u21 match

[royalblue]

U21 Semi-final postponed for a week
16/06/2008

The Offaly versus Wexford Leinster U-21 Hurling Championship semi-final, which was fixed for St Brendan’s Park, Birr, this Wednesday, 18th June, has been put back by a week.
Due to the drawn game between Dublin and Wexford in the Leinster SHC – the replay of which will take place on Saturday – Leinster Council decided to move back both semi-finals by seven days, the second of which involves Kilkenny and Dublin.
Therefore, Offaly will now face Wexford in the semi-final in Birr on 25th June.


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[Lone Shark]

That should actually suit us, in that wexford will now have a second game whereas our players whould have a solid week to themselves, assuming a challenge game or whatever can be lined up for this Wednesday now.

At least that would be my reading of it - though with Wexford having so few players on the senior team it will probably make very little difference.

You do have to wonder if we would have been afforded the same courtesy however. These things haven't worked in our favour in recent weeks.

[royalblue]

They u21s on the team yesterday actually played well Diarmuid Horan was outstanding Conor Mahon tried hard and held his own on Fennelly while Derek did ok and Joe Bergin looked dangerous.

The extra week will suit them i think Offaly should concentrate on u21 they have a good chance of winning it.

I am not down beat over yesterday it was a young team and a lot of them stood up and was counted we gave away to many frees and Shefflin wont miss.

Our half forward line should have keep the ball moving Healion went to catch everything instead of getting a hurl on it , I think for the next day Horan and Hanniffy have to move to forwards and Cleary full back with Kenny in the centre and Oakley wing back.

I Dont blame Joe Dooley or his selectors but would question if BRADY and Bergin were fit to come on after 15 mins they should have started also think Paul Cleary got a raw deal yesterday.

[Lone Shark]

if BRADY and Bergin were fit to come on after 15 mins they should have started also think Paul Cleary got a raw deal yesterday.

I agree with the first part (though I'm really losing patience with Kevin Brady - yesterday he was at his most aimless yet in delivering the sliothar) but I don't agree with the second. Nobody likes being taken off, but I hate this unwritten rule whereby if a player is given a start he must be given a minimum of 40 minutes before he can be taken off. Cleary was making no impact, he wasn't catching the ball and his striking was too slow in a very busy area of the field. It didn't look like getting any better, so Dooley did the right thing to my mind. Obviously he's still a contender to start the next day, but yesterday he was not at the races.

[royalblue]

i agree with you that Cleary started poorly but he is a better hurler than Ger Healion but should be fullback or Centre back and move Horan and Hannify up.

We havent the strenght in depth to playing backs in the forwards and vice a versa also Damien Murray was a big loss on frees at the start of next year lads like Murray,Moran,Hanahran,Tanner,Cassidy,O 'Hara maybe Claffey if he wants Stephen Brown, Gath,Teehan,Cordial and Andrew McRedmond should be asked to come back this will help they younger players.
I Think to breed new players we should enter an intermediate team consisting of U21 to give them more experience

[Bord na Mona man]

i agree with you that Cleary started poorly but he is a better hurler than Ger Healion but should be fullback or Centre back and move Horan and Hannify up.

We havent the strenght in depth to playing backs in the forwards and vice a versa also Damien Murray was a big loss on frees at the start of next year lads like Murray,Moran,Hanahran,Tanner,Cassidy,O 'Hara maybe Claffey if he wants Stephen Brown, Gath,Teehan,Cordial and Andrew McRedmond should be asked to come back this will help they younger players.
I Think to breed new players we should enter an intermediate team consisting of U21 to give them more experience

I really think we need to move on and try and develop the next generation of players. At some stage you have to accept when a player is not going to cut it at intercounty level. A player approaching 30 is not suddenly going to make the jump required.

Several of the players you mentioned had their chance(s) and for various reasons didn't cut it. Some of them have disimproved in the interim and are now way off the standard. I don't see the point in having them taking up spaces on the panel when they are not viable prospects. There isn't much that they could help young players with.

Having a player that never lived up to his potential, or wasn't good enough sitting beside you on the bench - I don't see the merit of it.

[Lone Shark]

i agree with you that Cleary started poorly but he is a better hurler than Ger Healion but should be fullback or Centre back and move Horan and Hannify up.

We havent the strenght in depth to playing backs in the forwards and vice a versa also Damien Murray was a big loss on frees at the start of next year lads like Murray,Moran,Hanahran,Tanner,Cassidy,O 'Hara maybe Claffey if he wants Stephen Brown, Gath,Teehan,Cordial and Andrew McRedmond should be asked to come back this will help they younger players.
I Think to breed new players we should enter an intermediate team consisting of U21 to give them more experience

Largely speaking, we know exactly what we'll get out of these hurlers - in this list are some of the worst culprits for the last few years in terms of disappearing in matches when the going gets tough. Several of them are the wrong side of 30, while many of them also have a proven track record of abandoning the squad halfway through the year - hardly the role models you want for the younger lads who already appear to have more character than most of them. Andrew McRedmond perhaps an exception in that I don't recall him ever getting a sustained run in the county team but right now I'd be inclined to say to the bulk of the current squad that it's your team, we're not going to lose faith in ye, so go out there and hurl without fear.

I do like the idea of an intermediate team though - but more for the kind of guys you've listed. Many of them will say it's beneath them, and if they do, then we know all we need to know about their attitude for playing for Offaly. the good guys who might actually improve the squad would go onto it and provide some real leadership and prove their worth at county level.

