OFFALY V KILKENNY.

[gutless08]

just home from game,same story, great first half awful second half, the back 7 were very gud, apart from maybe not taking sheflin out 4 first goal, a cynical team wud have taken the yellow card and stopped him out the field. mahon hurled reasonable at midfield, brave and honest . franks and dave kenny were very good and d horan was my man of match 4 the green white and gold, great reading, clearing, striking etc, a joy 2 watch and in no way intimitated when comerford tried it on, well done.
as 4 the forward line , very poor, nobody goes out 2 play a bad game but the half 4ward line were pathetic, if ya cant catch it pull hard and fair, brian hogan caught 6-7 clean balls. john troy had great flicks and touches but he cud also pull hard and centre backs tended 2 bat rather than catch when playing on him. the game hasnt changed in this area or has it? healion dropped 5 balls and didnt pull at all, v dissapointing, cleary not comfortable and while molloy tried hard , he may b mre effective full 4ward, hayden poor, alas carroll very bad , i got fooled on the laois performance, i thought he was up 4 it this year but very innefective against a strong but slow tyrell, perhaps he wud have taken him on if he had a laois jersey? think sean ryan and shane dooley shud start in qualifiers , maybe ryan cud be our cha. we gave our best and we shud make a good surge 4 qualifiers, finding a good centre forward is the key, any ideas?

[hailthegloriousCats]

Lads may I suggest that Offaly get rid of the green and white from yere jerseys. Ye betray the tricolour every time ye play with yere cowardice. All YELLOW will suit yefine. Go on the Cats.

[durra1]

Lads

Keep the powder dry on the criticism. There were some positives to be taken from today. The backs hurled very well and there was a lot of honesty throughout the park. Hopefully the u-21s can take something from today and bag a Leinster title. 11 and 14 are real problem positions for us. In reality we haven’t had an out and out 14 since Padraig Horan. We simply don’t have the luxury of selection of others. Any critique of management and/or tactics has to take cognisance of that fact.

Also keep the powder dry with regard our interloping Kilkenny ‘fan’. I’ve always found KK fans to be knowledgeable, decent hurling folk who are as gracious as can be in victory (unlike the real yellow bellies) –today at Portlaoise was no different.

[gutless08]

dear kilkenny fan,lets not forget the green and white was on our jerseys less than ten years ago when we beat ye in an all ireland.

[Kevin]

On Midlands Radio this PM I listened to Johnny Flaherty's post match comments. He was really going on a rant. Stuff along the lines of:

'Is this really where we are at?'

'Are our backs so fearful of Kilkenny that they need to give away frees 40 or 50 yards away from the goals?'

'Do we not have any forwards who can stick it over from scoreable positions?'

He was very wound up. He has his opinion and is certainly entitled to it. I am just wondering if this mirrors the thoughts of any around here who were able to see the game. Evidently he was expecting a good deal more than he saw.

The season is not over. I hope we can make something of the qualifiers.

[Lone Shark]

On Midlands Radio this PM I listened to Johnny Flaherty's post match comments. He was really going on a rant. Stuff along the lines of:

'Is this really where we are at?'
'Are our backs so fearful of Kilkenny that they need to give away frees 40 or 50 yards away from the goals?'
'Do we not have any forwards who can stick it over from scoreable positions?'

Johnny would do well to think before he speaks. As hurling development officer for the county for at least three years now (I'm going to say four but I'm not sure) the performance of our teams on the field are a direct reflection on him. If this was coming down the pipes, then it is Johnny's job to see where the problem is and to have steps in place to minimise the damage in the short term and to eliminate the problem in the long term. I'm not saying he can do everything but he is part of the establishment, and this reeks of the classic Fianna Fáil political trick of trying to be government and opposition all at once and hope that the public don't pick up on it.

Johnny, what I would like to know, is that if this is where we are at, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, what are you going to do about it? Either get your arse in gear or else step aside and give the job to someone who actually thinks they can improve matters.

[Lone Shark]

As regards the actual match, I'd be reluctant to go to town on them but for the fact that the effort level dropped siginificantly, and as Martin Hanamy said in his interview with the Sunday Tribune, that's not something that would ever have happened in his time. On the one hand I don't like hurlers from a bygone era talking about a completely changed game and shaking their fists going "in my day...." but in this case he is spot on. There is now way that lads like him, Kevin Martin, Duignan, Pilkington or those would have sat back and taken a beating the same way some of our lads did on Sunday.

As Bord na Mona man highlighted before the game, we have a real problem with our players throwing in the towel once the result is settled and that's not good to see, for either the short or long term. In this regard I would be very disappointed with some of the players out there. There was no slowing up against Laois when we were way in front, why was there here?

[naasmanxrhode]

We were an absolute disgrace again against the cats, nothing has changed in 10 years, we score 1-12 or 12 points, they score 3-19, 1-26, 2-24 etc, our backs played well enough until the first goal, then the same shite we drop our heads and await the final whistle, Dooley is interviewed and says Kilkenny are great blah blah blah. What has Dooley being doing, he knew since last year that we would be playing Kilkenny and had no plan a, b, c or d. We are now a laughing stock in hurling and football and ye say things might change in the qualifiers. Why will they. We would be better off taking time out or do like Kilkenny, play either hurling or football but not both and maybe we might win something. Our County Board should resign aswell.

