National Hurling League 2015

[Toxicity234]

Fixture:
Feb 14 vs Laois(away).
Feb 22 vs Wexford (home)
March 8 vs Waterford (home)
March 14 vs Limerick (away)
March 22 vs Antrim (away)

Taking from Twitter

[Plain of the Herbs]

Looks like Saturday night lights for the Laois and Limerick games.

[Toxicity234]

Kind hoping casement park will be finished from the antrim game. its a long drive to ballycastle.

[Plain of the Herbs]

No chance. They haven't even started tearing down the old one yet. The only change there is that they made hay out of the growth of the Casement Park pitch this summer. I suspect they could have played last June's qualifier match against Offaly there if they really wanted to.

Objections going through the courts as this time. See here - http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29212128

Kind hoping casement park will be finished from the antrim game. its a long drive to ballycastle.

[Buttons]

2 years ago these fixtures were ideal, a win against Laois to start off, a win against the yellow bellies seeing as we were at home which would have put us in a good position prior to the 2 hard games Waterford and Limerick, Antrim would be already in trouble and the game against Laois would have been their big game. Fast forward 2 years and can we see ourselves winning any game, the game against Antrim at the end will probably mean nothing, lets do the hard work and training now get the confidence up, beat Laois and see what happens from there. Confidence with winning games is big ask Tipp.

[Lone Shark]

All in all it's not that bad a schedule. Yeah, the trip to Antrim is hellish enough but the fact that the squad produced a win there this summer when things were going badly has to be a good sign.

We've got good results in Limerick before and without doubt a lot more supporters will make the trip for a Saturday night in Limerick than would have done for a Sunday afternoon in Waterford or Wexford. Of course three home games would be better, but at least with this schedule it's possible to imagine that a run towards promotion could be made, admittedly only if things improve a lot from where we were this year.

[Toxicity234]

http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=224551

[kaiserchief]

It's not a bad fixture list.

We slipped up last year against Laois by not taking them serious and not starting our best 15.

My question is if Brian Whelan has been ratified as manager or what is the story?

[sam88885a]

ON this years form we will get hammered by wexford waterford and limerick and laois will also beat us.
hope we get get everyone back that left last year and give youth a chance .
a huge improvement will be needed in fitness ,game plans ,man managment and team spirit
the big question is b whelahan good enough ?

[Kevin]

My question is if Brian Whelan has been ratified as manager or what is the story?

Is this still an open item?

[Plain of the Herbs]

It is apparent that the effects of Diarmuid Healy's plea for positivity has lasted merely a week. We truly are a great county for running ourselves down.

[sam88885a]

i think that last year u 21 and our clubs have giving us hope despite lots of thing been wrong .
if we were to develope young lads from u 14 , have a file recording his strengths and weakness which would travel up to u 16 minor and to senior with the player , along with lots of good coachs developing their skills along the way .
have proper strength and condition all year around so that two months of each year are not wasted with guys losing weight. look at the minor and u 21 as a step in developing senior players and take them seriously.
we will need to be more professional but there is no reason why we cant .
i belive we have the raw material we just need to work harder to get the harvest .

[Toxicity234]

Look Like Brian Whelehan is going to stay with a new back room team going into place.
Yeah because the problem we had last year were all the back room team fault.
So that rules out the return of the 20 or so lads that left the panel last year.
Hard to be positive with a negativity manager in charge for another year.

[Bord na Mona man]

Fixture:
Feb 14 vs Laois(away).
Feb 22 vs Wexford (home)
March 8 vs Waterford (home)
March 14 vs Limerick (away)
March 22 vs Antrim (away)

Taking from Twitter

League games versus Leix have tended to be bellwether fixtures.
The times Offaly have lost to Leix; 2004, 2008 and 2014 have always ended up with Offaly occupying the relegation position at the end of the league.
You'd expect the tone for 2015 will be set on Feb 14 - A win and maybe there is a hint of an upturn, defeat and Offaly are already in trouble.

[Kevin]

Look Like Brian Whelehan is going to stay with a new back room team going into place.
Yeah because the problem we had last year were all the back room team fault.
So that rules out the return of the 20 or so lads that left the panel last year.
Hard to be positive with a negativity manager in charge for another year.

20 or so players leaving will provide a big gap if that is the number and it is not reduced.

Hoping some of these will get back in one way or another.