First of all, the county board is a fluid, evolving thing, which is invariably a reflection of the clubs that make it up - or to take it a step further, the people that are part of the clubs. If the county board is taking a direction that people disagree with, then there are channels to address that.
Secondly, blaming the people in the key positions now for a result that was ten years or more in the making seems to be odd in the extreme - all the more when there have been more positive announcements this year than ever. Yes the Dermot Healy/Martin Fogarty initiative seems to have run dry, but the AIT link up, the restructuring of the O'Connor Park debt and the low interest loan, the sorting out of the local creditors, the training facility that is being heavily underwritten, these are all positive steps. The old adage that Rome wasn't built in a day is extremely applicable here, particularly since there are certain things that the county board cannot control. Yes Brian Whelahan's tenure has been very disappointing, but the man was given the job for the 2015 season and he's entitled to see that through to conclusion - it's not the board's place to step in and say that he should be doing anything different in terms of selection or training. You don't get a dog and bark yourself. They also have to be cognisant of the fact that outside of the county, coming down hard on a man who's (i) been a wonderful servant to the county on the field of play, and (ii) is working in a county that has had utterly disgraceful underage results for the last decade and more, wouldn't be seen as fair.
As for some of the individual points raised:
Pat Mustard wrote:i feel the cb aren't doing enough underage i haven't seen a foundation hurling coaching course been ran in god knows when also theres notthing been done to promote hurling in "football areas" like wise football in "hurling areas"
I don't know off hand how many courses have been run, but I know that they are largely driven by demand. If any club (or group of clubs in a certain area) came together to say that they have twenty people who want to do foundation or award one coaching, I'd be pretty confident that John Leahy would be keen to facilitate this. However it's not John Leahy's job to go around to clubs and try rounding up people - that's the club's job to do so.
I know that the ideal in a club would be that you would have at least seven or eight Award One coaches in your ranks at the helm of teams, and that all mentors would have done the foundation as a bare minimum, with a view to following up with Award One. If that's not happening, then the club needs to take action.
Pat Mustard wrote: the gaa are in for some testing times as i see the fai are moving there underage competions to the summer and as i heard it "taking the gaa head on"
There are a lot of things to be worried about from the perspective of Offaly GAA. Perhaps I'm being over-confident, but a greater push from the FAI is not one of them. If you told me that the SFAI were geared up for a big challenge that would be more of a threat.
greenairfield wrote:I think this was coming for years and it really shows where we are at as a county.Daithi Regan predicted it a number of years ago and most of us laughed at him.
I really don't think that anyone did laugh. It might have seemed a little bit extreme, but anyone who was looking at development squad and minor results must have known that it was a possibility. Note that at the same time, Daithi wasn't forthcoming with solutions. I'm not blaming him for that - no-one was. Let's not forget that at underage in particular, it's Daithi's home club of Birr that have fallen from grace most spectacularly, and that hs had obvious knock on effects at county level.
greenairfield wrote: We put all our money into O Connor Park which is a great venue but why have such a big stadium with below average teams that are starved of money and development.
The option to do nothing with OCP wasn't there. Let's not forget that. Yes the debt is huge, but we had a ramshackle stadium that wasn't fit for purpose - concrete seats, galvanised metal at the back of the stand, a genuine hazard and very uncomfortable for anyone who wanted to attend games. And let's not forget, the Offaly county board also has a mandate to ensure that the club members of the county can watch our games in pleasant surroundings.
So yes, there was a big debt - but the decision was taken to build a modern stadium, capable of holding up to 20,000 supporters, and we are getting more games into the county as a result - there will be another 10,000 or so people in Tullamore on Saturday evening, and that's a good thing for everyone.
Yes, it cost money - but I'm always baffled as to what those people who complain about the debt think we should have done? Spent at least half as much just getting it to a level where you could host a game with 5,000 supporters, no prospect of a home SHC championship match against anyone half decent and get no big neutral games into the town?
greenairfield wrote: Our county Treasure was ran out of the same position in Birr GAA Club when good people took over the club last year now we have him running the county board finances!!
That's a pretty personal remark there, which is deeply unfair to any volunteer. What's more, there was nobody else wanted the job. Again, what should the county board have done - left the position vacant?
greenairfield wrote: But wait we have the Centre of Excellence coming.....oh yes no point having that if we have no coaches to show young kids how to hurl.
Control the controllables. The county board can't coerce individuals into getting involved. If anything, they're looking after their side of the bargain, while it's the clubs who need to be providing people that are letting the side down.
I don't know if you've been involved with county underage squads, but I have been previously in Offaly, and I am now in Roscommon. I can assure you that scrambling around looking for fields is a pain in the behind, and a needless waste of time and energy. It's one of those things that puts people off doing the job because they sign up because they want to coach enthusiastic youngsters and instead spend all their evenings on the phone to cranky secretaries who have overbooked facilities trying to find a spare patch of grass. This was a huge problem, and the county board has done their bit to take a step towards fixing it - blaming them for that and saying that they didn't just magically create 100 extra qualified coaches out of thin air is pure nonsense.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.