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2017 Walsh Cup

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:41 pm
by Cmon Offaly
Guys, we speak about development squads here and how important they are, currently none of the Offaly Development squads have returned training. At this stage last year the under 15 and 16 hurling squads had 3 months of S&C work done. There have been no managements appointed either, the under 15, 16 and 17 squads last year all brought silverware to the county but yet the committee in charge of implementing the new hurling plan have not reappointed any of the managements. All the good work done with these squads last year has been undone as far as I can see with this shambles and nothing is being done about it.

Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:36 am
by Plain of the Herbs
If true, this makes the situation very grave indeed.

Is it too much to ask that this be raised at tomorrow (Tuesday) night's County Board meeting? Or will clubs be so focused on championship draws that the issue of development squads being bogged down comes a poor second?
Cmon Offaly wrote:Guys, we speak about development squads here and how important they are, currently none of the Offaly Development squads have returned training. At this stage last year the under 15 and 16 hurling squads had 3 months of S&C work done. There have been no managements appointed either, the under 15, 16 and 17 squads last year all brought silverware to the county but yet the committee in charge of implementing the new hurling plan have not reappointed any of the managements. All the good work done with these squads last year has been undone as far as I can see with this shambles and nothing is being done about it.

Re: 2017 Walsh Cup

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:20 pm
by Cmon Offaly
PoTH, Development squads are a disgrace at the moment as I have said on a previous post, last year was the most successful at underage since 1989. U15, U16 and U17 squads all had success and all won silverware to show for the year but yet only one management team reappointed. One management team consisting of 3 people have been given the U16 AND U17 squads, the U15 and U16 managements from last year have all been sacked basically. The committee that put them in place thought the minor management would fall back and take the under 17's once Offaly minors had finished but this has backfired and the minor management wont take them. You now have a situation where 3 guys are responsible for 70 of the top underage players in the county.Wheres the continuity with managements and have they ever heard of "if its not broken don't fix it. Michael Cordial with the 15's and Shane Hand with the 16's were excellent managers with strong backroom teams but have now all been cast aside because of one person from what I am hearing. I really hope as you do that this is brought up at tonights county board meeting as a lot of people are unaware of the situation and there is questions that need to be asked and answers given.

Re: 2017 Walsh Cup

Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:30 pm
by Truth as i see it
Cmon Offaly wrote:PoTH, Development squads are a disgrace at the moment as I have said on a previous post, last year was the most successful at underage since 1989. U15, U16 and U17 squads all had success and all won silverware to show for the year but yet only one management team reappointed. One management team consisting of 3 people have been given the U16 AND U17 squads, the U15 and U16 managements from last year have all been sacked basically. The committee that put them in place thought the minor management would fall back and take the under 17's once Offaly minors had finished but this has backfired and the minor management wont take them. You now have a situation where 3 guys are responsible for 70 of the top underage players in the county.Wheres the continuity with managements and have they ever heard of "if its not broken don't fix it. Michael Cordial with the 15's and Shane Hand with the 16's were excellent managers with strong backroom teams but have now all been cast aside because of one person from what I am hearing. I really hope as you do that this is brought up at tonights county board meeting as a lot of people are unaware of the situation and there is questions that need to be asked and answers given.
I think if you want some answers to what is going on with the development squads and what the thinking behind it is you should listen to Brian Carroll in his interview on Midlands radio 3 on the podcast as he addresses some of points that you raised

Re: 2017 Walsh Cup

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 9:47 pm
by Plain of the Herbs
These issues were indeed raised at last week's Board meeting, by Shinrone delegate Ger Maher. Ger asked seven probing questions, and his queries appear on the back page of this week's Tribune (out tomorrow).

The Chairman promised answers to the seven questions following serious consideration

The questions were (I'm paraphrasing, too much typing) -
1. Asking for an update on the appointment of U14, U15, U16 and U17 development squad managements.
2. Asking for the rational behind merging the U16 and U17 squads, as highlighted by Cmon Offaly here last week.
3. Asking why members of successful 2016 underage managements have been sacked.
4. Asked why no members of the hurling implementation committee had been brought onto the coaching and games committee, something that was promised by the Board.
5. What makes the recommendations of the hurling implementation committee so credible when none of them paid any attention to the U15 team last year, and only one of them attended a single U16 event last year.
6. Why did the board spend €150 per head for the now sacked managements to attend Award 2 courses when the intention was to sack them anyway.
7. Asking two 'yes or no' questions to each of the top table - "are you or have you been aware of this?" and "do you believe this is in the best interests of underage hurling in this county?"

Hopefully Ger Maher and others can keep up the momentum on this. Cmon Offaly noted "a lot of people are unaware of the situation" and he is right. This grave situation hasn't been highlighted anywhere else, and none of the media tweeting from the meeting reported on Ger Maher's queries either. Kevin Corrigan publishes his piece in this week's Tribune. In fairness, only for that, the issues would have faded away.

