Offaly vs Down - Walsh Cup

[Offalys Future]

No team announced yet.
Team played UL last weekend, alot of new faces from what i gather.
I expect the same this weekend. Would be important to make sure and get the win though.
Match in Tullamore.

[Lone Shark]

Quick question - off the top of my head I can't recall any of the Ulster teams ever getting a home draw in this competition - is it part of the deal that if you enter from outside Leinster you must get any away draw? Seems harsh is all.

Twill be interesting to see all the same - OF, any chance you'd know the teamsheet or result from that UL game? Just out of curiosity like....

[Aweflee]

AFAIK the Ulster teams are treated as "guests" so they have to travel to whatever Leinster county they're playing.

[Offalys Future]

Dont know the exact team from the ul game, i think it was Offaly that won by a point.
Not alot could be taken from this or this weekends game to be honest.

[Lone Shark]

AFAIK the Ulster teams are treated as "guests" so they have to travel to whatever Leinster county they're playing.

Fair enough. On the one hand, I suppose it's fair enough in that it is a traditional Leinster competition, but on the other hand you'd think maybe we'd be doing a bit more to help them out up there? It doesn't exactly make it likely that they'll get a run in the competition either. Plus it might be a bit more of a test of an Offaly panel to have to play Down somewhere out in Ards rather than at home, where I would assume we'll win with a bit to spare.

Welcome aboard btw - always good to have another voice!

[black and red exile]

Yeah looking forward to the hurlers first competitive game of the year on Sunday. Lets hope that there is a half decent crowd there to see gentleman joe's first game in charge, although with the one o clock throw in it will probably be the usual faces dotted around the stand, I know when our County teams are going through a bad time the support they get is a disgrace and the attendence over the last two Sundays for the football games were dire to say the least. It would be a nice surprise to get a good crowd in O' Connor PK this week despite the opposition and the early start but we all know the chances of that happening.

[flairgun]

You never know, there might be some extra numbers drawn due to the additional interest in watching Joe's sideline performance.
I expect we'll hear some people using this game as a platform to explain why he's not right for the job, regardless of the result.

[Offalys Future]

Joe Dooley and his management style and team will be judged from championship results thats all.
Certainly not by a game vs Down on the 20th of January.
Pity not a minor game or something on also, beating Down by 20 plus points does nothing for anybody.

[rocket57]

Game against UL wan not bad but only won by a point and that was only because of the goals and i know that goals win matches UL were the better team and the best player for Offaly was playing for UL Sean Ryan stood out above everyone for the first half but none the ess a good workout for them and see the beat Carlow on wedensday by 12 points is that right

[Loughers]

UL and Carlow. What good do we get from playing these? I'm not saying we should be playing KK, but surely we should be playing teams better than what Birr are playing.

[Offalys Future]

Matches at this time of year do very little for any player.
Pitches are a mess like against Carlow during the week.

The reason i feel manager plays these is to keep lads interested. If Offaly are training on weekend about maybe 24 - 28 lads training at max so therefore the games they play are 12/13 aside that idnt worth a damn. So by getting these games it gives the players a break from the hard training.

They only bet UL by Point and Carlow by 8 so the games must have been somewhat competitive.

[Offalys Future]

Game cancelled - No date set for reply so far.

[Kevin]

Kilkenny beat by Antrim
Wexford quietly slipping past Laois

Suely it wouldn't do us any harm to charge out and really try to win this?

[Offalys Future]

Ya you are dead right Kevin. Would be great for confidence to get a good win against Down and have a crack at Wexford. Its a pity Kilkenny are gone though because it would have been nice to get a game from them if the lads can win the above two games.
Now we won't meet Kilkenny until the championship unless a league match which is unlikely.

It will give a huge boost to the whole squad if they can beat Wexford and i expect Joe to play his strongest 15 available.

No word on the Down game, i heard it was to be played under lights during the week but no fixture posted as of yet.

[Lone Shark]

Tis up on Leinster GAA for Ballymun on Thursday evening at 8.15pm.

I presume our lack of lights cost us home advantage here, though there aren't too many lights around that are good enough for hurling as far as I know.