Plain of the Herbs wrote:And so, it came to pass, and Offaly slipped out of Leinster hurling. The end of an era, the first time since 1921 that Offaly won’t contest the Leister Senior championship, the time befoe that was 1895, before the County Board’s foundation.
There has been much debate since Sunday. Now, there are some (I’m thinking Klare, Galway, Tipperary) who are guided by spite. And they have to live with the weight of that. I am surprised by several reasonable people who think relegation will be good for Offaly – more about that anon. And there are others who produce statistics merely to prove an argument, despite the sandy foundations to those same statistics.
Truth to tell, I could accept Offaly’s relegation had it happened twelve months ago. But much has changed in the interim. Kevin Martin stopped the rot, got Offaly competitive again, got hurlers who has opted out to put their lives on hold and to commit to Offaly’s cause.
Taking last Sunday individually, Offaly were over-ran for the first 20 minutes but steadied up after that and played some decent hurling. The penalty decision was incorrect, everybody knows that, thought there is no guarantee it would have been converted. Still, there was a single score between the sides at that point – leave aside the final margin for a minute -so it was a critical decision, though not unexpected. The Dublin goal was, naturally, a hammer blow from which a tired team relying on heart was not going to recover.
The improvements this year might not have borne out shock results against superior teams, but that’s not how the year should be measured. Rather, measure the Kilkenny performance against the same opposition in 2014. Measure the Galway performance against the same opposition a year ago. Measure the NHL quarter-final against Kilkenny with the 2016 quarter-final against the same opposition. Measure the NHL performance against Leix against that of the previous year.
The regret must be that Kevin Martin didn’t come in three years sooner, for so much ground was lost in the interim. He brought organisation and the players responded.
Relegation is a disaster for Offaly on so many fronts. Mainly, the next step is to speed up the pace at which Offaly play their hurling. The ball needs to stick, and they need to hurl faster on instinct. Whether Damian Fox is the man to coach this, or there is a better alternative, is something that should be looked at. Anyway, that quickening is not going to happen at a lower level – of all the hypotheses that have been thrown about in the last week, that one is a fact.
So many have claimed that Offaly won’t commit if they keep getting beaten at the high level. They’ve got it backways. Hurlers are competitive sports people who strive to be the best that they can be. That cannot happen hurling at a lower level. And anyway, they committed this year, didn’t they. Johnny Dooley was quoted in a paper on Saturday, doubting several of the squad will commit next year. Well, he’s got his ear to the ground, has a nephew on the Offaly team, has a son who is a Senior club hurler. That’s enough for me.
Matches in the lower division Joe McDonagh Cup (how did Joe McDonagh come to be more highly rated than Christy Ring?) will be given the graveyard slot, 3pm on a Saturday, when no one knows they are on. And no amount of ‘morketing’, tweeting, glossy posters or other promotion is going to change that. Remember the round robin match against Carlow with hardly anyone there? There will be no more crowds of 8,000 to see the All-Ireland champions visit Tullamore. No possibilities for promotion. And with the abolition of Leinster semi-finals, there are no opportunities to have a Galway v Kilkenny or Galway v Dublin game in Tullamore.
Those who think the lower division is a place for rehabilitating lost hurling souls need only look across the Kinnitty mountains towards Laois. They are the ones who had the model underage structure while Offaly’s floundered, they reached the odd Leinster U21 and minor final when Offaly couldn’t. Relegation has driven them to new depths.
There may well be spending cuts too – there will have to be if income is reduced – I imagine there will be less sponsorship income, both on a macro and micro level. Which leads to diminished standard of team preparation.
Some claim the new round robin structure has been the greatest thing to happen hurling, pointing to the Munster series currently in progress. But take a closer look - Munster, known for dunting and boring, and pulling timber, and spilling blood, has been reduced to resemble a playground. Hurlers in acres of space, hardly a tackle thrown in, hardly a shoulder driven into a chest. Don’t be fooled – because a match ends 1-32 to 2-29 or whatever, is not an indication of good quality hurling. One of the greatest matches of all time was 0-5 to 0-3 at half-time.
And why is Leinster cut of at five counties, merely because Munster is? There are more counties than that in Leinster. And that’s without taking in the cuckoos from across the Shannon. Antrim remain in line for promotion – that’ll be great crack if that happens.
Has anyone else noticed the Christy Ring Cup winners are not automatically promoted? Instead they must play-off with the team who finish second from the bottom of the Joe McDonagh Cup.
And there are those patting Offaly on the head, telling us Offaly will get five matches in the group next year, and won’t it be great. They are that ignorant of the various grades they do not know the Joe McDonagh Cup competition is to be reduced to five counties next year. And the carrot of advancing to an All-Ireland quarter-final is a poisoned one. Firstly, the two Joe McDonagh teams will not advance to an All-Ireland quarter-final, rather they advance to an eighth-final. Again, patting someone on the head, calling it a preliminary quarter-final. I work with figures, a half of a quarter is an eighth, not a preliminary quarter.
It is bullshit, and rather than going good for hurling, it is going to reduce even further the number of top counties. Bad, on so many levels.
The intention and thoughts are honourable but I would disagreee with this almost in its entirety.
Offaly deserve to be relegated. It has been coming since 2005 and THAT loss to Kilkenny. Each of those 13 years bringing a new ‘low’. Are we not all fed up of the ritual hammerings?
Our last result of any note was against Limerick in 2008 - a whole 10 years ago. I do not accept on any level that this year was appreciabley better. There is no objective evidence to support any claim of improvement. The results and performances of 2018 were same old same old of the last 13 years - sporadic fits of competitiveness within some games before an inevitable significant loss. Speaking of old, a front eight containing some combination of Currams, Dooley, Colin Egan, Conor Mahon, Joe Bergin does not inspire hope for the future. Instead it speaks more about the ambition, imagination and capability of Kevin Martin, or lack therof. This is not a young team. We know there has been no underage success.
The county and the county board clearly need fire because the last 13 years obviously hasn’t been enough.
Sometimes you have to burn the house down to rebuild it. Time will tell if anybody has the interest to do just that.