Leinster Senior Hurling Offaly V Galway

[the bare biffo]

Just logged in from Umbria where we are on holiday. Couldnt believe the result, and with Currams sent off as well. Fair play to them. Hope they can finish the job next week and face Kilkenny with a bit of confidence.

Well done.

[kinnittyman]

Football match will hardly be brought to Portlaoise as curtian raiser??

[Offaly2010]

Football match will hardly be brought to Portlaoise as curtian raiser??

Not a bad idea but I doubt it.

[Daingean Exile]

Just seen on Leinster GAA site replay is next Saturday night in Portlaoise at 7.
Bad news for the footballers,surely everyone will head to OMP instead of OCP to watch the hurlers.

Good. Although the throw in is a bit late, match in Portlaoise should mean a better atmosphere. Clearly Galway weren't at their best today, but equally Offaly will have no fear of Galway having drawn with them and may fancy their chances next Saturday evening.

[Offaly2010]

From our point of view you would have to hope that Derek Molloy will be fit for the next day because Dan Currams,who replaced Molloy at HT half time,will be suspended.

[ballinamereman1]

allles le faithful.. great result today.. great to see the lads didnt drop their heads when galway went 4 up and they just kept plucking away.. dooley should great bottle at the end and fair play to him for that.. was dissapointed to see lads jeering galway wides on the hill was very immature behaviour none the less it was great to see a few supporters there.. next saturday in portlaois well have to bring a party atmosphere to give the lads the best chance possible..

[Bord na Mona man]

was dissapointed to see lads jeering galway wides on the hill was very immature behaviour none the less it was great to see a few supporters there..

The crowd were ironically cheering the gobshite of an umpire who awarded Galway an early point form a sideline cut that was well wide,
The same clown waved Joe Bergin's deflected shot wide, but luckily was overruled by the linesman.

[backofthenet]

Just home lads, had a few points on the way home and had a good chat with some kilkenny, dublin and galway supporters, the general consensus was the ref tried to "do" us and failed. There were a number of times where offaly defenders were fouled coming out with the ball which resulted in a galway score and to be honest im a bit angry still as I think Galway will be better prepared the next day.

Still really proud to be an offaly supporter today, especially with the last 20 minutes where the sheer workrate, will to win and commitment from the players was brilliant, If we got this out of them every day they took the field I have no doubt we could start appearing in all ireland quarter finals and semi finals on a regular basis.

Although all the players hurled brilliantly i thought a few deserved a mention

Rigney & Kenny were immense, Rigney especially is turning into a powerful leader for this team and he was constantly willing to get involved and make clearences, Cleary also done well at centre back

Dylan Hayden, could this be the start of him nailing a place down on the team?? I hope so as he was very good today.

Joe Brady, I thought he was brilliant today, took his goal and point well, never panicked when in possesion and laid off good ball in front of Shane Dooley.

Derek Molloy, went to town in the first half, if he had of finished the game I think we would have won the game.

Shane Dooley....no need to say anything here, I think on the back of that one performance today he should be in contention for an all star.

[Bord na Mona man]

Reeling in the years for Offaly today. It was the sort of gutsy performance that hasn’t been seen in a decade. And for the second game in a row, Offaly managed to pull back a deficit with 14 men.

It looked ominous at the start. Galway cruising into a 4-0 ahead. Joe Ramhar shooting for goal from an early close in free showed how easily the Tribesmen thought they’d have it.

The Offaly burst of goals in the first half fired the team with self-belief and showed the weakness in the Galway full back line. It wasn’t a perfect performance from Offaly, but the way the players fought for every against their much hyped opposition was admirable.

David Kenny did well on big Joe Canning, as every Galway attack seemed to seek him out. As I suspected, the supporting cast of Galway forwards are nothing to write home about. Dylan Hayden had his best performance in an Offaly jersey. James Rigney is playing like an Offaly version of Tommy Walsh these days. James Dempsey also looks more reliable than his predecessor Brian Mullins.

For the second time in 2 weeks Shane Dooley stood over the last puck of the game, both being difficult frees with Offaly about to exit the Leinster championship. This is the sort of clutch player that the Offaly football team lack.

The Tipp ref did his bit for Galway - a couple of handy frees to the maroons and a couple of blatant ones not awarded to Offaly. However, one of his umpires was even worse.

The second point awarded to Galway from a sideline cut was well wide, but the clown of an umpire didn’t even look upwards to see it tail a few feet wide.
The same fella waved wide when Joe Bergin’s shot was deflected over the endline. Luckily the linesman was able to overrule.
There are all sorts of committees assessing and meddling with referees, but where is the quality control on the various nameless and bewildered characters who don the white coats?

They say that underdogs only get one chance and I’d expect Galway have more scope to improve for the replay. Offaly are unlikely to smash and grab 3 first half goals, which is what launched them into the game. Galway may have a few lads who wouldn’t go into a dark room, but I think they that little bit more ability than Offaly and a deeper squad to draw from.

However this was a performance for Offaly to be proud of.

