Offaly Hurling 2020

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
Plain of the Herbs
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Random thoughts on Offaly v Wicklow.

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

A big win for Offaly last Sunday, but it wasn’t without its frustrations too.

Yes, there was a stiff wind that was worth 25 yards of territory, but Offaly’s inability to win their own ball for much of the first half allowed Wicklow to get a run of scores and build a small lead during the second quarter. If Antrim can force Offaly to continually puck out on Sunday, Offaly’s campaign will end around 3.30pm on Sunday.

Wicklow were no good. It started with a full-back fumbling a short puckout and didn’t get much better for them.

Offaly dominated on Wicklow’s puckouts in the second half, enabling them to build a lead. It suited Offaly to have Wicklow attempt to go long with their puckout, so it didn’t make sense for Offaly to allow Wicklow to go short. It made even less sense for Offaly not to pressurise the Wicklow full-back line when they were fumbling, as they often did.

I’d say contests on the ground (rucks, call them what you like) resulted in a 50:50 split. That’s a guess.

I think I can see what Offaly were trying to do, to keep the ball in hand, and support the carrier with a support run. But they didn’t really get the hang of it, and lads were striking the ball blindly after the second pass. An exception was Dan Doughan, who in fairness is used to hurling like that with Shinrone.

Eoghan Cahill picked out Thomas Geraghty with a sublime cross field pass which resulted in the Kilcormac attacker scoring a fine goal (Offaly’s first half goal). And those two lads were a cut above anything else on the field. David Nally wasn’t far behind. It was the kind of game that would have suited Liam Langton.

Offaly didn’t ease up with the game won. They used the wind and Leon Fox in particular found the range with scores from distance.

And that’s it until Sunday. Offaly’s hopes will hinge on the availability of Ben Conneely and Cillian Kiely. And on keeping the ball crossing the Antrim end line and forcing the visitors to keep pucking out.
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

Fairplayalways
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Fairplayalways »

excellent summary of Sundays game V Wicklow, and a clear view of what might need to be done to beat Antrim on Sunday..with all due respects to all lads on the panel, if we go into the game without Coneely and Kiely, we will be under serious pressure, Neil McManus of Antrim is an excellent hurler and we need a solid core to keep him out...

oneshot
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by oneshot »

good win for Birr schools today into all ireland final.

Hasselhoff
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Hasselhoff »

Delighted for birr community school.Great to see them in an All Ireland final. It should create a great buzz around the school.

DoingUntold
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by DoingUntold »

Best of luck to the lads today, important to make the final at least

kingscounty
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by kingscounty »

A game decided by an absolute terrible referee, who in my mind should not ref a junior C game again never mind inter county. Six minutes seemed like a lot of extra time to play but on top of that the fucker plays another two minutes to insure Antrim get two goals. Offaly have a puck out after the last goal was scored and he blows up straight away. There was two tackles that could have warranted red cards also with a head tackle in second half only getting a yellow. Over all Offaly were the better team and this will be very hard to take and won’t do us any good staying in this division next year. McManus at centre forward was play acting in the game and the ref was all for him, giving an outrageous free to him when he fell over in the second half. So cruel and heart breaking for this team to lose a game in the last two minutes.

private joker
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by private joker »

I dont know the in and outs of the game. But offaly were 6 points up and threw that lead away. Conceded two goals at the death. Offaly needed to push on and didn't. Remember, antrim were already through to the final. in theory had nothing to play for. The defeat to Kerry was the undoing of everything.
Just listening to Midland 103, they seem to think that maybe the added time was correct?. Hard to take either way.

DoingUntold
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by DoingUntold »

Genuinely felt sick leaving O Connor park today.

The lads played brilliantly, work rate and tenacity was brilliant.

4 points up at half time with the strong breeze I didn't think think was enough, but the Lads played brilliant in the second half took some lovely scores, Eoghan Cahill got taken off around 62 mins - we missed the next two frees, I would of left him on for frees alone, perhaps he was injured I'm unsure.

Now, on to that bollox of a ref, I personally didnt think there was going to be six minutes to be added on or it wasnt warranted, perhaps 4 or 5.
Mc Manus got the first goal, i thought it was gonna be blown up when the puck out came as the allotted time was up, but no the bollox played on and then Boom second goal.

