Ray of hope?

[Loughers]

Good result for the minor's yesterday. Much improved from the Carlow result. Anyone at it?

[Lone Shark]

Yup. Very encouraging.

It could have been very different, Dublin burst out of the blocks and hit a load of early wides. I'm not sure how it would have gone if we had fallen well behind, but the defence kept plugging away in the absence of the forwards doing anything and it kept them in touch.

Wind or no wind, the second half was pure guts and energy. A few missed chances, could have sneaked the win, but mainly it gives them a bit of positive momentum going into the knockout stages.

I wouldn't get carried away though - yesterday was proof of how tricky it can be to know your best team at this level, and Dublin didn't have the luxury of an opener like we did. Still, some very nice hurling done all the same.

[Aweflee]

One swallow does not a summer make but it was heartening to see how these lads came back after losing to Carlow. If we had've managed to keep the full 15 on the field for the second half we'd have won. A good performance. Hopefully they can keep it going now.

[True Red]

Any particular reason this was played in Mountbolus?Seems strange considering Tullamore was free? Or was it?

[beirut]

There was an All Ireland School Football Final transferred from Tullamore to Rath on Saturday because Tullamore was unplayable so I suspect it was the same reason...

[Lone Shark]

As it happened it was a great place for it. Aside from the fact that for hurling Mountbolus is a fine pitch, it was a great setting for it and it brought out a very decent crowd.

A little bit of me was delighted to see the Dubs see a good rural heartland rather than Tullamore or Birr as well!!

[johntherobber]

not a bad result for minors against dublin,no1 really gave dem a chance,was good enough crowd at it and atmosphere was good!!

[juteman]

Did Offaly not play the wind poorly in the 2nd half. The wind significantly increased and our forwards were 20-30 yards from goal when the ball went in.There was only 3 or 4 Dublin backs in there on their own. The ball came out to easily.

[Lone Shark]

Perhaps, but Dublin did have an extra man in there after the red card which was fairly influential.

I would accept though that we should have been looking to create the chances a bit further out with the wind the way it was.

[baz]

why wasn`t that match between offaly and dublin not played in the hurling heartland of eg rath or banagher or even kinnitty .over the last few years there seems to be no common sense to fixing hurling matches at all grades and no regard to supporters or players .its a big talking topic amoung these supporters who go to these matches and are starting to have enough of this as it highlights alot of agendas that are in offaly at county board level .there is a core of people around tullamore who call the shots ,where raising money seems to be the sole objective ,instead of what is best for hurling .for all the money spent on tullamore stadium how often will it be filled .i know birr pitch not ready yet but not the only pitch on this side of county .like last night banagher & clareen u21 played in carrig which is in tipperary ,now forgive me but whats the problem with the pitches that i mentioned above .last year there was a number of matches especially under age that could have been doubled up and attract as big a crowd as possible but no the were scheduled at different times in different grounds to screw the supporter for as much as possible .

[Aweflee]

why wasn`t that match between offaly and dublin not played in the hurling heartland of eg rath or banagher or even kinnitty

Baz,

Would you not think that Mount Bolus is as much a "hurling heartland" as Rath, Banagher or Kinnitty? If what you meant was a pitch more central to the hurling area then surely that would rule out Banagher?

[baz]

simply no ,i`m not trying to run down the mount bolus , ballinamere or carrig or anyone else pitches ,the point im making as a hurling man like everyother hurling die heart is a more common sense approach to fixtures of hurling in general which is more fairer to supporters to get as many as possible to games .a lot of these people are getting sick of the lack of thinking behind some of these decisions ,the more of these people stop going (which will happen) what are we left with then .also mount bolus is in offaly heartland but banagher is in hurling heartland as is rath (know your hurling area ) .as far as im concerned that minor match between offaly and dublin should be held in the thick of offaly hurling and not on the outskirts as hurling people would agree .anyways where ever they play we follow them just ,getting a bit of a gripe off my chest

[Lone Shark]

I'm afraid Baz I'm not really sure what you're driving at here. If you were to redraw Offaly as just the hurling area (and factor in that you'd have to include Rahan and Tullamore parishes in that as both of them are senior clubs) then Mountbolus is a hell of a lot more central than Banagher. Yup, Rath is smack bang in the middle but Rath gets plenty of club games and is subjected to a lot more use than Mountbolus.

I agree with you that Kinnitty should get a lot more games and I'm delighted that the under 21 final is fixed for there this Sunday. It's a wonderful set up, but again it's at least as out of the way as Mountbolus if not more so. Equally I agree with more double headers - a lot of people would have gone to both those games if they had held them over two nights rather than one, while the scheduling for the Senior Football Championship is just farcical - loads of games side by side in case anyone might want to support their neighbouring club as well as their own, or go see the other teams in your group play.

However I'd be keen to pull you up on the Carrig is in Tipperary bit. They hurl in Offaly so for the purposes of GAA administration they are as much Offaly as any of the rest of the clubs around. I'm not the biggest fan of the pitch as it's not very big and it slopes a fair bit, but it should get games on merit the same as anywhere else in the county.


On one final point, I'm not necessarily buying into the philosophy that all the games should be automatically scheduled for "hurling heartland". The county board have a responsibility to cater for hurling in all of Offaly, not just where the senior teams are good. I'm not talking about putting a big game like this on in Rhode or somewhere like that where they don't even play hurling, but just because Edenderry or Gracefield aren't particularly successful doesn't mean that they don't put as much effort into their hurling over there. If anything they could do with a boost. At the risk of throwing another cat amongst the pigeons, I'd love to see one of Offaly's NHL games played at that end of the county next year, or even a game like the division 1 league final or something.

[corner back]

"Aside from the fact that for hurling Mountbolus is a fine pitch"

I'd have to disagree strongly with this. I've hurled championship in various grades for the last 3 years and would have it probably as the worst pitch I've played senior championship on in Offaly. I haven't played there this year but my memory from last year are patches of long and short grass not worthy of championship status.

[the weasel]

"Aside from the fact that for hurling Mountbolus is a fine pitch"

I'd have to disagree strongly with this. I've hurled championship in various grades for the last 3 years and would have it probably as the worst pitch I've played senior championship on in Offaly. I haven't played there this year but my memory from last year are patches of long and short grass not worthy of championship status.

You must never have played in Killavilla so.