Offaly v Clare NHL 01/04/2012

[Lone Shark]

The following piece is taken from today's Examiner. http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/ ... 89312.html

Daithí Regan has described Offaly’s match-day operations in Sunday’s Division 1B game against Clare as "p*** poor".
Expanding on his criticism of Ollie Baker on Twitter on the evening of the match, the former Faithful County star slammed the management’s failure to alert players of the score in Limerick’s clash with Antrim in Casement Park.

Instead of going for goal with a 60th minute penalty in Tullamore, Shane Dooley struck the ball over the bar to extend an Offaly lead that was then lost as 14-man Clare claimed a last gasp win.

Going into Sunday’s final round, Offaly and Limerick were both on five points having drawn in the Gaelic Grounds the previous weekend thanks to a late Dooley penalty goal. Offaly had a superior score difference of 13 but ended the day with an inferior one as they went down by a point and Limerick won by 14. Regan was shocked that the Offaly management failed to keep their players informed of what was required to reach Saturday’s Division 1B final.

"There are two issues," said Regan. "I know a lot of people who wouldn’t travel to the game because it was held in Tullamore and not Birr.

"Then I spoke to one of the players on Sunday night to see what the story was and did he know the score in Belfast.

‘We didn’t have a clue’ is what he told me. They didn’t realise Limerick were 14 points up. The assumption was that if Offaly won that would be enough.

"Shane Dooley has one of the best belts of a ball but I couldn’t believe it when he tapped the ball over the bar.

"It put Offaly three up and the idea was against 14 men it would be enough.

"It was just so very unprofessional when so much was at stake. It was p*** poor.

"I was talking to a Galway hurling man and he said ‘if Dublin beat us and we go down to Division 1B it’ll be the ruination of Galway hurling’.

"Offaly are there already and we’ll be there for at least another year. Too much money is being invested in these things not to take them seriously enough."

Last year, Offaly suffered a similarly unfortunate last day when they lost to Kilkenny and were relegated to the old Division 2. During a break in play in Nowlan Park with four minutes of normal time left, the tannoy announcer revealed Tipperary were leading Wexford by four points. Had the result remained that way even with Offaly losing to Kilkenny, they would have survived as they had previously beaten Wexford.

However, Wexford drew to finish ahead of Offaly.

[durra1]

“Ollie baker getting too much money not to know what was going on"

The latest brainfart from Regan on twitter. Lads like Regan think they are on a barstool when they are doodling on their I-Phones.

Twitter is what it is and you can be held to account for anything you say, unlike what is said on the barstool. Case in point that Welsh student who went down last week for racist tweets about Fabrice Muamba.

I wouldn’t imagine Baker as a working shade would take that kind of thing too lightly. Whatever his terms are with the County Board, the principle is the same with JBM, Declan Ryan, Cunningham or whoever else you’d care to mention and it’s not for Regan to get personal like that in cyberspace when the authorities continue to fudge this issue. The Birr / Tullamore thing and the County Board baiting is fair game for whoever wants to listen to it.

POTH makes a good point re Dooleys penalty and if he was about to mishit it, then taking a point was 100% the right option. Never liked citeogs taking penalties – Damien Murray had that problem too. Missing out on the league final was as a result of events in Wexford park and not a split second decision in the last minutes of the Clare match.

Besides, looking at the Cork / Tipp / KK performances of late, I’m kind of glad we aren’t there. As some of the posters point out, were well behind in some of the physical aspects of the game and modern movement like off-loading to the direct supporting runner and cross field support lines.

There’s always a kick in OY teams come the summer and hopefully that’s the way it will turn out. Good to see the Dubs are out of sorts at the moment – I still think a LHC final is still makeable for this team.