Don't let momentum die. Offaly hurling needs you on this. For the moment the ball is in the Board's court, but soon that ball will come over the net in your direction.
Cmon Offaly wrote:PoTH, Development squads are a disgrace at the moment as I have said on a previous post, last year was the most successful at underage since 1989. U15, U16 and U17 squads all had success and all won silverware to show for the year but yet only one management team reappointed. One management team consisting of 3 people have been given the U16 AND U17 squads, the U15 and U16 managements from last year have all been sacked basically. The committee that put them in place thought the minor management would fall back and take the under 17's once Offaly minors had finished but this has backfired and the minor management wont take them. You now have a situation where 3 guys are responsible for 70 of the top underage players in the county.Wheres the continuity with managements and have they ever heard of "if its not broken don't fix it. Michael Cordial with the 15's and Shane Hand with the 16's were excellent managers with strong backroom teams but have now all been cast aside because of one person from what I am hearing. I really hope as you do that this is brought up at tonights county board meeting as a lot of people are unaware of the situation and there is questions that need to be asked and answers given.

Re: 2017 Walsh Cup

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:30 am
by Cmon Offaly
POTH, this is far too serious to let lie and its great to see that it made the floor at the county board meeting last week, now that it is out in the public domain hopefully the clubs will get behind Ger Maher ,Shinrone GAA Club and the KK delegate who I believe also raise a couple of questions at the meeting and give this the attention that it badly deserves. The matters raised in the questions are very serious and serious questions need to be asked of people in Offaly County Board. It was said by the chairman at the meeting that an emergency county board meeting could be needed this week to address the issues raised, has this been organised??. At the end of the day it is the players that suffer most from this and anybody that was in Portlaoise last Sat night knows how badly we need good squads coming through. We are a small county, when you have people willing to give up their time to train development squads and they get treated like this what kind of message does that send out to people, why would someone put up their hand to help out if they know they are going to get shafted like that. As I have said before after the most successful year at underage in 25 years it beggers believe that this is the manner in which squads and management are treated. I have been told that for the last 2 weeks the under 16 panel have had S&C training in Banagher with 12 lads showing up on both night from a panel of 35, this also tells a story and fair play to the players for standing up to the bullshit that is going on. 3 weeks into training now and neither the parents or players have been told who is in charge of them this year. This is probably the most serious issue that has come up in Offaly GAA in years and has the potential if allowed to carry on in this manner to destroy Offaly hurling for a long long time.

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 10:32 pm
by Dontnukejapan
Hi lads,

I'm a long time followers of this forum only decided to join today.

I honestly don't think we should be ending development squads at u17. 8 counties have intermediate teams to toughen up their young lads. Personally I believe we are missing a great opportunity to get lads some top hurling experience, before they make the step up to senior. Cork Tipperary kilkenny galway waterford wexford clare and limerick all have intermediate teams. We could have development squads for hurler up to 23, for lads who would be able to hurl if the had the right support and coaching behind them.

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 1:42 pm
by Cmon Offaly
Dontnukejapan wrote:Hi lads,

I'm a long time followers of this forum only decided to join today.

I honestly don't think we should be ending development squads at u17. 8 counties have intermediate teams to toughen up their young lads. Personally I believe we are missing a great opportunity to get lads some top hurling experience, before they make the step up to senior. Cork Tipperary kilkenny galway waterford wexford clare and limerick all have intermediate teams. We could have development squads for hurler up to 23, for lads who would be able to hurl if the had the right support and coaching behind them.
I hear where you are coming from Dontnukejapan but that is a separate discussion to the current mess Offaly development appears to be in. Plain of the Herbs made a valid point that only for Kevin Corrigan printing the questions in the tribune this week it would probably have been allowed to just disappear which the County Board probably want it to do. The county board have gone silent on this and I have spoken to a couple of county board delegates and there has been no mention of holding this emergency county board meeting Tommy Byrne spoke about last week either.

The solution to the Development squads this year was very simple when it comes to what managements trained what squads: Last years u14 management train this years u15 squad, last years under 15 management train this years u16 squad, last years u17 management train this years u17 squad with the assistance of last years under 16 management. Shane Hand who trained last years 16's is club tied this year between B/D and K/K so it wasn't a case that there was two managers after one squad. Last years under 16 mentors and coaches if they had been approach would probably have been happy to work with Eunan Martin this year with the 17's and one or two of these guys could have stayed with this years under 16's as well. All these managements made progression with their squads last year so what has happened is nuts.

I know parents of players on some of these squads, we are now heading into March and they still haven't been told who is in charge of squads, what the short term/long term plan is or they haven't even been given a contact number for squad managements. This years under 17 squad haven't even been contacted yet, 7 of this years under 17 squad are with the county minors at the moment bur the rest haven't a clue what is happening.

