Allianz-Hurling-league 1B

[DAF]

I don’t really get where managers are going with this kind of criticism of the GAA’s scheduling of league games. It’s not just Baker you hear it from. It’s like they are getting the excuses ready in advance.

You have the Gooch and the likes giving the counter-argument that the inter-county season is too drawn out for an amateur sport and should be condensed to avoid 4 to 6 week gaps between games (probably more of a Kerry football issue than a problem for most counties).

I think the GAA are right having the winter training ban for player welfare reasons. It has to send out the message that a 12-month season is excessive. It’s a matter for players themselves to defy it.

The purists won’t like me saying this but rugby and soccer now has a hold on the autumn/winter/spring sporting public. The GAA knows it, and knows it has a summer shop window to showcase its elite in action and they increasingly work towards that. For hurling, it makes sense that they prioritise inter-county in the summer and AICHC, inter-colleges and inter-schools games in the winter/spring. Theres a different argument for football where you can have more quality in the games in the winter.

On Baker’s point of young lads playing more games, he has two options:-

A) More inter-county challenge games in front of a man and his dog from July to April or
B) Rescheduling the league to October and early spring as he seems to suggest.

I disagree with him when he says “supporters are crying out for it”.

Give or take, you haven’t had more than 100 Offaly supporters at an away game in the league in its current schedule for years now. They are hardly going to quadruple in October and January - not in the middle of the Rupert Murdoch-inspired blanket coverage of soccer and rugby every weekend.

From a fitness/preparation point of view, it makes complete sense to build things up to the main event from mid-Spring to give the panel a better chance of peaking at the right time so I don’t see his point there either.

For what it’s worth, my biggest gripe with the GAA and fixturing is county boards in hurling counties f&*king around with their club championship fixtures to accomodate footabll and hurling intercounty games. Croke Park should issue an edict that there be a zero-tolerance policy to requests for postponements for reasons of a player being involved with an inter-county panel.

For me the GAA needs to cop on and realise that GAA is a summer sport.This means no club or county football is to be played before Mid March and after October (AI club championships, and schools matches can be the exception).Warm up competitions start in mid March and chamionship starts mid April.A collective training ban for counties should be in place up until the start of Februry.If 2 and half months isnt enough preparation time for the championship then there is something wrong with the manager.Championship for football should be 4 groups of 8 (2 groups of 6 for hurling) with teams playing a match every second week from mid April onwards and in the weeks the county isnt playing club matches are played.This would be better for players, better for supporters and easier for the GAA to organise a fixture schedule and easier for the GAA to promote football and hurling.However a change like this wont happen because the GAA is too democratic.

[durra1]

Having seen this on the box amid signal losses and a dub on M103 with john leahy it seemed to me that Dublin treated this as a lark in the park and almost paid the price for it.

Fair play to Kevin Brady for making himself available to the panel for another year but i cant see how he will last league nevermind championship pace in 2013 on tonights showing.

I counted at least 4 long balls he drove without even lifting the head which was infuriating to watch.

On the positives - I liked the bit of dog and directness I saw in Chris McDonald and Thomas Carroll when he came on.

Sean Ryan is a player who the management always seem to dick around with. We saw what he is capable of v Cork last year and the management need to react to the way a game is panning out to have him running onto ball in open territory. Hes not a wristy corner forward or a target man full forward that much is clear to any fella with half a hurling head on him.

Lastly on Dooley - Jamese O'Connor said it on the commentary so it wasn't me tv screen - he is well over what his fighting weight should be. Id be a big fan of Shane so I don't want to be harsh here as some players struggle with weight no matter what they do but to me it looks like heavy wintering. He appears to take his game prep seriously so I was surprised with his condition and in particular, two lame wides from frees either side of the break.

I don't think we are getting what we should be from Shane when he plays the break behind the man. Yea you'll get a scuttery goal from a break like tonight or over a physically weaker man like wexford in the championship last year but the cuter / more conditioned full back lines can deal with this.

He has real upper body physical strength and that is worth more out front than behind. He did get more involved in open play at centre forward in the second half and remembering his performances there for Tullamore the year they won the SHC, i ask myself is he worth more to us on the 40 than the 21?

The question can be asked as to whether criticism is fair on a fella who bags 2-9 out of 2-16.

[townman]

if we didn't have Dooley we would be in division 2, how in the name of jesus did they look
at Brian Carroll for the 70 minutes. as for James Mulrooney only hit the ball once 1 point
in the whole game.

watched after the game Ollie Baker was more concern getting his photo with Anthony Daly
and Jamsie O'Connor than the result a fcuking joke.

