Offaly Senior A Hurling Championship 2023

[private joker]

Kk won handy enough. Kinnitty very wasteful, 10 plus wides. Kk need to figure out a way of hurling. Need more link up play. With the talent they have they should have a better style of hurling. Adam screeney made his debut. Scored 5 points I think maybe more. His physique is definitely going to go against him in the winter months. He found it hard going enough. He was also on the frees.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Late to this for this round. Anyway:

Kilcormac-Killoughey v KInnitty
In 2018, Kilcormac-Killoughey beat Kinnitty 2-17 to 1-13;
In 2019, K-K beat Kinnitty 1-17 to 0-13;
And last year, K-K were the winners, 0-26 to 1-17.
While Kinnitty’s last win was a 0-13 to 2-6 win in 2006.

Birr v Tullamore
In 2013, Birr beat Tullamore 0-18 to 0-9;
In 2014, Tullamore beat Birr 0-16 to 0-14;
Most recently, Birr were 4-14 to 1-14 winners over Tullamore in 2016.
And last year, Birr’s Senior B team beat Tullamore 2-16 to 3-12

Ballinamere v Coolderry
In 1947, Coolderry were 8-1 to 2-1 winners over Ballinamere
In 2019, Coolderry beat Ballinamere 2-19 to 0-16;
While last year, Ballinamere were 0-26 to 2-18 winners over Coolderry.

Shinrone v Seir Kieran
In 2017, the Clareen men beat Shinrone 3-14 to 2-15
In 2018, Shinrone were 3-26 to 2-16 winners over Seir Kieran;
Then last year, Shinrone wee the winners, 2-19 to 1-14.

[faithfulfanatic]

If anyone was in any doubt about Kilcormac/Killoughey’s strength in depth.

https://twitter.com/premierviewpod/stat ... 73318?s=46

[private joker]

Screeney scored 7 points

[frankthetank]

0-02 from play

[allstar2010]

If anyone was in any doubt about Kilcormac/Killoughey’s strength in depth.

https://twitter.com/premierviewpod/stat ... 73318?s=46

Mad to think we had to search a Tipperary hurling Twitter page to find teamsheets. How come we could see all football team lists on the Offaly GAA page last week and none for the hurling again this weekend.

[faithfulfanatic]

KK 2-16 - Kinnitty 1-13
Birr 3-16 - Tullamore 1-14
Coolderry 2-12 - Ballinamere 1-17
Shinrone 1-18 - Seir Kieran 0-17

Had KK 22 Kinnitty 16 (6 point margin)
Finished KK 23 Kinnitty 15 (8 points)

Had Coolderry 18 Ballinamere 20 (2 points)
Finished Coolderry 22 Ballinamere 25 (3 points)

Had Birr 3-16 Tullamore 1-14 (8 points)
Predicted the exact scores and result here!

If anyone wants tomorrow’s Lotto numbers, do let me know.
Or perhaps wait til after Shinrone Clareen incase it was a fluke.

[frankthetank]

Ballinamere were full value for their win last night vs Coolderry. In fact management will be probably trying to digest this morning how they only won by 3 points. And after Brian Carroll's penalty Simon Whelehan blew the game up with only 2:45 of injury time played which I felt was very short as David King was down for a lengthy stoppage during the 2nd half.

But if Coolderry had to sneak a draw it would have been unfair on Ballinamere who looked winners from a long way out. They created at least 4 clear cut goal chances before they actually scored their goal. 3 excellent saves by Stephen Corcoran and Dan Ravenhill was dragged down when through on goal (cynical play is alive and well in hurling). If they were converted it could have got out of hand for Cooderry.

Ballinamere played what we could describe a more modern type of game plan. Working the ball out from defence, through short hurl passes or runners off the shoulder and then delivering from the middle third or attempting long range scores. Also runners off the shoulders in the forward areas. Ross Ravenhill is a very important link man in this regard for them and plays a very deep role to create an extra man in defence when defending and also an extra receiver when they work the ball out. They have an interesting puck out strategy where they overload one side of the pitch with up to 6 players for nearly all puckouts. But they don't commit to going to that zone all the time and could easily go short or to the other side. I think this could be easily deciphered by the likes of St Rynaghs. Also outside of their county players some of their players aren't entirely comfortable working it out so turnovers could be frequent against stronger opposition. Sam Bourke had a monster 2nd half scoring 3 points from wing back one better than the next.

