Allianz Hurling League Roinn 1B 2016

[Sharp Eye]

Agreed Exiled. Still reckon we are in much better place and to a large extent, Eamon Kelly is doing a very good job. There is some positivity there at least unlike last 2 years which were disaster.

Let this be the end of the Birr Tullamore debate. In fact playing Kerry in a small tight venue would fit right into Kerry hands and I'd feel to more open confines of OCP would have facilitated us better today. Birr might be better idea when hosting likes of Clare and Limerick and maybe wexford. Better hurlers like more open space. We played into their hands by playing Limerick in OCP.

Not so sure that we are in a better place than last year. Last year we defeated a stronger Laois team in Portlaoise and we defeated Limerick in Limerick. We had a reasonable secondhalf performance against Tipp in the League Quarter Final. I think we had better hurlers and more scoring forwards last year.

[Kevin]

Did the players and team management under estimate Kerry after the great win last week ? Maybe they did and if they did then the manager with his knowledge of Kerry hurling must take some of the blame.

I pray that we did not take Kerry for granted here. It would be unimaginable. Coming from where we are coming from we are in no position to underestimate anyone.

[townman]

it's no wonder where we are today with most on here more worried about where the game was played or how many was in birr or if it ws in tullamore. what most are missing the point was kerry were by far the better hurling team lets talk or make points about that than the auldbullshit about where the game should be.

[townman]

Agreed Exiled. Still reckon we are in much better place and to a large extent, Eamon Kelly is doing a very good job. There is some positivity there at least unlike last 2 years which were disaster.

Let this be the end of the Birr Tullamore debate. In fact playing Kerry in a small tight venue would fit right into Kerry hands and I'd feel to more open confines of OCP would have facilitated us better today. Birr might be better idea when hosting likes of Clare and Limerick and maybe wexford. Better hurlers like more open space. We played into their hands by playing Limerick in OCP.

jimbob just have to take you up on your post, we are in a better place now than the last two years you must have been in space we have the same players as the last two years, and about the tight view i for one wouldn't like to hurl Clare today in birr

[sam88885a]

offaly were terrible, they worse game they have played under e kelly . i expected a big game today but walking into the game ,i was chatting a kerry man and he was full of praise for c carey and told me that e kelly hadnt a clue and that kerry were blessed to be rid of him and kerry would beat offaly today .
i didnt belive him but by half time i was worried and to be fair kerry deserve to win in the end .

AS for e kelly we were in trouble at full back , why has d short not been allow to develope there from last year . c doughan is a lovely hurler but he is Not a centre back , c egan is a work horse but has not a clue how to play centre forward ,and our midfield loves running into tackles and getting turned over .
e kelly didnt seem to be able to react to the problems in front of him , surely we should have put c kiely back in front of kerrys no 11 to stop him winning puckouts .
its my opinion but i think we need d shortt at full back , maybe c egan at centre back with c doughan and c kiely in midfield c mahon at centre forward with p murphy and s kinsella beside him and dooley bergin and curram in the full forward line .
sammon cleary and mulronney are not up to it.
today was a step backwards , two weeks time kilkenny so we need to stop pricking around with the team and get the simple thing right at least ,like defending long puckouts and we our fowards to defend properly otherwise we will get hammered .

[jimbob17]

it's no wonder where we are today with most on here more worried about where the game was played or how many was in birr or if it ws in tullamore. what most are missing the point was kerry were by far the better hurling team lets talk or make points about that than the auld bullshit about where the game should be.

jimbob just have to take you up on your post, we are in a better place now than the last two years you must have been in space we have the same players as the last two years, and about the tight view i for one wouldn't like to hurl Clare today in birr

Is this a little bit of a contradiction Townman?

Yea id feel that players are a lot more satisfied about how things are being run. There are less players being played out of their natural positions and to a large degree (Kerry game aside) we are a hell of a lot more competitive than last year - take Wexford, Laoise games as examples compared to last year. We had nothing to play for today and lads heads were a touch off where they needed to be. Wouldnt be overly concerned. Think we are moving in right direction. Would like to see Short at full back though and McDonald in corner with Sean Gardiner starting in my team every time! Egan is a half forward and Bergin a full forward. Kelly is aware of this and has stuck to it. Bergin is going as well as we have seen him in a long time!

[kaiserchief]

Yesterday was a disaster (and all credit is due to Kerry, excellent second half performance and should great pride) which we have to forget about and just shows bringing hurling back to Birr would be a disaster too. Bring hurling back to Birr goes into the trash now.

The objective for the league was to finish 3rd or 4th and get an extra game in quarter final. If it was Waterford Kilkenny Tipperary it all the same, they all a lot stronger than us but we have two weeks to get ourselves together and throw everything @ Kilkenny both physically and tactically.

Good to see Kevin Connolly and Stephen Wynne back in the squad. Still need to get a few of the K/K lads to strengthen our hand.