[TheGreatGame]

as for James Mulrooney only hit the ball once 1 point

Play him every game and tell him to shoot on sight? He has 100% accuracy anyway.....not enough Birr lads playing!

[dubbiff]

I don't agree with those who think Dublin were toying with us. It seemed to be more that they had a plan and they stuck rigidly to it even when it didn't seem to be working at times. It involved a lot of passing backways and sidewards and maintaining possession at all costs. This was frustrating their supporters at times and the Dub I was with called it hurling by numbers. Offaly on the other hand did the exact opposite and tried to move the ball fast but it was mostly aimless stuff. I would have liked to see more long ball being hit in to the full forward line but our striking was poor and a lot of ball fell short and was hoovered up by unmarked Dubs. The last 15 mins brought out the best in both teams when Offaly were winning primary possession all over the field and Dublin had to hurl more instinctively which they did well in fairness. It just proves that teams nowadays have to have a plan B and be able to react when their preferred game is not working. Considering their preseason form and the talk coming from the Dublin camp during the week about how they shouldn't be in Div 1B this result would have to have punctured their confidence. Offaly on the other hand should take great heart from pushing so hard in Parnell Park with basically a scrap team.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

In fairness, the Offaly hurlers have in recent times shown a collective apetite for wintering well. This is frustrating as despite that with the right coaching and cutting out the aimless stuff, ala Kevin Brady, we could take a few more scalps.

Some batin for Tipp? Whats the story Fifi?

[manfromdelmonte]

Can I ask what is the setup in terms of gym facilities for county squads?

[Bord na Mona man]

In most respects it was played like a 4-6 win for Dublin, Offaly could have salvaged something at the end and would have been entitled to be jubilant about it.

Dublin's cushion was built in the first half. They used the short puck out a lot, found their targets and worked the ball into the scoring area well.
Offaly struggled to win their own puck outs - the starting 15 didn't have many viable targets
With no platform of possession inside the Dublin half, many of Offaly's scores came from spectacular long range efforts from 60+ metres out. Dublin typically scored 2 points for every 1 Offaly point. I think scores went from 8-4, 10-5 12-6 and this was roughly reflective.

On the puck outs, the obvious change for Offaly was to bring on someone like Colin Egan as an option and he had has his tracksuit off after about 25 minutes ready to go on. It took a further 10 minutes before he was finally introduced and this was extremely indecisive from the Offaly sideline and in this time Dublin pulled further ahead.

On Dublin puck outs and clearances, too many times the Offaly player stood off their man to try execute a pull on the dropping ball. More often this was a fresh air shot, but even worse, it meant the Dublin player was under no physical pressure when making the catch. In contrast, there were at least half a dozen blatant shoves in the back on Offaly forwards under the dropping ball that the referee either didn't spot or ignored. Obviously there will be physical mis-match between Offaly's players and the gym-built Dublin players, but I'd still rather see Offaly backs standing their ground under the dropping ball. You only have to budge the arm of your opponent a couple of inches to make him miss the catch.

In the 2nd half, Dublin generally looked in control without ever looked to be really fired up. Offaly started to compete better under the high ball and the game opened up a lot. Whether they switched off, or Offaly cracked the code, but Offaly started to disrupt a lot of Dublin short passing patterns and make interceptions.

Dublin also hit a lot of wides and this might have been early season rust or just being overly casual. It left Offaly in the game and Dublin very nearly paid for it.
You felt that a couple of Dublin players sensed the game needed to be killed off and looked to be more clinical. Conall Keaney for example started to look to put points on the board himself, where earlier he had been dishing off passes to other to have a go.

The first goal by Shane Dooley was out of the blue, in that it came from a basic error, rather than anything creative. Offaly hadn't looked close to scoring a goal until then.
With the sort of urgency Dublin hadn't shown all night, they smashed through for a goal in response and immediately added another point to surely make the game safe.
From here is where Offaly deserve great credit and where Dublin's mentality might be questioned. Offaly dug in hard and came back at Dublin. Dublin were probably mindful of occasions like Antrim in 2010 and Clare 2012 where they cracked when seemingly in control. They didn't look all that composed when Dooley got the 2nd goal from a placed ball. In fact Offaly just missed out on the draw by a couple of mistakes when there was a point in it.

Overall Offaly can take something from this game to build on. The line up had a lot of inexperienced players. The full back line coped well considering the pressure they were under. Dublin were getting to put in a lot of diagonal ball onto the 'D', but the Offaly line managed to keep the dam blocked for the most part. Derek Morkan looked to be in serious trouble at the start with an early yellow, but came back into the game. King and McDonald will be happy with the outings too.

