www.uibhfhaili.com

Thurles probably. 25-30k at it I'd say if I had to guess.

It will either be a double header in Croke Park with Clare V Dublin, or both will be stand alone fixtures on Saturday and Sunday in Thurles.

A double header in Thurles would not carry the crowd i'd imagine. Cork would bring 18000 - 20,000. Offaly will bring 10,000 i'd expect. That wouldn't leave enough room for other teams for double header in Thurles. Might come down to TV and what else is on that weekend in the big ball i'd say.

Cork fan here. I really hope it’s not a double header as Cork will probably fill Thurles for any Championship game these days. Best of luck anyway, I’m looking forward to it.

God I hope it’s in Croke Park.
In addition to the points I made above about Thurles, doesn’t Thurles also have that issue with unassigned seating?

I remember from the U20 final against cork three years ago having to get in to the stand 90 minutes early to try and get a seat.

Not the case. Thurles has assigned seating.

Thurles the ideal venue for this. 45 minutes drive from Birr.

Offaly Hero wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2026 9:21 pm God I hope it’s in Croke Park.
In addition to the points I made above about Thurles, doesn’t Thurles also have that issue with unassigned seating?

I remember from the U20 final against cork three years ago having to get in to the stand 90 minutes early to try and get a seat.

Plain of the Herbs wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2026 10:10 pm Not the case. Thurles has assigned seating.

Thurles the ideal venue for this. 45 minutes drive from Birr.

Offaly Hero wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2026 9:21 pm God I hope it’s in Croke Park.
In addition to the points I made above about Thurles, doesn’t Thurles also have that issue with unassigned seating?

I remember from the U20 final against cork three years ago having to get in to the stand 90 minutes early to try and get a seat.

Well then they definitely didn’t use the assigned seating for that U-20 final.
Croke park for me.

Would Tullamore take clare and Dublin.

Portlaoise gets a lot of games.
What would happen if we make the tailteann Cup semi finals that weekend. Where would that be on..

Offaly Hero wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2026 10:27 pm

Plain of the Herbs wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2026 10:10 pm Not the case. Thurles has assigned seating.

Thurles the ideal venue for this. 45 minutes drive from Birr.

Offaly Hero wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2026 9:21 pm God I hope it’s in Croke Park.
In addition to the points I made above about Thurles, doesn’t Thurles also have that issue with unassigned seating?

I remember from the U20 final against cork three years ago having to get in to the stand 90 minutes early to try and get a seat.

Well then they definitely didn’t use the assigned seating for that U-20 final.
Croke park for me.

Only 29k at that final. No assigned seating in effect on that particular day. Assigned seating generally only happens outside of Croke Park for high demand, sell out games. Nowlan Park had it in 2024 but didn't bother with it back in 2022.

What do people think of the refereeing yesterday?

For me it was amusing as a mainly football man to see the ref in the Munster final generally castigated for implementing the rules. Also I've listened to a couple of serious discussions about the state of hurling and most of the hurling royalty don't see any issue with it.
Marty seemed to question hegartys yellow card despite that in slow motion it showed 2 taps across the cork player.
He thought ref was too picky. Personally I thought he got calls right and wrong as much as any ref, but the players genuinely have no idea whats a free and not. Plus the dark arts of holding in a tacklers arm or hurl are so well coached now that refs often miss them too. Plus game is so fast and physical, it is hard to make out whos the guilty party.
Game was stop start alright from what we are used to. But to be honest I don't know how a lad coaching club players could set out to coach as per the rules and then look at that.

Seems to me what the hurling roylaty want is a rule book...ish..type of "tis only handbags" thing, and shur allow for conditions, tis too wet, too sunny, too windy, yerra shur what do you want the rule book for anyway? Tis only for the disiiiippplinrree commisshy!!

The tackle is the one area of common ground in both hurling and football, no one has a scooby! And we like ambigiuity in gaa

I had no problem with the amount of frees James Owens gave, both teams were ill-disciplined in the tackle.
He did fall for a few alright, where lads grabbed the hurl or dipped the head.
He gave Cork every chance to draw it too, he had gone a minute over before cork got the free.
If anything, he should have added on more time in the first place, there were countless stoppages in the second half.

And if he was good/bad, he applied it across the board - neither side got the rub of the green, no matter what Ben O’Connor tries to say.

Any white smoke from the CCCCCCCCCCC on the 1/4 final venue/venues or do they require another week to think about it?

Confirmed. Thurles, 3.30pm on the Sunday.

Clare v Dublin in Thurles at 7pm on the Saturday.

Press release a few minutes ago.

For the Thurles sceptics, Offaly have played in Thurles seven times in Senior championship hurling, winning three and losing four. Some great days there.

1984 - beat Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final
1984 - lost the All-Ireland Final to Cork
1998 - beat Clare - everyone recalls that one!
2002 - lost a Leinster semi-final to Kilkenny
2003 - beat Limerick in a Thursday evening qualifier
2007 - threw away a qualifier to Tipperary
2008 - lost to Waterford in a qualifier.

Bonus territory.
No expectations.
No pressure.
Nothing to lose.

Bring it on!

What do expect the attendance to be at this game I wonder.

Seemingly Cork have sold out their last 14 championship fixtures. However the anticipation would be they will win this handy so some fans may keep their money for trips they expect to be making to Dublin.

I still would expect them to bring in the region of 20,000 supporters though. Cork to Thurles is a handy journey with a motorway to Horse and Jockey. And I have just checked and all trains from Cork that would make Thurles in time are sold out.

All in all a crowd of around 30,000 is likely.