Offaly vs Laois

[Offalys Future]

1.B. Mullins
2.M.Verney
3.D.Kenny
4.D.Franks
5.G.Oakley
6.K.Brady
7.D.Horan
8.B.Murphy
9.S.Ryan
10.D.Molloy
11.P.Cleary
12.D.Currams/A.Egan
13.B.Carroll
14.B.Leonard
15.D.Hayden

[Sydthebeat]

where is the match scheduled for... croker?

nevermind... found out its in portloise.... happy days...

[beirut]

Heard a team something similar to that at the weekend, though one of the Healions was at Full Forward.

[baz]

they beat clare in a challanage at the weekend .would rather see cleary full back .i know hes not spectacular but how often was he taken to cleaners ? even oakley there or centre back where he played well aginst clare .kenny is a right good wing back and thats where he should be .why take your best wing back to put him full back without any championship experience there thats not going to do him anygood .so after a whole league campaign dooley can¬t decide the best spine of the team .after all the giving out of mcintyre by some at least he wasn`t far off the rest of the teams now we are on the road to nowhere .

[Lone Shark]

Why are we picking a championship team with 13 days to go until throw in would be my question???

[Offalys Future]

that looks like been the make up of the team and i want to know how the hell is that team going to beat Laois? never mind Kilkenny

[Lone Shark]

that looks like been the make up of the team and i want to know how the hell is that team going to beat Laois? never mind Kilkenny

Just out of curiosity, what are we basing this on? I'm not doubting you, I'm just wondering what the source of this knowledge is?

[Offalys Future]

last three practice matches. you wouldnt need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. Healion i meant to put at full instead of leonard.
i have to say i am extremely worried. Not with the backs really, Kenny will work well at full back, brendan murphy came back training last week, and you take Brian Carroll from the forwards where else will the scores come from?

[Aragorn]

Well lads, hope ye dont mind a Laois lad giving his two cents on the matter. After reading about the various injuries, players dropping out, bad training (and dare I say it, questions of nepotism?) I find myself thinking that Laois may just be about to see a great chance of finally beating Offaly wasted. You see, while things in Offaly might be bad, I really can't picture them being anything as bad as the total farce that is our senior set-up this year. I think both our dire situations stem from the same problem - letting a man with no intercounty experience take charge of a senior intercounty team. Put simply Fox is totally out of his depth, and has probably put Laois hurling back 5 years after good ground work was done with Paudie Butler. He can't train a team, he can't motivate a team, he can't pick a team and worst of all in contrast to "gentleman Joe", Fox treats the players with no respect (for eg, he told a clubmate of mine with a niggling hamstring twinge to do the sprints anyway, "shur you'll be grand").

As a result a lot of our better hurlers have opted out. Young rising stars John O Loughling and Cahir Healy chose to side with the footballers, as did Darren Rooney. Michael McEvoy is travelling for the year. Zane Keenen dropped off the panel. Worst of all though, young centre-back Matthew Whelan is ruled out for the year with a cruciate ligament injury. Long story short: we're missing around 8 players that played championship hurling against ye last year.

One thing is for certain, one of our two teams is in for an almighty beating off Kilkenny, should they prove themselves to be less inept than the other come May 25th.

[black and red exile]

Aragorn, what happened to Zane Keenan, Im certainly not sorry to see the back of him, this guy has all the makings of being a real class act, Ive seen him in action 4 times and there is no doubt he has all the makings of being the real deal and ye are definetly going to miss him, big time.

[black and red exile]

By the way guys very sorry about being the voice of doom and this is just a personal opinion but as a very passionate faithful supporter since I was 5 years old and that is a long time ago, If we get over Laois is there anybody on this site that seriously believes that we can get within 20 points of the all Ireland champions. It hurts me to say this but jesus help us I'm convinced we are in for one unholy hammering similar to June 12th 2005.

[green&white]

Oakley will be centre back i'd say from what I've heard! I wonder why Sean Ryan isnt featuring? Will Murphy be playing after such a layoff? Hannify and Bergin are serious losses.Will Shane Dooley be playin? Just a few question sthrown out there if anyone has some info!
Its hard to argue with the fact that we look like we're f%@ked against KK, but sure ya never know! We are the Faithful County and all that

[Hyper]

Aragorn, is Sean Sweeney not your fitness coach? I would have thought he would be up to the task of saying whether a guy was fit to train or not or is Fox just a bully?

[Aragorn]

Aragorn, what happened to Zane Keenan, Im certainly not sorry to see the back of him, this guy has all the makings of being a real class act, Ive seen him in action 4 times and there is no doubt he has all the makings of being the real deal and ye are definetly going to miss him, big time.

He was training away and playing very well for a lad in his first year, averaging 2/3 points from play from wing forward and chipping in with a few sideline cuts here and there. I dont know the lad myself, but I'd say he just got sick of the shite going on at training. He missed 2 or 3 trainings in a row without phoning in with an excuse, so Fox dropped him. On one hand, fair enough, but on the other hand a few others were missing a lot of trainings as well with nowt to say for it. I feel myself he was let go way too easily, contrast this with the mammoth efforts put in to get Kelly and Higgins back with the footballers and you get a glimpse of how things work in Laois. Late and all as things are now, I'd have him back in a shot.

[Aragorn]

Aragorn, is Sean Sweeney not your fitness coach? I would have thought he would be up to the task of saying whether a guy was fit to train or not or is Fox just a bully?

Its the latter I'm afraid Hyper. By all accounts Sweeney is a sound guy, the player in question probably made the mistake of going to the wrong man.

Another time another young player was approached before training and told to train regardless of a niggling injury or else he wouldn't be selected to play against Tipp. in the league at the weekend. The player stuck to his guns and didn't train. After training Fox went over to him and told him to get himself right for Sunday, you'll be starting against Tipp.

The bottom line is Fox doesn't give a damn about the players.