Allianz-Hurling-league 1B

[Bord na Mona man]

That's the problem now. A ref who goes about enforcing the rules as they are written is going to baffle everyone.

Why don't we just enforce the existing ones as they stand, or else rewrite them to fit with how the game has evolved?

[Lone Shark]

Certainly Gerry Russell felt that the ref ruined the game and did not let it flow? Is it a case that the ref did little wrong in that he blew for everything that resembled a free, instead of allowing advantage.

Ah well if Gerry Russell felt it......

Sorry, I'm not trying to be facetious, but I was frustrated yesterday by Offaly's inability to tackle legally and I get doubly annoyed when people put it back on the ref. Offaly need to learn how to tackle, this habit of flicking the hurl in the general area of the sliothar is dynamite.

In terms of advantage, it's rare in hurling that a team is better off being allowed to play on rather than take a free. We all saw it yesterday - Dooley and Morris were both striking their placed balls very well and unless a clear goalscoring opportunity materialised, there was no advantage to either team in letting them play on. As for overcarrying, well I though he could have called it a lot more than he did. Just because Barry Kelly and John Sexton let lads carry the ball for ten steps with fellas wearing timber off the player doesn't mean that it's the right way to referee.

At some stage you have to turn things back on the players for the amount of stoppages - there were guys out there in Offaly jerseys yesterday, and a few Wexford lads too, who clearly have no idea how to tackle properly and then they whinge when they get whistled a lot.

[Plain of the Herbs]

DAF - I'm just glad to see a referee penalise steps. It also rewarded good tackling technique where a player who was surrounded by an army of opponents was forced into either releasing the ball or giving away the free.

Townman - The reason there were so many frees was because bad tackling technique was so much in evidence. I suspect that the only tackling techniques that are coached are hooking and blocking. Which is fine when the opponent is striking the ball. When he is not, what does the tackler do? Players are too quick to wrap the arm around a fella needlessly, or 'chop' across a fella with the hurl. You can't do either and expect the referee will let the game flow.

Ahl - Like, what's an acceptable number of frees in a hurling match? Maybe 20? 30? What happens when we go over that? Generally we assume the referee had made a bollix of the game. Ditto for yellow cards. Anything over, say, 8 and the line is spun "but it wasn't a dirty game". Maybe not, but if 25 individual fouls each warranted a yellow card then so be it.

So, is there an unofficial 'quota' of frees and yellow cards? Possibly so. We can't have that. now we're into that bugbear known as 'inconsistency' where no free is awarded within, say, two minutes of the previous one. Shur we can't have that. And we can't have a game like what Brian Cody is quoted today as demanding, where fellas can bash their way around the place, and isn't it a grand physical game and we've got Peter O'Mahony-type rugby wing-forwards carrying sticks, yet at the same time there's nothing wrong with rules..

Bottom line - people are going to have to learn how to tackle. Perhaps blowing for everything, rather that the unofficial 'quota' system that I suspect exists, is the only way to make coaches and players see sense. The alternative is to go to congress, increase the permitted number of steps and allow the frontal charge.

[townman]

i have no problem with blowing for to many steps, but jesus one time there was at least two wexford men on top of Kevin Brady and he gave a free again him.

what i though he was poor at was he never allow advantage to both sides calling back the
play when offaly or wexford players had the advantage of the play.

the one thing i have notice in games and all refs don't do it is pucking the ball out before the ref blows for it. 2 yesterday Fanning the wexford keeper done it and i remember once in the first half Dempsey pucked it to Chris McDonald before the ref blew it.

also in the Dublin game Maguire the Dublin keeper was at it, just the next game you are at
just keep an eye on it and see how many times keepers puck out the ball before the ref blows, now some refs do bring back the play if it is pucked out before his whistle but not them all.

[Bord na Mona man]

Have to agree. The bad tackling, such as swiping near the hands of opponents, is why Offaly have one of the worst disciplinary records in hurling in the last 5 or 6 years, despite being one of the least physically imposing teams.

[Lone Shark]

i have no problem with blowing for to many steps, but jesus one time there was at least two wexford men on top of Kevin Brady and he gave a free again him.

So what exactly are the Wexford lads supposed to do here - step back and let Brady have a free swipe? The rule is clear, KB should have dropped the ball to avoid the free and he didn't.

And do you honestly think there was any "advantage" to letting lads play on yesterday when neither side was shooting well and both Morris and Dooley were nailing frees? It's not like he pulled guys back who were clean through on goal or anything.

[townman]

LS you try and hit a ball with a 11 or 12 stone man sitting on yer back the other holding your hurl.

[Lone Shark]

LS you try and hit a ball with a 11 or 12 stone man sitting on yer back the other holding your hurl.

