Offaly Hurling 2026

[Faithfully]

https://x.com/i/status/2068709439704563914

A bad challenge here by Cahalane. Leads with a raised knee for the initial contest, does a deliberate knee drop when Screeney is on the ground.

A fairly trampish act to be honest.

There is plausible deniability for the knee in the back.

The knee in the head is absolutely comical. He moves his knee about a yard forward in the most unnatural movement I've ever seen in my life.

[backofthenet]

A sobering day yesterday for an nostalgic fans.

BUT outside of S&C the biggest thing yesterday was how nice we were to cork & how naive also. The clip above illustrates the point.

Cork ran at our full back line at least 10-12 times yesterday & not once did a defender meet them on their journey. 3 goals came from it

2 of the goals were our defenders jumping for a ball the wrong side of their man and completely missing.

The first goal...deer in the headlights and no one taking control.

We were always losing yesterday, it was always going to be a bridge too far this year, but if we want to compete we have to increase our aggressiveness particularly outside of leinster.

One thing that is notable is how strictly Leinster is refereed vs. Munster, that was on show again yesterday as the Sean Stack let a lot go from the off, bizzarely giving a cork player a yellow but awarding no free at one stage as an example.

Lots for this young offaly team to work on, we do need to add physically to the team, personally id love to see cormac egan with the hurlers to add power, pace and a physical presence.

Lastly thanks to all players who put their shoulder to the wheel this year, were back competing again after a long abscence, i dont think were as far away as yesterday looked and lots can be done with the team we have as long as everyone sticks together and continues the work.

[Bord na Mona man]

Cork ran at our full back line at least 10-12 times yesterday & not once did a defender meet them on their journey. 3 goals came from it

100%.
Someone has to dash out and smash him in the ribcage. Even if it doesn't stop that attack, it sends out the warning.
Under Munster rules and late in the championship, it will be a yellow card at worst.

With 2 v 1s, 3 v 2s, the philosophy should be to shoot out to the ball carriers and have your keeper primed to burst out onto the last man if the ball reaches him.

[Offaly Hero]

On reflection I think one of the main issues from yesterday was belief for players and supporters.

We can draw a rough line through the results in the Leinster championship this year and say that Kilkenny are roughly at our level. However, I think we can all agree that Kilkenny would not have beaten by as much as we were yesterday. Why? Because of their history of success and, simply, just being consistently competitive at this level - they would believe that if they went 1-2 down within five minutes that the game was still salvageable. The players or the supporters just would not accept or allow four goals to happen in the first 20 minutes. Much worse leads than that have been overturned against this Cork team.

However for our players and supporters, we have no recent history of being competitive at this level. Its hard to overstate how damaging the last 20 years have been for our confidence as a county, supporters included. The entire narrative all week was that we were on a hiding to nothing and that our only hope was to keep it tight for as long as possible etc etc. Thus when this is exactly what didn't happen and we went 1-2 down within five minutes, all hope, confidence and belief immediately drained away from the players and supporters. Our worst nightmare was unfolding in front of our eyes, from the very start of the game, and there was nothing that could be done to stop, or so we believed. When the heads drop like that, the negative spiral develops and the defeat becomes worse and worse and worse.

[PullHardPullOften]

Interesting point above about how Munster and Leinster is reffed differently and I would agree and do think it lead to our own naivety and niceness. I don’t think it would’ve made much difference on the result but I think our lads could’ve got stuck in a bit more - though that’s much easier said from the stands.

Another thing for me was the speed at which cork moved the ball. Look at the 5th goal for example, Diarmuid Healy pinged a ball at the speed of lightning to his full forward, whereas we were taking too long to use it then looping balls and giving cork backs time to react. I think that’s learned though, you’d get away with the latter in Leinster and not in Munster.

Not sure how we bridge the gap physically. I just don’t think we have that type of specimen in Offaly, definitely not in abundance anyway and definitely not south of Kilcormac. I’d say Ter Guinan, and Shirley when fit, are probably our most athletic hurlers yet still pale in comparison to that Cork team. They are just an unbelievable combination of size, speed and skill and themselves and Limerick are just in a league of their own.

Lastly, I have to disagree with all this talk that the game didn’t do anyone any good. I think there was loads to learn from that for our lads and imagine how a build up to a game like that would’ve felt for the older stalwarts in the team who more than deserved that occasion. I certainly enjoyed the build up the game and like everyone else here I’m very grateful to the players for giving us that day out. Maybe a bit tokenistic but have to be realistic about it too. We can feel differently about it next year if we’re lucky enough to be in the same position,

[biffinbanner]

oh for a hanemy or flurey to meet a few of them cork lads on the way in.! cork have a few themselves in cahilane and o leary. a bit of it is needed in any team.

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly have played Cork 5 times from 2022. The goals conceded were 4, 5, 4, 6, 6. An average of 5 per game.
We're going to have to learn to deal with teams who put massive emphasis on deliberately picking out full forward line targets to create goal chances and also running it in from deep to the do same.