Clubs need to get behind this issue now as it is their players and Offaly hurling will suffer at the end of the day.

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:54 pm
by sam88885a
Lads the whole thing sounds like i real mess , I dont know much about the underage setup but have heard that Shane Hand is a top class coach .he was a super midfielder for kk ,great in the air
Friends of mine in birr expected to see Shane Hand take over the minor in the next few years so is a big shock to see him and Michael Cordail sacked expecially after last year.

Maybe Kevin Ryan might understands the reason that so many good club hurlers have walked away .Its hard to look at such bullshite.

This decision is bigger than anything that Brian Carroll will do with his Hurling Pathway because instead of rewarding good work those guys have been shafted and the message that it send out to potental coaches is very negative in my opinion.
What wil happen ?? Will someone explain the reason behind such a decision ? Those young player and managment deserve better from the cb, they are our future and we need to mind them.

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:52 am
by substandard
Listen to Tommy Byrne On Congress 2017 by Midlands Sport #np on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/to ... gress-2017

From 4:16 or thereabouts, it's all under control...

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:10 pm
by Cmon Offaly
I heard it yesterday and from what I make of it they plan on meeting with Shinrone and K/K delegates this week as they were the ones that spoke up at the last county board meeting. What is that going to achieve?, this is a bigger and wider issue than K/K and Shinrone, this need to be discussed with all the clubs in Offaly as it affects all clubs. What the county board want to happen is meet the 2 lads and come back to the county board meeting next week and be able to say its all grand folks its sorted move on.

As the county chairman said at the last county board meeting, the issues raised need to be looked into and an emergency county board meeting may be required to sort this out. Meeting 2 delegates is a long way from an emergency county board meeting.

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:50 pm
by Hurlingtothebackbone
Guys just joined today and have been following this withinterest since the tribune last week. Is it coincidence that most of the sacked managers come from the most succesful clubs at underage for the last few years or am I reading too much into it? Also know for a fact that as of 6pm this evening no meeting was arranged with shinrone dont know about KK (work with a committee member from Shinrone and he contacted their secretary to question was a meeting arranged) Have to agree nothing can be solved by meeting just two clubs this is much bigger and if the board cant see that then the clubsare dealing with men who are living in the past.

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:11 pm
by Plain of the Herbs
County Board meting earlier tonight. (I wasn't expecting it until next week, but anyway.)

Radio 3's Will O'Callaghan (@willocallaghan) tweeted the following summary:
"Brian Carroll, Marion Crean and Liam Hogan appointed to hurling games and coaching sub committee. Their appointment initially opposed by Shinrone's Ger Maher but then withdrawn. Issue not with people but with process of answering his questions from last meeting. Offaly chairman Tommy Byrne says he has answers to 7 issues raised and arranging a meeting with Shinrone and KK on Sunday. Clara chairman Brian Gavin questioned why process has taken so long as was initially due to take a week before special meeting."

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:26 pm
by Plain of the Herbs
While I’m at it, the following notice keeps appearing in the Offaly Hurling Coaching Corner segment in the local papers recently.
“The Implementation Committee are currently inviting all previous hurlers who played with Offaly between 1990 and 2000 to a collaboration night in Dooly’s Hotel in Birr on Friday 31st March at 8.30p.m. to discuss the important role which they can play towards the revival of Offaly hurling in the future.”
Now, it this connected to the non-appointment of the 2016 underage managements, and is there a policy to appoint former players as opposed to, God help us, men who are keen coaches but who mightn’t necessarily have win Leinster and All-Ireland championships?

And am I the only one confused between the Implementation Committee, the Coaching and Games Committee, and public servants who are appointing task forces, review groups and who have taken three weeks to get their answers straight on Ger Maher’s seven questions, but they’re not going to answer them publicly, instead they’re going to pull the Shinrone and Kilcormac representatives into a quiet room on Sunday and give them the mushroom treatment.

There is a serious concern that Offaly are going to end up like Wicklow here. (And that is not intended as a joke.)

Re: Hurling development squads [Split from Walsh Cup]

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 11:37 pm
by Hurlingtothebackbone
Offaly hurling clubs only looking after their own patch zero interest from clubs in issues raised by Shinrone & KK. No other clubs offering opinions at Board meetings meaning the board will wear down the two clubs, paper over the huge cracks highlighted and move on hoping to get some other poor fools to take over the squads - ,who will end up getting the same treatment as those guys got. What a huge loss to Offaly GAA, they were obviously doing something right when the brought us back silverware and from what I hear the kids had great time for them all and now these same kids are not attending trainings at the moment what a bummer. As was said after the national congress in relation to the super 8s ''A bunch of old men managing the gaa where games are played by young guys. Some disconnect Offaly Co Board need to come into the real world.