Offaly Minor Hurling 2010

[Lone Shark]

I have to say I think it's remarkable that there are so many people in Offaly who seem devoted to the "old" way of hurling, despite the fact that it has clearly passed on into history. Likewise the criteria for beign appointed to a minor management role should be someone who is pramarily and educator. As BnaM man said, there's no point expecting management to impart the basic skills if the players don't have these already, but a seventeen year old coming out of a year with the county minors should be well versed in physical preparation, in tactical awareness, in good percentage plays and in how to counteract markers with different techniques. I can't help but feel that we've had more than a few managers at this level who have had little more to offer than "I won loads of medals, now go out and hurl the schyte out of them because ye're from Offaly and this jersey is all important."

Lads will be listening to that kind of motivational claptrap all their lives. I'd wager that not too many Offaly minors have gone on to the field in recent years thinking that they are in the best shape and the best form of their lives, and that they are ready for what their opponents are about to do.

[Offalys Future]

Now i think we are all on the same wavelength well some of us anyway.
For too long teams have went out on the field unprepared. We are going into
2010 and its time Offaly hurling got with the times.

The last few lines from Lone Shark tell the tale of Offaly managers of all ages for the last 5 years.
Especially the game vs Kilkenny at senior level 2 years ago in portlaoise.
No plan, no idea go out and horse into them and hope for the best.

We are so far behind its incredible.
While i agree that skill levels need to be improved, i think the problem is far bigger.
The coaching in the schools is a joke. The academies have been a complete waste of time and money since
they were setup.
I repeat what i have said previously. There needs to be a complete clearout of people that are running these
academies and underage in Offaly.
I am calling for the county board in the best interests of Offaly hurling to call an open Gaa Forum and allow anyone
to have their say and get people who really want to get Offaly back to the top table to attend and get involved.
Now i am not talking about a forum where you have Ger Loughnane colm o rourke eugene mcgee and the rest of them
shitetalking about the past. We need our county to get together and work out a plan to save Offaly hurling because
trust me on this if there isnt big big changes soon we are finished as a competitive hurling county.

[old yellar]

wud u not think that its vey hard for a management team to correct bad coaching and poor standards? The management have the lads for 3 or 4 months, the clubs and schools have had these lads for 10 years. Let face it also the young lads at that age can be hard handle. A v obvious example in this years panel. Maybe look at these also before ye criticise management.

[Offalys Future]

But why is there bad coaching in the first place?
Because the county board dont hae a clue to run the academies and appoint people that no what they are
doing over these teams.
Man management skills can be used in order to handle younger players.

If the offaly minor team in 2009 had been trained properly in 2009 and coached properly.
They would have beaten Kilkenny and won the leinster mhc.
I have no doubt they would. They were not trained, coached or managed properly and that is why they lost

There is massive potential of players in Offaly at the moment but they are been ruined by managers that
hae no experience and shouldnt be training the team in the first place.

[leinsterman]

But why is there bad coaching in the first place?
Because the county board dont hae a clue to run the academies and appoint people that no what they are
doing over these teams.
Man management skills can be used in order to handle younger players.

If the offaly minor team in 2009 had been trained properly in 2009 and coached properly.
They would have beaten Kilkenny and won the leinster mhc.
I have no doubt they would. They were not trained, coached or managed properly and that is why they lost

There is massive potential of players in Offaly at the moment but they are been ruined by managers that
hae no experience and shouldnt be training the team in the first place.

well since you have all the answer's who would you like to see over the minors then, hurling isn't like football
if you don't have the skill's in you you won't make it football all you have to be is fit to make it look at sean og of cork
wasn't a good footballer but was fit and could run with the ball take a pass or pass it on its not rocket science
but in hurling you have to have the touch and wrist work to make it.

[Offalys Future]

thats last post doesnt make any sense.

correct me if i'm wrong but are you saying sean og o hailpin is not a good hurler?

[Lone Shark]

thats last post doesnt make any sense.

correct me if i'm wrong but are you saying sean og o hailpin is not a good hurler?

I'm pretty sure that was the standard hurling argument - hurling requires a glorious first touch and wonderful skills, while any old eejit could play football as long as they're fit enough. I had hoped that Birr people had shed this attitude, but it appears not.

[Offalys Future]

thats last post doesnt make any sense.

correct me if i'm wrong but are you saying sean og o hailpin is not a good hurler?

I'm pretty sure that was the standard hurling argument - hurling requires a glorious first touch and wonderful skills, while any old eejit could play football as long as they're fit enough. I had hoped that Birr people had shed this attitude, but it appears not.

Lone shark is still lad serious? jesus chriest

[leinsterman]

thats last post doesnt make any sense.

correct me if i'm wrong but are you saying sean og o hailpin is not a good hurler?

if you look at what i said sean og wasn't a good footballer he was a great hurler(bye the way didn't johnny p the lad you no time for
hurl him out the gate in 2000) look the rock played for cork as well the cork hurling full back didn't play all year yet walk on to the team
for the final against kerry did you ever see a footballer walk onto a hurling team for a final don't think so. the digger even got on the football
team in the 90s. stephen browne was called up to the minor footballers in 2000 a week before the leinster football final again dublin and came on after
20 mintues. so that will tell you about football

[GreatDayForTheParish]

if you look at what i said sean og wasn't a good footballer he was a great hurler(bye the way didn't johnny p the lad you no time for
hurl him out the gate in 2000) look the rock played for cork as well the cork hurling full back didn't play all year yet walk on to the team
for the final against kerry did you ever see a footballer walk onto a hurling team for a final don't think so. the digger even got on the football
team in the 90s. stephen browne was called up to the minor footballers in 2000 a week before the leinster football final again dublin and came on after
20 mintues. so that will tell you about football

Leinsterman, your posts are incomprehensible. Nobody is demanding that posts on this site be written in Shakespearean English. However, the omission of simple functions such as commas, full stops and capital letters is inexcusable. They take little time to insert and are ultimately for your own benefit, you could be making very valid points but your posts take so long to decipher that I’ve long since given up trying. I imagine I am not on my own in this regard.

