National Hurling League 2015

[sam88885a]

if whelahan is to stay .
i wonder will he continue to try to get offaly to play a clare style of hurling with a sweeper and play a hurling full back and centre back or will he play more a kilkenny style , men down the middle and forwards that can win their own ball and work hard to get back they ball . if he does r hannify wont be full back d morkam wont be centre back and s dooley b carroll and j bergin wont be on the team .
he have to be brave and give younger lads a decent chance after last year.
here are two teams . 30 lads that need to be developed

j demsey
n wynne e murphy s gardner
s coughlan d kelliher p camon
d kilmartain e nolan
s cleary c mahon c kiely
s quirke j bergin d curram


c clancy
con mahon d shortt m cleary
b murphy g connelly d morkam
j sullivan a treacy
c doughan s wynne k connoly
d murry p murphy p geraghty

[Toxicity234]

congrats to Brian carroll on his All Star nomination

[townman]

if whelahan is to stay .
i wonder will he continue to try to get offaly to play a clare style of hurling with a sweeper and play a hurling full back and centre back or will he play more a kilkenny style , men down the middle and forwards that can win their own ball and work hard to get back they ball . if he does r hannify wont be full back d morkam wont be centre back and s dooley b carroll and j bergin wont be on the team .
he have to be brave and give younger lads a decent chance after last year.
here are two teams . 30 lads that need to be developed

j demsey
n wynne e murphy s gardner
s coughlan d kelliher p camon
d kilmartain e nolan
s cleary c mahon c kiely
s quirke j bergin d curram


c clancy
con mahon d shortt m cleary
b murphy g connelly d morkam
j sullivan a treacy
c doughan s wynne k connoly
d murry p murphy p geraghty

both them teams would see us going down to division 2, Dooley, Carroll, Bergin, Morkam, Hanniffy, are still the few good hurlers we do have, and looking at our underage over the last few years and last sundays semil-finals didn't put any hurler up in lights that stood out.

[sam88885a]

townman ur correct what i forget to say is that rory brian carroll etc need young lads to step up quickly . the older lads need to be managed differently .target the games we use them in especially during the league

[Toxicity234]

if whelahan is to stay .
i wonder will he continue to try to get offaly to play a clare style of hurling with a sweeper and play a hurling full back and centre back or will he play more a kilkenny style , men down the middle and forwards that can win their own ball and work hard to get back they ball . if he does r hannify wont be full back d morkam wont be centre back and s dooley b carroll and j bergin wont be on the team .
he have to be brave and give younger lads a decent chance after last year.
here are two teams . 30 lads that need to be developed

j demsey
n wynne e murphy s gardner
s coughlan d kelliher p camon
d kilmartain e nolan
s cleary c mahon c kiely
s quirke j bergin d curram


c clancy
con mahon d shortt m cleary
b murphy g connelly d morkam
j sullivan a treacy
c doughan s wynne k connoly
d murry p murphy p geraghty

both them teams would see us going down to division 2, Dooley, Carroll, Bergin, Morkam, Hanniffy, are still the few good hurlers we do have, and looking at our underage over the last few years and last sundays semil-finals didn't put any hurler up in lights that stood out.

Don't agree with that at all townman. We have no idea how good most of these hurlers are. For the simple reason that our underage team are not been look after. 7 weeks we had a u21 manager last year. (may he rest in peace) Or minor manager over the last few years was a coach not a manager. Our team preparation at underage has been a joke. hell last year against Wexford we played with two sweeper with the Wind at minor level.

As for the Semi Final. I though the hard work put in my the young hurlers on display was encouraging. Their was no stand with their hand on the hip as their man was clearing the ball from most of the young players.

I see that the Westmeath Clubs voted down Peter Leahy appointment as Football manager, I wonder would the Offaly Clubs have the bottle to voted down Whelehan re-appointment.?? Surely the club have to know how much of a crap job he did this year and how unbelievable dangerous it is to leave him their for another year.

[allstar2010]

congrats to Brian carroll on his All Star nomination

Great achievement considering how bad the year was in general for the team. When was the last time anyone got nominated for an all-star? Did Shane Dooley get nominated a couple of years ago?

As for next years management, it would be great I think if Ken Hogan came on board. He's probably going to pack it in with coolderry now. He knows the club scene in offaly and has experience of working at an inter county level with tipp.

