Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
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bracknaghboy
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by bracknaghboy »

Toxicity234 wrote:The Whole Birr Vs Tullamore thing has been done to dead.
But to me Birr are been silly asking for hurling matches back in Birr. They should be asking for One inter county League Football match to be played in Birr and watch the Football club in the north of the county shit themselves.
And them double the request that some senior football championship matches be played in Birr. See how fast Edenderry, Clara and Rhode put an end to that idea.
If hurling clubs form south offaly have to go north, then Football club from north should have to go south.
Can someone tell us how many time two football club from north of the blueball have been brought south of the Blueball to play a championship match over the last 20 years and again how many time a football league or championship match has been played south of the blueball??
Again Birr are been silly. they don't need to do any of this work. Put in a 10 or 11 request before November for next year and let the football club do the hard work from them.
This makes no sense Tox. Football supporters from Rhode and Edenderry have to travel 25 minutes to get to the county ground in Tullamore to support the Offaly footballers. Also when the two teams meet in club football its usually played in Tullamore again 25 minutes away. All this is the same as a hurling supporter from Birr or Banagher traveling more or less 25 minutes to Tullamore to support the Offaly hurlers or if the two teams were to meet in the club championship. Basically its the same for both codes!
Now you saying that a club football match between Edenderry and Rhode should be played in Birr would be the same as saying that Birr and Rynaghs in hurling should be played in Edenderry!!

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

What if we held an Offaly football game in Birr or Banagher how would clubs north of tullamore feel?

Also it takes shinrone/killvilla/Coolderry supporters 15 minutes to get to Birr add 30+ to tullamore it seems unfair.

SearingDrive
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by SearingDrive »

greenairfield wrote:What if we held an Offaly football game in Birr or Banagher how would clubs north of tullamore feel?

Also it takes shinrone/killvilla/Coolderry supporters 15 minutes to get to Birr add 30+ to tullamore it seems unfair.
They would attend.

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

As do supporters from birr and rynaghs go to OCP.

We don't like it but we go!!

Same as if games were in SBP ye would come but ye wouldn't like it !!!

kaiserchief
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by kaiserchief »

this is just getting out of hand again on this forum again.

there will always be a north/south divide in offaly with hurling and football. Its in every county and slighty changes through the years with clubs from either side contributing to county teams- example sean ryan to footballers and killian farrell to hurlers.

At end of the day OCP is the county ground.
if loneshark is right about Birr looking to keep a percentage (15% rent ??) of the gate for the club then they should not get the semi finals. Personnally I would have liked to see the double header in Birr as think Offaly hurling championship is lacking attendence and atmosphere compared to previous years.

Decision is made, all roads lead to OCP for the two semi finals.

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

If lone shark made that statement it is false!!

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Lone Shark »

greenairfield wrote:If lone shark made that statement it is false!!
Can I ask why you feel the need to denigrate me so?

Firstly, I didn't make any "statement" - I said that I had heard two versions, and did not make any indication as to which side of the story I believed. To be honest, what I believe is irrelevant anyway. Only the truth matters.

I merely put it out there, which should be the most blatantly obvious statement ever made, that whether or not the Birr club are taking 15% off the top on the match day gate is a huge factor in whether or not to put a particular game there. It's only this year that the returned attendances at Birr have shown any kind of boost on what they've got in Tullamore for comparable fixtures, and even then it has only averaged around 10-15%. That would be enough to justify giving Birr more games IF they were offering the county board a clean stadium, with no rent, and trying to cash in by way of getting support from local businesses for their efforts. If the county board is going to lose money by putting games there, then that's hardly a factor in the plus column for St Brendan's Park. I'm not saying that county board revenue is the be-all and end-all, other factors have to be taken into account too, but it is key all the same.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

Lone shark.....always swaying to OCP as usual!

Have u a connection with Boland or what ??

Kaiserchief said you said Birr are looking for 15% not me!!

It is a false statement...and that is fact..do you really think Birr would be stupid enough to say they want 15% of the gate, it would be the perfect excuse for the CB not giving them matches...

Not they need excuses looking at the semi final fixtures..!

Clown's of the highest order!!

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Lone Shark »

greenairfield wrote: Kaiserchief said you said Birr are looking for 15% not me!!

It is a false statement...and that is fact..do you really think Birr would be stupid enough to say they want 15% of the gate, it would be the perfect excuse for the CB not giving them matches...
This is a discussion board. You don't need anyone to tell you what I said, you can read it for yourself. But since you don't seem capable of that, here you are again:
Lone Shark wrote: I've also got different versions of the story with regard to whether or not Birr are still offering up St Brendan's Park on a rent-free basis. My initial understanding was that this was the case and if so, the case for playing games of this nature there is meaningful. If they are looking for 15% ground rent, then they have to have a 20% bigger gate to justify that - and while there is now (finally) some evidence to suggest that there is an upturn in crowds at SBP, there isn't evidence to suggest that it's of that scale. There was about 20% of a gap at the weekend, but at least some of that has to be put down to the fact that far more people are free to attend games on a Sunday afternoon than on a Saturday afternoon.
Nothing in that is a statement.