I'm pretty sure that was the standard hurling argument - hurling requires a glorious first touch and wonderful skills, while any old eejit could play football as long as they're fit enough. I had hoped that Birr people had shed this attitude, but it appears not.

Ah come on now LS, lazy generalisation there.

[Lone Shark]

I'm pretty sure that was the standard hurling argument - hurling requires a glorious first touch and wonderful skills, while any old eejit could play football as long as they're fit enough. I had hoped that Birr people had shed this attitude, but it appears not.

Ah come on now LS, lazy generalisation there.

Fair point, duly acknowledged - certainly an unwarranted extrapolation. My apologies to any Birr folk out there who do support and chip in in the cause of Birr football.

[old yellar]

my point on the coaching is u need to have good club coaches to get the players to a certain standard first before the go to intercounty level. Also players need to up their game. We may have met ye last year, but also bt by wmeath, and i think we would have read your players very easy. Some were limited strikers and had very little to their game- not slagging them, just a comment. club scene is predictable up there..

[old yellar]

Just want to qualify my comments. I feel there is a lot of good work being done up there with the clubs and development squads, but i feel you need the lads at a certain standard before the come into the county panels. in kk etc you dont have to tell lads at 12/13/14 onwards to work on both sides, turn the hurl the right way to lift it, shorten the grip etc when the are in the development squads. this is an expected minimum. obviously a certain amount of technical coaching has to be done but this type of basic stuff shouldnt be required. this eats into the 12/16 week time slot that the county minor mangement team have to work in. lets face it, going by the guidelines now in place for county panels and training bans, most club teams will have the same if not more time together collectively to train in a year at that grade.
I think that the idea of the colleges a amalgamation mite be broadened and pushed too, maybe into senior level. these are great platforms for the lads to learn in. birr cs are competitive some years in A, but other years the arent. Kilcormac are now in voc b which is worrying, and the 2 tullamores and killina are in c. banagher hurl in voc a which is a decent standard though not at college a standard. i think kk have 3 schools in colleges a, all with realistic winning chances, 2 more in voc a, and 1 in colleges b and 1/2 in voc b/college c. so for 9 months of the year these lads are playing at the top level. upping the standard all the time has to improve the lads throughout the year has to be good and thus make the jump to intercounty hurling easier.
on the quetion of getting these mysterious people in and cleaning out all the current development squad people, i too would ask the question, who do you get into do the work? i see in my own county here we have the same talk from lads. its easy jibe at lads doing this work, but not always as easy point to a solution. both our counties are going through a building phase so we need to keep it positive.
finally i d like to wish the minor management and players all the best for the coming year. i dunno whether we ll get a lash at ye but apart from my own, i d like to see ye do well.

[bazza]

One thing that really gets to me with these minor sides is all the hype that seems to be going on around the panel in November and December. The same thing happened with Pilkington when he was over the team. All gungs ho in the middle of winter but when it came to May they couldn't hurl and I level the blame with the management for that. Why they cant just call 30 lads into the panel from viewing the Minor and u-16 championhips the summer previous is beyond me. Ok there will be 5/6 players going in and out based on schools form and interest, etc but that will be it. Someone is going to reply to this by saying Management need to look at the players in trials. If a new management coming in doesn't know the players he shouldn't be let near the team. Jaysus, I could tell ye the main men to be on an Offaly panel from minor to senior, hurling or football and i'm sure many of ye could to. Leave them hurl with Birr CS, Banagher, K/K and Roscrea and let them come into the panel fresh in the new year. Get the organised, committed, sharp and you'l go a long way I feel.

P.S. I accept the North Offaly hurlers in schools wont be hurling at a high level but calling in the whole panel in the midsth of winter for the sake of one or two lads isn't on. North Offaly schools are a joke when it comes to hurling but thats another matter altogether.

[aaaahhhh]

P.S. I accept the North Offaly hurlers in schools wont be hurling at a high level but calling in the whole panel in the midsth of winter for the sake of one or two lads isn't on. North Offaly schools are a joke when it comes to hurling but thats another matter altogether

from reading the above quote im a bit surprised. There is 1 school in 'south offaly' that is Birr which has over 1000 pupils. The other, banagher, doesnt participate in football competitions(not sure about Birr football?)


kk school is going strong, great to see.(all ireland semi)
killina , as far as i am aware are in b hurling, (kk in b vocational schools) and still in it.
however, i agree the 2 tullamore schools effort probably isnt what it should be? but size should be taken into account as they have probably less than 1/2 the amount of hurlers birr have. and they may not be as committed to their schools as their clubs.


therefore it is unfair to say "North Offaly schools are a joke when it comes to hurling" as a great effort seems to be put in in kk and killina.