Offaly vs Galway 17/6/2012 LSHC Semi Final

[fifitrixiebelle]

a poor offaly team badly trained and horribly managed. lotta crap talk here about how good dis team is, they were very lucky to beat a poor wexford side. today dey cudnt rise the ball or control it properly & baker is useless, moaning about umpires while the back line was being destroyed. galway were only strolling around in teh 2nd half. and dont forget that this galway team isnt rated, even by dere own supporters.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Disaster. Utterly and completely.
That was incredibly hard to watch. My thoughts for what they are worth:

1: Defence. Destroyed. It has been a long time since a defence was so thoroughly outplayed as Offaly's was today. On both the pitch and, crucially, on the sideline, Offaly were utterly defeated. Space, space, oh such space - Galway's forwards had it for the 70. Five goals were conceded, it could so easily have been ten. How our sideline could stand by and watch the Galway full forward line so effectively isolated and doing such damage for so long, is an enduring and damning mystery. It matters not what it takes, when a team concedes three goals in the first 10 minutes, you do something, anything to stop it. The simple move of playing 7 in defence with a sweeper to stand in front of David Kenny/Full Back could have made a huge difference. Instead nothing, instead disaster.

2: Rory Hanniffy was absolutely incredible and the best player from either team on the pitch. Such class, he'd comfortably make any Offaly team of the past and any team in the country easily. Without his excellence, the end result would have been much, much worse. With chaos rampant at the back in that fatal first half, Rory was moved to the Full Back berth. That's how bad it was, a player with his attacking instincts being placed in such a key defensive position, a position he's never manned at any level before. Regardless, he was exemplary.
I disagree with Backofthenet, for me Diarmuid Horan did well, especially on Joe Canning in the first half. However, Rigney played his poorest game in an Offaly shirt and was summarily destroyed by Damien Hayes in the first half with Franks fairing no better on Cyril Donnellan.

3: Midfield. Wiped out and contributed to the pressure being heaped on our defence in the first half. Mahon, to his credit, clipped two points, but did little else. Brady was outclassed. Complete change needed.

4: Offence. Crowded, crowded, crowded. Again, the tactical paralysis of the management was evident. Where the Galway forwards had acres to room, ours faced nothing but slow high ball to forests of players. Our master plan of a Dooley and Bergin full forward line was so poorly implemented it defied belief. At no stage in the first half did those two receive any ball in any semblance of space, space required for damage to be done. There was no isolation, no overlaps, no runners from the shoulder. Slow, static, crowded - its a recurring theme with this forward line. Just so, so easy for Galway to defend. It is to Shane Dooley's eternal credit that he was as brilliant as he was and scored what he did. With goals needed, the sight of Joe Bergin roaming his own half back in the second half just to get on the ball, to find space, was a damning indictment of the management.
Overall, only Dooley and Egan can be happy with their contribution. The remainder of the forwards contributed little save perhaps to remind us of how big a step up it is from club to county hurling.

5: General. On a day when much needed to go right, nothing did. Tactics, first touch, fielding, passing, pace - Offaly were poor and sometimes unlucky in all areas. On day when they just needed to survive the opening salvo so they and their supporters could grow in confidence, it was all over after ten brief minutes.


A momentous defeat for this team, for Offaly hurling? Time will tell.

[Bord na Mona man]

Bad day. Galway dictated the tactics and played the game on their terms.
Should we have made the backs hold their positions instead of being dragged out?
The couple of times I've seen David Kenny this year, he has looked out of sorts. Not 100% sure of in his handling and looking heavy footed. Unfortunately he got no respite today.
We anticipated Canning-Kenny contest, but why would Galway put give us a match up that suits Offaly much more than them?

The goals early rattled Offaly. After that the team was on life support. They fought gamely to get it back to a point at one stage, but all it ever need was another Galway goal to completely deflate the balloon.