Should we be looking at our backs for letting two near identical goals happen instead of blaming the ref? Oh I don't know, heart goes out to them lads today

Liam2020
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Liam2020 »

That's a collapse, we had a 6 point lead, at home against a team that didn't need to win and we didn't see it out so even if we won we were unlightly to gain promotion anyway.
We need to find a full back

kingscounty
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by kingscounty »

Liam2020 wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:43 pm That's a collapse, we had a 6 point lead, at home against a team that didn't need to win and we didn't see it out so even if we won we were unlightly to gain promotion anyway.
We need to find a full back
For 75/76 mins we held Antrim to 14 points! If we break this down Antrim scored 11 frees and 1x 65, so that’s two points off play in 76 mins I don’t think the lads did that badly! Dempsey wasn’t overly troubled for the majority of the game, as someone said the Kerry game was ultimately the undoing of us.

first_touch
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by first_touch »

That was very hard to take. A huge shift put in by Offaly. The work rate, tackling and closing down were exemplary. Eoghan Cahill was superb from frees and open play. I'm not sure why he was taken off. If it was a case of saving him for next weekend it certainly backfired. We didn't score a free after his departure and one extra point in the dying minutes would have clinched victory.
The general standard of refereeing leaves a lot to be desired and the lower the division the poorer the quality of officiating! The ref today was likely to do anything. I wasn't totally surprised that there were six minutes added time. There were a number of stoppages for injury (some due to head high tackles on Offaly players) and there were several substitutions. However, the decision by the referee to play two further minutes was baffling and downright wrong. I couldn't believe it when he didn't blow it up on the puck out following Antrim's first goal as it was a minute over by then.
That said, it's an expensive lesson for Offaly to keep the foot on the pedal to the final whistle. This is a setback but there was a lot of evidence today to give hope for the future.

kingscounty
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by kingscounty »

Looking a Cahill going off I thought I saw him limping so maybe he was injured? We should however have an able second free taker and a third to be honest

Bellewest
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Bellewest »

Reality is that Offaly dropped three points in the only two matches that were likely to be close. Irrespective of David Hughes and his watch Offaly needed to be garnering points in those fixtures. Disagree that Antrim had nothing to play for, they’ll be much happier facing Kerry in my opinion. There were worrying signs defensively in games against Meath where they missed a great goal chance with last puck and last week we conceded far too much against a very average side. Reality check as to where Offaly really are. Finally, there would be a meltdown on this forum had Tommy Byrne so openly criticised referee on airwaves as Michael Duignan did this evening. He’s no longer a pundit on these days, he’s the chairman of the county board, its incumbent on him to show good example towards officials.

Liam2020
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Liam2020 »

If we are to be honest, we had two real games in this league and we didn't win either and even in the meath game I question our defence. We were blessed in the 80s we had é Coughlan and in the 90s we had k kinahan to dominate the square , now if teams go direct we are vulnerable.
Westmeath have t Doyle, we don't have a player like him, big strong brave man that can dominate the defence.
Even at club level there is no standout young full back,
We need to find a fullback and build a defence around him and maybe we need another year that this level to do that.
Look Laois westmeath and carlow are struggling at the top level, we are not at their level so there is no point in going up getting hammered.

jimbob17
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by jimbob17 »

lads in hard luck in fairness to them today. They performed well and were well worth 6pt lead after 75 mins. Lots of young lads out there who will learn and develop from today. Ben Conneely is really a class act for me and has grown as a hurler in last 2 years. Id be putting him in FB and build from there. Thought young Ravenhill did well when introduced and he is the type of lad that we need to develop - he has huge ability and can be one of our mainstays going forward. Also liked look of Sampson today while Peter Geraghty and Nally did well at times today.

I dont necessarily see it as bad thing that we dont go up. Our team is very young and light and last thing we need is hammerings to turn good young lads off. If we can win Christy Ring we are moving onto next year with a good young batch in a positive mindset to go at Joe McDonagh with real purpose next year. We would also be a year down the road in terms of dev and could really target promotion over Kerry and Carlow next year - assuming Antrim beat Kerry in final for promotion. I'd be aiming for 2022 return to top league with a team of 22 - 24 year olds who have 2 years work under their belt with current management. There is some good stuff going on and we must be patient. I saw enough of positive stuff today to be very hopeful for next 2-3 years and return to senior hurling.

Less said about ref today the better, clearly struggles with the rules of hurling. Not much issue with time played. Lots of injuries and subs that will add time and to be fair, that is 4th officials call, not referees. There was stoppages in inj time too. Beyond that, many of his decisions were a joke in normal time - and that is where i'd have issue.

Point taken re Duignan role but for some lads - not being talked about is worst thing in the world...... he is in the punters/ journo's game and I don't see him changing tact any time soon......even if he is the chairman......
jimbob

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