jimbob17 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:18 am
Some over reactions here are most amusing. We need perspective. We are a work in progress. Couple of young lads getting blooded. Main priority for them should be retaining Leinster U20. That will not be easy.
Re seniors, Waterford was a solid performance that we faded in for last 10 mins or so. To get a draw in Wexford is a huge lift on where weve been for last 5 years or so. No the challenge is to back it up with more good performances. By all accounts, lads have trained very hard. Lets hope we keep closing the gap. It is in 2 to 3 years time we will see the fruits of the good underage teams but lets say this here, it is a big jump from U20 to senior and the two teams that won Leinster probably had 10 or 11 of same lads.
Beyond that, Kelly has to have really good idea at this stage. He is probably in his 5th year with co senior team in that he did 3 years as coach before becoming manager. When that team in 18 got relegated, there was a choice to be made re players in Christy Ring. Fennellly chose to introduce a load of young lads and get the culture right with them to win Christy Ring and build them up. Kelly is getting the fruits of that work now with likes of Ciaran Burke, Killian Sampson, Brian Duignan, Eoin Cahill (as outfielder), Eimhin Kelly, Ross Ravenhill among many others getting blooded into senior. Their development has really shown over this time to be some of our main players now. With the influx of more young players to back this up and with likes of Cillian Kiely (reigniting his love for the game), Ben Conneely and David King still going strong, we have a good spread of youth and experience as we progress. We just came up short last year against a good Carlow team. I think this may stand to us. If we win Joe Mac this year or next year, it'll be 25 or 26 before we get back up to Liam McCarthy. This will give our young players the chance to get to the level of S&C to have some chance of competing at senior level.
To be honest, a lot of good work has gone on at underage and adult level and our standards of preparation now are light years ahead of where they were in 2017/2018 when we dropped through the floor. Does that guarantee success, absolutely not, but if we do this consistently across time we will produce the talent to compete at the top level in time hopefully. That is all we can expect for now!
Do we stick or twist with Kelly after this season if we don’t win the Joe Mcdonagh?
Ideally he’d do one more year before Leo O’Connor takes the helm but would another year of Joe Mcdonagh be tolerated? I’m not so sure although I also don’t believe a new chairman would want to make his first act a sacking…
Only 3 of the 20 players that played against Dublin in 2018 played against Wexford on Saturday. You might as well be comparing them to teams of the '80s or '90s at this rate.
I’m aware of that, my point is that we fell so far down the pecking order under Fennelly that it was impossible not to see some level of improvement but that shouldn’t be what we benchmark ourselves against. We’ve a long road to go yet.
When Fennelly took over, Offaly had just gone through 2 consecutive relegations. First Leinster, then Joe McDonagh, to land in Christy Ring.
The Dublin league game of 2018 needs to be put in context. Dublin played a very experimental team that night with several fellas who were long gone by the summer. When the sides met in Championship, Dublin won by 17 points.
Senior players like Joe Bergin, Colin Egan, Daniel Currams and Conor Mahon also finished their county careers around this time.
As is the case in each chapter of Offaly's decline, the next set who replaced them weren't as strong.
It's now 30 years since Offaly's underage production line started to fail. And then we had a 20 year streak of 'new lows' and 'rock bottoms'.
I'll happily take upward progress and acknowledge it, instead of cribbing about it not being enough, and being ready to crow as soon as a bad result occurs. Which I'm sure you will triumphantly do...
If you want to put the Dublin game from 2018 in context then indulge me as I put the Wexford game from Saturday in context. Wexford only had 2 of their starting 15 from last year’s Championship game against Kilkenny starting on Saturday night… Unfortunately we won’t get to face Wexford in the championship to see how we would fare against their best 15.
I’ll happily take upward progress and acknowledge it too, I just haven’t seen and nobody has produced any evidence of progress to date.
You say I’m ready to crow triumphantly as soon as a bad result occurs so was I crowing triumphantly after the Waterford game? No. The Galway game? No. The Tipp game last Summer? No.
If you’re going to take cheap shots, at least choose some that aren’t so easily debunked.
I suppose this is the challenge these days , getting perspective.
We all have views and grand, few words on a computer is easily done.
I havn't been to any games yet and didnt see the Wexford game.
We will struggle to make big strides in the short term , but the introduction of these successful U2o hurlers who are fairly fresh is bound to liven up the training and the panel. What I mean by fresh is that they have had very little injuries.
Other grounds for optimism would appear to be the schools progress. Club hurling needs to move on a level also to continue to feed through players.
We have progressed in my eyes, but there is huge scope for us to play smarter, more intelligent hurling than what is being done at times, and hopefully the draw will drive them on. KK, Cork , Clare may well prove very challenging games in terms of results, but progress in performance and ability to compete will be interesting.