[Bord na Mona man]

I think Offaly went out with the right approach. Lay hard into Kilkenny, not let them bully us physically as they have done during the Cody era. There were plenty of hard shoulders thrown in and plenty of endeavour early on.

Occasionally though I think the Offaly players were too fired up. Three men often went in to challenge the Kilkenny man in possession. It's great stuff when you do dispossess him, but if he gets a handpass away, then there is usually an unmarked man ready to receive.

The blood and thunder hurling is probably not sustainable for 70 minutes either. Greater experience will hopefully improve this. We also need to develop our game to not leave unmarked men

I know it will be flagged as the cry of a loser, but the ref shafted Offaly for most of yesterday. The Kilkenny chops, hits across the man in possession, pushes in the back and head high tackles were usually ignored. Offaly were penalised for most indiscretions and even a few dubious ones like Henry winning a free for pulling the jersey off Franks. A couple of Kilkenny handpasses were blatant throws also. When a clear Kilkenny wide gets flagged for a point, you know it’s not your day!

It wouldn't have made any difference, in the end, but Kilkenny did get an easy ride from the ref. I'm sure when Offaly were the big name, fans of weaker counties probably felt the same against us. Refs have a natural fear of penalising the big name team or the sacred cow player.

This is where Kilkenny are light years of where Offaly are too. They are masters of the dark arts of hurling as well as the ball skills. They establish the ref’s limits early on and work their gameplan from there. Last year the ref wasn’t as lenient on Kilkenny high tackles and Offaly got more points from frees.

Offaly need to be cuter when trying to physically take on their opponents.
Like the attempts at the blanket defence in football last week, it is hard to take instantly implement a gameplan that your opponents have been perfecting for years.

After half time Offaly were a beaten docket. It was a pity the game petered out in such a manner. Unfortunately it showed the gulf in class between the sides and showed why there won't be any short cuts back.
Even if a wired Offaly side put it up to Kilkenny with a full 70 minutes of gusto, Kilkenny could still win in 2nd gear and shorn of top players.
The Offaly catching, first time control and decision making wasn't up to scratch.

Also once you a send out a bunch of lads fired up to get stuck in, the tendency is to then throw their hat at it once it becomes clear that it won’t work. We need Offaly to hurl every game at a high tempo and a large amount of physicality, so it comes as second nature. It is not something you can suddenly do once a year for 70 minutes.

The long-term outlook is that we must stick with most of this group of players and work with them. Lads like David Kenny, Diarmuid Horan, Joe Bergin are the long term future of Offaly hurling.
What we mustn't do is keep chopping the squad up every year.
We could get into a cycle of a new manager every year, 10 new U21s added to the panel every year, only to be replaced by a new manager and 10 more new players the next.

The team needs to have sort of consistent selection too. We need to see roughly the same team playing through league and championship campaigns. Players need to be practicing in their positions for months to really do themselves justice. At the start of the year, you need to nail down who your full back, centre back, centre forward and full forward will be.
I'd hope that next year there isn't the same sort of musical chairs with Bergin, Kenny and finally Oakley at centre back for example.
It would also be no harm if no Offaly club got to the latter stages of the All Ireland club championship.

[Sydthebeat]

My plus points for the day were

1. David Kenny at full back. really put it up to Shefflin in the first half, wil lbe a match for most full forwards in the country
2. Ger Oakley, what more can be said, guts power and skill from the man
3. Franks, very assured and dogged

bad points

1. Brian carroll, missed basic free and 45, general workrate wasnt up where it should have been
2. midfield...... ?

Its understandable that blood and guts hurling cant be sustained for 70 mins, but there was a clear capitulation after the first goal.

I think the qualifiers will show in more detail exactly where we are on the scale....

[swiftpost]

I thought all backs hurled well considering the pressure they were under. Granted on occasion you saw KK scores were a result of simple concentration lapses, men losing track of their oppenents run`s off the ball etc. Distribution must improve.

Midfield worked hard ( Was Rigney injured? ) Mahon needs to relax a bit when he has the ball but for a 20 yr old he was good.

Nothing much upfront, shooting or tackling.

D Horan Offaly man of the match followed by kenny and Franks.

[brokenman]

Ref was abysmal yesterday, and while we all know we would have gone on to lose the game eventually it's tough to take some of those frees in the first half.

Overall can't have any complaints about the backs (maybe Brady looked a bit sluggish but was ok) but thats where the joy ends. Mahon was ok but his distribution has to improve. He's the very same in club games. I reckon Sean Ryan might have to start for qualifiers. As for the forwards it looks like a lost cause...Cleary experiment has not and will not work.

As the name suggests, i'm out of ideas!!

[Loughers]

Gutted but used to it at this stage. Rory will have to start in the forwards the next day. Hope his shooting boots are on. Who would ye prefer in our last game of the season? Personally, I'd prefer Limerick.

[brokenman]

Yeah surely avoiding Cork is the major prayer to be sayin at the moment and Clare will have their tails up after the Waterford match. Still, we took a fair beating off Limerick last couple of times. Doesn't look good. On the upshot though, if the backs play that well against any other team in the country then you'd be in with a shout! Blind optimism will reign once more!

[Bord na Mona man]

Personally, I'd prefer Limerick.

Jaz I dunno.
Limerick's last 3 scoreline against Offaly:
2-29
6-20
5-19

We can't seem to handle their agricultural hurling style, and high balls dropped into the square.