Offaly Vs Wexford 2/6/12 Leinster Championship

[Kevin]

Whew!

Relief, finally.

Great win boys!!!!!!!
2-12 to 1-13

[uibhfaillian]

Nice 1, made heavy weather of it though. Poor ref. Shane Dooley looked to be carrying an injury and a bit of loss of form because of that.

Is the next game v Galway (they will beat Westmeath) in Salthill?

[Shovel]

Did not learn much from Wexford park in the league Offaly still have no killer instinct as we were very lucky to hold out from a good lead during the second half. But well done lads

[DAF]

Nice 1, made heavy weather of it though. Poor ref. Shane Dooley looked to be carrying an injury and a bit of loss of form because of that.

Is the next game v Galway (they will beat Westmeath) in Salthill?

Portlaoise same day as the footballers play Kildare I believe

[DAF]

I thought Sextons decision to award a free againt Brendan Murphy down the stand side of the field at the death was dreadful it was clearly a free for Offaly.Overall I am happy with the result but we went to sleep from the middle of second half on to go from 9 points up to only 2 up and Wexford missing a 21 to win the game was very sloppy from Offaly we should have been pushing on to kill the game off at that stage.

In the first half our midfield and half back line were very loose and it allowed Wexford to get on top of us early on Offalys revival late in the first half and in the second half was due to the midfield and half backs tightening up.I though Brian Carroll did extremely well as the third midfielder its the best he has played for Offaly in quite a while.Colin Egan was good particularly in the first half.Shane Dooley was class again he is a hell of a finisher.Cathal Parlon was disapointinghe just didnt seem to be able to get a hold on the ball and Conor Mahon wasnt great either although he did improve in the second half.Hopefully we can give Galway(no disrespect to Westmeath)a good rattle. We need to play for 0 minutes in that game and not fall asleep for long periods like we done too often recently.

Its such a pity the weather was so bad.I thought O'Connor Park looked splendid and for once at a GAA ground the pre match music didnt solely consit of diddly aye stuff.O'Connor park is a real credit to teh county and its about the one thing the County Board have got right in recent years.It would have been nice if the town council in Tullamore actually put some flags up you would hardly have known that there were 2 Leinster hurling cnhampionship matches on or that Offaly were playing

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Well done on getting the win lads, at the moment thats all that counts. We were good in patches and there were some great individual performances.
But we could have been staring into the abyss had Guiney buried that last free.
We have not developed a proper gameplan. How Kevin Brady saw out the 70 mins was unreal. He hit a fair amount of ball, mainly to yellow jersies, snd his efforts to tackle and track his man were woeful, typical of what the lads here more expert in hurling have spoken about before.
I thought Carroll was very poor in the second half, he hung around the midfield area on instruction obviously, but made no contribution.
Sean Ryan was terrible when he came on and offered nothing, similar to the last league game v Clare.Parlon had very little quality ball hit into him, and was covered by the extra man.
Hanniffy was played out of the game with the Wexford centre forward droppping off.
Bergin, Dooley, Murphy and Egan in patches were good, but the last 19mins not to register a score was really terrible.

Dempsey pulled off a crucial save at a vital point in first half, Morkham, Kenny, Rigney, And Horan especially the last 20 were very good. My man of the match though was Colin Egan who worked his arse off from start to finish, he might not be the most stylish, but he took some punishment and very little protection and kept battling to the end.

But I felt we have much more to offer if we look up and try to use the space, a good few shot selections were poor and we to be more ruthless.

At the end of the day we came out on the right side of a game that could have went against us, and please good they will gain confidence from this and will learn a lot about themselves and where they need to be. Derek Molloy needs to get back on the scene, and I wont say it again, Mahon should be in the football dressing room in Portlaoise. Im not sure of the options and i'll leave it to a few others to discuss the options .
But for now, enjoy the win lads and well done!!

[Lean Times]

First and foremost, well done on the win Offaly! Hopefully this will bring on this bunch of players in terms of belief and confidence. At the same time, we were lucky to see the win out but the result is all that matters to me in this instance because of the fact mentioned during the week that Limerick is the only side within the Top 9 counties that Offaly have defeated in the last number of years.

My Man of the Match would be Colin Egan also for a wonderful battling performance especially in the first half. The only man on the Offaly team capable of fielding a ball cleanly in the air. He set the tone from the start I felt and drove those around him on. It reminded me of Ger Oakleys comment in that article he did he in Tribune a couple years ago when he described how he got a belt early in a championship match against Wexford and not one Offaly man came to back him up. Colin Egan got stuck in and took no nonsence off any Wexford player.

Following on from this point, Offalys ability to field ball is very poor (both in hurling and football minus Niall Smith.) Wexford seemed much more naturally capable of fielding ball and what impressed me greatly was how their players (while the sliothar is in the air) wrestle and fight for positioning themselves for the sliothar with the use of their upper body, hips and arse...it was very effective and allowed them to work space for themselves to field ball cleanly.

