Offaly Hurling 2026

[G91]

Seemingly stints but that's an easy rumour to go around.

[Bord na Mona man]

Let's not rush to amplify any rumours. The most important thing is that Charlie recovers in peace for however long it takes.

[Offaly Hero]

Nobody, outside of Charlie, his family and his medical team, know any of the exact details.
So any speculation beyond the official Offaly GAA statement is just that, idle speculation, and should be avoided.

The only thing to be said is to sincerely wish Charlie all the best. Sport is a small consideration in the grander scheme of things.

[frankthetank]

Best wishes to Charlie with his recovery. A hammer blow for him, his family and Offaly.

I would suggest a minute's applause for him during the 13th minute next Saturday in OCP.

[SearingDrive]

Best wishes to Charlie with his recovery. A hammer blow for him, his family and Offaly.

I would suggest a minute's applause for him during the 13th minute next Saturday in OCP.

I too wish Charlie well in his recovery. Best wishes to his family at this time.

[Géill Slí]

Wishing Charlie Mitchell a speedy recovery.

[Fairplayalways]

look we wish the lad well, all this keeing ssssh about it..its in the news and sports programmes and whatever procedure he may or may not have had, we know what its related to.. he will be a big loss to Offaly in their games ahead...he puts himself and his family first...their is a panel of players there for a reason etc. wishing him the best always..

[Toxicity234]

It's only a game.

Glad to hear Charlie been well looked after in st. James.

Hope Charlie and his family are doing ok.

[offalyman]

A great quote from the Irish Examiner yesterday

“The last time Offaly did something like this in the Championship, and avoided defeat to Kilkenny, Miley was wrestling with Fidelma in Glenroe, Bill Clinton was in similar bother in the US and Oasis were enjoying their first coming.

That's not today or yesterday, 1998 in fact, when Offaly beat Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final. They dipped as low as hurling's third tier in the intervening decades but they confirmed in Tullamore with a landmark result that they're finally back”

Best wishes to Charlie with his recovery…Roll on Saturday when Wexford come to town. This is huge opportunity to get a big win in the championship

[hurlus]

Just saw a post online stating the Offaly Wexford match will not be broadcasted or streamed anywhere this weekend
This is terrible for supporters who cannot get to the game.

[Lone Shark]

Absolutely, first and foremost it's best wishes to Charlie, both now and in the long term. He's a fierce likeable lad with infectious passion for the game, and more than anything else, you'd hope that's not taken away from him. Strictly speaking, sport is a trivial rather than an important thing in life, but the other side of the coin there is that it's usually the trivial things that make life worth living. That man has put his heart and soul into becoming the hurler that he is, it would be very sad to see him robbed of that part of his life just at the point when he was set to really blossom. Please God it won't come to that.



On the match on Sunday, you'd have to give a huge shout out to Eoghan Cahill for coming in with not a lot of competitive hurling done, and performing like that. Another heroic effort from Ben Conneely too, and above all, this result proves the strong showing against Dublin was no fluke. The players now know that they are capable of reaching this level, and if they can replicate it over the next two weekends, there is every chance of squeezing into the top three.

It'll be an unusual dynamic on Saturday in that Wexford will tee this one up like it's an All-Ireland final. They'll tell themselves that it's falling perfectly for them in that they can win in Tullamore and then potentially sneak into third themselves, on the basis that Galway could well be on eight points and already into a Leinster final, so they will go with a second string team in Wexford Park on the final day. Any result other than a draw in Parnell Park, and that's Wexford into third.

Even so, I am a little surprised that there's nothing in the betting for the game, with a couple of firms going even money each of two. That would imply that they still believe that Wexford is the better team, since Offaly have momentum and home advantage. I'm not sure how you could realistically say that right now, aside from the obvious negative that is the absence of Mitchell and the possible absence of Screeney. (I'm not ignoring the loss of someone like Donal Shirley here, but that's baked in to the pricing at this stage.)

You have Brian Duignan finding some form, Ross Ravenhill settled into a much more natural position and hopefully, we'll be closer to having a first choice midfield back. Ben is an obvious matchup for Lee Chin and if Chin can be held to a six or seven out of ten performance (not easy to do, obviously) then you'd have to feel that we should be confident, given that the rest of the Wexford team has scored 1-28 in three championship games.

[Lone Shark]

Just saw a post online stating the Offaly Wexford match will not be broadcasted or streamed anywhere this weekend
This is terrible for supporters who cannot get to the game.

The problem on this subject is that there is no way for the GAA to win on this. It's impossible to make a game accessible to supporters who can't get to a game, without also making it accessible to supporters who could well get to the game, but if they have the option of staying home, will happily do that.

The more games they put on GAA+, the more argument there is about putting games behind a paywall. I accept that's not the point you were making, but it is out there, hiding behind the sacrificial lambs that are mythical, mountainy men that somehow still live in two-channel land and can't work a smartphone.

But, and this is crucial, our games are live events, they are at their best when the crowds are there. And that's fine when it's the Munster SHC, the Ulster SFC, or the likes of the Connacht final on Sunday - but the simple fact of the matter is that the Offaly games so far this year have absolutely not been like that, and who's to say that if we did have a packed house and a partisan audience for either of the two drawn games in Tullamore, maybe we'd have picked up a win or two?

If there's always an option of watching from home, that hurts the crowd at the game. And while at least there is a way for the GAA to gain if someone pays their subscription to GAA+, Streamsport, Clubber etc., the Association gets absolutely nothing out of people sitting at home and watching on their dodgy box.

I say that, while at the same time understanding that supporters aren't obliged to turn out for every game either, people have a lot going on in life and there are a lot of Offaly teams in action, albeit a good few of them are done for the year after a disappointing run of underage results.

So there's no easy answer here.

[chimbonda]

Firstly, best wishes to Charlie and his family.

Secondly, I think Johnny Kelly and his management team deserve massive credit for the way the team are now playing.
Liam hoares puck outs are rarely hit long to an aerial battle, now they more often hit into space where our youthful team can use their speed to gain possession. Also we are working the ball out of the back patiently until the opportunity to deliver favours our forwards. I counted 5 points on Sunday that were directly assisted by killian Sampson.

While I remain wary of wexford, I believe if we approach the next 2 games in a similar way to last Sunday, I am confident we will finish the round robin stage with 6 points.

[bracknaghboy]

Even so, I am a little surprised that there's nothing in the betting for the game, with a couple of firms going even money each of two.

Things are looking up yes, but don't forget Offaly have won 1 of their last 16 hurling matches and that came against against a severely psychologically damaged 14 man Antrim team under Davy Boy which was almost 51 weeks ago.
Wexford are capable of big performances even when not going well they have taken out Kilkenny and Galway in recent years.
50/50 game on Saturday.

[G91]

Id have to agree with bracknaghboy on this

There is a few scenarios that could play out and they have all happened before.

Wexford have always been a target for us and there's many a time where we should have won and didn't

There's a chance for this to have so much hype and the potential that it could end up a complete flop something similar to Antrim last year.

The lads could hurl Wexford of the park or vice versa.

Johnny Kelly deserves credit where it's due but also while kk looked to be hitting the panick button with all the subs it actually wasn't what it seemed , it turned out to be almost a match winner while offaly didn't look like they were going to make any.

We left oisin on the line waiting to come on for 5 mins

Mckessey was the perfect example kk got him on with enough time to cause some trouble.

Can't see why oisin couldn't be brought on earlier to do the same.

I wouldn't go as far as saying Offaly are back either 2 bad results and it's straight back down. Offaly are now competing yes ,more structured better team all going in the right direction.