If there was a hold of the hurl or a push in the back, then that's a free - I didn't see either of those though. I thought two Wexford men came in and tackled legally. Ten lads can come in and tackle legally if they want, you don't get a free for sympathy. You just need to do better at not taking the ball into traffic when you can't break out.

[Toxicity234]

A win is a win.
You have to be happy with that. Keeping Wexford to 14 points was a good sign as well. It’s easier to win a match when you defend well, and we did defend well. Wexford only scored 4 points in the second half. Paul Cleary was getting drawing out the field and played in around centre back for a good bit of the second half. He played very well.

I thought our half forward were ok, broke up a lot of play and if our finishing had being better, we could have make out of sight going into the last 10 mins. Wexford miss a lot of score's and so did Offaly. there was a lot of hopeful shooting. James Mulrooney, Colin Egan and Shane Dooley all had goals chance's we could have scored.

Tom Carroll and Sean Ryan were good when they came on. Tom Carroll looks like he has improved from last year by 20%. He has a bit of vision and drift's into good position when he came on. he work hard as well in the 10 mins or so that he was on he turned over the ball 3 times and got two hook's in. Excellent work from him.

We didn't use the wind as well as we could have. Every time the ball went in long and fast we look very dangerous but a lot of the time we were dropping the ball into the centre back hand.

Pucks out were a major problem against Dublin, Yesterday the wind meant that in the first half our puck out were dropping in between our half back and midfield for the first half. That was hard work for both our midfielders. In the second half they were dropping well into the Wexford half. We did ok yesterday. I still think we can make a improvement here.

Our tackling yesterday was hit and miss. But at least we were making the effort to try and tackle. There was not easy give to Wexford yesterday but there still massive amounts of work to be do on this area of the game.

One other thing that I thought we could improve on yesterday was in the air two Offaly players going for the one ball. It’s not a big thing but Offaly player could be call for it, so the other player can step back and pick up the break. It’s a simple thing but it could mean we get fast ball back into our forward line.

Some good sign's yesterday but a lot of work still to be done. But this results mean nothing if we don't beat Carlow on the 18th.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Carlow wont be a given, they have put in 2 very good displays so far against Limerick and Wexford. Twill need our lads to be well focussed to get the win down there.
Vital game, if we win that, there should be a decent crowd behind the team in for the home game v Limerick.
We have a chance to get a bit of a run going now, a nice run of games, and hopefully a bit of consistency would be important for the build up to the championship.

[Plain of the Herbs]

A Kilkenny referee (Seán Cleere) down to referee the Carlow match. Won't be using the whistle at all at all. At this stage I'd be calling up Peter Dooley.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

He did the KK v Oulart match. Indeed he did let it go.

[signinlate]

People around me were fairly frustrated with the referee pulling up players for too many steps however the ref was correct on the calls regarding steps, its just that the steps rule has been ignored by most referees for so long.

Perhaps the best way to police the steps rule is to have "steps" ref whose sole job is to count steps.

[Sharp Eye]

If you 'think' that's the case then perhaps you shouldn't think too much.

I must say that I am surprised that Sean Gardiner was selected at midfield. I thought he struggled at midfield for the secondhalf of last year's Co Intermediate Final. He must surely have more to offer in defence. I hope David Kenny is fully fit as his two cornerbacks seem to very out of their depth at this level. It looks like a difficult contest for Offaly.

In the second half of the Intermediate Co Final the two St Rynaghs midfielders who did not even make the St Rynaghs senior panel had the better of the exchanges. I was not surprised that Sean Gardiner and one of our cornerbacks did not play in the secondhalf. David Kenny's contribution was recognised today by the "Hoganstand Hurling Team of the Week Selectors".

Maybe my thoughts are not that far off the mark

[joe bloggs]

If you 'think' that's the case then perhaps you shouldn't think too much.

I must say that I am surprised that Sean Gardiner was selected at midfield. I thought he struggled at midfield for the secondhalf of last year's Co Intermediate Final. He must surely have more to offer in defence. I hope David Kenny is fully fit as his two cornerbacks seem to very out of their depth at this level. It looks like a difficult contest for Offaly.

In the second half of the Intermediate Co Final the two St Rynaghs midfielders who did not even make the St Rynaghs senior panel had the better of the exchanges. I was not surprised that Sean Gardiner and one of our cornerbacks did not play in the secondhalf. David Kenny's contribution was recognised today by the "Hoganstand Hurling Team of the Week Selectors".

Maybe my thoughts are not that far off the mark

Just like the "reds" that once ruled Russia, it would appear that our resident red from Lusmagh thinks that no one else can have a thought.