I think the other results at the weekend will bring us back down a peg anyway , Westmeath v Limerick and Ant v dublin.
Best of luck to the management and players....keep working at it lads.
ah lethimoutwithit wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:22 pm
I suppose this is the challenge these days , getting perspective.
We all have views and grand, few words on a computer is easily done.
I havn't been to any games yet and didnt see the Wexford game.
We will struggle to make big strides in the short term , but the introduction of these successful U2o hurlers who are fairly fresh is bound to liven up the training and the panel. What I mean by fresh is that they have had very little injuries.
Other grounds for optimism would appear to be the schools progress. Club hurling needs to move on a level also to continue to feed through players.
We have progressed in my eyes, but there is huge scope for us to play smarter, more intelligent hurling than what is being done at times, and hopefully the draw will drive them on. KK, Cork , Clare may well prove very challenging games in terms of results, but progress in performance and ability to compete will be interesting.
I think the other results at the weekend will bring us back down a peg anyway , Westmeath v Limerick and Ant v dublin.
Best of luck to the management and players....keep working at it lads.
3 difficult games ahead, 2 at home. It will be a real bonus to get points in the latter games. Offaly just have to keep improving, they will probably play in Div. 2 next year.
3 difficult games ahead, 2 at home. It will be a real bonus to get points in the latter games. Offaly just have to keep improving, they will probably play in Div. 2 next year.
With the reorganization of the league for next year is relegation for this year handled as it always has?
Kevin Clancey. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.
ah lethimoutwithit wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:22 pm
I suppose this is the challenge these days , getting perspective.
We all have views and grand, few words on a computer is easily done.
I havn't been to any games yet and didnt see the Wexford game.
We will struggle to make big strides in the short term , but the introduction of these successful U2o hurlers who are fairly fresh is bound to liven up the training and the panel. What I mean by fresh is that they have had very little injuries.
Other grounds for optimism would appear to be the schools progress. Club hurling needs to move on a level also to continue to feed through players.
We have progressed in my eyes, but there is huge scope for us to play smarter, more intelligent hurling than what is being done at times, and hopefully the draw will drive them on. KK, Cork , Clare may well prove very challenging games in terms of results, but progress in performance and ability to compete will be interesting.
I think the other results at the weekend will bring us back down a peg anyway , Westmeath v Limerick and Ant v dublin.
Best of luck to the management and players....keep working at it lads.
3 difficult games ahead, 2 at home. It will be a real bonus to get points in the latter games. Offaly just have to keep improving, they will probably play in Div. 2 next year.
Offaly next year (bar a freak set of results) will play in a 7 team Division 1B. This will be a de facto Divison 2. It will be a separate competition from 1A which ultimately means only 1A teams can win the League.
It is the perfect Divison for a developing team like Offaly to play in for a season. As things stand it would consist of:
private joker wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:42 pm
Be very good developmental league for offaly, hopefully it will be named Div 1 and Div 2 etc and be a normal thing to do rather than 1 a, 1 b rubbish.
It’s officially called Division 1B. Obviously to get it over the line they couldn’t have called it Division 2 because heaven forbid some of the bigger counties found themselves in a Division 2 league.
Basically the same reason why we have a Senior B championship in Offaly.
So politically correct division 2 .lol
Doesn't matter what they call it
It's what on the field matters
Players going away this year is going to be a bigger issue.
Superhans75 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 9:35 pm
So politically correct division 2 .lol
Doesn't matter what they call it
It's what on the field matters
Players going away this year is going to be a bigger issue.
Players going away?
Cleary and Clancy are gone months now.
frankthetank wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:19 pm
Indeed that is true. And all Divisions will operate a 2 up 2 down structure so relegation isn’t beyond the relams of possibilty.
You'd have to wonder Frank how long this format will last?
Something similar was in place from 2009 to 2011 inclusive, except D1 and D2 were made up of 8 teams each during this period with 1 up and 1 down.
It was all well and dandy until in 2011 Limerick found themselves along with Clare in D2 in with the riff raff and with only one promotion place up for grabs Clare ended up doomed to another year among the deplorables in 2012. That was more than the powers that be could take and the 1a 1b craic started.
This new format will be fine until one of the mighty Munster teams ends up in 1b (or whatever they call it)and concludes at the end of the year that this less than ideal preparation cost them a run in the Munster championship. Que structure change in 2026 2027!!!
I think like 80s, Division 2 (or 1b in this case top teams should be in league propper quarter finals..playing out these Divisional finals all nice and pretty but at end of the day all are forgotten about quickly outside their own counties..teams from lower divisions have won out leagues in the past..
