Offaly Hurling 2020

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
Plain of the Herbs
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

Eoghan had a bandage on his thigh afterwards. Might have been a hamstring injury.
kingscounty wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 9:09 pm 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
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Lone Shark »

That was a really hard one to take, I can't imagine how devastated the players must feel right now. Defended brilliantly for 76 minutes, maybe with one or two needless frees conceded, and you couldn't even fault them too much for McManus' goal as it was a brilliant finish from a tight angle. One badly-defended long ball, and then the whole thing goes up in smoke - really crushing stuff.

In no particular order....

Referee

Like a lot of people here, I've no huge issue with the time. There was some amount of messing with ruck and throw balls and the like in the second half, and when you add in eight second half substitutions (one double sub, one done at half-time, ten total) making for 160 seconds, you wouldn't be long getting to six minutes. There was a stoppage of over a minute in that six, so going on to eight minutes wasn't that unreasonable.

You could make the case that two minutes added time in the first half was very low all right, but from the 10th minute to half time, Antrim outscored us 0-8 to 0-5. Could anyone really argue that we'd have used an extra minute or two in the first half any better? Some posters have referred to a high tackle or two here as well, but he gave yellow cards where they were warranted, I don't think there was a red card offence out there.

The fouling the ball stuff was different though. Offaly suffered badly from this, between overcarrying calls, the dropping the hurl ping on Ross Ravenhill, a couple of really strange throw ball calls, and a few others. I thought the dropping the hurl free was very harsh and in terms of thrown passes, I'd say about 70% of all passes in intercounty hurling are thrown these days. Why he picked those, God knows.

Offaly attack

On the other side of the coin, this is where I'm going to say that we left ourselves open to getting mugged like that by failing to put Antrim away. We had 0-8 on the board after ten minutes, and added one more point in the next 15, with a gale behind us. We had the game won in the latter stages and Eoghan Cahill had a bad wide, David Nally dropped one short, Sean Dolan missed an absolute gimme, Leon pushed a free wide (albeit a tough long one into the wind) and there were a few more as well. I don't say that to pick out the lads and blame them, but we could have finished it off and we didn't. That's on us.

Moreover, that's three games now against Joe McDonagh opposition, and a combined total of 0-60 scored. No goals in the best part of four hours of hurling. I know Shane Dooley's absence and Oisín Kelly's injury is a factor, but still. Nine goals against Mayo and Wicklow shouldn't hide that. In the first half Peter Geraghty took on the ball on the 45m line and he drove at goal, and had no support whatsoever so he had to take a point. Sean Cleary started from a bad place and tried to make up the ground, but couldn't get there - and no-one else was on hand to smell blood and go for the kill. That just won't do.

Offaly defence

Excellent. Really excellent, it has to be said. I know Antrim didn't vary their puckouts much, going long and middle most of the time, but between Dan Doughan, David O'Toole Greene and Ben Conneely, they picked up 90% of them. Keeping Antrim to 0-14 overall for 76 minutes was good, but 0-5 in the second half was superb.

Midfield

This was the one sector where Antrim were on top. Not emphatically so, but enough that it gave them a bit of a platform.

Puckouts

This has got to be much better, on all sides. We lost one point in the first half where Dempsey picked out Doughan and he miscontrolled, leading to an Antrim point, and then a terrible restart from Dempsey missed his target completely (Burke, I think?) and went straight out over the line - a bad Antrim line ball bailed us out. I don't think there was a single targeted delivery that picked out a free man in the 35-60 metre range all day (and I accept there that this is as much about the midfielders and half backs as it is about the keeper). We were outstanding on the Antrim puckout, but I'd say the numbers on our own restart will be very weak.

What now

Picking things up from here won't be easy. Logically, you'd have to assume that even if we don't get any better, we'd still win the Christy Ring, but mentally it'll be hard for the lads to recover from that. The club championship can be a help, but that leads you back to the other issue, which is that round robin games in April, where even two defeats is far from fatal to your chances of qualifying, is not exactly proper championship hurling that will get lads back on the right track. This will be a real test of Michael Fennelly from here.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Doon Exile »

So disappointing leaving OCP yesterday. Could hardly believe what had happened. Hurled very well throughout albeit a few blips here and there. The need to push on and win games is crucial and never so apparent as yesterday.

The ref was poor between the calls for throw balls and then the McManus ‘hit’ was nearly comical- firstly he was barely hit and threw himself to the ground as he could easily have been pulled for over carrying at that point and then the ref didn’t signal for a free either way until after the elongated time it took McManus to get up (ref held slioctar in his hand the whole time).

Would agree that none of the yellows really merited a red card. Hard to see where we go from here but it hurts a lot.
Doon exile....

Fairplayalways
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Fairplayalways »

I couldnt make the game but did listen to it on R3 and jumped between Radio 1 also for updates when R3 switched to Westmeath/Carlow game. Firstly, Offaly hurled very well going by what amost everyone on here that was at the game said and by sounds of game I listened to on R3/RTE radio. Secndly, Antrim didnt need to win is correct, however, its about momentum, and dont be fooling yourselves thinking Antrim came the whole way down to Tullamore to fulfill the fixture, not get hockeyed and still end up in the league final, no team should adopt thant mentality and infairness to the game I listened to yesterday Antrim were playing very much to be competitive and win, which they ultimately did.