[gutless08]

royal blue, u claim joe bergin looked dangerous yesterday, could u explain? , now he may not have been fit and doesnt appear 2 be a summer hurler, maybe him or molloy need a run at full forward. but how exactly did he look dangerous?

[biffo_king]

Some good news i guess.

[swiftpost]

Extra week should do them good, a few players with minor injuries. I presume Joe Bergin will start, who loses their place then?

[lovelyhurling]

i know this isnt for talking about the senior but i cant understand LS attitude towards kevin brady. he is a fine hurler possibly in our best 3 hurlers. he is highly rated even outside the county!!

[D Corner Flag]

i know this isnt for talking about the senior but i cant understand LS attitude towards kevin brady. he is a fine hurler possibly in our best 3 hurlers. he is highly rated even outside the county!!

Sorry, cant agree with that- wouldnt be in my top three defenders.

[kinnittyman]

LS i am in complete agreement with you about Kevin Brady. He has so many glaring faults it beggars belief that he can be Offaly captain. For a start he is in incredibly loose wing back whos man will do an amount of hurling. He fouls much too frequently usually in a desperate attempt to get back to his man who he was supposed to be marking in the first place. This coupled with occasoional bouts of concentration loss makes him far from the hulrer many make him out to be. Also to return to LS's pet peeve with Kevin Brady I also agree that his distribution is woefully inadequate for intercounty hurling and has to be improved dramatically. Personally I felt that he was the worst back Offaly had on show on Sunday and I would not pick him for the qualifiers.

[Lone Shark]

Kevin Brady gained his reputation on the strength of being the best half back in Offaly to catch a high ball, a reputation that was probably merited some years ago but no longer with the presence of players like David Kenny. However when he does catch the ball, he always does the same thing - turns away from the opposition goals and runs backwards to gain space before half-hitting the ball over his shoulder with no clue where he's hitting it towards. If you go back and look at recordings of Offaly matches in recent years, the amount of scores we concede to Kevin Brady hitting the ball to an opponent who promptly drives it back over the bar is absolutely criminal. I'm only basing this on personal notes from writing on games, I don't have the recording, but my estimate is that every game he gives away an average of two scores this way.

He doesn't mark tightly enough, and for all his supposed catching ability, put him on another fielding wing forward and he starts batting at the ball like all the others. I completely lost patience with him last Sunday as he took a handpass from Verney (I think) in the second half, and in acres of space promptly hit the ball as hard as he could straight down the middle to the unmarked Brian Hogan. He had enough time to ring Derek Molloy or Brian Carroll and ask what kind of a pass they wanted, but he still hit it without thought straight at the form player in the Kilkenny back line. If that was a one off then fair enough, but that's what he does - time and again.

For the purpose of avoidance of doubt, I've never met Kevin Brady and all reports of him suggest he's an extremely decent chap, and I don't doubt that he puts in complete and total commitment to the Offaly hurling cause, there's no way he would have even been considered for the captaincy otherwise. If I met him tomorrow I'd be happy to shake his hand and thank him for the effort he's put into hurling for Offaly, but it frustrates me how within certain parts of Offaly there is this attitude that he is a fantastic hurler that we'd be lost without, when I've yet to see it. I keep looking at these games and at the start of the match I tell myself to give him a clean slate and forget my previous opinion of him, then he pulls one of his usual stunts and I have no choice but to form the same opinion all over again.

The half back line is absolutely crucial in hurling, and he is quite simply a weak link. I don't blame him in the slightest in that he always does his best and it's not his fault he keeps getting picked, but off the top of my head I can think of five or six players at least I'd play in an Offaly half back line before him. The Emporer has no clothes, and until a little bit of support on this thread, I used to think I was the only one that could see it.

I hope Bogman weighs in on this thread - I know he's a huge fan of Brady's, as I presume Green and White is as well. I'd be all for a little balance here and somebody to put forth the case for the defence.

[green&white]

U drew me out of hiding LS Was trying to lay low after last Sunday.
Brady to me is a fantastic athlete and fielder of the ball,tough as nails and always give 100% but i must agree with you regarding his clearences. They give absolutley no chance at all to the forwards to win possession up front.I know Carroll has being having a running battle with him in Coolderry over it for years!!!
But my problem with this is he is not the only player that played last Sunday that does this.Brady, Oakley, Verney, Franks and Mahon usually go for distance first, direction later! Kenny and Horan usually look to lay off a handpass first or alternatively a delivery to the forwards. And that to me is why Offaly backs are under so much pressure for the whole game once we play a decent side. If you analyse the game last Sunday, the amount of time a lobbing or high ball is hit into the Offaly forward line is ridiculous. You can play all the big men you want but a high ball is generally a backmans ball. Even Begley for Limerick cant continually field high ball. Now I know its up tot he forwards to deal with whatever is put in front of them but it usally doesnt favour the forwards in Offalys case. I think the 4 out-and-out forwards on Sunday did that.
Murphy didnt let Dalton catch the ball and played in front of himself but Mahon didnt read the brakes.
Molloy made sure Tommy Walsh didnt field any ball either and drew 2frees for Tommy's obvious push in the back (about time it was caught!!!).
Carroll contested a lot of high ball and neither him or Tyrell caught it (not bad considerin Tyrell is about a foot taller) and I cant remember Kavanagh catching anything off Hayden as bad as he was.
Now our two backsmen got completley cleaned out in the air and went complelty wrong into the tussle every time. Bergin should be available there the next time!