Offaly Senior Hurlers 2024

[Bord na Mona man]

Dublin in Croke Park in 2018. Working back, beat Wexford down there in 2016. And a win over Limerick in 2015.

When was the last time point we actually got a point in top flight hurling?

Offaly beat Carlow in Division 1B in 2019.

[private joker]

Joe mcdonagh is going to be a great competition. Laois westmeath and offaly will all fancy it. Westmeath giving limerick a good game. 9 all at halftime

[frankthetank]

Dublin in Croke Park in 2018. Working back, beat Wexford down there in 2016. And a win over Limerick in 2015.

When was the last time point we actually got a point in top flight hurling?

Offaly beat Carlow in Division 1B in 2019.

Carlow were Liam McCarthy that year. Played 4 games and lost them all in Leinster. The highlight was them giving Galway a right good game in Salthilll in Round 1. Lost 1-24 to 1-18.

[Anonymous1]

Lads are getting totally carried away with themselves after last night.

Yes it was nice to see them compete with a Liam McCarthy team and I actually thought the fitness levels were good, the pressing from our full forward line in particular was impressive.

Kiely is an absolute warrior and needs protection until the latter stages of the Joe Mcdonagh.

But if we’re being honest, Wexford were atrocious last night and were down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes and 13 men for the last 10 minutes.

Westmeath beat a 15 man Wexford last Summer so if we can’t even beat a 13 man version of the same team then how are we ever going to beat a 15 man?

And spare me the talk of a good performance against Waterford, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. 12 points is a heavy beating.

The reality is we’re going to finish stone last in the league and be relegated to 1B and are no guarantees for the Joe Mcdonagh.

Progress? I fail to see any so far.

[private joker]

The westmeath/wexford result was a freak of nature. A once never to happen again result. Anyone who can't see progress is fair blind. Offaly look fit, can stick with teams for longer. Good level of skill. It wasn't that long ago offaly were loosing to Down.

[frankthetank]

Lads are getting totally carried away with themselves after last night.

Yes it was nice to see them compete with a Liam McCarthy team and I actually thought the fitness levels were good, the pressing from our full forward line in particular was impressive.

Kiely is an absolute warrior and needs protection until the latter stages of the Joe Mcdonagh.

But if we’re being honest, Wexford were atrocious last night and were down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes and 13 men for the last 10 minutes.

Westmeath beat a 15 man Wexford last Summer so if we can’t even beat a 13 man version of the same team then how are we ever going to beat a 15 man?

And spare me the talk of a good performance against Waterford, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. 12 points is a heavy beating.

The reality is we’re going to finish stone last in the league and be relegated to 1B and are no guarantees for the Joe Mcdonagh.

Progress? I fail to see any so far.

Clearly someone who wasn't at the Waterford game.

3 years ago Waterford would have beaten us 30. With 7 minutes to go having played most of the 2nd half with 14 men we were only 3 down. We had actually outscored Waterford 14 scores to 11 at this stage. The physical exertions of the game then took it's toll and Waterford pulled clear.

Lazy analysis puts this town to fitness. It's a lot more nuanced than that. In it's simplest form Offaly haven't hurled 70 minutes at the intensity needed to compete with Liam McCarthy teams in many years. This is a physical and mental mindset and is going to take time to come to terms with. But playing Division 1 league hurling in 2024 and in a very competitive Division 2 (although for some reason called 1B, probably to appease Cork who will be in it and couldn't dare entertain the thought of being a Division 2 team) will help no end in this regard.

Putting it bluntly we had been hurling in absolutely shit grades of hurling (Christy Ring and Division 2) for a couple of seasons and we need to avoid these at all costs to make progress.

[Bord na Mona man]

The folks still complaining would want to get their heads straight. 3 years ago Offaly were on the 2nd attempt to get out of the Christy Ring Cup - in the same competition as Sligo, Roscommon and Wicklow.

In 2022, Offaly's first two league games saw two heavy defeats to Galway and Cork by 17 and 19 points, respectively. It wasn’t just the margin of defeat though; these teams were at a different level in terms of physique, pace and power.
It takes Trump levels of fakery and deception to deny that progress is being made.

[biffinbanner]

i remember reading the report on the sligo game in 2022. we raced into an early lead but sligo came back into it and missed a few open goals to make a game of it. thats where we were. and progress hasnt been made according to some? ffs

[Kevin]

Delighted to see us competitive. Long may it continue!!

[faithfulfanatic]

Lads are getting totally carried away with themselves after last night.

Yes it was nice to see them compete with a Liam McCarthy team and I actually thought the fitness levels were good, the pressing from our full forward line in particular was impressive.