Overall we just aren't up to scratch. The basic skills, never mind the tactics.
Too many players can't get the ball to hand instantly and have to control it and kill it on the hurley first. Those split seconds are where the Kilkennys and the Tipps operate within and we're not at that picnic.
To even survive against the top teams we need to play out of our skins and maybe rely on some good fortune.

Time rebuild the house from the foundations up.

[Bord na Mona man]

Was Derek Molloys goal a complete fluke, there seemed to be a huge dip on the ball I wasnt sure if he meant it or if he complete mis hit the ball.It looked like a complete miss hit from where I was.

Looked to me like he went for it. From his line of view he would have seen that the keeper was being blocked by defenders.
He didn't lean back when he struck it like a player would if they were taking a point.

[RealFaithful]

Disaster pure and simple.

The only two players who played to their potential were Hannify and Dooley - both were class today.

I wouldn't fault any of our players for effort but when you have 13 of your team playing poorly you've got no chance. We all know they are capable of much more than that.

[DAF]

Was Galways first point wide.It looked wide to me and I was right behind Canning when he struck his shot

[Bord na Mona man]

Was Galways first point wide.It looked wide to me and I was right behind Canning when he struck his shot

Aye. It was wide. Galway's first 3 'scores' of the game were goals.

[townman]

bad bad day, i think David Kenny should have been took off after 20 minutes it wasn't fair on the chap he wasn't at the races today
and was at cause for 3 goal's.

look its over with now but how in the name of god did Baker and his two side kicks watch Kevin Brady and Brendan Murphy plus Frank's
getting a hurling lesson for the whole 70 minutes and leave them there for the whole game, i think Kevin Brady hit the ball about 4 times
if he was lucky,

Rory Hanniffy and Shane Dooley were the only two that could hold their head up after that display today, which is no surprise as the are the only
two top class hurlers that we have.

Joe Bergin, Brian Carroll were again gone missing when the heat was on in championship hurling, after today we are looking at many years in the doledrums
i am sad to say

[Plain of the Herbs]

Oh, I fear this is ours for Eternity, Parish.

A momentous defeat for this team, for Offaly hurling? Time will tell.

[jimbob17]

Was Derek Molloys goal a complete fluke, there seemed to be a huge dip on the ball I wasnt sure if he meant it or if he complete mis hit the ball.It looked like a complete miss hit from where I was.

Looked to me like he went for it. From his line of view he would have seen that the keeper was being blocked by defenders.
He didn't lean back when he struck it like a player would if they were taking a point.

Yea think he went for it. He seemed to hit it with top spin. Ive seen him do it plenty of times for his club. Should start the next day if fit.

Felt Rigney was the man for Hayes straight away though this didnt happen till second half i think. Kenny caught for pace a few times though v Hayes. However, i think he should have been left on as he is one of our best defenders. Dempsey the goalie didnt cover himself in glory today either. Thought Kenny was the man for Canning but didnt happen as Canning went drifting. Donnellan destroyed Morkan all day. Massive gaps between OY full and half back line and OY were totally exposed.

I could not see how they could keep Brady on. Id have pulled him after 15 minutes as he was way off the pitch of it and barely hit a ball. Dooley and Hannify did well though and were excellent throughout. Egan and Bergin were good in patches but faded in and out too much. Bad day at the office. Not surprised at all with this result though as little or nothing has been achieved at underage in the past too long....

