there was about 8 of the k/k panel in with offaly last year, its not as if they are not getting called insam88885a wrote:offaly have always struggled at underage ,that the way thinks are, we have a small pool of players . escept for the late 80s and 2000 .
there are clubs in dublin with far more resorces than offaly has .
yet our senior hurling clubs are at the top table .
i was talking to ballyhale supporters on saturday and i said that ballyhale had improved from the kk game .
They disagreed and feet that kk would have beaten gort easilly too . they said that they were very very lucky to beat kk and no other club team and some county teams including offaly would have defender of the quality of kk to contain their key forwards .
The rated g healion as one of the best club full backs in the game and said his injury help open up space in injury time , they also said that there is no better half back line in club hurling that kk s .
what they couldnt understand is why they offaly team is not built around those kk lads .
they said that none of the defender that played for offaly in nolan park last year against kilkenny had the defensive qualities of grogan leonard or the healions .
any county that has strong clubs should have a competive county team was the view.
clubs are the building blocks of any county team .they produce the raw material of your county team.
they kk are clearly not wanted by the current manager and i wont be surprised if young kiely is pushed aside during the year
k/k are a fine club side and with a bit of luck should be leinster club winners again. but you mention the Grogans and Leonards they don't what to hurl for the county they will not go in thats not just under Whelehan, Baker and Dooley also. agree Healion should have been fullback last year and this i know his 32 soon but sure thats where offaly hurling is now theres not a good young fullback in the county. Kilmartin was in last year and it seems he had a fallout which was a pity as his as good as midfielder thats also in the county. Dan Currams in my opinion has gone nothing in an offaly jersey to get a first 15 jersey, club he has been ok, but didn't set the world on fire in leinster last year. young Kiely is hurling well and got better in every game he hurl with the club, but lets not forget we seem to forget that theres a big jump from club to county level, when you look at Ballyhale only Mick Fennelly and TJ Reid and Colin Fennelly will be on the kilkenny team, Joey Holden and Shefflian were subs. i think lads seem to think that if there were 7 or 9 k/k lads on the team we would be a force to reckon with. when we were at the top there was only 2 or 3 from most clubs that were on top in offaly lets remember this.