Offaly GAA - in Crisis

[Toxicity234]

Well lads
This is another fine mess we got ourself into.

The CB stuff i'm not going to go into much detail, As what i think of the Management level of the county board is well known.
But maybe i'm been to harsh.
We talk about training our players. Maybe we should start training the CB official. Management training and decision training.
Because there Management and Decision making is rubbish.

Let have a little recap.

The CB launched a programme in the County Arms. One of the best attended Meeting in Offaly Gaa. 10 September 2014
Stage One it was called. A Good meeting. well over 100 in attendance.
A couple a weeks later
3 Training camps. again well over 100 attended.

I was really hopeful. That this was the start of something Great.
I remember talking to an ex county board official. I was looking forward to a new beginning.
He told me straight. Nothing will happen with this. It will Die a dead. The Senior County Board are more interested in looking like there doing something that doing anything.
I didn't believe him. What a fool i was.

them like everyone in Offaly we waited for STAGE TWO. Well holy fuck.
nothing happened.
I got pissed off, So i contacted Dermot Healy. to see what was happening.
Dermot replyed on the 19/02/2015
"I finished my role with Offaly in December. A plan for the development of underage hurling was drafted which was to be implemented by a three-person committee established by the Co Board."

1 April 2015 the plan was presented to the county board.

So we waited...............

Next thing we hear was when Pat Nolan exposed. on the 10 MAY 2016.
13 months of the plan sitting doing nothing.

Q a race to rush through the plan with no thought. to save face.
Instead of taking the time, to invite everyone that had taking the time to attend the Meeting in Birr and the training class or the two men that lead the meeting in Birr. The county board again to stop hard questions been asked. they launched the pathway to the club only. That is one of the worst management decision i ever seen.

Appointing Brian Carroll as director of Hurling coaching. a man that has never managed a team.
Appointing Liam Hogan. Hogan was a good coach but as a manager he not good. Fought with club, Ref and players. the wrong kind of man to get people behind him. (EDIT I'm added this note: Hogan and Carroll are excellent hurling men. really hope they stay involved but Hogan Man management skill would have to improve 10 fold and Carroll need to listen to other people. Both would be excellent coaches but they not management type at the moment. not in any way having a go at these two lads but they were not the right people for this job. they both more hand on coaches, i think, instead of management, get people on board types.)

What followed has been a shit storm. The big complain has to be the rubbish of firing the u14 and u16 management team from last year been fired after an excellent season.
u14 and u16 management team had issue around been given order from two lads that hadn't been to a match, Training or talked to any of the players.
If Carroll or Hogan had an ounce of management skill they could have sorted the issue out but like two bulls in a china shop, it was only a matter of time before the attempt to save face appointment would back fire completely.
If you told be it would be this quick. I wouldn't have believed it.

Now here we are after the County Board, Trying to save face again.
Peace talk with two lads that shouldn't have been appointed in the 1st place. (sorry lads).

The PATHWAY IS DEAD.

The above issue is one of many the county board as fucked up.
Volunteer or not. that is shocking.

Maybe there no one in the county board capable of managing Offaly Gaa.

The 10 September 2014 to the 10 August 2017, an investment of money from Croke Park and where is Offaly under age development.

Who to blame. Well, It isn't the 120 people that turned in the county arms on the 10 sept 2014.
Its not the 100 people that attended the training class in killoughey
Them people volunteer. Just cause there not on the County Board doesn't make them any less volunteers.
Its the county board who let these Volunteers down.

How to go forward.
Well, The Pathway is dead. No amount of face saving is going to recover this plan.
No one i know is interested in it. No one believes in it.
And worse most hurling people are disillusioned with it.

We need a fundamental changes at county board level.
To me it's time from the county to be split. a hurling county board and a football county board.
so the boards individually can look after there own code. Development, appointment and all thing Hurling or Football.

[frankthetank]

What would the negatives of actually having separate hurling and football boards be?

[Lone Shark]

What would the negatives of actually having separate hurling and football boards be?

