Biddy Earley curse on Offaly?

[Bord na Mona man]

I can say this without hesitation, that in the last 5 years, no county in Ireland has suffered as many shocks, surprises, robberies, ridings and routs as Offaly.
No county comes near!
We have come to expect it now. I'm fcuking sick of it, but that's a matter for the Samaritans.

There must be some greater force at work here. Has Offaly been cursed by a witch?
Did the evil Gerlock of Clare put a curse on us after 1998? Or Micko because of 1982? What about all our bitter neighbours? The list of possible suspects would be massive. Cos lets face it, we were jealously hated for years.

God be with the days when an Offaly defeat would trigger a rash of jeering and gloating text messages.
Now it's sympathy. That's how far we've fallen.

Needless to say, it will make our return to glory all the sweeter.
The vengeance we will wreak will be most gratifying!

[Kevin]

To have the neighbors despise us is a badge of honor.

[Lone Shark]

There is no curse. To be honest in the last five years, it's hard to recall too many "hard luck" stories for the hurlers. The league system was deeply flawed last year, but we still had a home game against Laois to stay up, which we lost. In the championship generally our defeats have been comfortable and deserved - we're just not that good.

The footballers could claim to have got the brunt of some awful breaks, but there never seems to be a willingness to create those breaks for themselves. Our play is characterised by nervousness and a lack of confidence, which invariably invites disaster. How many times have we been on the sideline trailing narrowly with 5 minutes or less to go while the opposition carefully protects the football and holds possession, or agonisingly winds down the clock by going down for injuries or committing fouls? Now ask yourself do Offaly do any of these things? Did anybody think out loud to calm the footballers down on Saturday evening, hold possession, kill the clock, on the grounds that because of the hurling extra time was not possible, and I'd fancy our chances of beating Carlow over seventy minutes in Tullamore a lot more than over 2 mins in Carlow in front of a baying crowd. But instead we gave away the ball chasing the win, and conceded a score.

We need to be more assured and able to do the right things when it matters most, and we aren't. That's management, that's the senior players, but it certainly ain't a curse.

[Bord na Mona man]

To be honest in the last five years, it's hard to recall too many "hard luck" stories for the hurlers.

Wexford 2003 and 2004.
Both games we had the winning of.
2003 we were well in control leading by 8 points.
Diggy having scored 3 points gets belted over the head by Fenlon and has to go off.
Mike Mac's failure to break Wexford's momentum from the line.
Brian Carroll putting a last minute free wide to an ear-drum bursting chorus of boos from Wexford fans.

2004
All the goal shots saved by Fitzhenry.
Worse, was all the missed frees that could have put us out of sight.
Sid going off injured and the excessive and disruptive switches that followed which gave Wexford the winning scores.

The other hurling defeats would go under the category of routs!

[Lone Shark]

2003 I'll give you. I'm not sure again if hard luck or management incompetance sums it up better, but there was a lot of breaks went against us.

2004 was different - yeah Fitzhenry made the saves, but the fact that our finishing was poo doesn't make it "unlucky". It just means that finishing and goalkeeping was the difference.