[townman]

right lads poor result the league is done with for this year lets put it to bed offaly were never a league team anyhow.

i think there are a few who are going a little bit OTT here yes its a game we should have won but we left the league final
behind us in wexford park that sunday.

wouldn't listen to Daithi Regan to much i remember him as a selector with offaly under mike Mac we had a few bad days then to.

people will have to remember that Ollie Baker has took over offaly only in the last few months, give the man a break we were at the same
sh.t when Joe Dooley was over offaly he is getting to much he is no good, fcuk me if cody was over offaly we wouldn't win the all ireland.

Baker had to work without the Coolderry lads plus Paul Cleary,Dylan Hayden, Franks is only back and Derek Molloy is out hurt as well as Hanniffy.

i also think he has found a few players and gave young lads a chance Chris McDonald,Barry Harding,Tommy Carroll, the Mulrooneys and Dermot Mooney
will be the better of it in the next few years.

i think we will beat wexford in tullamore in a few weeks time if we have a full hand to play with and all our best players are fit and hurling well
as someone said here we could still make the leinster final this year.

Galway are as far off the top as we are looking at the result from nowlan park plus the Dubs are going throught a bad spell at the moment.

even doe we were beaten on sunday i still think there was some good points from it, Chris McDonald and Barry Harding been a plus
Ger Healion is not up to start in summer time hurling dry day hard ground is a No No for Ger maybe the last 15 minutes to get a goal
but not to start and in all fairness with offaly have a full panel to pick from ger won't be wearing the number 14 championship time.

Connor Mahon well i thought had a great game another day with a bit of luck he could have got 1-3, and he never gives less the 100 per cent
theres a few on the offaly team should take a leaf from his book.

so count down to the main one is on and i rather take the championship win over wexford than a league final defeat to clare or a lesson by the cats
in the league semil final would leave you open for an wexford ambush.

so with a round of championship and maybe a few matches again the likes of tipp,cork, before we play wexford and getting Paul Cleary and Dylan Hayden
and a few Coolderry lads back into the scene i think we still can give the auld leinster a fair auld crack this year.

i would have been more dissappointed on sunday if we had our full team out and lost but theres about 7 or 8 places that will be different come championship
time and then i will judge Ollie Baker and his offaly team after the wexford game in tullamore.

[Bord na Mona man]

On the penalty. I remember Eugene Cloonan saying that oftentimes the decision whether to go for a goal or a point is dictated on how good the rise of the ball is. If it sits up nicely, you can blast for goal full force, but if not, you might have opt for a point in that split second.

I'm not sure how relevent information from Belfast would have been? Offaly were at the pin of their colours just to win the game. Ordering the players to start trying to play for a winning margin when the game was in the balance could have left us worse off.

I'm not sure why Regan has to bring the issue of paying managers into it. I don't remember him having an issue with it before this year?

[Over The Black Spot]

Not sure what I can add that hasn't been said but here's a few points on the last few weeks of action:

1) Daithi Regan, while I would agree with some of what he is saying, should have the good manners to keep his mouth shut regarding the manager. Just because he has a certain profile from his media work doesn't entitle him to be mouthing off in such a public way. For me Daithi hasn't got over not getting the job himself and is probably delighted to see things go askew.

2) I agree with POTH, for me Dooley failed to rise the penalty properly and was on the back foot striking it so putting it over was the right option. I haven't seen it on tv yet but that was my initial reaction.

3) I would be amazed, and extremely disappointed, if the Offaly bench weren't aware of happenings in Belfast. At one stage, word went around the stand that Limerick were 15 up and it would be farcical to think that this couldn't be relayed to the players. There's more bodies on the sideline with Offaly than would be at some matches so surely one of them could be listening to a radio!

4) The use of the spare man was a farce. From the 25 minute or so mark, Offaly began to gain the lions share of the play and at that stage, as far as I was concerned, all we needed to do was stop Clare scoring big and we would be ok. The fact that they didn't run in a bag of goals was down to luck and David Kenny putting in a stormer.