In contrast the supply to the Offaly full forward line was all too often bombs from way out, or long range shots going wide that they had a chance of keeping in play. In fact Shane Dooley playing a switch ball towards Mulrooney instead of shooting in the first half was the only time we had anything resembling a decent play making ball to this line.

In my mind David Kenny is not nailed on to be the starting full back this summer, Kevin Brady's natural home is not centre back as he doesn't have enough variety of strokes for sweeping up. Pick a couple of obvious puck targets for Dempsey for the rest of the years and we should be extremely competitive.

[Toxicity234]

One Point Loss and Offaly were very poor in the frist half. Score only 6 points. all six scores were free's or individual score. the forward as a unit didn't work at all.
We were lucky to be only 5 down at half time.
I felt sorry for O Kealey get taking off before half time but Colin Egan introducing did improve the offaly forward a lot. I have a feeling that if we had put D Molloy on with 20 mins to go instead of 8 mins we would have won this match.
Kevin Brady at Centre Back was trying to do too hard. 5 or 6 time he end up out in the wing back trying to pressure a man leaving a huge gaping hole in the middle of the defence. He got the learn to play that position and find his man with the ball.
C McDonald, S Gardiner and D King and Morkan all did ok.
And Tom Carroll did well when he came on. when there was space he ran into it and use the ball well.

3 Things need to change to improve and start winning games.
1. We got to stop leaving holes in the middle of our Defence.
2. We need to pick our best half forward line for the start of match and we need to teach our forwards how to tackle.
3. We need to work on our puck out, were losing too many score from short puck out and the long puck's need to give the offaly player a chance to win it. too many puck out are going to area where they are two dublin players and one offaly player.

If we improve on these basic thing we give ourselves a chance.

[jimbob17]

Don't know lads, from watching last night on the box, id have been very impressed with our lads hunger for the battle, especially in the last 20 mins and wouldnt fully buy in to the negativity of some posts. When the Dubs got the goal after ours, we probably would have folded often in the past, but last night there seemed to be a bit of a resurgence that we dont often see, something like the Offaly of old. this is against a dublin side who would be considered a top 6 team with the likes of Cork KK Tipp Galway etc....and Dooley missed 2 frees he'd normally get which could have changed things.....

Youve also got to bear in mind that this is with a team of fellas who would presently be considered a long way from our best 15 against an inform dublin team who from the media soundbites are really driven this year and have already annexed the Walshe cup.

If we can get a repeat performance against Wexford in the next game i think that it might be a little bit different than the pasting they gave us a few weeks ago in Wexford. We have every chance of taking them and if we do, Itll probably be a 3 horse race between OY Wexford and limerick for the final most probably against the dubs though both carlow and antrim are likely to cause an upset or two along the way.

The lambasting of Brady isnt entirely fair either i felt. Maybe he is nt a natural centreback but in fairness, he went out and did a job and he was flanked last night by gardiner and King?? who'd be very inexperienced at this level and overall i thought he did quite well even if he tired in the last 10 minutes. Thought Brian Carroll worked hard too but tired in the last 20.

If anything, Dooley for me doesnt contribute enough in general play as he is capable and frees aside, didnt get the better of his man at any stage. That is not to say he should be dropped as he is a finisher, but for me, Bergin and Parlon were our top men in the forwards yesterday while Egan did well when introduced.

When we get the full squad back, id love to see a 1/2 forward line of Molloy, Egan and Parlon with Dooley Bergin and Currams inside with the likes of Mahon Brian and Tom Carroll Kealy and Mulrooney pushing them hard for the spots and maybe even displacing 1 or 2.

I really think we have a genuine chance of making the league final and the score difference v Dublin (-1) in the lions den that is Parnell Park with an inexperienced team is not a bad start at all......Bring on them yellow bellies....

Well done lads...

[kingscounty]

Dublin were by far the better team. We got a lucky goal and Dooley must have score 1-09 from placed balls, Dublin used and moved the ball way smarter and how many times did they use the short puck out in the first half. Dooley for me is what the footballers are lacking , a free taker. He doesnt contribute enough from play but we need a free taker and will remain on the team. Joe Bergin is still not doing enough for Offaly in my mind, I watched him play for Leinster last week and again he seems to play for short spells and fade out of games , for a big man he may get stuck in alot more. Baker should have started Molly and Egan especially as we were just hitting alot of high ball down field. Tom Carroll for me got on the ball but lads ive seen him play a few games for Offaly now and theres no way he should be on an Offaly team. A forward line of 10Slevin 11Egan 12Parlon 13 Dooley 14Currams 15 Bergin is what id like seen giving a go come championshp.

