Offaly V Antrim part 1

[Kevin]

there seem to me to be a view out there especially around birr that there are no hurlers in offaly and that there is notting coming because birr school have very little talent at the moment .
are there not 6 or 7 offaly lads playing with roscrea and there going well .
Did banagher collage win an all ireland in the last few years and didnt coolderry and kk get to two club all irelands . surely there must be hurlers that need to be developed not written off by the likes of d regan
south offaly needs to cop on players dont have to be born in birr to hurl for offaly .
hurling has moved to belmount brosna gales kiluran kileagh and kilcormac killoughey are the new power house in offaly hurling
it my opinion kk could do like st rynagh did when the made the break through go on to domanate hurling for a period .
this happens in most counties new clubs emerge so no point lamenting about the good old days live in the present

Ur comment seemed to be a sly dig at the birr area...il state the facts...for offaly hurling to be doing well they do have to be doing well in all the schools but most importantly st.brendans because they compete against the best teams and are in the strongest championship...playing st.kiernans dublin colleges and the likes.il give credit to roscrea and banagher but how many hurlers of these teams will make senior level are very little..because its simple its a B all ireland..ur going on saying coolderry and winning all irelands its great for the club but has noting to do with the county...i.e coolderry we havent found one player that wasnt there before they got to the all ireland 3 years ago.so yet again its a ridiclious comment.d regan is been a realist and the truth hurts people

agree with your post, and i will add we won't be strong again untill Birr and Rynagh's are back add in Clareen in that group to. was talking to an ex county footballer from the 80's over the christmas and he said much the same, that untill Ferbane, Walsh Island, Gracefield, are back strong again and winning titles at senior the football will stay in the low divisions and in a way his right we are back in division 4. yes i know there will be many who say we can't live in the past this and that but till them clubs are back strong we won't be back.

I understand the point made above that strong hurling in the schools is going to be a a driver to raise Offaly going forward. Although my hope is that we'll be happy to take any player from anywhere that is good enough (I don't think anyone is suggesting we don't).

Townman, please help me with the correlation in football. Are there schools in top competitions providing players to the above mentioned football clubs, then onto the senior team in much the same way (I would not know)? How is it that we can't possibly win in football if Rhode, Shamrocks, Clara and Tullamore come to dominate the scene. Are we less "healthy' in those conditions? No accusation here of people living in the past, I would just like to understand how this hangs together and why. Thx.

[kaiserchief]

what is it with everything with offaly hurling being connected to birr. there is more to offaly hurling than just birr. birr is without doubt a strong part of the history if offaly hurling but is doesn't mean that for the future everything has to evolve around them. history is there to be changed.

before anyone says i am not from kk but they are the birr of this county. they have the structure's now in place and the talent coming on that birr had in the late 80's and 90's. anytime i drive through kilcormac every young person is carrying a hurl and it's a great site to see.

this bringing hurling back to birr shite has to stop. i agree with smaller games like walsh cup and others where big crowds are not expected could be played in places like birr, banagher, drumcullen, etc. ocp is our home ground for championship games and birr will never be able to cater for this. i heard johny pilkington's interview about bringing hurling back to birr and looking for the county board to foot the bill for the development of a new stand. is he mad.

the county board are slow in acting. i think we are one of the only counties without our own training facilities, and this especially a disaster in the winter. clubs cant afford to let counties train and tear up the fields! we need to purchase land and have facilities and start from grass roots. dublin started this 10 years ago and the results are coming through now and we are just going backwards.

[Buck Face]

KC - what is it with everything with offaly hurling being connected to birr – maybe it’s because 11 out of the 12 Senior clubs are within 20km of Birr whereas only 2 of the 12 (one of which is nearer to Birr) are within 20km of Tullamore?

So you are right -‘this bringing hurling back to birr shite has to stop’ because the hurling is already there.

When it suits you put yourself forward as a progressive forward thinker saying ‘history is there to be changed’ but yet you claim ‘Birr will never be able to cater’ for a championship match.
Progressive forward thinkers should know to never say never.

As for winter training, I thought it was only SBP that had problems with its pitch in the winter?

[babsandbond]

Buck face will said kc is talkin more wallop...hurling isnt as strong as before in the birr areaand thats why offaly hurling is suffering...we need the school in birr to be competing and offaly minors too and too that we need to put more effort into coaching at the hurling end of the county.