Offaly Senior Hurlers 2023

[faithfulfanatic]

I don’t know how some of those subs were brought in today, some of them haven’t hurled in the league all year and were just not up to it.. Adrian Cleary had a poor start and then got taken off when he was starting to give in good ball to the forwards? New corner back Maher gave away I don’t know how many frees, even if the ref was harsh at times.. Ravenhill, Kelly and Clancy were all big losses when off injured, along with Oisin Kelly and Cantwell from last week.. Thought Delaney from Kinnitty was surely worth a few minutes ahead of other lads.. on the topic of our puckouts, Kildare let us take them short in the second half and we fed right into their hands, running to the 45 and messing up a short pass.. no runs being made by Nally, Cahill etc to spread the sweeper out inside, it’s like they were instructed to wait til the ball was handpassed through midfield before making any move inside, despite Burke or the 2 Sampsons definitely having the distance and quality of ball to leave it inside the 21

[Doon Exile]

Disappointing to give up the win in the end but could anyone really begrudge it to Kildare. I thought they were much sharper and first to the ball than we were. Only for the number of wides they had, they have been well out of sight before we started to play. Not even going to mention our puck outs

That said, it was great to see that comeback as I thought we were dead and buried. Kerry next and probably next Saturday in Tullamore and I’d expect us to get a win if I’m honest.

[Fairplayalways]

League semi final should be in neutral venue to both Offaly and Kerry, I seen Faithful fields mentioned or Nenagh, how serious are the Gaa taking these lower divisional games one wonders..

[Anonymous1]

League semi final should be in neutral venue to both Offaly and Kerry, I seen Faithful fields mentioned or Nenagh, how serious are the Gaa taking these lower divisional games one wonders..

Disagree, Offaly are unbeaten meanwhile Kerry have lost twice, 2nd place should already be promoted let alone have to play in a neutral venue

[pigeon house biffo]

Is there anything to be said for this group not getting promoted. Giving up 23 points at this level is crazy. They would be absolutely slaughtered and back down at this level after one year.

[Anonymous1]

What’s the alternative, stay down and play these teams again next year? Might as well go up and get exposed to the top tier of hurling

[Fairplayalways]

League semi final should be in neutral venue to both Offaly and Kerry, I seen Faithful fields mentioned or Nenagh, how serious are the Gaa taking these lower divisional games one wonders..

[allstar2010]

We only managed 1-1 in the first 21mins of the second half! Scores seem to be hard to come by other than frees by Cahill. Charlie Mitchell showed up and took his goal well but other than that we are very limited. The puckouts in second half were terrible, Sampson at 6 messed up at least 2 when he carried to midfield and then gave a terrible pass, same with Burke. Kildare were better team just about. The last free given away for the equaliser was shocking, wouldn’t see it in a junior club game!

[frankthetank]

The reward for finishing 2nd in the league is a home venue for the semi-final. Quite justly in my opinion.

Ideally a double header next Sunday with Offaly vs Down in the football but highly doubtful the OCP pitch could take 2 games in the one day considering the rain that is falling.

So I expect Offaly v Kerry to be Saturday.

[ryot]

Puck-outs

Keeper was spot on== but 3 & 6 carried into trouble4.5.6 times and gave woeful handpasses====

Kildare over-ran us for 20 minutes of the second half====== fitness/commitment issues ???

Two long hit & hopes broke for the 2 goals getting us out of jail.

The last free was a disaster- He fumbled, missed the lift and then walked into 2 tacklers.... Crazy stuff== Of course one tackler grabbed his arm to prevent the handpass -obvious foul but ref wanted the draw======

Mitchell and Cahill were the only forwards offering a threat======== and if Charlie used 2 hands to pick-up he might not have lost 5 possessions in the first half.....

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Agree with a lot of the above posts.

However, I did think that we played some very good short hurling in the first half and forced kildare to do on their puck outs in the first half what we ended up doing in the second half. We hit some lovely ball in fornt of our inside line, but most ended up with poor touches and we were turned over with Kildare getting many of their scores from these. Eimhin Kelly, and Mitchell looked lively and hopefully on drier ground will trouble teams with pace but first touch needs to be better all over.
Second half we were a different team, or maybe Kildare were. Players looked to be going through the motions and were shellshocked when Kildare came at them. They bought a few soft frees and we coughed up posession from our own puck out time after time, (Eoghan missed a couple of handy enough chances straight after half time ...handy for him ), and at one point we were 7 down I think and Kildare looked home and hosed.
Dooley did create a bit of panic in around the goal that enabled us to get back into it, and we had every chance to see out the game but crazy shot selection saw us miss the chance to go a couple ahead, and some heroic defending saw us cling on to the one point lead until that late free.
Keeper has been very good and unfortunate what happened. Injuries are mounting and 2 midfielders unlikely to play for a while with bad looking ankle injuries I would guess.

The positives, I thought the first half was very good and we battled well with Kildare and put them under a lot of pressure. In fact , I thought Kerry looked a better side than Kildare and play a better running game which caused us a lot of problems and we appeared to have worked on that, but the second half was poor.

Finally, we are hope to Kerry next weekend , (I don't know what the confusion is about with soem lads here onn that as format was explained in this thread over last couple of weeks?)...and I would be concerned with the injuries. On the other hand another game is what we need to get ready for the JOe Mc and if we get over them and have a go at Kildare in the final then that can only benefit.
Clearly we need to buld a squad, but there is no doubt that we are a long way off where we shyould be in terms of the basics and it appears that there is further work to be done on S&C. Player turnover is not helping this and would hope that the guys onboard will stick with it.
I presume David King and Paddy Delaney will come back into the team in midfield (2 lads would need to up it from the Kerry game as Kerry were fairly dominant there) and Jack Screeney also.

Home venue should help us, but the ground will be tough looking at the forecast for the week and we will have to be better at the rucks and first touch.
I think also we need to keep the mouths shut on the field also as i think the ref was hard on us but there seems to be a common theme wheer we are overstepping the mark, in both hurling and football.
Just to mention, the Kildare full back was outstanding yesterday and looked as good a hurler as there i, he swept up everything that landed and every ruck also.
Best of luck to all and a couple of days rest will be needed to egt up an running again.

[JimBwobb]

Next Saturday 2.p.m in OCP.

Home advantage worth a few pints and beat them last 2 years in Kerry for what it's worth.

[faithfulfanatic]

Forgot to say it earlier, very poor Offaly crowd in Tullamore last Sunday, nearly outnumbered and definitely outshouted by the Kildare crowd.. plenty of lads will give out from home and plenty will turn up for the minor or u20 all irelands and call us the best fans in the country, but that is simply not true

[ah lethimoutwithit]

"Forgot to say it earlier, very poor Offaly crowd in Tullamore last Sunday, nearly outnumbered and definitely outshouted by the Kildare crowd.. plenty of lads will give out from home and plenty will turn up for the minor or u20 all irelands and call us the best fans in the country, but that is simply not true"

Too right, too right indeed.

[Bord na Mona man]

"Ross Ravenhill broke his ankle playing for Offaly hurlers yesterday and got an operation this morning. He joins Oisin Kelly, another cruciate and Padraig Cantwell, knee, on the long term injury list. Chairman Michael Duignan spoke about the huge volume of injuries across Offaly teams at a County Board meeting tonight."

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