5) Why did we start with Del at 6 when Eanna Murphy was a ready made replacement for Rory? Why did we allow Clare to completely dictate the tactics in the second half?
Why did we leave Joe Bergin on the wing for ages in the second half when the world of ball was going into Colin Egan and coming back out faster? Why was our first touch and striking way off the mark in April? Why was the manager more intent on following the ref than getting into his own players after the game? The answer to all these questions, as far as I am concerned, is that Ollie Baker and his team are not up to the job. I don't like saying this because I'm an Offaly fan and I don't think chopping and changing of managers does us any good but, Ollie Baker needs to go now. We have Wexford at home and a crack at Galway if we can get over that and it's time to put things right asap to get ourselves ready. There's every chance that we'd be good enough to win those two games with him in charge because we have the hurlers but, in the long run, he's not going to do any good for Offaly hurling. Following the ref to have a whinge when he should have headed for the dressing room and kept his head down was the final straw for me... act now Co Board!

When I think back on the action over the last couple of months, I'm reminded of the joke about Ger Loughnanes' Lexus being for sale after his two years in Galway... the tagline said "Only ever driven through Laois and Antrim"

[wingback]

Some what or another i don't think Baker will take take much heed of Regans comments, Regan wasn't much of a hurler himself in his day and hasn't done a whole pile for hurling in offaly over the years either except talk an awful amount of sh**e on the TV and radio!! When Offaly get the likes of Hanniffy, Hayden, Molloy and a few of the Coolderry contingent back they wont be a side easily beaten!

Looking at Sundays game vs Clare, Offaly have a serious problem in the forwards at the moment, Bergin is the only one sure of a starting place, Dooley is to far behind his man, (Murray is a better option at the moment,he will be out in front and can hit frees also) Mahon cant strike the ball and struggles to get it up a lot more than the rest of the team, saying that his work ethic is Trojan...... Mooney wasn't at the races at all. Sean Ryan i thought was unjustly taken off he was causing the Clare back line trouble with his pace! All in all there is things that need to be worked on, as was said in an earlier post offaly never take the league overly serious so i wouldn't get too worried yet, here's to a serious crack at a Leinster final appearence which should be the main aim for the year!

[townman]

Some what or another i don't think Baker will take take much heed of Regans comments, Regan wasn't much of a hurler himself in his day and hasn't done a whole pile for hurling in offaly over the years either except talk an awful amount of sh**e on the TV and radio!! When Offaly get the likes of Hanniffy, Hayden, Molloy and a few of the Coolderry contingent back they wont be a side easily beaten!

Looking at Sundays game vs Clare, Offaly have a serious problem in the forwards at the moment, Bergin is the only one sure of a starting place, Dooley is to far behind his man, (Murray is a better option at the moment,he will be out in front and can hit frees also) Mahon cant strike the ball and struggles to get it up a lot more than the rest of the team, saying that his work ethic is Trojan...... Mooney wasn't at the races at all. Sean Ryan i thought was unjustly taken off he was causing the Clare back line trouble with his pace! All in all there is things that need to be worked on, as was said in an earlier post offaly never take the league overly serious so i wouldn't get too worried yet, here's to a serious crack at a Leinster final appearence which should be the main aim for the year!

Daithi Regan might talk abit of bull sometimes , but to say he wasn't much of a hurler is a laugh he hurl midfield in two all irelands winning one
he scored the goal to win our first all ireland minor 1986 again Cork, he was also the main man in Birrs ST.Brendans schools Hogan cup all ireland final
win in 1996.

he played a big roll in Birr's first club all ireland final win in 1995 over Dunloy, he won't be forgotten in Birr for his roll in beating clarecastle in the replay in thurles
when he scored the long range point to beat clarecastle and later had a great all ireland as Birr won their 2 club all ireland again top club side at the time sarsfields of Galway.

Pat Spilllane of kerry talks a lot of bull to but i would never say he wasn't much of a footballer.

[townman]

i forgot to add wingback our only hurling league title was won in 1991 with Daithi Regan scoring two goals to beat the slaneysiders that day
he didn't do to bad for a lad as you said wasn't much of a hurler