For their part Coolderry played a more traditional type of game with a lot more direct hurling. A game they are comfortable with. But they clearly are not the team they were up to say 2021. But make no mistake about it the Coolderry spirit is alive and strong. Many other teams could have lost that game by 12 to 15 points but Coolderry brought it back to a one score game. Phenomenal effort when clearly playing against a better team.

There now seems to be a clear split in Offaly with regards the 10 senior hurling teams. We have the Tier 1 teams - Shinrone, K/K, St Rynaghs, Birr, Belmont and Ballinamere and Tier 2 consists of Cooderry, Kinnitty, Seir Kieran and Tullamore. And interestingly I feel the Tier 2 teams all have the same dilemma - they all relied on one marquee scoring forward over the last number of years and that player is now coming to the end of their career and no one within the club has stepped up to the mark to replace them -

Tullamore - Shane Dooley
Coolderry - Brian Carroll
Kinnitty - Colm Coughlan
Seir Kieran - Joe Bergin

If we analyse this weekend's games for a second we can see that from play the Tullamore forward line outside of Dooley scored 1-03 from play, the Coolderry forward line outside of Carroll scored 0-02 from play and the Kinnitty forward line scored 0-03 from play. (Coughlan didn't score). Seir Kieran play later.

The relegation battle could get very interesting as the year progresses.

Edit: The Seir Kieran forward line scored 1-05 from play outside of Joe Bergin who was introduced as a 40th minute substitute.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Frankthetank makes an interesting point here. And some teams just don't have forwards. Or have one.

In their two matches to date (I'm not distinguishing scores from play from those from placed balls here), for Tullamore, Shane Dooley has 0-10, Mike Fox has 1-7 and three others have 0-11 between them. In Kinnitty's case, James Dempsey has 1-13, while six others have 0-10 between them. While for Coolderry, Daniel Miller has 0-13, Brian Carroll has 2-3, with seven others with 0-15 between them (albeit Kevin Connolly and Cían Burke have 0-4 each).

[Superhans75]

Pretty awful stuff from shinrone last night Clareen we're
Up for it but KK are hardly changing there underpants
After that performance lol .
Off all the teams I seen so far Birr are dark horses but it's a long way to go.

[chimbonda]

Ballinamere and Belmont hurlers may feel hard done by with the refixed senior football match postponed today. Numerous dual players asked to play senior football championship 4 days before they play senior hurling championship.

[Plain of the Herbs]

St Rynagh’s v Birr
In 2020, St Rynagh’s won the semi-final meeting 1-20 to 0-17;
In 2021, Birr were 1-23 to 0-13 winners;
Last year, St Rynagh’s were 1-25 to 2-11 winners.

Belmont v Shinrone
In 2020, Belmont beat Shinrone 2-22 to 0-21;
In last year’s group game, Belmont ensured they topped the group with a 3-18 to 2-14 win;
Then Shinrone famously snatched the subsequent semi-final by 2-18 to 0-23.

Seir Kieran v Ballinamere
In 2015, Seir Kieran won their first ever championship meeting 1-20 to 0-19
In 2021, Ballinamere were 4-23 to 3-16 winners
And last year, Ballinamere beat the Clareen men 0-20 to 1-14.

Tullamore v Kilcormac-Killoughey
In 2010, Tullamore won the semi-final 0-13 to 0-10;
In 2011, K-K were 1-14 to 0-11 winners;
And they last met ten years ago in 2013 when K-K won 3-18 to 2-9 which I think involved the opening of the new club building in Kilcormac.

[Dodge83]

In 2011, K-K were 1-14 to 0-1 winners;

Is this a misprint??

[Plain of the Herbs]

Yes. Bah! Will check it this evening. Thanks for spotting.

Confirmed 1-14 to 0-11.

In 2011, K-K were 1-14 to 0-1 winners;

Is this a misprint??

[frankthetank]

Those 2009 and 2010 wins for Tullamore were some shocks!