[bracknaghboy]

Sunburnt and hoarse this morning....but well worth it. Fantastic display. Most of us here thought the open space of Croke Park would kill us...in fact the lads used it Offalys advantage. The sending off I thought finished any hope of a win but Currams should realise that if you are tackling a lad at the angle he did then there's every chance of it going horribly wrong. Whats wrong with our senior teams? 3 championship games and 3 red cards (2 hurling, 1 football), sort the discipline out lads. We (and Joe Dooley) should go easy on the congratulating and backslapping as its still only a semi-final we are in and a battle twice as hard awaits Saturday night again. It would be a shame to see this undone with a heavy defeat next day. Offaly had the beating of Galway in every position on the pitch.....Joe Dooley should take note of this and use it during the week......not one of them lads should fear on Saturday night. One last thing ....4 pts down and a man down with 25 mins to go against a team fancied to possibly topple Kilkenny and Offaly hurlers come back to draw, surely thats the end of the psychological burnouts that have dogged Offaly hurling for the last 5 years.

[Bord na Mona man]

Again,I had to be content with online radio commentary from the ever unreliable Gerry Russell.
''He has the ball.No he hasn't.The ball is gone wide...oh no its over the bar'',there's no end to this mans level of uncertainty.
He was even promising extra-time in the event of a draw.

God help you.
Gerry Russell - "It's high, it's accurate....it's wide".
"A great point by ...no, it was wide"
"Joe 'Berrigan' doing great work up front for Offaly"
"Joe Dooley lines up the free".
"There's a sub coming on for Offaly, its Conor Parlon"

[Offaly2010]

Yesterday made me proud to be an Offaly man! I admired the way the lads fought for every ball and fought for each other all throughout the 70 minutes,it was brilliant! When Currams was sent off and Galway went 4 points up I thought we were finished but I admired the way whoever got the point to bring it back down to 3,can't remember who it was now,think it could have been Bergin or Brady not sure,punched the air and got the lads going again. It was shown on the big screen and it was fantastic!

As for the replay,with it being in Portlaoise,a smaller pitch than Croke Park,with less space for Canning and Hayes to run,I think if Offaly can crowd them out and if the backs are as good again I think we will win on Saturday. Simply because if,as I said,Canning and Co. are kept quite and the backs are as good and Molloy is fit to play,and if we can keep the scoreboard ticking over for the 70 minutes it should go our way. Another point is we have to keep our discipline and keep the 15 lads on the field because I just think we could afford to go down to 14 men again.

Alles Les Faithful!

[Offaly2010]

Bad news lads...
taken from gaa.ie

Offaly's Molloy ruled out of replayMonday, June 21, 2010


Offaly will have to plan without wing-forward Derek Molloy for Saturday’s Leinster GAA Hurling semi-final replay clash with Galway.

Molloy aggravated an ankle injury in Sunday’s thrilling 2-19 to 3-16 draw in Croke Park and has been ruled out of the replay by Offaly boss Joe Dooley.

The Shamrocks clubman was forced off at half-time after suffering a recurrence of the injury that had made him a major fitness doubt going into the game.

“Derek Molloy is in serious bother, he definitely won’t be available for next week,” said Dooley.

“He had an ankle injury coming into the game and he aggravated it again today, so he is a big loss to us.”

Adding to Dooley’s headaches, Daniel Currams, who replaced Molloy at half-time, will also be unavailable after his dismissal on a straight red card.

Currams was shown the line by referee Johnny Ryan for a frontal charge on Galway midfielder David Burke and is facing a four-week suspension.

Meanwhile, the GAA last night confirmed that the replay will go ahead in Portlaoise next Saturday night at 7.00pm.

[durra1]

[quote="BUFFALO"]

I'm raging 'cos whenever I leave the country we seem to pull a result out of the bag and having followed this team through thick and thin I feel somewhat disappointed having missed the opportunity of seeing them perform like this.Although,in a superstitious frame of mind I'd happily stay away from our games if I thought we were more likely to perform to standards such as these.

Having not seen any of the action per se,I cannot make any justifiable statements here,but I can say that I always believed in this group of players and was often baffled at their level of below par performances in the past.There are hurlers there for sure,some finely talented ones at that,and their commitment to the jersey is second to none.They always have and always will wear their hearts on their sleves.For this I am forever indebted.

quote]

great stuff Buffalo ..

ill hold back on the negatives on the ref but to echo BNMM, are paying patrons at this level not entitled to umpires who, at the very least have certifiable 20/20 vision??

This policy of allowing refs pick and choose their umpires from neighbours / local clubmen etc. for games of this importance belongs in the 50s.

we were in the canal end yesterday when dylan hayden floated one over in the 1st half, you could see the auld lad to demseys left look at the other lad in a jaysus-i-lost-that-one-pj kind of way.

completely in the shadow too - no obstruction of his view.

In fairness to the auld lad, sight loss is a fact of life and he shouldnt be put in that position.

its not on that lads train year round to be at the mercy of this.

its very simply solved - all knokout league and championship umpires to be certified 20/20 with HQ taking care of the opticians bill.

[faithfulman]

Can anyone confirm or deny the rumour that the Offaly Kilkenny leinster minor semi final will be played as a curtain raiser to the replay next saturday. It was originally fixed for OCP next Saturday.