Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
kaiserchief
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by kaiserchief »

Greenairfield. There is no game in Banagher either and it's the third largest facility and also held a double header in the first. So feel left out!!

Maybe it is only I think it is very unfair to have games @ 11.30 in the morning. Why not have two games friday evening instead of one on Sunday morning?

Verdicts for the weekend:
Birr, Clareen, KK, Shinrone, Belmont and going on a gut feeling with Tullamore.

Good to see club championship back!!

SearingDrive
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by SearingDrive »

Championship resumes at weekend. Last matches played in mid April, 3 months ago, games should have been played in May and June.

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Lone Shark »

SearingDrive wrote:Championship resumes at weekend. Last matches played in mid April, 3 months ago, games should have been played in May and June.
Ummmm....when, exactly? There wasn't a single weekend in all that time when you had both the senior footballers and the senior hurlers off duty. This is the first available opportunity, now.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

I would say there was some weekends they were both off lone shark.

llkj
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by llkj »

I'd say that it made perfect sense to hold off on any club championship during May and June, as that is the prime time of year for county activity - 4 senior football and 6 senior hurling games played in that time. Definitely right to ramp up the local championship as soon as it makes sense when the teams are knocked out. It is not as if a club player was thinking the county team were going to go until September, as our usual form is to bow out early enough these days. I would question playing one hurling game so early in the year. Would have been better to not bother with it and have this weekend as the opening weekend, even if it meant a bit of a tighter squeeze, but we have time to get championships run off smoothly.

On the rynaghs travel to o Connor park thing, I don't see much of an issue really, 4 group games in as many years is hardly going to ate petrol and shur it's a lovely drive across boora

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Lone Shark
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Lone Shark »

greenairfield wrote:I would say there was some weekends they were both off lone shark.
May 1 - SHC vs Westmeath
May 7 - SHC vs Carlow
May 15 - SFC vs Longford
May 22 - SHC vs Kerry
June 5 - SHC vs Laois
June 12 - SFC vs Westmeath
June 19 - SHC vs Galway
June 25 - SFC vs London
July 2 - SHC vs Wexford
July 9 - SFC vs Kildare

So we had one week off from county duty, and that would have been seven days before the county hurlers played Laois in the Leinster quarter final, a fixture that was of crucial importance to ensure that we got out of the round robin series next year - leaving aside the possibility of getting a crack at Galway. There isn't one county board in Ireland that would have put in club games into a narrow window like that - and if you look all across the country, you won't find anywhere that they ask county players to play club championship seven days before a season-defining contest.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

Totally agree...just stating that there was a weekend free cos you stated otherwise.

kaiserchief
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by kaiserchief »

Greeairfield.. there was some weekends fairly turned into was a weeken fairly swiftly..

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

What?

GOOFY
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by GOOFY »

greenairfield wrote:I would say there was some weekends they were both off lone shark
You said weekends, therefore Lone shark was correct
8)
First ball is when you make your mark

Exiled in Connacht
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Exiled in Connacht »

kaiserchief wrote:Greeairfield.. there was some weekends fairly turned into was a weeken fairly swiftly..
Kaiserchief - if you continue to post like this then "I predict a riot" but as you know "everything is average nowadays" ( music in "joke" for those who are not not fans of a certain indie band ! )

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by greenairfield »

I will disagree goofy.

Any thoughts on the matches this weekend ?

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Sharp Eye »

Fixtures mess which caused club players to sit waiting for the past 3 months after the first round of the Offaly Hurling championship was caused by club delegates refusing to allow a most necessary change to the Offaly championships. Congratulations to the Offaly Co Board for getting an acceptable structure in place this year for the football championships. Club players have known that their first round football championship games would take place in mid/late July since last year and have not spent 2/3 months training for round 1 and a further 2/3 months training for round 2. County Board Delegates might take club players into consideration when the structure of the 2017 hurling championships are being approved.