[kingscounty]

a roasting for kenny was on the cards, if anyone was at the kilkenny game in clara this was evident. that day he was caught for pace and was hand passing ball out of defence. toady again he was on cooney who would not be the fastest forward in the game and he left him for dead on two occasions. he went out to centre back and nearly straight away a goal came off him as he was running with his back to the ball where the galway forward just picked it up and a goal was set up. look im not picking on the lad but i feel full back is a vital position and when you have a solid full back then it settles the goal keeper and 2 corner backs. i think that when the easy goals went in the whole back line and keeper were shook up and never recovered. we need a full back thats fit, can read the game and has the skill to clear ball. gone is the day of teams playing big slow men at full forward, all the top teams have full forwards who are mobile and can hurl and if you havent got a full back that can match this then your in trouble from the get go. rory very rarely lets the side down and is a perfect example of a hurler that has skill and heart and never gives up . i thought horan did ok and tried hard but as i said the backs were never going to recover after the soft goals went in. midfield seems to be always a problem and we can never get on top in a game around the middle, once again dooley was the only real danger up front, egan fought hard and scored 2 good points.how many times have we expected joe bergin to deliver and once again totally out of the game.i really had high hopes for offaly today, at least i thought they would put it up to galway.this offaly team are around long enough now so i dont understand how they could be so bad. going on todays result we would struggle to beat westmeath,antrim, and would not have a hope against clare or limerick . we have a manager with feck all managerial experience, a county board that have done fuck all for underage over the last few years. until the game is developed throughout the whole county we are going nowhere, we need a plan put in place that will promote the game all over the county , use every asset available. look at dublin they were going nowhere 10 years ago, but they put the work in at underage in the county and are seeing the rewards now. it takes time and money but unless something like this is done we are never going to compete for leinster or all ireland glory.

[timber]

Very poor performance indeed. Probably fair to say we made Galway look better than they are and in some spells showed just how poor Galway can be.

Kenny had a mare. That is fair to say, but in fairness he kept his head and improved as the game went on despite being isolated on his man. The first 5 minutes killed any hope Offaly had and he was exposed badly in that period. He is not a natural full back, nor do we have one. He is about the only option. I will give him credit for keeping his head up after the disaster start.

Horan was terrible I thought. Donnelan got away from him too easily a few times. I was never convinced Horan is a backsman. I think he should be in the attack or maybe midfield.

Yes Rigney didnt have a great game but dont forget lads he won most 50/50 ball with Hayes and you can hardly expect much when other Galway players are zipping through giving handy ball to hayes to tap over a score.

Defense as a whole is shocking. We actually have some lovely skillfull defenders but defensively they are very poor and no way ruthless. Think I counted 4 times Offaly forwards broke through the Galway defence from the 40 but were dragged down when an overlap was developing. We havent got the same ruthlessness. Can make a big diffeence in a game. Offaly over the last decade have been conceding too much even against the weaker teams.

Rory Hanniffy outstanding. Best player on the park when you take into account the trouble Offaly were in. Super super hurler. I would love to see him get a bit more roughness into him but he is an outstanding hurler no matter where you play him. Dont forget he was probably the best full forward in Ireland when he was minor. He can hurl anywhere.

Brady, Mahon and Murphy for me had very bad performances. They actually were getting to the ball ahead of their men but first touch was letting them down badly (uncharacteristically of Murphy). With a bit more sharpness they could of notched over a few more very important scores between them. Instead Gaway counter attacked at speed and buried Offaly for these blunders.

On Galway, well can you say. The question marks are still there. Typical of their forwards, when things go right they run riot. Their defence was badly exposed for a team in such control of the game. Offaly scored 3.15 and should of had another 1.6 or so only for errors and bad wides. Wesmeath scored 4.11 or something against them. Very poor defence.
A few of their main men are carrying a bit of flab. Canning was terrible from open play, and Tannion although a good hurler needs to get in better shape for the standard of midfielders he will meet. Again Cyril Donnelan was probably their most consistent player. That is becoming a bit of a regular occurance. They will have to improve but as we say every year the talent is there in Galway, it has to be their year soon. On the basis of yesterday they are still well off it.

So now all the division 2 sides have fallen badly. Limerick were the best of the bunch but maybe hurling division 2 cost them when it counted. Clare were poor yesterday. Wexford are very poor. Laois useless( but making an effort to change that at underage), Antrim poor, and Ourselves badly exposed when the pace of hurling was upped against a division 1 side. Getting the hell out of that division and developing a no nonsense defence has to be the objective.