I agree with Jimbob - McDonald to the corner and Shortt to full back. Gardiner was injured but he plays wing back for me in championship. Kinsella has to play in the forwards and I would start Dan Kelleher for physicality and Stephen Wynne center forward.

15 to play Kilkenny (my opinion):

Dempsey
McDonald
Shortt
Rigney
Camon
Dan Kelleher
Doughan
Ryan
Kiely
Kinsella
Stephen Wynne
Egan
Dooley
Bergin
Paddy Murphy

[Keiap]

Jesus lads yer great lads to make changes after the fact were ye saying all this after the Wexford game..great crowd in birr yesterday so what's your point about not having matches in birr kaiser chief

[True Red]

Damien Lawlor on RTE Radio this morning saying that the Kerry players outworked the Offaly guys yesterday in Birr.

He also says that some of their players ran 12 - 13 kms in yesterdays match which is phenomenal.

The 'outworking' comment is something that has to stick in the craw.

[kaiserchief]

Jesus lads yer great lads to make changes after the fact were ye saying all this after the Wexford game..great crowd in birr yesterday so what's your point about not having matches in birr kaiser chief

I would have made them changes for the game yesterday. Thats the strongest team we have available. McDonald not a full back, Limerick matched proved that, Mullrooney scores an odd goal but overall not good enough and Sean Cleary just aint a corner forward.

Yes there was a great crowd as there should be at all Offaly games no matter the location and it was by no means a sell out. The facilities are just not there especially for the players, each team using two dressing rooms to tog out and the field was a disgrace, the grass wasn't even cut.

Was it just me that noticed this

[timber]

If the reason they lost yesterday was down to attitude and work rate then there is a big bloody problem that needs to be addressed.

Can we stop fussing over where Offaly hurlers play their games now and concentrate on how we can get some sort of pride back in Offaly hurling and the respect this county once had.

[Wing Back]

James Dempsey - Done OK but not his usual accomplished self. Got dispossessed coming out with a ball in the 2nd half that could have cost us dearly. Also acme off 2nd best in a race to a ball on the 21 where he probably should have got it. Can't blame him for the goals at all and was probably unlucky not to save the 2nd as it looked to have hit the post.

Niall Wynne, Chris Mcdonald, Paddy Rigney - This line seemed to start well enough. Gave away a few needless frees in the 1st half which were slotted over by Kerrys no.15. As the game wore on we were left exposed particularly in the 2nd half. The Kerry full forward seemed to be a thorn in our side all afternoon....but seemed to drift out to the half forward line as the game wore on. Wynne got taken off for Connolly in the 2nd half, but we still looked ropey and I was very nervous any time the ball went in around the house. Some aimless clearances to the Kerry sweeper in the 2nd half were very costly where a little more composure to pick out a cross field ball possibly was needec instead.

Pat Camon, Conor Doughan, Dermot Shortt - Similar to the Full back line, seemed to start pretty well and picked out some great passes early on into our forwards. But slowly but surely we seemed to come unstuck here. Camon played well enough throughout. Doughan didn't command enough here. A move to the wing for him could be an option possibly and maybe Egan slot in here. Was expecting more from Shortt aswell. We seemed to stand off the Kerry half forward line and give them 5 - 10 yards of a head start on a lot of cross field ball.

Shane Kinsella, Sean Ryan - Kerry seemed to really get a foot hold here and ran at us. Was disappointed with the way an awful lot of breaks were pounced on by Kerry where we looked tired when battling for the ball. Shane Kinsella has been good to date but thought he was very poor yesterday. The game seemed to pass him by in my opinion. I would be inclined to move him centre forward where he can make a difference there and get involved in the play more. Sean Ryan had an OK game where he made a powerful run and put a point on a plate for Mulrooney in the 1st half. He stepped back and helped in defence in the 2nd half aswell. But he gave away some aimless ball aswell which Kerry punished. Around the middle our midfield and half lines seemed to get on the ball run into trouble and lose the ball an awful lot.

Paddy Murphy, Colin Egan, James Mulrooney - Was bitterly disappointed with Colin Egan here. Our half forward line in general was very poor and struggled to win many of our own puckouts unless Bergin or Dooley came out from the inside line. Paddy Murphy got taken off after 25 mins or so I think........not sure why as I didn't really rate him to much at the start of the year but he has been one of our more consistent scorers in fairness to him. Mulrooney took his goal well and finished off a pint after a good run from Ryan in fairness to him, but was very average apart from that. Sampson got brought on for Murphy and got a fair amount of game time. I actually don't think he struck a ball off his hurley. With his 1st touch he went into a ruck and just picked it clean off the ground and gave away a free and with his only other touch he took to many steps. Can't remember him being involved in the play apart from that. Woeful stuff.