[Greenwhiteandgold]

Just thought from looking at the highlights of the match which probably isn't a great reflection of the match, I thought that the scores Dublin were getting were coming from an Offaly man being beaten in a one on one situation. I think the team has to develop stronger support play, it seemed as if they didn't want to commit to other tackles so as not to leave their own man free. I have no question that the lads are working hard, but they need to develop a system which makes them harder to break down around the middle third, and create more movement up front.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly seem to me to be leaning on a crutch of “we’ve a dozen lads out but when they’re back we’ll be grand”. Thing is that many of the injuries seem to be long-term. Bottom line is – very few will return between now and the end of the league. Scope for changes over the next five weeks are minimal.

Other thing is – the return of the Kilcormac-Killoughey contingent won’t form the panacea. Only Mahon has been a regular in recent years. Slevin is unproven at inter-county level. Currams has performed intermittently. Ger Healion will be an impact sub at best. The rest?

For the Wexford match – Kevin Brady is not an inter-county centre half-back. While it robs the midfield, Rory Hanniffy is needed at 6. He is the best man to read the game, to cover off his wing men and to create play.

Hard to know what to do about full-back. It really is. Dermot Mooney needs to be shown that standing back and swiping with a limp hand on the hurl is NOT the way to contest a dropping ball. Seán Gardiner did well. Played some good intelligent ball. He was pitched in at the deep end being asked to contain Conal Keaney. He’ll do better when marking Jack Guiney or Lee Chin. A half-back line of Gardiner, Hanniffy and Morkan would be ideal, but one (or maybe two) of them will be needed in the full-back line.

Colin Egan needs to start. The manager needs to learn to pick some targets in his half-forward line. That’s a basic of modern hurling. The manager also needs to coach the team rather that concentrating on pointless "ah ref!" carry-on.

Ideally the six forwards (for March, and in no particular order, forwards are going to switch around the place anyway) would be made up of Dooley, Bergin, Egan, Parlon and two others from Carroll, Mulrooney and Molloy. Conor Mahon will be an addition in June. After that? The well runneth dry.

And the next time I go to Parnell Park to see Offaly hurl Dublin, remind me to bring a knife to rip that bodhrán that gobshite behind the goal was leatherin'

[Toxicity234]

Offaly seem to me to be leaning on a crutch of “we’ve a dozen lads out but when they’re back we’ll be grand”. Thing is that many of the injuries seem to be long-term. Bottom line is – very few will return between now and the end of the league. Scope for changes over the next five weeks are minimal.

Other thing is – the return of the Kilcormac-Killoughey contingent won’t form the panacea. Only Mahon has been a regular in recent years. Slevin is unproven at inter-county level. Currams has performed intermittently. Ger Healion will be an impact sub at best. The rest?

For the Wexford match – Kevin Brady is not an inter-county centre half-back. While it robs the midfield, Rory Hanniffy is needed at 6. He is the best man to read the game, to cover off his wing men and to create play.

Hard to know what to do about full-back. It really is. Dermot Mooney needs to be shown that standing back and swiping with a limp hand on the hurl is NOT the way to contest a dropping ball. Seán Gardiner did well. Played some good intelligent ball. He was pitched in at the deep end being asked to contain Conal Keaney. He’ll do better when marking Jack Guiney or Lee Chin. A half-back line of Gardiner, Hanniffy and Morkan would be ideal, but one (or maybe two) of them will be needed in the full-back line.

Colin Egan needs to start. The manager needs to learn to pick some targets in his half-forward line. That’s a basic of modern hurling. The manager also needs to coach the team rather that concentrating on pointless "ah ref!" carry-on.

Ideally the six forwards (for March, and in no particular order, forwards are going to switch around the place anyway) would be made up of Dooley, Bergin, Egan, Parlon and two others from Carroll, Mulrooney and Molloy. Conor Mahon will be an addition in June. After that? The well runneth dry.

And the next time I go to Parnell Park to see Offaly hurl Dublin, remind me to bring a knife to rip that bodhrán that gobshite behind the goal was leatherin'

I have to agree with all most all for what you writing but i would give Brady a few more game and see if he can step up but if i was the offaly goalkeeper i wouldn't be sending short puck out his direction from now on. as for Rory Hanniffy being "the best man to read the game, to cover off his wing men and to create play." i have to agree he is a great reader of the game but he could drop back and cover the half back line from midfield.

I do think that Currams will be a great plus to the county team this year and Slevin hard work will be addation to any team.

and 1 last thing as for that gobshite with the bodhrán, Don't bring a knife bring a gun, god knows i'm bring mine.

[ryot]

Lads

The clown with the bodhran: was the fool blowing a referee's whistle with him ?

Normally close to each other but whistle man may only out with the footballers this early in the year.