Offaly Under 21 Hurling Championship

[bazza]

Great win for St. Mal's yesterday to go down to Kinnitty, home of 4 All-Stars, and win by 1-17 to 2-5. Another good win for North Offaly hurling but jaysus lads what is goin down in South Offaly. I'm not winding anyone up here but would a Kinnitty U-21 side not be expected to put up a better fight? Does anyone know the draw for the semis? Malachys will give the championship a good rattle I feel. Who'd have thought the Senior, Intermediate, U-21 and Junior B hurling titles could all be on the North offaly mantle!

[leinsterman]

Great win for St. Mal's yesterday to go down to Kinnitty, home of 4 All-Stars, and win by 1-17 to 2-5. Another good win for North Offaly hurling but jaysus lads what is goin down in South Offaly. I'm not winding anyone up here but would a Kinnitty U-21 side not be expected to put up a better fight? Does anyone know the draw for the semis? Malachys will give the championship a good rattle I feel. Who'd have thought the Senior, Intermediate, U-21 and Junior B hurling titles could all be on the North offaly mantle!

fair play to them the thing i would be saying is not whats going on in south offaly i think you get the answer why offaly football in division 3
the young lads in north offaly seem to want to play hurling more.

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Kinnitty did play poorly yesterday. However, Kinnitty are nearly the only club in the competition that are not amalagmeted with another club. A few years ago we joined with Clareen for 2 years and had very good teams on paper but did not play well together. Clareen went on to win the next 21 championship and lost last year's final. Kinnitty defeated Shamrocks last week but not strong enough to really go anywhere. At this stage, we have no one to join with, so we are plodding along as best as possible. Hopefully our adult teams will reap the benefits of this. It is good to see hurling in North Offaly doing well but don't forget there are a large no. of clubs represented by St. Malachy's against a small rural club on their own.

[DD]

What clubs make up the St. Malachy's team?

[Plain of the Herbs]

The Brosna Gaels 4, Clara & Ballinamere/Durrow, I believe.

What clubs make up the St. Malachy's team?

[backofthenet]

It is extremely tough for one club to compete against an amalgamation of 4 clubs. Its a little unfair in ways I would have expected Ballinamere Durrow would be able to field a team of their own no?? I think hurling in south Offaly is still strong but there is a serious appetite for hurling in north offaly at the moment.

Tullamore winning the senior last year, they had a great year but being really honest I cant see them keeping the title.

Brosna Gaels have came on a lot in the last 4 - 5 years from nowhere, but can they compete at senior level...it remains to be seen.

Raheen winning the junior b, they done well but coolderry just didnt perform on the day, they beat raheen by 9 points earlier in the championship but north offaly clubs seem to have the edge at the moment.

Can I see all this being repeated this year...no is the quick answer.

Oh yeah St Malachys have Coolderry at the weekend. Im expecting a good match, coolderry won the minor two years ago and have a lot of tidy hurlers so I would back them for the win.

[offalyman123]

anyone at the two semi's who played well for which teams? who are the players to look out for in the final? clareen in their 3rd final in 3 years....they must be doing something right? are they favs this year?

[backofthenet]

Great victory for Coolderry over St Malachys sunday in Lusmagh, good crowd at it, Coolderry were lucky with one or two of the goals and St Malachys really gave it a go in the second half clawing it back to just one point after being 8 points down at one stage. Coolderry rallied after this and struck a fourth goal to put it beyond doubt. Some very good hurlers on the Coolderry team, they are very young and light with only 2 of the starting 15 overage next year its a big achievement

[leinsterman]

This is the first hurling final in 2010 should be a good one between coolderry and seir kieran's what date is it fixed for.
with Banagher winning the allireland at the weekend and coolderry and seir kieran's in the under 21 final who said that
north offaly was taking over hurling in offaly

[ballinamereman1]

This is the first hurling final in 2010 should be a good one between coolderry and seir kieran's what date is it fixed for.
with Banagher winning the allireland at the weekend and coolderry and seir kieran's in the under 21 final who said that
north offaly was taking over hurling in offaly

well lenister man if you look at offalys scorers on saturday 1.12 out of the they 1.15 came from north offaly men.. therefore north offaly 1.12 south offaly 0.04.. ha ye were relying on the north boys werent ye.. you brought it up lenisterman..

anyone at the match on sunday.. yet again, even though i am a ballinamereman, my club failed to show any bottle or courage.. which is a shame.. this generation of hurlers declared themselves the "golden generation".. by the showings of saturday they certainly arnt.. year after year in the intermiedate we dont have the bottle to win it..

however this isnt a north offaly thing as shamrocks and tullamore even brosna can show bottle when its required..

how do ye thing tullamore, shamrocks and brosna will do in the senior this year???