[townman]

Very poor performance indeed. Probably fair to say we made Galway look better than they are and in some spells showed just how poor Galway can be.

Kenny had a mare. That is fair to say, but in fairness he kept his head and improved as the game went on despite being isolated on his man. The first 5 minutes killed any hope Offaly had and he was exposed badly in that period. He is not a natural full back, nor do we have one. He is about the only option. I will give him credit for keeping his head up after the disaster start.

Horan was terrible I thought. Donnelan got away from him too easily a few times. I was never convinced Horan is a backsman. I think he should be in the attack or maybe midfield.

Yes Rigney didnt have a great game but dont forget lads he won most 50/50 ball with Hayes and you can hardly expect much when other Galway players are zipping through giving handy ball to hayes to tap over a score.

Defense as a whole is shocking. We actually have some lovely skillfull defenders but defensively they are very poor and no way ruthless. Think I counted 4 times Offaly forwards broke through the Galway defence from the 40 but were dragged down when an overlap was developing. We havent got the same ruthlessness. Can make a big diffeence in a game. Offaly over the last decade have been conceding too much even against the weaker teams.

Rory Hanniffy outstanding. Best player on the park when you take into account the trouble Offaly were in. Super super hurler. I would love to see him get a bit more roughness into him but he is an outstanding hurler no matter where you play him. Dont forget he was probably the best full forward in Ireland when he was minor. He can hurl anywhere.

Brady, Mahon and Murphy for me had very bad performances. They actually were getting to the ball ahead of their men but first touch was letting them down badly (uncharacteristically of Murphy). With a bit more sharpness they could of notched over a few more very important scores between them. Instead Gaway counter attacked at speed and buried Offaly for these blunders.

On Galway, well can you say. The question marks are still there. Typical of their forwards, when things go right they run riot. Their defence was badly exposed for a team in such control of the game. Offaly scored 3.15 and should of had another 1.6 or so only for errors and bad wides. Wesmeath scored 4.11 or something against them. Very poor defence.
A few of their main men are carrying a bit of flab. Canning was terrible from open play, and Tannion although a good hurler needs to get in better shape for the standard of midfielders he will meet. Again Cyril Donnelan was probably their most consistent player. That is becoming a bit of a regular occurance. They will have to improve but as we say every year the talent is there in Galway, it has to be their year soon. On the basis of yesterday they are still well off it.

So now all the division 2 sides have fallen badly. Limerick were the best of the bunch but maybe hurling division 2 cost them when it counted. Clare were poor yesterday. Wexford are very poor. Laois useless( but making an effort to change that at underage), Antrim poor, and Ourselves badly exposed when the pace of hurling was upped against a division 1 side. Getting the hell out of that division and developing a no nonsense defence has to be the objective.

Horan was on Joe Canning in the first half and done well on him i think its Morkam your thinking of Cyril Donnellan went to town on him in the first half.

[townman]

i can't understand why Baker didn't bring on the likes of Sean Coughlan, Barry Harding. or Eanna Murphy yesterday in the back line when we were
15 points behind, Chris McDonald done well enough when he came on, also i see that Paul Cleary wasn't on the bench or listed on the programme.

after yesterdays display i like to see Paul Cleary get the number 3 jersey the next day maybe Coughlan, McDonald, or Barry Harding getting a game
they couldn't be any worse than the shambles than i saw yesterday

[timber]

I dunno Townman, I was convinced Horan was picking up Donnellan for his first two scores and the shot that Dempsey saved before Burke sliding in on the Dempsey to put the ball in the net.

Think franks was on him after that and because of trying to compensate for height difference went out in front but good Galway ball caught him out with Donnellan in behind.

As regards Chris McDonald, I thought his striking was terrible. Did not look composed on the ball at all. He did battle bravely though.