Offaly Hurlers 2022

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
JimBwobb
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by JimBwobb »

Have a funny feeling about this one today lads, hope I'm wrong

allstar2010
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by allstar2010 »

Well it wouldn’t be a shock if we lost. It would be just disappointing. 3 games left are all difficult games. One game at a time - win today would be great for the confidence. All the best lads.

biffinbanner
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by biffinbanner »

a win is a win..but..

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by Bord na Mona man »

Yeah, an away win against Down on the Mull of Galloway is welcome.
But Offaly did leave the door ajar and that will irk the team and management.
Imagine if Down had gotten a goal late instead of Corcoran saving and the gap was down to 1 point...

Dodge83
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by Dodge83 »

Offaly don’t seem to have that killer instinct to finish off teams. But a win is a win and it’s 2 more points on the board. On to the next one.

SearingDrive
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by SearingDrive »

Bord na Mona man wrote: Sun May 01, 2022 3:31 pm Yeah, an away win against Down on the Mull of Galloway is welcome.
But Offaly did leave the door ajar and that will irk the team and management.
Imagine if Down had gotten a goal late instead of Corcoran saving and the gap was down to 1 point...
We have Carlow at home,then away to Kerry. 2 important games, the Kerry game could decide who qualifies for the JMCD final. The Down game had a nervy last few minutes for me listening to local radio coverage. Offaly got the desired win in the end, but it was a close run thing.
Are we good enough to win Joe Mc D?

biffinbanner
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by biffinbanner »

i think we could beat antrim 3rd time lucky if we got to the final.. but carlow and kerry are hugely dangerous opponents.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by Bord na Mona man »

It could be third time lucky against Antrim, but remember that Antrim may have been surprised by Offaly's late comeback the last day.
In Navan a couple of weeks before that Offaly had disintegrated in the last 20 minutes. In the Antrim minds, they probably thought they were home and dry in Belfast and never expected Offaly to find an extra gear late on. They'll be 100% ready in a Joe McD final.

Let's hope Offaly make it there first!

Fairplayalways
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by Fairplayalways »

goals are a problem if we meet any sort of dogged team at all...we will get away with it at this level up to a degree...

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the Untouchable
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by the Untouchable »

A question I would like to ask people who watch this Offaly team a hell of a lot more than I do is, would this group of Offaly hurlers be best served by winning the JMD this year and then risk getting absolutely mauled next year by the teams in Leinster, or have 2 or 3 years in the JMD playing competitive hurling and developing our style and a panel that would be better able to compete if and when we ever won a JMD?

The reasoning for my question is that it happens in numerous occasions where teams get back to back promotions in the league and say go from Div 4 to Div 2 or even Div 1 in 2-3 yrs and then get relegated all the way back to Div 4 because players don't want to commit to the panel as they are just cannon fodder to the bigger teams. So would making it in to the All Ireland series next year be more of a hinderance to our team and the players coming through rather than a help?
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jimbob17
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by jimbob17 »

the Untouchable wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 12:18 am A question I would like to ask people who watch this Offaly team a hell of a lot more than I do is, would this group of Offaly hurlers be best served by winning the JMD this year and then risk getting absolutely mauled next year by the teams in Leinster, or have 2 or 3 years in the JMD playing competitive hurling and developing our style and a panel that would be better able to compete if and when we ever won a JMD?

The reasoning for my question is that it happens in numerous occasions where teams get back to back promotions in the league and say go from Div 4 to Div 2 or even Div 1 in 2-3 yrs and then get relegated all the way back to Div 4 because players don't want to commit to the panel as they are just cannon fodder to the bigger teams. So would making it in to the All Ireland series next year be more of a hinderance to our team and the players coming through rather than a help?
Good question. I think if we were able to win it this year, I'd be very worried about next year in a Leinster round robin series. I would fancy Antrim to win Joe Mc this year and next few weeks will likely decide who joins them in final. We need to get 3 pts minimum from last two games to secure a final berth. It is a challenge but one we are well capable of doing. If we reached Joe Mc final this year, it has to be taken as a successful enough year. Lots of our players are fairly young and from a physical development perspective, I think maybe not winning it this year would do us no harm. In fact, I think that last years team with the extra bit of strength in Oisin Kelly, Shane Kinsella and Aidan Treacy would be a touch stronger physically than this years team, which has unfortunately been weakened by injury and retirement etc.

Another year of much needed physical conditioning and growth and a win in 23 would be ideal but, sport is not a game of ideals and if we can make a final in 22, we should be doing our damndest to win it as either Laois or Westmeath will be in Joe Mc next year. It'll never be an easy thing to win.