But to put it another way - are you 100% certain that Birr have not made any such request?

As for my own view, I've moderated considerably over time. When the discussion first came up SBP was not fit for purpose, the returned attendances from the ground were paltry, the playing surface was the most unreliable in the county and the arguments in its favour were nonsensical. Much of that has changed since, largely due ot the new and progressive committee in place and as the facts change, so should opinions around them. But then such subtlety appears to be lost on a lot of the black and white entrenched people that engage in this discussion.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

Yes I am very much in the know Kevin much like yourself...

Birr never asked for 15% as I said they wouldn't be so stupid too or let by the members even If they wanted too!

Birr is a fine fine place playing surface is exceptional they have spend 10k + in the last two seasons on it, getting it spiked and sanded, and you really can see the improvement this year on the surface!!

What's your views on the recent CB meeting when 10 clubs (9 others and Birr) looked for return of games in SBP and the CB more or less gave them the 2 fingers...what's your thoughts on that?

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Lone Shark »

greenairfield wrote:Yes I am very much in the know Kevin much like yourself...

Birr never asked for 15% as I said they wouldn't be so stupid too or let by the members even If they wanted too!

Birr is a fine fine place playing surface is exceptional they have spend 10k + in the last two seasons on it, getting it spiked and sanded, and you really can see the improvement this year on the surface!!

What's your views on the recent CB meeting when 10 clubs (9 others and Birr) looked for return of games in SBP and the CB more or less gave them the 2 fingers...what's your thoughts on that?
With regard to the ground rent issue, I've had reliable sources tell me they are looking for it, and reliable sources tell me that they're not. I will be exploring this properly over the winter and the annual accounts from both the Offaly county board and the Birr club (as per their AGM) will tell a lot. Genuinely, there are very few people who know this with certainty one way or another, so I'm not going to get drawn into gossip and hearsay.

The surface has been much better this year, which is a big factor in why I believe that more games should go to Birr. - just not necessarily the ripest plums that are most desired by the club. I'd feel a little better if just once, I heard of a game going ahead in Birr when other venues around were waterlogged, particularly with a view towards games in the Leinster club championship or National League. You often hear of games going ahead in Tullamore when other grounds are closed, but I've yet to hear of that happening in Birr - look what happened in the Walsh Cup this year, and that's the kind of stuff that does hurt attendances. Similarly, on the early championship weekend when a lot of games were rained off, Birr was unable to take more than one game despite being asked to do so, while other grounds were able to take up more of the slack at a time when they were needed. But if I had my way, then a lot more county minor games and fixtures from competitions like the club intermediate championships would be played there - games that get played in the height of summer when water isn't an issue.

I do believe that there should be fewer club senior championship games in O'Connor Park, but for me the problem there wasn't that Birr didn't get enough games, it was that the other club venues (with the exception of Banagher) all got short shrift. In fairness, I will say here that the county board took a lot of criticism over this and they appeared to change tack in the latter rounds - so if we're going to criticise them when they do it wrong, it's only fair to praise them when they do it right. Round robin games don't need big stadia, and hosting a senior club championship tie is a big deal for a club.

With regard to the recent county board meeting, I can see both sides of the argument.

I stand by my view that it's only fair to play the semi-finals in the same venue as the final, and Birr still have some work to do to get to a standard where they could host the county final. Until their capacity is up over 8,000, a final in Birr would have to be all ticket, and that's not something anybody with Offaly's interests at heart would want. I'm also conscious of the fact that the matter wasn't on the pre-circulated agenda - so while a lot of clubs who are known to favour more games in SBP were present, and I can only assume that this was discussed among them beforehand, there were a lot of clubs who were unrepresented as well. For example I know that Kilcormac-Killoughey weren't represented there, and there are five or six more clubs that were absent. Who's to say they wouldn't have made more of an effort to be there to have their views heard if they knew that this was going to be talked about?

Now I would have limited enough sympathy for clubs that don't attend county board meetings and who then come out giving out about decisions that are taken, however I don't think it's unreasonable to expect democracy to be enforced in the right way. Consequently I'd say that Birr should put down a motion, get it on the agenda, and canvas. If they get a majority verdict that way, then I'd absolutely respect it and would expect the CCC to do their best to honour that motion - bearing in mind that ultimately, fixtures are an issue for the CCC, and not the county management committee.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Bord na Mona man »

greenairfield wrote:What if we held an Offaly football game in Birr or Banagher how would clubs north of tullamore feel?
It would be a good idea.
Hurling and football should be promoted in all parts of the county.

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

It's not hearsay or rumours on my part...I know it's fact and I am luckily enough one of the people who knows Birr GAA were not going to charge why would they after looking for games for so long!?

Regarding the meeting it's probably going to head that way of a motion and hopefully we can finally rubber stamp it and get hurling back in Birr!!!

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by hurleyman »

Well Lads,

what are ye all thinking for the weekend. Birr and KK for me

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by SearingDrive »

hurleyman wrote:Well Lads,

what are ye all thinking for the weekend. Birr and KK for me
I go for Birr and St. Rynagh's at the weekend. They were the best of the winning quarter finalists in my opinion.

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