Offaly Hurling Championships 2015

[Toxicity234]

Made it to 3 game's this weekend.
Rynagh's on Friday night were excellent. Use the ball very well, a good mix of long direct ball and excellent movement from the inside forward line but Ballinamere were very disappointing. No Movement from the forwards. There Half back were miles too far out the field. all round poor from Ballinmere.
But they have 2 points and they have a few months to get themselves together. Rynagh's never got out of 2nd gear and really stop hurling with about 20 mins to go.
Best on the night. hard to know. Everyone in the Rynagh team played Well. Tracey was excellent.

Coolderry vs Shinrone on Saturday. Coolderry are a seasoned team. They know how to push a team like Shinrone around. The Coolderry defense anchored by Kevin Brady at centre back just demolished the Shinrone forwards. David King was outstanding and gave some nice passes out of the defence. Shinrone defense were almost as good.
Coolderry were without Cathal Parlon. The Shinrone half back line hurler very well. The Two Doughhan hurling well. the only thing i would say is the the ball going into the Shinrone foward could have been fast and better. all two often it was high ball in on top of a small player but Coolderry will be happy with the result even if they didn't play well. Murray and Carroll were very good when they got good ball. Murray took a nasty knock to the head but he hurled well.
One other note was that Birr facility was spot on and the idea of sell the program and a lotto ticket for 2 euro was genus. Well done.

The last game i got to was Birr Vs Kilcormac Killoughey. It's was the best of the 3. Birr were out of the block early and were 1-2 up before Emmet Nolan won a ball ahead of Ger Healion and crashed it to the ball of the net its was a super score. after about 15 mins Kilcormac Killoughey final came out of the dressing room and after that Birr were really up against it. Paul Cleary at Full back was excellent and Haynes in the half foward put in some shift. Barry Harding and Barry Walkins both play well. Walkins scored two great points.
When the Kilcormac Killoughey half back line took over the game Birr really struggled to get scores and if the Kilcormac Killoughey Free taker had been in any sort of form the game would have been over a lot earlier. James Gorman was in great form and scored 6 top class points and was the difference between the teams. The Kilcormac Killoughey team are missing a few player. (Conor Mahon and Ciaran Slevin) but they were still playing the structure they been playing for the last 3 years and are going to be very hard to beat.

Early days yet.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Might it be just possible that Clareen were not at full strength?

And what is 'the standard'? You should go to a few club matches in Galway. You'll come back across the Shannon vowing 'never again'. I'm not being facetious either. I've also been to double-header semi-finals in Dublin in recent years and deduced club hurling is way better in Offaly.

Id be looking at the likes of clareen for example. They stuttered their way to victory the other night against a team who are in chaos and juggling football championship aswell. Clareen are a team training only for hurling which is a massive advantage on its own. Yet they struggle badly to get a win. And this is not the first year.

to listen to some of the ignorant middle aged men looking on slagging off "the footballers" is a joke in itself. Is it more to do with frustration with their own. I was just thinking about it after and wondering is senior club hurling very weak in the county. Take out coolderry, kk and rynaghs and its pretty substandard.

[Plain of the Herbs]

So K-K equal the record with their win over Birr and look set to claim the outright record for themselves when they face Shinrone next time out.

Incidentally, K-K drew the first two matches of their unbeaten run and have won the remainder. During the 26 match unbeaten run they have played the following –

4 – Seir Kieran (incl. one draw), Brosna Gaels, Birr
3 - Belmont, Coolderry (incl. one draw),
2- St Rynagh’s, Drumcullen
1 - Ballinamere, Kinnitty, Shamrocks, Tullamore


Birr’s 26 match unbeaten run stretched between November 2000 and September 2004 and included winning four County Finals. There were three draws during that run, semi-finals against Coolderry and St Rynagh’s and a 2004 first round against Seir Kieran. Their 26 matches were played against eight different clubs (being fewer than the twelve clubs faced by K-K during their current run, the difference largely as there was a 'weak' group in operation in the 2000 to 2004 era) –

7- St Rynagh’s (incl. one draw)
5 – Kilcormac-Killoughey
3 - Coolderry (incl. one draw), Lusmagh, Shinrone
2 - Seir Kieran (incl. one draw), Tullamore
1 - Ballyskenagh

One notable difference between Birr’s 2000 – 2004 winning run and K-K’s current run has been the winning margins during those respective runs.

10 of Birr’s 23 wins were by margins of less than ten points, 9 were between 11 and 19 points, while 4 were by over 20 points with the widest winning margin being 27.
Just one was won by a single point (the 2001 Final win over St Rynagh’s), while the 2003 semi-final was won by two points.

As for K-K, 15 of their 24 wins have been by ten points or less, ten have been by between 10 and 19 points with just one by exactly 20 points. Just one was by a single point (the 2012 semi-final against Birr, while another was won by two points (the 2012 round 3 against Brosna Gaels).

[llkj]

So, that's 24 wins on the trot in Offaly? That's a huge achievement by any standards. Interesting that they haven't come across Shinrone during that time. I wonder is that an omen?

[Plain of the Herbs]

Intermediate. Junior 'A' & Junior 'B' hurling championship over Friday 3rd, Sunday 5th & Tuesday 7th July. Fixtures on the Offaly GAA site.