Had Offaly set up with more defensive cover, and still lost by a string of points, there would have been howls that Cork were shown too much respect.

At the other end, Offaly started with combinations of Screeney, then Screeney & Duignan as the isolated inside men. Unfortunately, to be effective it needs the quality of the low-threaded ball to be good. It mostly wasn't.

At least with Oisin Kelly on, it gave Offaly the chance to win the lumped in ball. Against a better team, it's going to be mostly dirty ball going in. That's the reality.

[offalyman]

What an occasion yesterday was. The pre-match build-up in the pubs around Thurles and the walk up to Semple Stadium were absolutely magic.
Now the game itself, it was a humbling experience. We all knew we were up against it, and most of us would probably have taken keeping the margin below 10–12 points as a small victory in itself. One thing that still puzzles me, though, is winning the toss and then choosing to play against the breeze. It felt like a very strange decision when we needed every possible advantage in those opening 20 minutes.
We definitely underperformed on the day and gifted them the first three goals, which made a tough task even tougher. But there's no point crying over spilled milk now.
Fair play to all the supporters who stayed until the bitter end. The lads deserved that recognition for the effort they put in throughout the year. Walking out of the stadium, despite the disappointment of the result, I couldn't help but appreciate what a great occasion it had been. I even managed to enjoy a few pints afterwards in the local pubs before making my sorry way home.
We'll dust ourselves down, learn from it, and go again next year.

[Superhans75]

Look we took our beating let's move on
I was more shocked today by officials
Saying its a 20 year game plan to Level
Hurling.
One of the most ridiculous comments
I have heard for a long time
And not Involving Elon Musk Mars expedition plans. Perhaps they could combine both .
Travel expenses probably going to be an issue.
You can't make hurler an athlete
Or an Athlete a hurler
You have it or you don't.
When you try it's what happened yesterday.
Enjoy the heat

I

[private joker]

20 years as in you think it will take longer?

[Gobbler]

Alot of good points made. I'll just add my own view for what its worth at this stage.

1. Cahalane absolutely should be facing a suspension off that knee to Screeney while the player was on the ground. He made a very obvious movement to bury his knee in him. Could be wrong but i think i recall some straight red cards issued in football games over the last few years. Possibly Armagh or Tyrone certainly got 1. As someone commented, It was a trampish act. I cant believe it wasn't pulled up on the Sunday game. But sure why would they bother making a fuss when the game was so one sided. That's grand until someone is seriously hurt.

2. Great to be in the last 6. Certainly is and it is just reward for these lads who are very committed and have brought great memories to us all watching them in recent years. But did we rock up in bonus territory and have no expectation of rattling cork. I just thought the body language looked timid and casual. There was a clip towards the end of first half with I think Doyle having a friendly chat with the ref and laughing. I just thought if you were being whipped by 20 points, would you not be like a bear ready to mow someone. I dont think our boys had any fire in them and that was a belief issue IMO. All first half I watched nearly every Offaly player stand 7 or 8 yards minimum off their men. You cant give quality players that space.

3. Giving away cheap scores. I'll use the first goal as an example. Look back at it. Offaly had an extra free man back standing on the line beside Hoare while Coleman lined up the sideline cut. I dont know what was the objective here. When the ball was struck he remained on the line beside Hoare instead of moving forward to cut out that ball. If we have a free man back there then he should be cutting out the space and if he was standing just inside the 14 then he cleans that ball very easy. I just dont know what they were at. It was like watching an u8 camogie game for that particular example. It was a simple opportunity handed to cork and set them up for what followed. As another poster mentioned, how many times did an offaly player meet a cork player coming through. And i dont mean dirt. I mean hit them hard and fair and prevent the runner passing and then overlapping to be a receiver option.

It is an incredible young team. They are fantastic to watch when in full flow. I dont think they performed like they can or should have at weekend. They were always going to struggle to be within 10 or 12 points playing well but it was a sloppy performance. Casual to the ball. Example Dan Bourke was very casual rising ball and he is a super young hurler and you dont get away with that against a team like Cork. Lets be frank, themselves and limerick are the best two squads in the country by some distance. You show weakness or fragility and they will go for blood. No mercy, any munster team will happily bury you if you dont bring it to them. Always proud of the lads, just disappointed as I dont think they performed like they are capable of.

[aigne]

Fully agree, I was disappointed in the performance after many excellent performances in Leinster Championship. There just seemed little fight or belief, and I thought the goals were poor to give away at this level. Great occasion walking through Thurles before match.

[aigne]

I won't be one bit surprised if Galway beat Cork

[Offaly Hero]

Cork will hammer Galway by 10+ and Cork will win the All-Ireland.

[backofthenet]

Cork will hammer Galway by 10+ and Cork will win the All-Ireland.

My opinion but im going to predict youre wrong on both counts. I think Galway have a chance if they show up & no one is beating limerick this year