Offaly Hurling 2020

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Bord na Mona man »

To think that the population of Offaly has grown by about 20,000 in the last two decades, yet you have people lamenting how doomed we are because of the falling population of certain parishes they see as key.

This strikes me as further examples of the inability to adjust to new challenges that has seen Offaly fall behind. Too often I hear assumptions being made about what towns or villages will produce good players.

Meanwhile up in Dublin I can see clubs building from the ground up and producing results by being pro-active in attracting in players, getting parents on board, making sure that set ups are well run and enticing to participants.
A massive amount of the volunteers helping out with underage teams in Dublin are people who never played GAA growing up or in many cases didn't even grow up in Ireland.

What emerged in Offaly a couple of years ago with how few people were taking up the coaching courses made me suspect there was lethargy and complacency about the work that needed to be done. At least there is some latter day evidence of Offaly clubs having progressive strategies.

private joker
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by private joker »

Offaly vs kildare 13th of December in Newbridge. Minor hurling.

biffinbanner
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by biffinbanner »

the clubs in dublin are bigger entitys than most countys. i see kilmacud crokes took nearly 900k inmembership fees last year. family membership 4500e in some cases. and people quing up to join...

private joker
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by private joker »

Crokes would have huge outgoings also. Plus I think those numbers are inflated a bit.

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Pat Mustard
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Pat Mustard »

private joker wrote: Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:11 am The main driver of kildare hurling now is the total dominance of Naas hurling in kildare. Think there are 12 players from Naas on the panel. Offaly needs Edenderry and tullamore to start producing hurlers. They are the large urban areas that need to be tapped into. I know that's not what the hurling people in South offaly want to hear. But these are the two largest populated areas thst are most likely to grow in the next 10 years. This is where some of the focus is needed. A full time GPO in Tullamore would be a start.
Naas doing massive work also in Maynooth, Celbridge Ardclough. A lot of great work being done in Tullamore as regards hurling, as they've contested the last three or four minor semi finals alas there there seems to be a culture of young lads being told not to hurl which I'd imagine is frustrating for the likes of John O Sullivan who has done a lot of the work. But in fairness to Ballinameer and Durrow don't seem to be having that problem and are bringing through some good footballers and hurlers, and one would feel that a GPO would be better suited there. Although Carina Carroll seems to be the driving force and is doing a fantastic job. I see Edenderry are back coaching underage hurling and there Junior hurlers were flying it with the Hanlons back. But definitely were not getting enough from Tullamore and with a growing population its worth thinking about..

pigeon house biffo
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by pigeon house biffo »

https://twitter.com/hurlerd/status/1334 ... 22368?s=21

Makes for interesting reading. I didn’t count but it looks like laois westmeath kildare and meath all have more players on fitzgibbon panels this year. Probably highlights the scale of the task facing the county at the minute.

frankthetank
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by frankthetank »

I just briefly went through that thread:

407 hurlers named on Fitzgibbon panels - 5 from Offaly. So of the total Fitzgibbon panels we make up 1.23%.

3 from Clogiagh Gaels
1 from Lusmagh
1 from Kinnitty.

No team that hurled Senior A in 2020 has a player playing Fitzgibbon in 2021.

An awful return all told.

Plain of the Herbs
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

407 hurlers named. If we suppose there are 10 hurling counties (I know you could say there are 12 or 14, but for arguments sake), that's an average of 40 hurlers per county.

And our crowd have 5.

This list comes out on a pdf every year. It would be great to get it on excel to do some sorting. Like, how many clubs have more than 5 on the list?
frankthetank wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:18 pm I just briefly went through that thread:

407 hurlers named on Fitzgibbon panels - 5 from Offaly. So of the total Fitzgibbon panels we make up 1.23%.

3 from Clogiagh Gaels
1 from Lusmagh
1 from Kinnitty.

No team that hurled Senior A in 2020 has a player playing Fitzgibbon in 2021.

An awful return all told.
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

greenairfield
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by greenairfield »

The 5 we have other than Delaney probably wont even feature which is more concerning

frankthetank
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by frankthetank »

Conor Langton might get a look in

oneshot
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by oneshot »

Sur lookit wrote: Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:08 pm Well, look on the brightside so lads, we wont have to face Kildare next year!

Look, time to regroup and there does need to be a look at the plan overall for Offaly hurling, but we seem to have steadied the ship a little at u20 level and the win over Laois in the minor was welcome.
I think that there is good work going on in Offaly, but as POTH says there needs to be a change in mindset from some of the young lads who are probably listening to there fathers when they go home telling them they should be bating it into the full forward line and let them fight for it etc...

There is no quick fix for hurling in Offaly as we have found out, but lets try to keep in perspective, Fennelly is learning the trade, JOhnny Kelly has pedigree as a coach. We will be hurling league at a higher level than C ring teams and we should get over the line if we play it during the summer straight after the league. Pure stats as was pointed out left us in theory the better team, but we has also to travel up, second week in a row, and a soggy pitch to go with it. Not making excuses, but facts are facts.

But for the man that named that Offaly team for 2023, and no Eoghan Cahill, ah now , come on?
in fairness he has Eoghan cahill on it spell it owen i think :D

Sur lookit
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Sur lookit »

Thats grand I agree with everything he says so!

Plenty of action this weekend with the minor hurlers and U20 hurlers out, anyone any insight into how they might do?

Minor hurlers should win, U20s have a decent chance?

Tmacmahon
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by Tmacmahon »

Minor hurlers hopefully lift the spirits here

private joker
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by private joker »

Minor match on tg4 YouTube.

seany123
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Re: Offaly Hurling 2020

Post by seany123 »

Minors should win comfortably, we are decent and apparently Kildare v poor this year. 20s will win well I think, we have a really big strong team who can hurl, and time of year won't do any harm, plus Dubs are without their dual players due to U20 Football All Ireland. Unbelievable chance to reach at least a Leinster Final by beating Wex in semi after that. Should be a good weekends work, the future is looking good.

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