Shane Dooley, Joseph Bergin, Sean Cleary - By far our best line yesterday, Both Bergin and Dooley looked very sharp. Joe only managed 1-1 but contributed a lot. He looked fast, confident and had the beating of any of the Kerry backs no matter which one it was. He was our only option for puck outs it seemed and won some important frees. I'd forgive him taking a shot at the end as Id nearly sooner him taking a speculative effort over his shoulder as opposed to throwing it out the way our other forwards were going. Shane Dooley also looked very dangerous. Every time he got on the ball the crowd lifted and took some excellent scores. He was very accurate from placed ball aswell which kept us ahead for much of the game. Sean Cleary didn't see as much of the ball as he would have liked either I'd imagine, and that was the story of the game as all our other lines failed to get on top and get any ball (decent or otherwise) into an on song full forward line.

Subs : J Sampson - I've already given my 2 cents on what he contributed yesterday.
C Kiely - He done OK and had the beating of his man. Hit 2 poor wides when a score was needed but can't fault him for effort and one I would definitely have in the next day ahead of the other 2 wing forwards.
K Connolly - Good to see him back in the fold as he can definitely contribute something. Man of the match in last year county final. Got on a few balls on the stand side and will come on once he gets more game time
S Connolly - Wasn't on that long ,Came out with a ball or 2 from the full back line. Got totally caught out with a fresh air swing under a high ball after coming in. Played Ok but not sure he's one for the starting team to be honest. A change needed to happen in our full back line yesterday alright but not sure Steven was the man to come in and shore things up.
P Guinan - Happy enough to see Guinan coming on. wasn't on long at all so can't really say to much about how he played. Managed to get on the ball which is at least something.

Overall I was very disappointed walking across the field yesterday. I felt that looking at the game we had the better hurlers but couldn't make use of them. Fair play to Kerry, over the 70 mins they wanted it more and they got their win. How we can go from beating Wexford by 7 or 8 points to losing to Kerry by 1 point.....who Wexford beat out of sight.........is hard to credit. I really would have preferred to play Waterford and not Kilkenny as I'm worried for a bit of a hammering which could undo any of the positivity which has happened recently. I think Joey O'Connor coming back in might help, with Gardner slotting into the back somewhere also. I really want to put this down to an off day and hopefully Eamon Kelly will have us ready for Nolan Park in 2 weeks. It was a great day for hurling and a good crowd turned out which is always a positive. However on a side note I thought the referee was extremely harsh on occasions for both sides yesterday which took from the game considerably yesterday. Also I hate saying this as I really wanted hurling to be played in SBP, but as I walked across the field yesterday the playing surface clearly hadn't been rolled in ages and was extremely bumpy. Everything else about SBP was very much up to scratch, but can't help but think that the poor playing surface benefitted Kerry more than our own. Just something to note for the groundsmen maybe

[greenairfield]

Kaiser Chief Eamon kelly walked the field Thursday with CB officials and said not to cut the grass that it was fine so that basically shuts that argument.

Regarding the dressing room no they are not up to OCP standard but they do the job fine.

We lost because of our attitude and we really aren't any better than Kerry,Offaly hurling is at a huge low and we need a total new structure with hard work to fix the problems whether this will be done anytime soon I doubt it very much.

CB have a huge debt and they want clubs now to chip in help out even though some of them are struggle to keep there on heads above water...its a disgrace whats going on.

[Toxicity234]

Kilkenny Away..

Its hard to believe that this was the same team i saw last week.
About 15 mins it dawned on me that Gorman bring to the team. He stay the hell out of the way and keep his man out with him. Our forwards after Murphy went off were all in a heap. It was Egan vs 3 kerry half backs. Can't blame Egan for not been superman.
Only when Young Kiely came on that we had a half forward making good runs but he look a bit away from been match fit.
Kinsella didn't have a great day in midfield.
We took the game for granted and we paid for it.
The management has to take some responsible for this, the players weren't focused. The substitutions made thing worse for the most part.
Kevin Connolly coming back in(and its great to see) and getting a game ahead of Mooney, Gorman and others.
Forwards were standing still all day we were trying to pass the ball through Kerry defenders. The team work from the forward wasn't great.
The one player that was excellent was Joseph Begin. He fucking scary when he hurlers like this. but didn't have enough help from the other forwards. was crowded by other forward wandering into the space in front of him and making defending easy. Shane Dooley defending wasn't great yesterday.

Is it just me be complaining that lads won't do winter training and dropping them off the panel in Jan/Feb and replacement by lad that haven't done winter training and praising the new lad commitment after 6 weeks is .....

Kilkenny away is great.
If you want to be the best then you have to play the best. The results don't matter. go out and hit Kilkenny with everything you got and see where you are.

[Bord na Mona man]

Kilkenny Away..

Certain Offaly folk will be digging out their half Kilkenny, half Offaly jersies for this one.