[townman]

if whelahan is to stay .
i wonder will he continue to try to get offaly to play a clare style of hurling with a sweeper and play a hurling full back and centre back or will he play more a kilkenny style , men down the middle and forwards that can win their own ball and work hard to get back they ball . if he does r hannify wont be full back d morkam wont be centre back and s dooley b carroll and j bergin wont be on the team .
he have to be brave and give younger lads a decent chance after last year.
here are two teams . 30 lads that need to be developed

j demsey
n wynne e murphy s gardner
s coughlan d kelliher p camon
d kilmartain e nolan
s cleary c mahon c kiely
s quirke j bergin d curram


c clancy
con mahon d shortt m cleary
b murphy g connelly d morkam
j sullivan a treacy
c doughan s wynne k connoly
d murry p murphy p geraghty

both them teams would see us going down to division 2, Dooley, Carroll, Bergin, Morkam, Hanniffy, are still the few good hurlers we do have, and looking at our underage over the last few years and last sundays semil-finals didn't put any hurler up in lights that stood out.

Don't agree with that at all townman. We have no idea how good most of these hurlers are. For the simple reason that our underage team are not been look after. 7 weeks we had a u21 manager last year. (may he rest in peace) Or minor manager over the last few years was a coach not a manager. Our team preparation at underage has been a joke. hell last year against Wexford we played with two sweeper with the Wind at minor level.

As for the Semi Final. I though the hard work put in my the young hurlers on display was encouraging. Their was no stand with their hand on the hip as their man was clearing the ball from most of the young players.

I see that the Westmeath Clubs voted down Peter Leahy appointment as Football manager, I wonder would the Offaly Clubs have the bottle to voted down Whelehan re-appointment.?? Surely the club have to know how much of a crap job he did this year and how unbelievable dangerous it is to leave him their for another year.

we all agree Whelehan was poor last year along with Ger Coughlan, and John Troy, yes clubs can vote down Sid for the job, but like myself i think most know that offaly hurling is at its lowest for donkeys years and theres not to many that would go near us, plus the county board won't go for a big name because of the cost, Dublin got Ger Cunningham, feck sake even Westmeath got ex waterford boss Mick Ryan during the week.

as for underage i have been at most matches the last few years minor and under 21 and got in a few ST.Brendans school games not many mind you. but what i have notice about young hurlers in offaly now is the skill level is gone our striking and catching and first touch are all poor we seem to be going for big lads but not a inch of hurling in them, the picking of the under 21 team the last two or 3 years was a joke with alot of players pick on their club rather than their hurling skill, last year again kilkenny we had kilkenny on the ropes in tullamore but a certain person left better hurlers on the bench and watch a match that was there for the taking slip away.


what offaly need is a Davy Fitz over them who doesn't give a fcuk, what club your from or who you are and will take no shit off the county board either, till then will with just be also runs, the players have to much of a say in offaly i remember certain players wouldn't hurl under Joe Dooley some didn't like Baker, we had the same last year lads walking because Sid told some a few home truths so they walked . i was in earshot of a ex all ireland winner from the 80's a few weeks ago and he said that Kilcormac/Killoughey were a poor enough team and were a flash in the pan and got lucky breaks in 2012, and wouldn't be near winning anything in offaly and are because offaly hurling is poor theses times, and also said they would make a good rugby team as thats all going for them their size and winter hurling, i took him up on his remarks and told him they did something his club never done and thats win leinster club title god knows they got into enough of them i told him, he wasn't a bit happy but i said its no wonder we are as poor as we are with ex players bitter over other clubs doing well he wasn't a bit happy but fcuk him i told him the truth and he didn't like it.

[kingscounty]

We play either Laois, Antrim,Westmeath,Carlow , in leinster quarter final .

[townman]

more than likely will be laois in tullamore, as we last hurl them in portlaoise in 2008, we have the home and away agreed with laois, at this time laois are ahead of us and the league opener will see where we stand going into a championship game again them, Cheadar Plunkett has done great work with them over the last few years.