Kiely is an absolute warrior and needs protection until the latter stages of the Joe Mcdonagh.

But if we’re being honest, Wexford were atrocious last night and were down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes and 13 men for the last 10 minutes.

Westmeath beat a 15 man Wexford last Summer so if we can’t even beat a 13 man version of the same team then how are we ever going to beat a 15 man?

And spare me the talk of a good performance against Waterford, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. 12 points is a heavy beating.

The reality is we’re going to finish stone last in the league and be relegated to 1B and are no guarantees for the Joe Mcdonagh.

Progress? I fail to see any so far.

So it’s ok to take red cards into account when it works for your argument (Wexford against us), but when it works against your argument, leave them out completely (Leon Fox against Waterford). Nice bit of exaggeration too, Charlie McGuckin was sent off in the 69th minute, not with 10 minutes to go as you said.

Did you ever stop to consider that perhaps we didn’t let Wexford hurl?

Offaly came with a clear game plan to hit and tackle ferociously in the forwards and turn over their short passes.

Charlie Mitchell, Eimhin Kelly and Killian Sampson turned over the world of ball and set up scores.

Adam Screeney also involved to a certain extent and will get more and more involved as he progresses.
Kiely a man mountain.
Sam Bourke impressive.
Jason Sampson made great runs and hit very hard, much more suited to wing back.
David King a leader in midfield.
Brian Duignan missed a few frees and one or two from play but was the focal point we needed.
Saw an earlier poster suggest that Ben Conneely isn’t suited to corner back, not sure what game they were watching.
Young Troy in the goals was very calm and had a great range of puckouts.
Got caught with the second last puckout, but Burke was equally at fault. He had received every other short one on the 21, for some reason he decided to run diagonally to the sideline and kept backing away after it was hit expecting the ball to fly on the surface. Overall he had a great game.

7 of our u20s from last year saw time over the 70 minutes, great going.
Ross Ravenhill, Eoghan Cahill, Leon Fox and Oisin Kelly will make some difference.
Going to be an almighty struggle in the Joe McDonagh with our 2 near neighbours.
The more I think about it, the more I think that the above post must be some form of satire because how could someone be so naive as to think Offaly have made no progress?

[Anonymous1]

The westmeath/wexford result was a freak of nature. A once never to happen again result. Anyone who can't see progress is fair blind. Offaly look fit, can stick with teams for longer. Good level of skill. It wasn't that long ago offaly were loosing to Down.

So the Westmeath vs Wexford result which was in the Leinster Championship was a freak of nature, never to happen again result but last nights draw against 13 men wasn’t a freak? Interesting logic.

Comparing this team to the worst Offaly team we’ve ever had is obviously going to make it look good. Why not compare us to our 2018 team that beat both Dublin and Antrim in the league? Wouldn’t fit the narrative I suppose…

[Anonymous1]

Lads are getting totally carried away with themselves after last night.

Yes it was nice to see them compete with a Liam McCarthy team and I actually thought the fitness levels were good, the pressing from our full forward line in particular was impressive.

Kiely is an absolute warrior and needs protection until the latter stages of the Joe Mcdonagh.

But if we’re being honest, Wexford were atrocious last night and were down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes and 13 men for the last 10 minutes.

Westmeath beat a 15 man Wexford last Summer so if we can’t even beat a 13 man version of the same team then how are we ever going to beat a 15 man?

And spare me the talk of a good performance against Waterford, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. 12 points is a heavy beating.

The reality is we’re going to finish stone last in the league and be relegated to 1B and are no guarantees for the Joe Mcdonagh.

Progress? I fail to see any so far.

Clearly someone who wasn't at the Waterford game.

3 years ago Waterford would have beaten us 30. With 7 minutes to go having played most of the 2nd half with 14 men we were only 3 down. We had actually outscored Waterford 14 scores to 11 at this stage. The physical exertions of the game then took it's toll and Waterford pulled clear.

Lazy analysis puts this town to fitness. It's a lot more nuanced than that. In it's simplest form Offaly haven't hurled 70 minutes at the intensity needed to compete with Liam McCarthy teams in many years. This is a physical and mental mindset and is going to take time to come to terms with. But playing Division 1 league hurling in 2024 and in a very competitive Division 2 (although for some reason called 1B, probably to appease Cork who will be in it and couldn't dare entertain the thought of being a Division 2 team) will help no end in this regard.

Putting it bluntly we had been hurling in absolutely shit grades of hurling (Christy Ring and Division 2) for a couple of seasons and we need to avoid these at all costs to make progress.

I was at the Waterford game actually, snarky comment from someone I’ve come to expect nothing less.

