Offaly Senior Hurlers 2023

[frankthetank]

Surely would take him a while get up to speed. A few Senior B matches is probably more likely to see where he’s at?

I presume Eoghan Cahill will miss the 1st round?

[Fairplayalways]

absolutely no disrespect to these dual clubs or their players, but all very well having dual players at club level, but are they good enough for county standard..thats another debate..someone mentioned above our catching etc..I add in our ability to lift the ball too under pressure (or even not under pressure rather) we see the big counties only struggle i a ruck, its frenetic and crowded out, low and behold someone dashes out with the ball and gets a handpass or shot away..our level of hurling the rucks are laboured and slow paced in the main, ability to even lift the ball let alone come away with it is often not achieved (despite no intnesity)..watch the All Ireland semi finals and see what I refer to..we are miles behind that mindset of intensity, whether its physical size or fitness posssibly..I hear alot saying "we are not big enough" as in few over 6ft tall...I dont know either about that, are we a dwarf county compare to all others..I think not..they may have more taller players possibly to pick from, but do they either...your player with natural hurling ability in the main will win his place ahead of the bigger stronger player with not as much potential..I know, I have been that soldeir as they say..and I can see why...anyways..its a good debate..

[Superhans75]

I'm afraid Offaly ,loais and east Galway have the smallest
People in Ireland .
I suppose it's something to do with being furthest from the coast not to many Viking' longboats in kinnity

[jimbob17]

Lot of merit in what you say Fairplay.

My reading is that we are short at inter county senior on lots of fronts. Some of our bigger more physical players are not skillful enough in rucks and tight situations, or get low enough in rucks, while many of our more skillful players are not physical enough in terms of power and strength in contact situations to either win or keep the ball with dynamic run after winning it. We rarely see our seniors attacking the ball with conviction in a way you see senior inter county players do at McCarthy cup level. Most of middle third players struggle in terms of covering ground / mobility and pace by comparison of standard of Liam Mac counties probably because they have higher calibre of athlete to choose from. Taken across 15 players these gaps will account for large score differential as it did against Tipp.

What I will say, it was a pleasure to see the U20s attack and control the ball at maximum pace which is something many of our seniors don't do, whether able to or not. It is why that group really need to be pulled back in together once the club scene eases off in Sep/ October. There is potential to get lots of them lads up to top tier but will take huge work in terms of building physicality in them.

On the other end of stuff, we are one county and never should we create North South divide. My observations were purely observational differences between what has been going on in hurling only clubs versus clubs with football base. It's great that hurling clubs now include and value merits of strength work in a way many did not previously. It is only by getting all clubs to cover as many bases (physical, technical skills etc) as well as they can, that the tide will lift to raise the standards in the county.

[private joker]

The offaly u20 team is an exceptionally talented team. But there is one cavet that has to be taken into account. Tier one counties do not have their full complement of players when playing due to to 6 day rule. If offaly had won the joe Mc, who knows how many players would have been brought up. You need multiple teams coming through to really have a meaningful impact at senior level.

[Lone Shark]

Tempted to lock this thread because of repeated instances of West Offaly erasure.

Behave, people.

[Superhans75]

I suppose the other caviat is that we don't seem to have the stamina . that other teams have because of the all the covering we have to do .
I suppose if you look at the U20 s were able to hurl against Wexford with ball affectively covered by their
Torso using there speed .
All cork had to do was to be more physical we were done for pretty straight forward.
Then our tanks empty.
The big step up from 60 to 70 min is a massive kasam
Which we to have negotiate.
It's not a strength and conditioning situation either.

[Plain of the Herbs]

What I want to know is - why is east Offaly (north Portarlington, Clonbullogue and the like) called north Offaly?

Tempted to lock this thread because of repeated instances of West Offaly erasure.

Behave, people.

[jimbob17]

You could argue Portarlington and Gracefield is in South Offaly as it is more South than Kilcormac going by the map. Ferbane Doon and Shannonbridge are most definitely North Offaly given their location while an argument could also be made for Cloghan. Kilcormac is probably right on the middle but given that Killoughey is most definitely North Offaly, that would be why KK would consider themselves North Offaly.

As for the East, we should be getting more from Gracefield as a county but I sense they are struggling to compete in attracting younger members with the recent success that Portarlington has had in Laois.

[Superhans75]

Gracefields main issue is the local rugby and soccer scene is pretty good it's a fact of life.