Because we live in a county where the two sports simply have to co-exist, we don't have enough territory to just draw a line like Galway, saying that the hurling gets the south and the football gets the North and the West. The Galway football board will happily schedule a round of championship fixtures for the weekend the county hurlers are playing, if they need to. I remember reporting on a game where Daithí Burke played championship football for Corofin, 24 hours after he hurled for Galway in the Leinster championship.

A separate board for one or both sports would also work if one sport was very clearly the second sport in the county, and the sport recognises that. For example you have people charged with looking after hurling in Roscommon (albeit within the one county board) and they do so knowing that if they pick a fight with football, they'll lose. I've no doubt football people in Tipp or Kilkenny feel the same way.

However in Offaly, neither sport would give way - so you'd end up with clashes in terms of fixtures, coaching, development squads, fundraising, venues, referees, and pretty much everything else.

[private joker]

I'm afraid to say it but the days of dual counties, especially small population counties being successful are over. Cork, Dublin, Galway and maybe Tipperary are the only counties that can do both and be successful.
All counties can do both but will probably have success in neither. Offaly days of winning anything at senior in either code are over for the next 15 to 20 years.

[Lone Shark]

I'm afraid to say it but the days of dual counties, especially small population counties being successful are over. Cork, Dublin, Galway and maybe Tipperary are the only counties that can do both and be successful.
All counties can do both but will probably have success in neither. Offaly days of winning anything at senior in either code are over for the next 15 to 20 years.

Here's a crazy thought though. The point of the GAA is not to be successful, if you measure success through the prism of winning Leinster and All Ireland titles. It's a nice boost and of course you should strive for that, but the fundamental point of the GAA is to provide games for your players. In the main, regardless of where you're born within our county, it's realistic to play gaelic football and it's realistic to play hurling, and to get a decent programme of games if you do so. Admittedly it's a bit tougher for a hurler in Clonmore or a footballer from Shinrone and there are areas where we can improve, but it can be done.

And give me the choice between retaining that, or drawing a line down the county and maybe winning a Leinster title some time in the next ten years, and I'd always pick the former.

[llkj]

Admittedly it's a bit tougher for a hurler in Clonmore or a footballer from Shinrone and there are areas where we can improve, but it can be done.

It is fair to say that it is more than 'a bit hard' for that to happen. It is next to impossible for huge sways of the county's children to access to both codes presently. I am with you, in that I'd love for the entire county to have access to both, even if it came at the expense of ever competing at the very top level in either again. However, right now, we do a terrible job of promoting the games around the county. I actually think that if we did promote both throughout the county, it would actually raise the levels for both codes, rather than diminish the talent. Look at the clubs that are doing well, invariably they make two codes available - B/D, F/B, CG, KK, St. R. for example.

[private joker]

I'm afraid to say it but the days of dual counties, especially small population counties being successful are over. Cork, Dublin, Galway and maybe Tipperary are the only counties that can do both and be successful.
All counties can do both but will probably have success in neither. Offaly days of winning anything at senior in either code are over for the next 15 to 20 years.

Here's a crazy thought though. The point of the GAA is not to be successful, if you measure success through the prism of winning Leinster and All Ireland titles. It's a nice boost and of course you should strive for that, but the fundamental point of the GAA is to provide games for your players. In the main, regardless of where you're born within our county, it's realistic to play gaelic football and it's realistic to play hurling, and to get a decent programme of games if you do so. Admittedly it's a bit tougher for a hurler in Clonmore or a footballer from Shinrone and there are areas where we can improve, but it can be done.

And give me the choice between retaining that, or drawing a line down the county and maybe winning a Leinster title some time in the next ten years, and I'd always pick the former.

I agree with you completely about what the GAA should strive to be and why it's there. But say that to a guy putting in 5 nights and no success. He'll go play something else.

[ryot]

What would the negatives of actually having separate hurling and football boards be?

The major one is that in the past couple of years Congress ( the great unwashed from all over the country) voted to abolish separate Boards,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So Galway does not now have a Football Board like they had and Kildare no longer has a Hurling Board,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

How did Offaly vote on that one ???????

