eoin Keane, William Egan by himself. Poor Mahon.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Rory Hanniffy is utterly, utterly wasted at full back.

[townman]

they will hardly line out in them poistions, Parlon right half back Hanniffy fullback Connolly half forward in saying that we have 5 forwards that will start in the championship Again the cats if fit.
Connor Doughan got a game again laois fair enough he wasn't great but wasn't the worse and is young
yet Cathal Parlon is picked at number 5 why don't they give the young players a run same with Sean Cleary and a few more young players if we are to lose why not witha young team who might learn than with the same old same old who have failed over god knows how long.

The Rebels will put Horgan on Wynne Aidan Walsh on Parlon, Conor Lehane on Mooney should win does duels to get the win, if we are lucky Dooley, Currams, Bergin,Carroll, will click and we might break even at midfield , Hanniffy plays out of his skin at fullback, and nick a win bye a point or two.

also nearly forgot no Stephen Quirke ....

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Can't believe Rory Hanniffy is named at full back. But we'll wait and see what happens. Let's hope Offaly can put in a good performance. Team should be improving.

A big result for Offaly fans to watch out for today is Laois v Antrim. If Antrim can beat Laois away -then Offaly could manage to stay out of bottom 2 with a victory over Antrim (would be down to scoring difference then with 3 teams on 2 pts.) Of course at moment Laois would have to be fancied to beat Antrim on current form. But it will be a tight battle as Antrim will fancy their chances.

[Toxicity234]

Cork 1-12
Offaly 1-4

The next man in defence is a great for 10 mins. After that it stop working. Egan In the cork half back line has cleared a shocking 31 balls in the 1st half. And the offaly management are look.
Our defender and midfield clearing some amount of ball but egan just sweeping at back.

[Slieve Bloom Man]

From listening to Radio 3 Offaly seemed to play reasonably well in 2nd half and were a little unlucky not to have got another goal or 2. Offaly played with Kevin Connolly as sweeper -John Leahy felt that it worked in some ways but didn't in others. Leahy feels we should have gone 15 v 15. I'd probably agree.

OFFALY WILL NOW DEFINITELY BE IN RELEGATION PLAY-OFF EVEN IF WE BEAT BOTH LIMERICK AND ANTRIM. AS WE CAN ONLY CATCH EITHER LAOIS OR WEX AND THEY HAVE BOTH BEATEN US ON HEAD TO HEAD.

[sam88885a]

its looking like brian whelahan was the complete wrong rabbit for the county board to pull out of the box of tricks to manage offaly . he looks completely out of his dept .
he seem to have s dooley playing when his not fit handed young connolly a sweeper role played parlon hanniffy and geraghty in defence when their all forwards.
every game we have a different back bone to our team .
today we had a different lad at full back at centre back at centre forward and at full forward than in either the laoise or wexford games .
madness pick the spine of your team stick with it and let those guys develope then build a team around them .

i always felt that because whelahan had failed at every club as manager he was a wrong man for the offaly job he seems to me to be like many great players poor managers because the only see faults in lads not the potental in an average lad .

to me d owens is the oppisite an average player himself but a good manager because he see the good in an average lad and came make him feel that he is has a huge role in the team .
the talk is d owens was not interview because he is ff councler and they intreview panel were strong fine gale as is b whelahan. apparently b whelahan didnt want the job.
madness b coady would not quallify then????
surely it should be only about hurling
offaly are in a really bad place now playing very poorly facing relagation and still no u 21 manager in march .
does any one care ? have everyone given up?
if this was a company they would call an e g m and head would role
that wont happen here offaly will stumble along and we will be told by the all stars sitting on their behinds that there notting in offaly and whelahan did his best.
where is our development squad?
kilkenny had 25 lads training in nolan park while the played clare in ennis a few weeks ago .
who is working to develope lads to replace hanniffy bergin dooley mahon currams kenny .
here is the answer NO ONE

[Sharp Eye]

Yesterday will be actually a success if Team Management learn their lesson. It is unfair on a team or on the player himself to be given a place on a County Senior Hurling Team if you are not physically fit, match fit or don't have the necessary hurling skills. Ger Healion & Shane Dooley have a massive challenge in order to reach the required level of fitness this year. The sweeper system can work when a team is playing against a strong wind. Using the sweeper system yesterday in the first half when Offaly had the aid of the breeze was unforgiveable. We were lucky to have 1-4 on the board at the interval. It is hard enough for 6 Offaly forwards to do well against 6 Cork backs, 5 Offaly forwards against 6 Cork backs was not going to build the necessary lead at the interval.
Yesterdays game was hopefully an experiment. I hope on Sunday next that we pick players that are fit enough to play at this level. If we adopt Clare's approach of playing fast skillfull players we can again become competitive.

[Toxicity234]

Where to start from yesterday.
Ok. I'll start with the Good. Joe Bergin was awesome yesterday. a 8 or 9 out of 10 . Good on the lad, I have slated him here over the last few weeks. but yesterday he was excellent at No. 10. Dan Curamins was ok at No. 11 and Conor Mahon was Ok at No. 12. But in fairness Bergin was the best in the half forward line.
This was the best our half forward has played this years by a long way.
Well done to the 3 lads.
The other great thing was Niall Wynne and Rigney were excellent under huge pressure yesterday. two top class performance for the two lads. When your being ran at by the two wing forward and you have to mark the two wing forwards and the corner forwards its almost impossible.
The midfield was working hard but have a hard time but Ryan and Kilmartin were winning battle and have only one full forward to aim at.
The Subs were excellent as well all made an impact and that what you want.