Saying Waterford would’ve beaten us by 30 three years ago is a complete folly. Waterford were All Ireland finalists 3 years ago and we were in the Christy Ring. Waterford have fallen off a cliff since then, a better comparison to Waterford from three years ago will be the current Kilkenny side as they were last seasons finalists.

[Anonymous1]

The folks still complaining would want to get their heads straight. 3 years ago Offaly were on the 2nd attempt to get out of the Christy Ring Cup - in the same competition as Sligo, Roscommon and Wicklow.

In 2022, Offaly's first two league games saw two heavy defeats to Galway and Cork by 17 and 19 points, respectively. It wasn’t just the margin of defeat though; these teams were at a different level in terms of physique, pace and power.
It takes Trump levels of fakery and deception to deny that progress is being made.

So are you saying that Galway or Cork couldn’t beat us by 17 points if they wanted to today? Given Waterford beat us by 12 and they were by far the worst team in Munster last year, I’d expect either of them could.

A third string Galway side were 12 points up on us with 15 minutes to go last month and if it weren’t for a thick fog, I reckon we’d have been a lot further behind.

Let’s not forget Tipperary put up 7-38 on this team just 8 short months ago as we suffered our worst ever defeat.

If so much progress has been made then we should be nailed on favourites to win the Joe Mcdonagh shouldn’t we?

[Anonymous1]

i remember reading the report on the sligo game in 2022. we raced into an early lead but sligo came back into it and missed a few open goals to make a game of it. thats where we were. and progress hasnt been made according to some? ffs

What do you define as progress? We’re almost certainly going to finish last in this league and will be in a scrap just like every year in the Joe Mcdonagh.

[Anonymous1]

Lads are getting totally carried away with themselves after last night.

Yes it was nice to see them compete with a Liam McCarthy team and I actually thought the fitness levels were good, the pressing from our full forward line in particular was impressive.

Kiely is an absolute warrior and needs protection until the latter stages of the Joe Mcdonagh.

But if we’re being honest, Wexford were atrocious last night and were down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes and 13 men for the last 10 minutes.

Westmeath beat a 15 man Wexford last Summer so if we can’t even beat a 13 man version of the same team then how are we ever going to beat a 15 man?

And spare me the talk of a good performance against Waterford, the scoreboard doesn’t lie. 12 points is a heavy beating.

The reality is we’re going to finish stone last in the league and be relegated to 1B and are no guarantees for the Joe Mcdonagh.

Progress? I fail to see any so far.

So it’s ok to take red cards into account when it works for your argument (Wexford against us), but when it works against your argument, leave them out completely (Leon Fox against Waterford). Nice bit of exaggeration too, Charlie McGuckin was sent off in the 69th minute, not with 10 minutes to go as you said.

Did you ever stop to consider that perhaps we didn’t let Wexford hurl?

Offaly came with a clear game plan to hit and tackle ferociously in the forwards and turn over their short passes.

Charlie Mitchell, Eimhin Kelly and Killian Sampson turned over the world of ball and set up scores.

Adam Screeney also involved to a certain extent and will get more and more involved as he progresses.
Kiely a man mountain.
Sam Bourke impressive.
Jason Sampson made great runs and hit very hard, much more suited to wing back.
David King a leader in midfield.
Brian Duignan missed a few frees and one or two from play but was the focal point we needed.
Saw an earlier poster suggest that Ben Conneely isn’t suited to corner back, not sure what game they were watching.
Young Troy in the goals was very calm and had a great range of puckouts.
Got caught with the second last puckout, but Burke was equally at fault. He had received every other short one on the 21, for some reason he decided to run diagonally to the sideline and kept backing away after it was hit expecting the ball to fly on the surface. Overall he had a great game.

7 of our u20s from last year saw time over the 70 minutes, great going.
Ross Ravenhill, Eoghan Cahill, Leon Fox and Oisin Kelly will make some difference.
Going to be an almighty struggle in the Joe McDonagh with our 2 near neighbours.
The more I think about it, the more I think that the above post must be some form of satire because how could someone be so naive as to think Offaly have made no progress?

Waterford were already 5 points ahead when Leon was sent off. Wexford were level with us both times they had a man sent off and yet we never kicked on and were actually fortunate they missed a late chance to win it and saved us from embarrassment in the process.

Oh and Mcguckin was sent off in the 67th minute so when you include added time it’s as good as ten minutes but if we’re going there, the first red was in the 47th minute so they had the guts of half an hour with at most 14 men.

I think we let Wexford hurl just as much as they let us hurl, the game finished level you do know?

Every player was brilliant according to you, all is well so.

How the mighty have fallen, celebrating a draw against 13 man Wexford. Some of our heroes from the past would be turning in their graves.