There wasn't supposed to be club hurling that weekend so I hope no-one has an issue with holidays / concerts booked for that weekend.

[Toxicity234]

Intermediate. Junior 'A' & Junior 'B' hurling championship over Friday 3rd, Sunday 5th & Tuesday 7th July. Fixtures on the Offaly GAA site.

There wasn't supposed to be club hurling that weekend so I hope no-one has an issue with holidays / concerts booked for that weekend.

Is that not the same weekend Offaly are playing Clare??

[Plain of the Herbs]

A win for Kilcormac-Killoughey Intermediates over Ballyskenagh-Killavilla this evening is an interesting result and with matches against Coolderry and Clareen to come, places the winners as likely to finish third in the group.

[Pat Mustard]

Anybody know why there is a five or six week break in the under14 hurling and football championships sure that's a fuckin joke

[hurleyman]

Was anyone at the kk v bk last night ?. How did it go

[SearingDrive]

Anybody know why there is a five or six week break in the under14 hurling and football championships sure that's a fuckin joke

There might be a nephew of a panelist on either the senior hurlers or footballers playing!. Of course the delay is ridiculous, but the delay in running off the adult championships is a bigger joke. For a county that might be out of the qualifiers on Saturday to have finals pencilled in for October is unacceptable. Why do club delegates agree every year to this farcical situation?
Tipperary are running off their SH championships, Mayo are playing SF championship matches, but we persist with a system that is not fit for purpose.

[Plain of the Herbs]

I don't see a problem with playing the County Finals in October. I'd have alot of issues with the way hurling is run in our county but this isn't one of them.

Shur October is county final season. I'd say over 80% of the 60+ county finals are played in October.

There might be a nephew of a panelist on either the senior hurlers or footballers playing!. Of course the delay is ridiculous, but the delay in running off the adult championships is a bigger joke. For a county that might be out of the qualifiers on Saturday to have finals pencilled in for October is unacceptable. Why do club delegates agree every year to this farcical situation?
Tipperary are running off their SH championships, Mayo are playing SF championship matches, but we persist with a system that is not fit for purpose.

[SearingDrive]

I don't see a problem with playing the County Finals in October. I'd have alot of issues with the way hurling is run in our county but this isn't one of them.

Shur October is county final season. I'd say over 80% of the 60+ county finals are played in October.

There might be a nephew of a panelist on either the senior hurlers or footballers playing!. Of course the delay is ridiculous, but the delay in running off the adult championships is a bigger joke. For a county that might be out of the qualifiers on Saturday to have finals pencilled in for October is unacceptable. Why do club delegates agree every year to this farcical situation?
Tipperary are running off their SH championships, Mayo are playing SF championship matches, but we persist with a system that is not fit for purpose.

I don't agree with your patronising comment. Our championships need a review, more than one poster is baffled by the delays in running off the games, hurling and football, we are a dual county after all.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Hould on, hould on!

I occasionally make patronising comments here, but this wasn't one of them. At least it wasn't intended to be, and readers can make up their own minds and if I caused offence I do apologise.

One poster here queried the hold-up in the U14 championship.

The lot of the club player is not a great one, as regards scheduling of matches. However, the efforts of the Board not to schedule Championship matches during June (the State exams) is to be recognised, I think. This break was scheduled in the initial Master Fixtures list and it also would have given club players the opportunity to plan holidays.

And (and this in not being patronising, it is merely stating a fact) being a dual county means that there are Senior club hurlers on the County football panel (Joey O'Connor, Nigel Dunne) and there are Senior club footballers on the County hurling panel (Shane Dooley, Gareth Mann, Niall & Stephen Wynne, Colin Egan) which makes it difficult to plan fixtures and which I think should be acknowledged.

I don't agree with your patronising comment. Our championships need a review, more than one poster is baffled by the delays in running off the games, hurling and football, we are a dual county after all.

[allstar2010]

Anyone know results from intermed hurling matches last night? Offaly gaa website only has the crinkill birr result, were the other two matches called off?

[SearingDrive]

Hould on, hould on!

I occasionally make patronising comments here, but this wasn't one of them. At least it wasn't intended to be, and readers can make up their own minds and if I caused offence I do apologise.

One poster here queried the hold-up in the U14 championship.

The lot of the club player is not a great one, as regards scheduling of matches. However, the efforts of the Board not to schedule Championship matches during June (the State exams) is to be recognised, I think. This break was scheduled in the initial Master Fixtures list and it also would have given club players the opportunity to plan holidays.

And (and this in not being patronising, it is merely stating a fact) being a dual county means that there are Senior club hurlers on the County football panel (Joey O'Connor, Nigel Dunne) and there are Senior club footballers on the County hurling panel (Shane Dooley, Gareth Mann, Niall & Stephen Wynne, Colin Egan) which makes it difficult to plan fixtures and which I think should be acknowledged.
Apology accepted. I just think the long delay between championship games is not on. Now that our footballers are regrettably out of the qualifiers can the football championship resume after the long break.
The successful counties who are in the latter stages of the AI championships, can play finals in October. Offaly should be able to complete their competitions in a shorter timeframe.

I don't agree with your patronising comment. Our championships need a review, more than one poster is baffled by the delays in running off the games, hurling and football, we are a dual county after all.