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by frankthetank »

If the clubs were happy to allow this year's championship to go ahead in its current format knowing that there would more than likely only one round to be played before the break for intercounty activity, surely next year they will be happy to allow the same format as two rounds can be played pre intercounty break as Offaly won't be in the round robin. It would be fairly hypocritical of the clubs to look for change at the end of this year when the calendar is a bit freer next year in April/May for club activity.

Regarding this weekend's games Coolderry vs Birr and Kilcormac/Killoughey vs St Rynaghs are the stand out fixtures. Coolderry are a different team without Brian Carroll and with key players all a year older now, this is a great chance for Birr (who looked impressive in Round 1) to turn them over and gather real belief that they are a team that can go all the way.

Kilcormac/Killoughey seemed to be cruising through all their games in both league and championship but they got a right hammering against Clareen in the league semi-final and it was a fairly putrid performance to be fair. Still give them the nod over St Rynaghs though who for me are still playing a game that they don't have the hurlers for.

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Re: Offaly Club Hurling C'ship 2016

Post by Lone Shark »

In terms of relevance, Birr vs Coolderry stands out by a mile as what should be the most informative fixture. Birr were hugely impressive in round one against Kinnitty for me, and showed enough to suggest that they have a bit more scoring in them this time around. Given the age profile of their forward line that stands to reason, while it's fair to say that they're definitely good enough to win a championship from jerseys 1 to 9. Give me two or three forwards alongside Emmet Nolan that are good for an average of over two scores per game, and they have all the ingredients that they should need. Coolderry are the other end of the scale - the stars aligned for them last year, and this time around they will be noticeably weaker. I don't care what age Brian Carroll is, he's still one of the best forwards in the county and you can't lose a player like that and not feel it. Birr need to win this, and possibly need to win with a bit to spare. My personal belief is that there is zero chance of Coolderry retaining the title this year - but if they win this, or even fall a point or two short (given their absentees) then they might not be complete no hopers.

On the flip side, anything less than a three or four point win for Birr and it's back to the drawing board for them. Realistically, KK would be looking to beat this Coolderry team by seven or eight, so Birr should be looking at something similar if they truly are at the level they need to be at.

I don't agree with the logic that Rynaghs don't have the hurlers to play the way they do. By definition, it's a game plan that takes time to learn, and last year they were absolutely as close to the standard needed as one could possibly imagine. When Hernon (I think) scored that point to put them three up, there was no way that anyone in the ground believed they were going to lose it - so you can't say their game plan is wrong. It brought them 99% of the way. My concern for them is that they'll struggle now that Francis Forde's attention is divided. I'm not worried about this weekend - without Hernon and Wynne, they're not going to be good enough anyway. But in the long term they need to get plenty of time together to make sure they're really clicking.

Belmont vs Lusmagh and Kinnitty vs Tullamore should be proper championship games. All four teams need to win, so there should be a real edge there. Darren Healy's injury is a big blow to Lusmagh but they have the slight advantage of having lost a game that they always knew they were going to lose. Mentally they're in a better place, so I'm taking them and Kinnitty to prevail.

Clareen to win by as much as they like, but Ballinamere aren't without hope entirely. Shinrone is possibly the wrong match for them though. Kinnitty and Clareen tend to be vulnerable against dual clubs from the middle of the county and the style those teams tend to employ, Shinrone far less so.



On the other matters, I do think the hurling clubs were daft to vote for a system that saw them play one game in April, but as was pointed out, it won't be changed back now. The only thing that might happen is that they might try and play three rounds before the summer, which brings with it different risks entirely. What happens then to a club that loses three out of three and is effectively dead by early May? How many lads go to the US for the summer then?

And yes, fixing Rynaghs vs KK for Tullamore doesn't make sense. County ground or not, it would be far more logical to play those Saturday games in Rath and then move the Sunday evening ones - Belmont vs Lusmagh screams for Banagher, while Tullamore vs Kinnitty could go to Kilcormac, Killurin or a number of other grounds. Mutual interest in both those games will be scarce enough, whereas you'd get a fair few interested locals down to Banagher if you had Belmont and Lusmagh playing.
Kevin Egan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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