Offaly were 6 points up, a safe lead one would think, one goal to concede at death, fair enough, two is criminal. Rightly or wrongly in all cases you HAVE to play to the whistle, do your protesting AFTER the match which was done, I wonder did the "come on ref, blow it up" seep into the team for the last 2 added minutes on top of the injury time, I say that because on R3 the comentator was saying this Offaly player and that Offaly player were interacting the referee when the full time whistle blew eventually. I personally think that is what happened, concentration dropped, the sport is almost professional, once concentration dropped, and it wasnt by all players now I would say, critical mistakes were made, I will go inso far as to say lads could have been watching the whistle in the refs mouth instead of their man and the ball.

It was surely a sickener to take, but I honestly can say I doubt if Antrim came down to loose today, if your winning, you want to keep that going, why else would Antrim have went for two goals if that wasnt the case. As I say I wasnt at the game so cannot comment on the cards etc. but from listening, Offaly got their share of frees which Cahill pointed the majority (missed first of second half) but he got injured then and was taken off, should he have been left on the field to take the frees, I think not personally, David Nally is an excellent free taker and should be well able to take up that role, the team played very well yesterday, the lads brought in for injured/unavailable players were excellent I thought from what I heard.

Not rehashing previous debates but we probably needed the experience and drive of Cillian Kiely in particular over the last 10 minutes of reuglar time along with the added on 7/8 minutes, that may have been the difference, but he was inured, players came in and done well, we can blame the ref if we wish, but you must play to the final whistle and not get sidelined wondering "when" the ref is going to blow his whistle...and I think that is what happened yesterday...it wont happen with this group again....surely.

Plain of the Herbs
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

I presume the one you mention was when McManus was in possession of the ball when the referee stopped play and was awarded an indirect free, which is as per rule.
Which is why McManus didn't attempt a score from what was a scoreable position.
I was way too far away from the incident to tell whether McManus was injured or not.
kingscounty wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 5:31 pm 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.
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

kingscounty
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by kingscounty »

Plain of the Herbs wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:37 pm I presume the one you mention was when McManus was in possession of the ball when the referee stopped play and was awarded an indirect free, which is as per rule.
Which is why McManus didn't attempt a score from what was a scoreable position.
I was way too far away from the incident to tell whether McManus was injured or not.
kingscounty wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 5:31 pm 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.
There was another incident in front of me when Ben bent down to pick a ball up near the end line and McManus came in with a head high shoulder while he didn’t connect, if he did it was lights out. The obvious one was indeed the one you mentioned, thinking back it was probably cuteness on his part knowing he had nowhere to go he said il fall over and fake injury

Smallball-1
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Smallball-1 »

From what I seen yesterday the lads played the best they’ve played all year. If eoghan Cahill was on for remainder of the game it would’ve been a different result. I would like if fennelly kept Ben full back and doughan centre back. Doughan done a good job yesterday and deserves more recognition as all I see on this platforms is how kiely is needed at centre back when really he is needed on the starting 15 but not necessarily centre back. Just my opinion

Fairplayalways
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Fairplayalways »

Great to here some one recognise Doughans performance yesterday, I forgot to mention him in my post, Ciaran Burke also done so well, yeah Doughan for a few stints at CB for me and move Kiely to MF for me..the issue of little or no goals scored against Joe McDonagh opposition has caught my attention also..I suppose hurling wise we have a bit of go about us, maybe another year in 2A might not be the worst thing in the long run... look at the defeats Carlow got and now down again... onwards and upwards..up Offaly 👍

Theexpert
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Theexpert »

Totally agree about Doughan as someone who has been at all matches Doughan has been rock solid. Kiely in mid field is a good option. The result on Sunday tough but you have to keep hurling until final whistle blows. A very tough lesson but one that will be remembered by the lads for a long time. No comment on ref, if you ain’t got anything good to say don’t say anything at all.

oneshot
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by oneshot »

hard defeat to take,it was abit like the keogh cup final offaly lead by 5 with minutes left in that game to and antrim hit them for 1-2 in the last two minutes . league is over pity we didn’t get another crack at antrim in croker this weekend. but as we go into the christy ring cup we still haven’t got a stettle 15 . alot of changes in ever game in the league .

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mynamesjeff
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by mynamesjeff »

Offaly beat Meath on a scoreline of 5-25 to 3-10 in a challenge.

JimBwobb
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by JimBwobb »

mynamesjeff wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2020 9:22 am Offaly beat Meath on a scoreline of 5-25 to 3-10 in a challenge.
Not bad going against a Joe Mc Donagh team minus Rynaghs and Kk players.

Any word on additions to the panel from the league or even lads withdrawing from the panel?

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mynamesjeff
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by mynamesjeff »

JimBwobb wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2020 11:04 pm
mynamesjeff wrote: Sun Oct 04, 2020 9:22 am Offaly beat Meath on a scoreline of 5-25 to 3-10 in a challenge.
Not bad going against a Joe Mc Donagh team minus Rynaghs and Kk players.

Any word on additions to the panel from the league or even lads withdrawing from the panel?
Not sure of the team, but I’d imagine minus the couple from Kinnitty and Drumcullen too.

JimBwobb
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by JimBwobb »

The Seniors played Tipp U-20's today.

Anyone hear how this went?

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mynamesjeff
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by mynamesjeff »

It wasn’t the 20s they played anyway. A full strength Tipp team. Well beaten.

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