Overall though, I am a very happy camper! Must applaud the Offaly support aswell, a great atmosphere in the stands for the first time in I don't know how long Well done all for coming out!

[SearingDrive]

The important thing is that Offaly won tonight, although it was tense in the last few minutes, as Wexford pulled us back. Wexford started and finished the game stronger, while Offaly were dominant in the second and third quarters. Offaly need an improvement if we are to trouble Galway or Westmeath in the semi final. Dare I say it, Wexford seemed to have a better game plan at times.
Absolutely miserable night on the terrace, weather wise.

[DAF]

The important thing is that Offaly won tonight, although it was tense in the last few minutes, as Wexford pulled us back. Wexford started and finished the game stronger, while Offaly were dominant in the second and third quarters. Offaly need an improvement if we are to trouble Galway or Westmeath in the semi final. Dare I say it, Wexford seemed to have a better game plan at times.
Absolutely miserable night on the terrace, weather wise.

You obviously got in late.The allowed a load of people to walk across the pitch from the terrace to the stand between the 2 matches

[Plain of the Herbs]

How does that "obviously" mean Searing Drive got in late? Searing Drive was on the terrace in plenty of time for the first match.

The important thing is that Offaly won tonight, although it was tense in the last few minutes, as Wexford pulled us back. Wexford started and finished the game stronger, while Offaly were dominant in the second and third quarters. Offaly need an improvement if we are to trouble Galway or Westmeath in the semi final. Dare I say it, Wexford seemed to have a better game plan at times.
Absolutely miserable night on the terrace, weather wise.

You obviously got in late.The allowed a load of people to walk across the pitch from the terrace to the stand between the 2 matches

[kingscounty]

we got the win in terrible conditions and thats what matters , its a game that should stand to us and put us in good gear for the semi final. its much better to win a game against wexford than to be winning a first round game against the likes of laois. we were tested today and we came through and got the monkey off our backs that was wexford. the backline held strong under alot of pressure in the second half, rigney , horan , morkan dealt with alot of ball. haniffy for me is key to holding the backline together i know he was caught once or twice but it was his first game back from injury and he is vital for offaly if we want to progress further. mahon was poor i dont think the day suited his running type game, bergin did ok but wasted alot of ball in the second half for a big man he needs to get stuck in more. dooley will nearly always score and he took his goal very well. as i said during the week i was delighted to see colin egan given his chance and he didnt disappoint. he was outstanding in the air in the first half, wexford tried everything to stop him from winning ball but he just caught balls from the sky. i dont think he scored but he worked his socks off and tackled, hassled and won ball and for me he was man of the match .great to see the crowd get behind the team and i hope they travel in even bigger numbers for the semi final. i think the ref was very poor and always is when he takes charge of any offaly game ive seen him with. the only worry i have is that we have very little options on the subs bench, joe brady for his size might have won ball at full forward for 15 - 20 mins in second half but other than that i couldnt see any of the subs making much of an impact.

[signinlate]

A win is a win is a win.

Wexfords comeback in the league game, Sextons efforts to keep them in the game and the fact that it's 12 years since Offaly beat the yellowbellies in championship hurling all made the last 15 minutes a nerve wrecking experience. But the team saw it out and will be better for it, they have suffered enough narrow defeats and can now savour the flipside of that equation.

Colin Egan would be my man of the match. He didn't get on the scoresheet but we wouldn't have won without his hard work.

Shane Dooley looked hungrier than he has all year.

After a slightly nervy start Morkan settled in well to the corner back spot.

Horan had a storming finish to the game.

We started the second half very well but didn't go for the kill and it almost cost us.

Strange that Derek Molloy wasn't sent on earlier. Parlon wasn't having much effect and Molloy would seem the most obvious sub.

[townman]

had a few pints on board now says lads no differ in the spelling anyway , but great win tonight and well done offALY
tell ye lads when you beat wexford in the leinster championship its a good days work matter what lads say.

1981,1982, 84,88, their was only a puck of a ball between offaly and wexford and offaly were the better of it after and we will be again galway to

GO ON DOOLEY YOU ARE Fcuking CLASS like your father and uncles before you ......... night and god bless............................

[alltheway]

For all his size, strength and athleticism, does no one else think that Conor Mahon is struggling badly and way out of his depth at the minute?

[turk]

Right when we got the second goal Wexford were in complete disarray and we really needed then to sew it into them. We hit a few bad balls and Wexford got some very dubious decisions including Mr Sexton introducing the advantage rule into hurling and bringing the ball in nearer for little reason.

Wexford may complain about Offaly's second goal being from a throw in for the keeper stepping outside the parallelogram but Sexton did speak to the goalkeepers before the match to presumably discuss what he would allow.

You could see even when we were 9 points up that it would end up being a skin of our teeth Offaly style finish. Thankfully we hung on. Better off that we can improve for the next day. Well done to all the lads in difficult conditions.

Also, Leix were shocking!!