Offaly's 2010 NHL fixtures - provisional (read it and weep)

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly’s NHL fixtures 2010 (provisional)

21 Feb v Cork (away)
28 Feb v Kilkenny (away)
14 March v Dublin (home)
21 March v Galway (away)
28 March v Limerick (home)
4 April (Easter Sunday) v Waterford (away)
18 April v Tipperary (home)

To say these fixtures are unsympathetic would be the understatement of the year.

Now I’ve no problem with having three matches at home and four away, but look at the first two!! I had some working out to do to get these, but the order of the fixtures has been rearranged from last year’s to facilitate the Tipperary v Kilkenny opener. That means last year’s round 4 is now round 1, last year’s round 5 is now round 2 and so on.

The upshot is that had the order of last year’s fixtures been maintained, Offaly would have had the Limerick match first, Tipperary at home next and so on. Instead they’ve to travel to Cork and Kilkenny in the first two rounds. No other county has to start with two away matches, in fact Limerick start with 2 home matches.

These are provisional, and are based on some estimates and deductions I made myself, but I think I’m right. The principal deduction is that Offaly (who were promoted) take over Clare’s (who were relegated) fixtures, but the venues are reversed. Clare, the gobschytes, had four home matches last year and still got relegated.

I don’t have the football fixtures but if anyone can get the fixtures for any other division 3 county then Offaly’s fixtures can be worked out quick enough.

As I make it, the full NHL D1 fixtures are as follows:

Round 1 – Cork v Offaly, Limerick v Galway, Tipperary v Kilkenny, Waterford v Dublin
Round 2 – KK v OY, G v WD, LK v C, D v Tip
Round 3 – OY v D, Tip v G, C v KK, WD v LK
Round 4 – G v OY, D v KK, WD v C, LK v Tip
Round 5 – OY v LK, D v C, Tip v WD, KK v G
Round 6 – WD v OY, C v Tip, G v D, LK v KK
Round 7 – OY v Tip, KK v WD, G v C, D v LK

[GreatDayForTheParish]

No doubt about it, it doesn't make for comforting reading.

Being realisic however, avoiding relegation is the extent of our ambitions and so with that in mind, it is welcoming to have both the Dublin and Limerick games at home. These games must be targeted.

Outside of that it's sobering stuff. We really could have done with four fixtures at home with at least one of them to include a consistently inconsistent league performer like Waterford or Galway. Tipperary (our other home fixture) are not that.

[Bord na Mona man]

Dublin and Limerick are the biggies, however I don't expect us to win both of them.
Somewhere else along the line we need to sneak a win.
Maybe in the last 2 games, Waterford will have nothing to play for and Tipp will have already qualified for the knockouts?

Looking back at the record books. Offaly haven't earned more than 2 points away from home in the Division 1 in 15 years. 4 away games out of 7 looks daunting.

[Lone Shark]

In terms of home vs away it's not hectic, but we were due a run like that - we had three home out of five in our last division one season and it's not like we made use of that, only getting one draw.

However there's another side to this - which is that we have lot more chance of upsetting teams like Cork and Kilkenny early in the season than we would do if we got them in April. Two years ago Kilkenny drew with Dublin on day one while we hurled well enough in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, while in 2006 we drew with Cork in the first round. Of course the Dublin and Limerick games are the ones to target, but there's a much better chance of sneaking a result in these fixtures if we get them early than against the likes of Tipp who tend to start well, or even Galway who can blow hot or cold at any time.

[black and red exile]

OUCH, Jaysus talk about stinkers, hook or by crook we have got to target at least 6 points, the Dubs and Limerick at home and Im looking at the Waterford game in Walsh Park as winnable, our last 2 league games against the Deise resulted in victories, both home and away so our recent record against them is not bad at all. Guys let's not cod ourselves we have no chance against the others including Tipp at home and if we get 2 trimmings in Nowlan park and Pairc Ui Chaoimh the confidence will be shot to pieces, It's a pity the Galway game is not at home, I would give us a decent chance in Tullamore but not in Pearse Stadium, It's not great reading lads, lets just hope Dublin and Limerick will be worse than us.

[Lone Shark]

It's a pity the Galway game is not at home, I would give us a decent chance in Tullamore but not in Pearse Stadium.

I don't know. I'd have little fear of Galway to begin with, and if you get Pearse Stadium on a good windy day, that can sometimes introduce a random element that might help you out.

[bracknaghboy]

This is exactly what this team needs. Offaly must look on each league game as being championship matches. They must go out and leave everything on the pitch. Dooley must try and get a settled team. How else can the lads progress unless they play the best around on their patch. We've been away from this level of competion too long now. We can't be missing lads during the league to Mickey Mouse college games and to be honest its in the best interests of Offaly hurling if Birr (or anyone that can topple them) do not progress in the club championships as a full panel is required. .....just telling it as it is.

[Lone Shark]

This is exactly what this team needs. Offaly must look on each league game as being championship matches. They must go out and leave everything on the pitch. Dooley must try and get a settled team. How else can the lads progress unless they play the best around on their patch. We've been away from this level of competion too long now. We can't be missing lads during the league to Mickey Mouse college games and to be honest its in the best interests of Offaly hurling if Birr (or anyone that can topple them) do not progress in the club championships as a full panel is required. .....just telling it as it is.

I disagree with this on a load of levels.

(1) While we want a settled team, I don't think we can have a repeat of the situation where we get to the summer and we only have one or two frontline subs who have played more than twenty minutes of hurling all spring. I'm not talking about experimental teams because we don't have the strength or the depth to pull that off, but every Offaly team in the league should have two or three lads being "tried", so that when it gets to the summer, we have some idea of a plan B. Of course we want to stay up, but putting it all on the shoulders of the first sixteen or seventeen lads is not the way to go.