[sam88885a]

townman they belief in kk is they need to win 3 in a row to gain respect in offaly hurling circles .

talking to an ex kilkenny player during the week he think kilcormac killoughey will be hard stopped in lenster and could go all the way . i dont think their form is good enough this year .
he told he saw them winning lenster two year ago and they played better hurling than any offaly team he saw in ten years or more .
whereas he didnt rate coolderry at all . "hair oil" hurlers he called them
i said offaly hurling was at a very low point now ,look at what kilkenny did to us this year .

his answer was what do u expect if brian whelahan was managing kilkenny we wouldnt beat laois.
he said whelahan is like roy keane a whinger . a great player but not a manager never will be either .

well done to b carroll , had his best year deserved selection .
not a bad draw next year probaly laois or antrim , win that galway or dublin in a semi final .
at least it not kilkenny

[townman]

if Cody was over us sam88885a we still wouldn't get with in 20 points of kilkenny, i think your ex kilkenny friend was a little hard on Coolderry who won lenister to and are the top of the table with senior titles in offaly. he didn't watch to much hurling if he thinks KiIlcormac/Killoughey hurl the best hurling from a club team, Coolderrys display again Oulart was as good as K/K was in 2012, and not to mention Birrs wins over the years in lenister and all ireland's.

[Toxicity234]

The comment from former players are a big problem around the county.
These guys have a tendency to forget that 1981, 1985 and 1994 team had some average players on it and there was better hurlers left off the panel.
But these lads think that anyone that played hurling in offaly when they played are better hurler than anyone that playing at the moment.

The true is the worst hurling match i ever seen at any level was a county semi-final between Birr and Rynagh. with the final score been 0-12 to 4-3.
most of them players had lenister club medals and a lot had All Ireland medals. The striking On and Off the ball that day was shocking.

The draw has been kind to us and if we were managed correctly we could well been look forward to a Leinister Final next year.
But that not going to happen.

As for Cody managing Offaly. I look at this a different way. If Whelehan was in charge of Kilkenny and Cody in charge of Offaly. My house would be on Offaly to beat a Killkenny.
Why?? Cody would beleive and who have Offaly hurlers believing they could win. Whelehan wouldn't believe half the players and wouldn't have Kilkenny believing they couldn't win.

[sam88885a]

townman he meant since birr ,it 12 years since birr won last all ireland .birr won two in a row in 2002 and 2003 i think .
birr had a great team at that time, they could have beaten the pick of the rest of the club in offaly,such was there domance .
at least 3or 4 club have a chance now.
i agree he was hard on coolderry even though i think kk in 2012 were better than coolderry were in 2013 and kk should have won that all ireland but for a poot ref and d currams injury .
finally why has b whelahan fail as a club manager in two clubs in galway and in laois and last year with offaly ?
WOULD it because he is not good enough and team go backwards under his watch .
offaly were 20 point worse this year against kilkenny than the year before .
olllie baker must have been a great manager or whelahan was useless .

[townman]

i agree with most that is wrote on here about Whelehan not good enough over the county, but what most on here are missing is the talent is not there, it would be different if we had the bones of two minor or under 21 leinster or all irelands sides to bring up to good seniors, 2000 last minor and under 21 lenister titles most on them sides have gone on.

we got to two under 21 leinster finals in the last ten years and were well beaten in both by Dublin and Kilkenny, someone said to me the other day that why aren't offaly not doing better in hurling as they have been one of the best sides in club hurling over the last few years with Birr, Coolderry, Kilcormac/Killoughey winning leinster and Tullamore losing the final to Ballyhale, i said look at Galway win the club most years but no inter county all irelands since 1988, Eire OG of Carlow won was it 5 or 6 club titles don't think Carlow won a championship game in them summers, Antrim the same good club sides but nothing to show at inter county level.

i sat in tullamore last sunday and the 1/4 finals in Birr a few weeks before and there is not 3 or 4 hurlers that i could say will make good inter county players that will give the likes of kilkenny or Galway a rattle in leinster, yes we can name young players that hurl with Rynaghs and K/K or Shinrone but most of theses players have been beaten at underage by the likes of laois and westmeath, our minors the last 3 years to laois, so i can't see where they will improve to have the talent to hurl kilkenny, as an oldman from Coolderry told me a few years ago offaly hurling is back to where it was when he was youngman late 40's early 50's behind kilkenny,wexford, Dublin,Laois,Westmeath, and sorry to say thats where we are between laois and westmeath.

we have to work at underage it might take years or we might not see it in my lifetime again, but this blaming Whelehan, or Baker, or Dooley will go on and on untill we have the talent to work with back in offaly, i am sure it will be a poor year again under Whelehan but it will be the same in 2016 with who ever takes over from Sid.

[biffinbanner]

davy fitz mite be available sooner that people think if rumours around here are true!!