[leinsterman]

This is the first hurling final in 2010 should be a good one between coolderry and seir kieran's what date is it fixed for.
with Banagher winning the allireland at the weekend and coolderry and seir kieran's in the under 21 final who said that
north offaly was taking over hurling in offaly

well lenister man if you look at offalys scorers on saturday 1.12 out of the they 1.15 came from north offaly men.. therefore north offaly 1.12 south offaly 0.04.. ha ye were relying on the north boys werent ye.. you brought it up lenisterman..

anyone at the match on sunday.. yet again, even though i am a ballinamereman, my club failed to show any bottle or courage.. which is a shame.. this generation of hurlers declared themselves the "golden generation".. by the showings of saturday they certainly arnt.. year after year in the intermiedate we dont have the bottle to win it..

however this isnt a north offaly thing as shamrocks and tullamore even brosna can show bottle when its required..

how do ye thing tullamore, shamrocks and brosna will do in the senior this year???

tullamore will do alright again they have offalys best forward in shane dooley, they also have stephen egan shane kelly and their backs are good.
shamrocks will get it hard they don't have enough good hurlers to help out molloy and the coughlan's.
as for brosna gaels its a great achievement for them to get to senior level, but i think the pace and hurling will be alot faster this year for them
if they keep their senior status that will be a good year for brosna gaels.

[john joe]

This is the first hurling final in 2010 should be a good one between coolderry and seir kieran's what date is it fixed for.
with Banagher winning the allireland at the weekend and coolderry and seir kieran's in the under 21 final who said that
north offaly was taking over hurling in offaly

well lenister man if you look at offalys scorers on saturday 1.12 out of the they 1.15 came from north offaly men.. therefore north offaly 1.12 south offaly 0.04.. ha ye were relying on the north boys werent ye.. you brought it up lenisterman..

anyone at the match on sunday.. yet again, even though i am a ballinamereman, my club failed to show any bottle or courage.. which is a shame.. this generation of hurlers declared themselves the "golden generation".. by the showings of saturday they certainly arnt.. year after year in the intermiedate we dont have the bottle to win it..

however this isnt a north offaly thing as shamrocks and tullamore even brosna can show bottle when its required..

how do ye thing tullamore, shamrocks and brosna will do in the senior this year???

tullamore will do alright again they have offalys best forward in shane dooley, they also have stephen egan shane kelly and their backs are good.
shamrocks will get it hard they don't have enough good hurlers to help out molloy and the coughlan's.
as for brosna gaels its a great achievement for them to get to senior level, but i think the pace and hurling will be alot faster this year for them
if they keep their senior status that will be a good year for brosna gaels.

join in on this topic, think tullamore wont reach last 8 this year, to not win a group game n meet ballyskenach which are a poor intermediate team n have all nxt 3 games in ther back garden was apauling, county board jus handed championship.. dooley n egan are exceptional hurlers and would make any team but 2 is not enough. Shamrocks are a good team, last year was hard for them n they responded gracefully, have a very young team, Molloy carrys them scoring and have other players such as karl molin, nigel dunne and jimmy conway who are al county standard. Bosna gaels wil get it hard to cope wit the difference in levels especially wit the bigger club names, but being a fit side fast hurling will suit em and they wil stay up.. Lusmagh id say wil b in trouble this year... HAve feelin rynaghs wil do wel, mayb reach final but think it between coolderry and kilcormac, both with bitter taste in mouth after tullamores win..

[leinsterman]

so i take it you don't rate birr this year john joe,they will also have a bitter taste in their mouths after last year
and they are a better side than coolderry and the double kk.

[beirut]

John Joe, you're not restricted on the amount of characters you use here. Gave up reading your post after I got to "nxt".

[backofthenet]

I was at the match ballinamere man, its not really fair to say that St Malachys didnt have bottle they did, they just really didnt have the hurlers.

One of their corner forwards was on top, scored 3 - 4 points i think, and they had a wing forward who was ok from free's probably scored 7 - 8 points from placed balls before being taken off.

Contrast that with Coolderry's forward line, they had Michael Ryan at Centre forward, A county under 21, his brother eoin at corner forward, county minor, kevin connolly at wing forward, a county minor who was asked into the 21's but decided to concentrate on his leaving, then also had stephen o'connor who was a county minor a few years ago, also had david king at midfield, county minor...then had another one or two lads not on county teams but hurling intermediate for coolderry on a regular basis since last year, they all contributed to the scoring, and that was the difference to be honest, Coolderry had 4 - 5 forwards scoring, st mals had one or two at the most.

I think its a step backwards for teams like brosna gaels, ballinamere durrow and clara to be joining up with each other at under 21 level. Instead of having 15 hurlers playing at under 21 every year, they probably have 4 or 5. This means that there are maybe 10 lads out of minor who may play no hurling whatsoever for the year!! Far from helping the weaker clubs this system will destroy them imo.

Ballinamere lad, did they join up through lack of numbers or just to compete for a semi final / final??

Also anyone at the birr clareen / drumcullen / gracefield game??