Maybe you should apply for one of the jobs next year so Bazza seeing as you have such a great knowledge of all the players in the county from minor to senior, in both hurling and football I might add. Very impressive indeed. Only in Offaly would management get blamed for looking at all players available to them-shame on them for giving everyone a chance and trying to pick the very best panel available. I read an interview with Mattie Murphy, the Galway minor manager last year saying he did something similar-looked at and called in over a hundred players from as far back as October for trial games. Didn't served them too bad did it?
Reagrding the issue with Mattie Murphy and Galway minors, Galway minor hurlers don't start there championship until late July at the earliest every year so Murphy would have a lot of time to see a lot players. However I have to dispute the fact that he started trials last October, it's just not true, those were development squads at best. Can you honestly say they were doing the kind of training/matches in mid October just a month after their All-Ireland final loss that Offaly have been up to November in the past few seasons? Also, Galway is a far bigger county with far more talented players so it will obviously take them a while to whittle the numbers down, but they look at these players very gradually.
With regard to this "giving everyone a chance" bull, I just dont agree with it. For me a player gets his chance to impress in mid season in important club or school matches and not on some small, soggy pitch in the middle of November. Managers should be at these games, full stop. And if the management team hasn't been appointed in time one great thing about Offaly is our small area. On the minor hurling management this year there are at least 4 or 5 men from different clubs, as far as I know. How many underage hurling clubs are there in Offaly? 10/12 competitive ones. Call in the best from your own club on club/school form and management use their contacts plus experience from other club matches to call in the rest. Keep the panel dynamic through the year by bringing in fresh faces and leaving go disinterested or poor formed players. Simple stuff really.
Use breaks like Christmas and mid-terms to the full advantage of the young lads by training hard then and getting spirit going. Come the month of May when we have to play Westmeath or Carlow on a dry big pitch with proper referees, the training will be done, the players and management wont be sick of the sight of each other having looked at one and other since last winter and we have done all we can!
