Minor Hurling Farce

[Offalys Future]

just a week to go until minor championship starts and 12 at training last week.
players have walked off the panel and the whole setup is an absolute joke.
how will offaly ever have success at senior level when the organisation and mentality
at underage level is laughable.
for last 5 years in particular what has been going on with underage teams/academies etc
is really upsetting and has brought hurling in offaly to a new low. Incredible stuff.

[john123]

one problem......management!

[townman]

fu.k thats bad after winning the leinster league a few weeks ago

[Offalys Future]

one of the problems alright.

county board are to blame.
where is johnny flaherty/ brian whelahan and all the other saviours of offaly underage hurling now.
total bullshit and shitetalk.

Lets be very clear here
Offaly beat Antrim, Carlow and Laois and received a walkover from Wexford.
They did not play Kilkenny Dublin or Wexford so in my opinion regardless of the name they won
a Leinster minor league div 2.

[Lone Shark]

I'd be interested to see the reason for the no shows here. Players walking off is not a good sign but I can see how this might happen all the same - for a start, management is under instruction to only carry 24 in the squad. I'm not sure if it's 4 or 5 dual players at minor ranks but there's around that and obviously the football is taking precedence right now since that's first up, so if you have one or two carrying knocks or committed to other games for schools or whatever, it's easy to see how this could come about.

If there are players not bothering to show, well that's another matter entirely.

[Offalys Future]

always the political correct loneshark!

did you ever wonder why our youngest players arent bothered?
have you been on a different planet the last 5 years and not seen
who has been over these players and influened there way of thinking.

to say that the problems are down to football is untrue.
the problems are there for a long time now and very clear for anyone that is interested
can see.

[townman]

one of the problems alright.

county board are to blame.
where is johnny flaherty/ brian whelahan and all the other saviours of offaly underage hurling now.
total bullshit and shitetalk.

Lets be very clear here
Offaly beat Antrim, Carlow and Laois and received a walkover from Wexford.
They did not play Kilkenny Dublin or Wexford so in my opinion regardless of the name they won
a Leinster minor league div 2.

well the only big team there is kilkenny they didn't play Dublin because laois beat them well
i just saying after winning the league and this is going on now.

as for Flaherty and Whelahan what can they do if the talent isn't in the county
sure you could say the same for football wheres willie bryan,matt connor,the Lowrys
if lads walked off the panel or won't train what can ex players do, thats why Whelahan was
so good he was always on the field every night who taught him ???

[Lone Shark]

always the political correct loneshark!

did you ever wonder why our youngest players arent bothered?
have you been on a different planet the last 5 years and not seen
who has been over these players and influened there way of thinking.

to say that the problems are down to football is untrue.
the problems are there for a long time now and very clear for anyone that is interested
can see.

I'm not saying all the problems are down to football, or anything of the sort. I'm saying that low attendances at training could be partially influenced by it. I'd like to know the reason for the twelve lads being absent, and if it is a degree of "can't be bothered", then of course that's a huge problem.

Being honest, I've never met Joe Cleary so I've no idea what he's like - and I'm hardly going to run him down without knowing the first thing about him. I agree however that recent results suggest that there are problems at every grade and winning a Leinster minor league that most counties chose not to participate in wouldn't change my mind on that, obviously enough.

[Biffo Army]

Good to see you back Offaly's Future!

[townman]

the players will have to take some blame in this if they are not bother their arse putting on the jersey
and hurling for offaly what can you do.

[Truth as i see it]

Sit back and moan about it

By the way didn't Gallen cs win an all ireland Vocational schools title

Seems like there's decent talent there to me.

[Truth as i see it]

the players will have to take some blame in this if they are not bother their arse putting on the jersey
and hurling for offaly what can you do.

Sit back and moan about it

By the way didn't Gallen cs win a vocational schools title recently

Seems like there's decent talent there to me

[townman]

the players will have to take some blame in this if they are not bother their arse putting on the jersey
and hurling for offaly what can you do.

Sit back and moan about it

By the way didn't Gallen cs win a vocational schools title recently

Seems like there's decent talent there to me

didn't st .marys of Edenderry win the schools all ireland a few years ago portarlington schools as well with a good few offalymen on it
Banagher have done well the last few year's, still didn't make a different's in underage football or hurling the last few year's.

No won't moan about it to long in the tooth for that i have seen offaly win everything in hurling and football feel sorry for the young
lads and lassies who will see offaly win nothing

[Plain of the Herbs]

I wasn’t aware of this, and when I read it here, my first thoughts were “aw Jaysus, not again”.

I don’t follow soccer at all but I do make a point of listening to the Johnny Giles slot on Newstaks every Thursday evening. Yesterday evening Giles was speaking about the importance of spirit in the camp, how delicate it is and how it can be upset by bad management of one sort or another.

I was surprised the manager was reappointed after the carry-on over the team selection for the Kilkenny match. That mis-management was a pity because one of my favourite memories of last year is the minors’ second half fightback against a highly-rated Wexford in OCP, when, with a bit of belief they could have nailed a win in normal time. It’s not as if the manager didn’t have talented hurlers at his disposal, for he had the nucleus of a schools All-Ireland winning side and had a number of lads who were hurling Senior with their clubs.

How is it that Eoin Ryan (Coolderry) can be virtually ignored like he was by the 2009 Minor management yet be such an important part of Coolderry’s County title-winning side 15 months later? How can Niall Wynne not get a look-in last year having been on a school’s All-Ireland winning side yet be one of St Rynagh’s Seniors’ key men two months later? How can Rory Quinlan be in his second year as a club Senior yet not get looked at (remember they used ne’er a sub until the last minute of extra-time against Wexford)?

With the Leinster championship just a few weeks away the starting fifteen is probably taking shape and by now lads know who will be in and who will be out. Players are intelligent and they know when they’re not being given a fair crack of the whip and when inferior players are being picked or when management don’t understand the requirements of key positions and select players who are ill-suited to those key slots.

And don’t get me started on players from South Offaly who have a club Senior match the next day have to thumb home from Tullamore because the bus is making an extended comfort-stop in the Square.

The lads probably feel they’d be better off hurling with their clubs who have a match on Easter Sunday (some at noon), and maybe they’re right.

But shure we’re a great little county.

just a week to go until minor championship starts and 12 at training last week.
players have walked off the panel and the whole setup is an absolute joke.
how will offaly ever have success at senior level when the organisation and mentality
at underage level is laughable.
for last 5 years in particular what has been going on with underage teams/academies etc
is really upsetting and has brought hurling in offaly to a new low. Incredible stuff.

[Truth as i see it]

the players will have to take some blame in this if they are not bother their arse putting on the jersey
and hurling for offaly what can you do.

Sit back and moan about it

By the way didn't Gallen cs win a vocational schools title recently

Seems like there's decent talent there to me

didn't st .marys of Edenderry win the schools all ireland a few years ago portarlington schools as well with a good few offalymen on it
Banagher have done well the last few year's, still didn't make a different's in underage football or hurling the last few year's.

No won't moan about it to long in the tooth for that i have seen offaly win everything in hurling and football feel sorry for the young
lads and lassies who will see offaly win nothing

Yeah i take your point but in fairness the minors did get to a good number of Leinster finals and a Leinster u-21 final so there must be at least some talent there to achieve this.

When we do make finals at this level we tend to how should put it "Bottle it" on the big day.

i dont know if its to do with the team haveing and inferiority complex against the bigger teams like Meath and Dublin or just panicking against the lesser teams like we did against Longford last year though i do recognise that Longford are an improving force in football

Point is there is talent but no idea how to use it