(2) I'm not sure if we've had this debate before or not, it certainly sounds familiar, but colleges is the closest thing to senior intercounty championship in existence. Sigerson and Fitzgibbon competition is a higher level than either Intercounty league or intercounty Under-21 as far as I'm concerned. Offaly have a problem with not enough lads playing in these competitions, the last thing you want to do is to reduce that further by p'ing off college managers. Young players love these competitions, the experience is great and some players develop at this level in a way that they never would with the county. Look at the likes of Conor O'Mahony, how he improved five-fold at LIT.

(3) For the same reason, Offaly players need to get used to winning again. If eight or nine Birr players walk into the Offaly panel in late March with All Ireland medals in their pocket, then that's good for them and everyone. It was different at the start of this decade when Birr were doing this routinely and a load of young players needed the guidance of Birr's older hands. This is different, with the exception of Rory, the Birr players that we might be missing aren't the leaders of the squad. Offaly's championship team in 2010 could have seven Birr starters, it might just have one or two - they are competing for places as well and good displays against teams like Ballyhale, Toomevara and Portumna are pretty solid form if it works out that way.

[bracknaghboy]

This is exactly what this team needs. Offaly must look on each league game as being championship matches. They must go out and leave everything on the pitch. Dooley must try and get a settled team. How else can the lads progress unless they play the best around on their patch. We've been away from this level of competion too long now. We can't be missing lads during the league to Mickey Mouse college games and to be honest its in the best interests of Offaly hurling if Birr (or anyone that can topple them) do not progress in the club championships as a full panel is required. .....just telling it as it is.

I disagree with this on a load of levels.

Good! If we didn't disagree now and again sure there would be no point to the forum !!

My biggest concern for the hurlers this year is that come february 2010 it'll be nearly 2 years since they were last in Div 1. We have seen how this team collapses when one of the bigger guns steps up the pace in the 2nd half of games. Thats why the lads need as much practice at this level as possible. I'd hate to see us playing games missing loads of players to club/college matches. If that happens we are sure to go straight back down to Div 2. We have a much better opertunity this year than Wexford have to be well prepared for the Leinster first round....everything possible must be done to ensure we don't drop.

[Bord na Mona man]

In football I believe Offaly have experimented far too much in the league.
It has gotten to the stage where nowadays, a week before the championship starts, you would only be guessing who the starting; goalie, full back, centre back, midfield pairing, centre forward and full forward will be.
That's how bad it has gotten.

We tend to waste 2 or 3 games trying ridiculous stuff - Ger Rafferty and Scott Brady as half forwards springs to mind. Cop on to this, start slashing at every line of the field throwing players in to fill holes for the remaining games.

In recent years, we've had about 4 players make their championship debuts having not featured in the league.
This is no reflection on these players, its just an example of the dam-plugging that ends up going on.
Obviously Tom Cribbin was dealt a bad hand this year, so he never got to run the rule over players.

In hurling, I felt Joe Dooley was a bit too cautious in the league this year. Being picky, I think some of the non-starting 15 forwards didn't get enough of a run. However I could understand him trying to build a bit of momentum with a consistent team. In other years, similar to the football, there was a bit too much musical chairs selection going on. Birr in All Irelands used to make this worse.

[Lone Shark]

In fairness to Joe, promotion out of Division 2 was huge last year. We needed it, we got it. There was a trade off in that we went into the championship with several players having seen little or no competitive action, but that was a justifiable price to pay.

It may sound reprehensible, but I think this year the schedule is well suited to doing things a little differently. We may or may not have Birr players early in the year (they should make a Leinster final, but Ballyhale seem to be cruising too), but one way or another our division one fate will be decided in our three home games. Two wins out of three would probably be enough to stay up. I think the Walsh Cup and the first two games of the league are where we should be playing with teams that perhaps have five, six or seven "panellists" in them. Many of these will struggle to keep up, but hopefully two or three will show signs of stepping up to the mark. You then allow these guys a sustained run but re-introduce more of your headline names for the games where winning is more of a possibility and indeed more important, and hopefully then by the summer you have twenty two guys who you know are capable of doing a job for you.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Walsh Cup draw 2010. An extended Walsh cup this year with Carlow, UCG, GMIT and the DIT now included.

UCD v Antrim, winners v Wexford
Carlow v NUIG, winners v Dublin
Laois v GMIT, winners v Galway
Offaly v DIT, winners v Kilkenny

First round matches on 24th Jan 10, Second round on 31st Jan. First named at home.

The Leinster U21 and minor draws draws have also been made.

The minor hurling draw:-
Round 1
(1) Kildare v Wicklow
(2) Westmeath v Meath
Round 2
(3) Carlow v Winners 1
(4) Laois v Winners 2
(5) Kilkenny v Dublin
(6) Offaly v Wexford
Round 3
(7) Winner 4 v Loser 6
(8) Winner 3 v Loser 5
Semi-finals
Winner 8 v Winner 5
Winner 7 v Winner 6

The Under 21 draw:- This looks incomplete - I can't see where the winners of the 'special' competition enter the mainstream.

LEINSTER U21 HC
Quarter-final
(1) Kikenny v Offaly
Semi-finals
(2) Winner 1 v Dublin
(3) Wexford v Laois

[black and red exile]

Our u21s playing Kilkenny again, surely to god we don't end up going to Nowlan park again for the second year in a row? If that is the case then there is something wrong with this venue system. It's not possible to be screwed all the time

[Bord na Mona man]

It's not possible to be screwed all the time

Oh yes it is!!!