[manfromdelmonte]

it basically means the boards in football dominated counties will have a say on the spending of hurling development money

and hurling dominated counties tend to, or want to forget about football - Kilkenny, Tipp

[LooseCannon]

Apparently Paul Curran was approached for the Footballers.
Anyone have any opinion.
Personally I don't like him.

[Bord na Mona man]

Apparently Paul Curran was approached for the Footballers.
Anyone have any opinion.
Personally I don't like him.

I wouldn't be a fan, though it may be harsh to judge a man on one moment of madness 20 years ago.
Still, I'm sure there are other counties he can build his management career in.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic- ... 79152.html

[Bord na Mona man]

Brian Cowen is acting as mediator in Offaly hurling talks

By Jackie Cahill
RTÉ Sport reporter
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen is the high-profile mediator in crunch talks between the Offaly county board and members of the recently resigned hurling review/implementation committee.

It emerged last month that the group agitating for change, and chaired by former Ballyboden St Enda’s manager Liam Hogan, stepped down en masse – with the blame for their departures laid firmly at the county board’s door.

Hogan revealed that ‘total frustration’ led to the move, which looked to have spelled the end for a committee set up in 2014.

Hogan’s main source of frustration lay with the apparent lack of movement to implement key suggestions from the review group, which contains other high-calibre members including former county players Brian Carroll, David Kenny and Michael Verney.

In a statement released at the start of this month, the Offaly county board insisted that it remains committed to the ‘hurling pathway plan’ and was asking group members to reconsider their decisions.

The way was paved for mediation and Cowen, a renowned Offaly GAA follower, is the high-profile figure who has agreed to step in to oversee negotiations between both parties.

The first meeting was due to take place last evening, and it’s understood that five club chairpersons were also due to be in attendance at the new Faithful Fields Centre of Excellence in Kilcormac.

Details of those talks, and whether any common ground can be found between the county board and Hogan’s group, could emerge later today.

But in a stinging overview of the Offaly board last month, Hogan publicly called for the resignation of chairman Tommy Byrne, describing him as an "absolute disaster."

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2017/0828/ ... -mediator/

[LooseCannon]

Brian Cowen is acting as mediator in Offaly hurling talks

By Jackie Cahill
RTÉ Sport reporter
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen is the high-profile mediator in crunch talks between the Offaly county board and members of the recently resigned hurling review/implementation committee.

It emerged last month that the group agitating for change, and chaired by former Ballyboden St Enda’s manager Liam Hogan, stepped down en masse – with the blame for their departures laid firmly at the county board’s door.

Hogan revealed that ‘total frustration’ led to the move, which looked to have spelled the end for a committee set up in 2014.

Hogan’s main source of frustration lay with the apparent lack of movement to implement key suggestions from the review group, which contains other high-calibre members including former county players Brian Carroll, David Kenny and Michael Verney.

In a statement released at the start of this month, the Offaly county board insisted that it remains committed to the ‘hurling pathway plan’ and was asking group members to reconsider their decisions.

The way was paved for mediation and Cowen, a renowned Offaly GAA follower, is the high-profile figure who has agreed to step in to oversee negotiations between both parties.

The first meeting was due to take place last evening, and it’s understood that five club chairpersons were also due to be in attendance at the new Faithful Fields Centre of Excellence in Kilcormac.

Details of those talks, and whether any common ground can be found between the county board and Hogan’s group, could emerge later today.

But in a stinging overview of the Offaly board last month, Hogan publicly called for the resignation of chairman Tommy Byrne, describing him as an "absolute disaster."

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2017/0828/ ... -mediator/

He might get them to talk, and to do something. Because if Tommy Byrne doesn't become interested quickly, he will be forced out.

[Lone Shark]

He might get them to talk, and to do something. Because if Tommy Byrne doesn't become interested quickly, he will be forced out.

Genuine question, presented without comment. Who is going to do this forcing?

[azoffaly]