Now The Bad.
Parlon and Mooney at wing back. Now Heilion slow every slow. so have two wing back that just can't play the position is pointless. Parlon and Mooney positioning were brutal.
Heilion will get slated here and in fairness i said that you need to have Cork running at Heilion not Heilion running around after Cork and that what happen. One puckout which sums up the how poor the wings back were. Nash waited and our two wing backs follow there men out the field and they keep going untill they were in the Cork half back line. the puckout when out over there head and into the space where Parlon should be. The centre forward ran into the space and ran at Healion and up along the line and had a shot that when wide. Heilion looked slow but he was being trying to hurl the whole half back line by himself.
Dooley is very unfit. He still has the habit of being behind his man when then the ball come in.

Now the Really Really Bad.
Cork scored 1-12. against the wind and Offaly Scored 1-4 with the wind. Now i could blame the players but that would be completely be Rubbish.
With the Wind we played with 7 Defender which work of about 10 mins and after that It was a mess(mainly because our wing backs wander into the half forward line) but the Offaly management couldn't see that and make the chance need to keep us in the game. The Cork Extra man cleared over 30 Balls in the 1st half. Its was a complete disaster.
Taking off Heilion at half time. show that the management are look at individual and not the unit as a whole. that a disastrous idea. Heilion was being giving the run around.
Against the wind we scored 0-14 points. Now that a great scored against the wind and the extra man in defense work well.
But the management idea of playing an extra man in defense with the wind was crap and Kill off any chance for Offaly to win the game. (and this was a game we could have won with better management).
The choice of Connelly to play the extra man was a stupid idea. The young lad did well but someone with more experience would have being a better choice. Rigney would have being a better choice. A extra defender has to able to sweep behind the half back line and get back and tackle in the full back line. Connelly has some great skills as a hurler but i would never put these two thing on top of his skills list. Egan at the other end of the field was ideal for this kind of role and he destroy us in the first half.

Ok. The next two game are Freebie. Lets get Dooley into some hard training and off the team until his fitness improves. Lets get Mooney and Parlon out of the wing back position and get a proper defender into wing backs.

And most importantly get in a someone from the management into the stands. so that the management can see what going on the field because from what i seen so far they can't see much for where they are standing at the moment.

[tribesman]

As outsider looking in, Offaly seem to be struggling in the half back line, is Dermot Shortt, Pat Camon, Stephen Wynne, Brian Watkins, all good backs if not half backs surely worth a try in last two dead rubbers. Nice to see Bergin back to his best, on his day one of the top forwards in the 32.

[kaiserchief]

Where to start from yesterday.

Ok. The next two game are Freebie. Lets get Dooley into some hard training and off the team until his fitness improves. Lets get Mooney and Parlon out of the wing back position and get a proper defender into wing backs.

And most importantly get in a someone from the management into the stands. so that the management can see what going on the field because from what i seen so far they can't see much for where they are standing at the moment.

The next two games are crucial. After loosing to Laois and the Wexford we where always going to be in this position.
We have lost 3 games in the league and played numerous challenge games and Brian Whelan still doesn't his best 15, stategy and I think what players play in what position.

The fringe players now need these two games to give them and Whelan a chance for the summer. The likes of Conor Slevin, Brian Watkins, Dan Kellegher, Conor Doughan, Sean Coughlan, Sean Gardiner, Chris McDonald need a run in the back line and hopefully we can get Kenny and Morkan back fit as well. Parlon is not a backs man and has had several chances thus far and Mooney is just not good enough. Parlon needs a chance at full forward where he plays best for Coolderry. We also need to play the Gearthy twins, Colin Egan, Sean Cleary and Quirke (taking the free's) in the forward line. Kilmartin is #1 choice at midfield but who partners him is still in doubt. I would like to see Peter Gearthy alongside him, two men for the same club is this position always work well.

It's going to be interesting to see how Brian Whelan handles the next few weeks!!

[Toxicity234]

'OFFALY were awful.Worse that i thought they could be.And they played a sweeper,but unlike laois for example at no intensity and yet
There extra man ,caused us huge problems in defence ,and same old ,we let Walsh who had a good game be double marked for large periolds.Cork still fail to play a possesion game.
Whelanan is the new in job,but still he looks like a manager devoid of any real direction to there team.'

The problem archer for the hurlers is they are palying in a crap league. Offaly had fat lads playing today fffs, while antrim & laois are as bad as them. Wexford will be a test to a degree but we will win.

Taking from the Cork Supporter forum.

What I find funny about these comment. Cork are not as good as Wexford for what I have seen. I see Wexford full forward line doing some damage to that cork full back line if the Wexford can get enough ball in and from what I seen of limerick. it think that the division 1b Final will be between Limerick vs Wexford.
They going to have to improve a lot to win that match.

Find it hard to disagree with what they said about us.