A Disgrace

[Offalys Future]

What the hell is going on in our county?

In less than 13 weeks time the u-21's take the field in Kilkenny against the reigning all-ireland champions at this level.
And yet there is no management team been put in place for Offaly. No trainer, no selectors.
This is an absolute disgrace and it just shows the lack of leadership , ambition etc at county board level.
Kilkenny have been training hard for the past 8 weeks.

Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?
Is this acceptable?
Jesus Chriest i am sick to the teeth of the way hurling is orgainsed, administered, coached in our county.
How Johnny Pilkington could be let over the minor team again after been beaten by carlow and hammered by wexford is beyond me.
Its a complete shambles if you ask me.

And another thing, there is too much rubbish been spoken about Offaly hurling lately.
Only last week you had Michael Duigan on tv saying that great stuff is been done at underage.

He mentioned Birr winning against Kierans.
Anybody that knows anything about hurling will tell you that Kierans are not
what they used to be since the boarding school was closed.
The same birr team i went to watch last week and got hammered by 11 points.
9 points down after 35 mins of the match.

He also mentioned Roscrea winning the Munster voactional schools
Jesus vocational school hurling doesnt involve all the college teams in Munster.
Its a very poor competition. He didnt mention Causeway beating Roscrea in Junior by over 20 points though did he.
Or the same Causeway team beating Banagher last week.

Its people and attitudes like Michael Duigan that are ruining Offaly hurling at the moment.
He is afraid to tell it the way it is, instead he praises past hurlers that are his friends.
Guys that dont have a clue what they are doing over our best hurlers in the county.

Its high time people copped themselves on and stopped living in dreamland.
the time for change is now.

[turk]

No U-21 management at this stage?? I was wondering who was in charge. Is even a panel training at this stage??

[Lone Shark]

In fairness it does seem ridiculous that we've an under 21 club championship starting at the weekend and we've no management in place to keep an eye on the games to see who shows up well and what lads are bubbling under.

I'd hope that it's a case of the names haven't been released rather than the names haven't been appointed, but you never know.

[Offalys Future]

Its a complete and utter joke if you ask me.
What hope have a team of competing with Kilkenny in 13 weeks. Not a chance.

Imagine a chairman coming out and saying that they havent a u-21 manager because
"the appointment of a replacement for Richie Connor has taken precedence"
33 weeks ago today Offaly were hammered by Kilkenny in the Leinster Final and the
chairman to come out with a statement like this is complete and utter bullshit.

Its too late now anyway.

A panel should have been put in place before xmas. Then you would have had 20 club hurlers
getting at least 1 good nights training a week (should be training 3 nights a week). All these players could have been given weights
and strength training. Add the 11 on the senior panel to this and it would have been some preparation.
Instead what you have is 11 lads getting good training under Joe Dooley and then depending on
club hurlers that have been getting little or no training at club level to be able to compete with Kilkenny.

Its just not possible and the result in 13 weeks will prove that.

[John]

Whatever about personal weight training, no intercounty U-21 panel was allowed train as a group before March 1st. If you have solid evidence that the Kilkenny panel breached this rule for the past 8 weeks then report them.

[joe bloggs]

Whatever about personal weight training, no intercounty U-21 panel was allowed train as a group before March 1st. If you have solid evidence that the Kilkenny panel breached this rule for the past 8 weeks then report them.

John you are wrong on that one. No minor training was allowed before March 1st and Under 21 collective training is actualy banned until May 1st. The way around that is a county development squad which is probably what the cats are doing.

[Kennyrodgers]

Its very bad form alright to say that in march that there is something more important that finding a manager for the u-21 hurling team!! every team should be treated with equal importance but what i dont understand is how would the senior football interfere when there was a committee set up for finding an u-21 management team in january and those lads had nothing to do with finding a football manager, the chairman obviously talking through his arse for want of a better word!!!!

[Bord na Mona man]

I wonder are Offaly the only county who heed these training bans?
When Offaly were tanked by Dublin in the O'Byrne Cup, the reason given was that the training embargo.
Which made absolutely no sense, as in theory Dublin should have been as woeful as Offaly under those rules.
The 3rd string Dublin side were 2 gears above Offaly and I can guarantee you they didn't spend their Christmas kicking their heels waiting for training to start.

In the case of the U21s ban, what was to stop Offaly having a senior panel of 45 players, with all the U21s doing the same training as the seniors?
There should be at least a management team in place to watch any prospects for the panel.

My guess is that saving money is the biggest driver.

[Offalys Future]

Oh you can be sure saving money is a big thing alright.

But i think thats not the main problem. The biggest problem now in offaly at all grades
is that nobody at county board level and very few trainers in the county know how to prepare
a team to win a leinster or all-ireland championship. Or to even compete at this level at any grade.
And unless that changes all teams are wasting their time.

[lovelyhurling]

kilkenny arent training yet either and thats fact..i thought horan would be manager again