Is it the case this year that if we do make a Joe Mc final, that we enter a preliminary q-final of Liam McCarthy against 3rd place from Leinster or Munster or is that solely for the winners of Joe Mc. Laois pulled a shock against Dublin a couple of years ago and qualified for McCarthy All Ireland quarter final in the year they won Joe Mc, losing out to Tipperary if I recall. Does the Joe Mc final loser get a similar opportunity?
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Fairplayalways
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by Fairplayalways »

Offaly wont develop at the standard of hurling they are currently playing, they will do enough to probably "trump" that level and learn no more from it..on the counter side, do we go up (if we could that is) do we get thrashed week in week out and go back down with our tails between our legs so to speak...Wexford (Not Kilkenny, Limerick, Waterford (lets throw in Cork, Clare and Galway and Dublin) beat Laois by something like 37 points at weekend..would Offaly beat Laois is they were to play next weekennd?..they might but probably wouldnt in my view, or it would be a high scoring close game...we are sort of dammed if we do, dammed if we dont, personally I think take promotion and plan accordingly and see how it goes..very hard see our best players opting in for lower tier competitions...

ah lethimoutwithit
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by ah lethimoutwithit »

Lord, I don't know.

So some of you guys mentality is to spend 6mths training to get out of a competition with a fear of getting beaten back down into it???


It sounds boring but here's how it goes,

1) You set out a 3yr plan,(Michael Fennelly that is) win promotion and Stay in 1B despite possible hammerings-failed, Qualify and win the CR/JMc to get up to next tier.
2) you set out a plan to deliver that and try adapt accordingly.

He's been hamstrung by withdrawels from the panel and possible players not committing. He will want to win the JMc, but not getting to the final would be a blow given the level of league hurling we were playing this season would be failure for the season.
But I don't know, personally I think Joe Mc is where we are at the minute because I feel that the standard of player is not where it needs to be and their is a poor standard of club coaching at underage in the clubs at the moment. I hear this from a variety of sources and therefore the level of player coming into the county set ups for development squads is poor.
So to cut to the chase, we might win it, we might go up and get some hidings but the players need to have the drive to get back up the levels and the whole hurling fraternity need to buy into what needs to be done continuously to improve the standard over time.

We have a good minor team , and had a good one 2 years ago with a couple of decent u20 teams and are progressing but need to keep it going.

SearingDrive
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by SearingDrive »

ah lethimoutwithit wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 2:24 pm Lord, I don't know.

So some of you guys mentality is to spend 6mths training to get out of a competition with a fear of getting beaten back down into it???


It sounds boring but here's how it goes,

1) You set out a 3yr plan,(Michael Fennelly that is) win promotion and Stay in 1B despite possible hammerings-failed, Qualify and win the CR/JMc to get up to next tier.
2) you set out a plan to deliver that and try adapt accordingly.

He's been hamstrung by withdrawels from the panel and possible players not committing. He will want to win the JMc, but not getting to the final would be a blow given the level of league hurling we were playing this season would be failure for the season.
But I don't know, personally I think Joe Mc is where we are at the minute because I feel that the standard of player is not where it needs to be and their is a poor standard of club coaching at underage in the clubs at the moment. I hear this from a variety of sources and therefore the level of player coming into the county set ups for development squads is poor.
So to cut to the chase, we might win it, we might go up and get some hidings but the players need to have the drive to get back up the levels and the whole hurling fraternity need to buy into what needs to be done continuously to improve the standard over time.

We have a good minor team , and had a good one 2 years ago with a couple of decent u20 teams and are progressing but need to keep it going.
Joe Mc Donagh is probably our level. The Leinster championship could be trying in terms of results. Either Laois or Westmeath will drop down to Joe McD in 2023.

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Hurlers 2022

Post by Lone Shark »

I think "worrying" about promotion is getting ahead of ourselves a bit, I'd make the Kerry game a toss up at best, and whoever wins that will be big outsiders against an Antrim side that's going well.

Having said that, I'd say the "ideal" for this team at this stage of their development would be Division One league, and Joe Mac championship. Second choice would be D2A league and Liam Mac championship, since either way you get some games where you expect to win, and some games where you won't win, but you'll learn from it. Either of those would be preferable to either D2 & Joe Mac OR D1 and MacCarthy Cup, in my opinion.

Laois are just about good enough to hang on at the top tier in league and championship, but it's a grind for them - and Laois are a fair bit ahead of Offaly at senior level right now. We're making up the ground on them at underage level definitely, but they've a core group of mature players at senior that we simply don't have.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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