Offaly v Kilkenny 17-04-11

[durra1]

As much as it kills me to say it .. Hats off to the yellowbellies.

[old yellar]

Ouch. A tough result to take. But well done to Wexford in getting 2 good results.

[thegander]

Joe Dooley has to go....Enough is enough... A team is in many ways a reflection of the manager and the players have no drive heart or determination to win or even get hurt trying to win.. Pathetic considering all the 'financial support' he gets to train these guys.. Joe - just go you have left us in the same position as when you started.........Progress??? Absolutely none

[townman]

have to say well done wexford the best team stayed up, we were well beaten bye a weak tipp team also lost to cork
so round pegs square holes team that was picked for most league matches has caught up with offaly.

i have no complaints we are where we are a division 2 team like it or hump it sad day all the same

[Abercrombie Fitch]

Anyway enough of the doom and gloom. Its nearly summer time and the championship is coming on the horizon. I was in Nowlan Park today and a lot of positives can be taken from the game.
Firstly this was a stronger Kilkenny team than people were making out. The full back line would be a match for any full forward line. Tj Reid and Fennelly in the middle plus Cha, Rice, Eoin Larkin and E Brennan in the forwards.
Offaly never looked like winning but still KK never fully put us away, the fact that we only conceded one goal is heartening considering KK purposely tried for goals in the 2nd half.
Dempsey had another great game in the goals, few good saves.
The full back line was under pressure throughout and did well to hold KK to one goal.
It was in the middle where we were least effective with our half backs, centre field and half forwards winning next to no clean ball from puck outs and this must be of concern.
When we did get possesion we were dangerous and good scores came from Bergin, Dooley, Carroll and a fine point from Conor Mahon. Stephen Wynne looked out of place in midfield and I'd prefer to face Dublin with Hayden or Cordial in there.
All the forwards got stuck in and battled hard and we must realise Dublin wont have the quality of backs that we faced today.
Personally i'm not a fan of bringing Bergin out onto the fifty but when it happened in the second half Offaly began to dominate for a period where we reduced the deficit to 6 points.
Momentum was with us and Brian Carroll and Ger Healion were also winning ball around the middle and carrying it effectively into shooting range. This momentum was stopped for a large break in play because of an injury to Aidan Fogarty which lasted approx 6 mins. KK cruised the last few mins after this but i know the KK fans on the terrace were growing uneasy as Offaly finally managed to win some clean ball, albeit too little too late.
Kilkenny fully deserving of their win today but they are stepping it up a gear and we werent totally overrun as it looked like we might be early in the second half.
Dublin qualifying for the League Final is as good a result as Offaly could have hoped for and god willing if they could win it hurling hysteria in the capital would go through the roof. Just the kind of scenario where no team likes to find Offaly lying contently in the long grass.
Hugely disappointing to lose our Div 1 status but lets try and enjoy the summer.

[fifitrixiebelle]

after diarmuids job on tipp in 09 we can expect that tipp will be out for our blood from now on and so it proved today. ryan fielded a weakened team - at least 5 of those will not line out aganinst cork -and didnt strenghten it by the subs he used. tipp looked flaahed out and only the fact that wexford arent great they wud have won well. Not surprised, tipp didnt want to be in the final, ryan and bonner hurled together and tipps love for offaly has deepened....not. no surprise therfore. Division 2 hurling is a disaster, nothing less and anyone who thinks today was in any way positive for offaly is nuts

[bracknaghboy]

Dublin qualifying for the League Final is as good a result as Offaly could have hoped for and god willing if they could win it hurling hysteria in the capital would go through the roof. Just the kind of scenario where no team likes to find Offaly lying contently in the long grass.
Hugely disappointing to lose our Div 1 status but lets try and enjoy the summer.

My friend you are either Joe Dooley or a very very delusional Offaly supporter. The gap between us and Dublin is now a genuine one....in a nutshell they have moved onto a different level. They are in a league final and we are playing Wicklow next year in Division 2. We play Dublin in 5 weeks and if you think that they are suddenly going to fall apart in Parnell park you have another thing coming.
3 weeks ago after the Wexford game Bonnor said that as long as he was in charge Wexford would fight until mathematically they were gone. Thats exactly what they did and fair play to them they got 3 points from last two games. Joe Dooley on the other hand commiserated with Wexford saying "Sure it could just as easily have been ourselves going to Divsion 2". He saw the last 2 games as games to enjoyed rather than to fight to get the point that would have prevented this disaster. Did any one person in O'Connor Park 2 weeks ago think that Offaly went out and were fighting for their Division 1 lives. Of course they were not......no urgency at all instead Joe and the players were happy to let either Cork or Tipp secure our division 1 status for us.

[townman]

Dublin qualifying for the League Final is as good a result as Offaly could have hoped for and god willing if they could win it hurling hysteria in the capital would go through the roof. Just the kind of scenario where no team likes to find Offaly lying contently in the long grass.
Hugely disappointing to lose our Div 1 status but lets try and enjoy the summer.

