Offaly Team Named

[Ron]

Taken from Gaa.ie

Wednesday, July 6

Offaly boss John McIntryre has rewarded the 15 players that came so close to shocking Clare by naming them all again in his side to face Dublin in their Guinness All-Ireland SHC Qualifier at the weekend.

Sadly for the Faithful, their two reverses against Waterford and the Banner mean that they cannot qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals, but they'll be expected, at least, to record their first win of the championship at Parnell Park on Saturday.

Brian Whelahan starts at wing back in what could well be his last appearance in a Faithful jersey, which will be enough to entice many Offaly fans to the Dublin venue. It's hardly appropriate that the Birr legend will end it all in such modest surroundings, but 2005 just wasn't to be as far as Offaly hurling was concerned.

Dylan Hayden, one of the stars for the future, starts again at corner forward, while Ger Oakley leads the defence at full back. The Hannifys, Gary and Rory, both start once more.

Offaly - B Mullins; K Brady, G Oakley, P Cleary; B Whelahan, R Hanniffy, B Teehan; M Cordial, G Hanniffy; B Murphy, M O'Hara, S Browne; B Carroll, A Hanrahan, D Hayden.

[Bord na Mona man]

Interesting how much the line up has changed since "that" match.
We seemed to have learned a lot about ourselves at least.
If we had played Division 1 hurling this year, we would have booked a place for ourselves in the quarters.
Sadly we found out what (arguably) our best team was 2 months after everyone else.

[Kevin]

We've paid heavily for not having the right alignment.

I hope they stick with McIntyre. After the KK debacle he and the lads could have thrown in the towel, but that obviously has not been the case. Steady improvement without the results unfortunately. The lack of scoring late in the game last week was unfortunate, but whatever.

The Dublin game won't get us to the Q Finals, but I hope the lads are ready to tear into them all the same. Its been a tough summer, but all is not lost. Time to show that we've got it right by putting Dublin away early and not even giving them any silly thoughts of a comeback at any stage.

Semper Fi

[Lone Shark]

I don't think firing McIntyre will even be contemplated to be honest.

He mightn't get as glowing an end of term report as he'd like, but them main reason we messed up this season was a legacy of the Mike Mac era, hurling in division 2. McIntyre was given no opportunity to put his team together as he'd like and try things out, and even our own notoriously impatient county board will be able to see that.

I think Saturday is just a case of putting in a solid performance and not letting concentration lapse. If Clare could beat these by seventeen we certainly can too. I don't expect that because dishing out hammerings is not usually our thing, and matching the intensity shown in Portlaoise might be a big ask.

But even so I'd hope that the lads will take the momentum from the last 100 minutes of hurling and keep it going. Preparing for 2006 starts now.