My friend you are either Joe Dooley or a very very delusional Offaly supporter. The gap between us and Dublin is now a genuine one....in a nutshell they have moved onto a different level. They are in a league final and we are playing Wicklow next year in Division 2. We play Dublin in 5 weeks and if you think that they are suddenly going to fall apart in Parnell park you have another thing coming.
3 weeks ago after the Wexford game Bonnor said that as long as he was in charge Wexford would fight until mathematically they were gone. Thats exactly what they did and fair play to them they got 3 points from last two games. Joe Dooley on the other hand commiserated with Wexford saying "Sure it could just as easily have been ourselves going to Divsion 2". He saw the last 2 games as games to enjoyed rather than to fight to get the point that would have prevented this disaster. Did any one person in O'Connor Park 2 weeks ago think that Offaly went out and were fighting for their Division 1 lives. Of course they were not......no urgency at all instead Joe and the players were happy to let either Cork or Tipp secure our division 1 status for us.

i think we should be giving some chance again Dublin Remember last year Galway were league champions after beating Cork well in the final
i know its hard to back again Dublin but something tells me we will pull off a suprise win over Dublin we shall just have to wait and see.

[black and red exile]

Offaly hurling 13/07/1980 to 17/04/2011 RIP

[first_touch]

This indeed is a hugely disappointing day for Offaly hurling. The galling thing is we have better quality hurlers than Wexford but we dont have the same fighting spirit. Fair dues to Wexford for getting a win and a draw from their last two games.

Offaly showed today that they can hurl fairly well when they have the ball (scoring 1 - 19 is no mean feat against Kilkenny). Their problem is winning primary possession and giving too much space to the opposition to play. Most of the scores Kilkenny got were far too easy. Offaly's work off the ball was extremely poor. Time and again both backs and forwards were beaten to possession by being behind their men and too slow to react. And their ability to win ball in the air was virtually non existant.

A lot of this is down to lack of spirit, determination and hard work - virtues that management has a role in instilling. Positional switches - or lack of them - are also costing us. Placing David Franks at midfield backfired as he was badly needed in the full back line. David Kenny should have been switched off Eddie Brennan who was causing all sorts of problems. I would have liked to have seen Kenny placed at centre back and Rory Hanniffy at midfield, an area where Offaly were being overran (though in fairness Rory was excellent at centre back in the second half).

While it is a major setback, to say the least, to be relegated to Division 2 this does not rule out an upset against Dublin. Remember 1991 when Dublin turned us over afer we had just won our first, and only, League title. We have the hurlers to give Dublin a rattle. The question is do we have the fight and the confidence. On this year's league showing, definately not. But maybe league and championship form are two different matters...or is that clutching at straws?

[Plain of the Herbs]

I was at home, listening mainly to Tipp FM, though intermittently tuning into Radio1 and Galway Bay FM.

The worst bit was when Des Cahill (at Nowlan Park) made the point that Baby Breheny (Colm Keyes of the Irish Independent who happens to have the imagination of an amoeba) beside him wondered aloud (when Kilkenny were at 1-22) whether they'd hit thirty points.

[Bord na Mona man]

Wexford deserve a lot of credit here for pulling it out of the fire in the last 2 games. There is no question, but they are deserving of remaining in Division 1.

Over the last 10 years, Wexford have had slightly less hurling in them than Offaly, but have been continually able to pull off the results against bigger teams.
Offaly have very rarely been able to replicate the wild, pike-wielding hurling that you need when the odds are against you.

In this year’s league campaign, did Offaly genuinely go out to have a cut at the big teams in every game, or were the always hedging on just needing to beat the moustaches in Tullamore to survive?

[Plain of the Herbs]

I’d say the latter, Bordy. Looking at Offaly’s matches this year, there isn’t a single match you could look back with regret and say Offaly left behind them.

Looking back, Cork beat them by 5 points in the first round which was encouraging at the time. I wasn’t there to say for sure but I’d reckon they never believed they’d win that one and were happy enough with the result. James Rigney’s injury that day was a serious blow though.

Galway had them beaten by half time in Tullamore. Next, Dublin had them beaten-up by half time. Tipperary went through them like a dose of salts in the first half before they pipped Wexford in Tullamore. They were never in the hunt at all against Waterford though they did narrow the gap late in the game.

Listening to Tipp FM on the wireless, Cummins brought off a good save moments before Wexford did score the goal whick put Wexford a point up. Pa Bourke levelled from a 65 and a John O’Neill from Clonoulty Rossmore “shaved the post” with what appeared to be a speculative effort with the last puck.

But shure Joe is proud of them.

In this year’s league campaign, did Offaly genuinely go out to have a cut at the big teams in every game, or were the always hedging on just needing to beat the moustaches in Tullamore to survive?

[SearingDrive]

Offaly hurling 13/07/1980 to 17/04/2011 RIP

Sadly, I have to agree. Yesterday's result means Offaly have ceased to be a hurling force for the foreseeable future, unless we go back to basics and develop the underage structures, so we can start to compete again, but we have to be patient. This is how our early successes were developed.
As one who remembers the glory days of the '80's and 90's I am very sad this has come to pass.
I think Joe Dooley should remain for the 2011 championship, he doesn't have a great deal to pick from.
If Joe does step down, any ideas on who might be considered for manager?

[townman]

The man i would like to see over offaly hurling and i thought we might go for him this year when joe was thinking about another
year was Micheal Walsh from kilkenny was over the kilkenny under 21's the last few years and is a good trainer we need something new...