Offaly minor hurlers

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly 2-13 Meath 1-14.
A closer shave than a Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide by all accounts!

[How ya now]

How ye booiiis what was the starting team .. Who played well

[townman]

well this was a game to forget and quick,offaly were very poor and have gone back alot from last game again wexford
not much to warm the hearts for the 50 offaly supporters in OCP tonight as in the last game the Meath crowd were more vocal.

best for offaly well Cillian Kiely got 1-3 Kevin Dunne got the other goal, Dylan Murray also done well, Andrew Browne at fullback was good
along with wing backs Emmet Nolan and Eoin Pilkington, thats about it.

their was no sign of Sean T.O'Connor tonight wonder what happen their is he hurt wasn't on the subs even,
offaly can't play any worse than they did today but a repeat of this display and they will be hurl out the gate the next day.

[Lean Times]

So Q/Fs are:

Offaly v Laois
Carlow v Dublin

With Kilkenny and Wexford awaiting the winners. Will this be an open draw or is it already decided does anybody know?

[joe bloggs]

Offaly 2-13 Meath 1-14.
A closer shave than a Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide by all accounts!

From the look of it bnm man it is a while since a gillete got near you

[Plain of the Herbs]

To answer the questions - Clancy; Murphy, Browne, Kelly; Nolan, Doughan, Pilkington; O'Connor, Mahon; Crowe, Dunne, Bergin; Spain, Kiely, Murray. Subs used: Connolly, Connors, Nally, Rigney.

And who played well? Meath did.

How ye booiiis what was the starting team .. Who played well

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly 2-13 Meath 1-14.
A closer shave than a Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide by all accounts!

From the look of it bnm man it is a while since a gillete got near you

I won't shave till Offaly win an All Ireland!

[townman]

Offaly 2-13 Meath 1-14.
A closer shave than a Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide by all accounts!

From the look of it bnm man it is a while since a gillete got near you

I won't shave till Offaly win an All Ireland!

you will be as old as the picture so.

[Plain of the Herbs]

The truth is that Meath should have won this, for they did all the hurling. They were better than Offaly in the air, on the ground, when they had the ball and when they didn’t have the ball.

Twice in recent years Offaly have been beaten by each of Carlow and Westmeath. Meath came within inches of adding to that list. That would be the continuation of an existing trend, not a surprise or a shock. Most of the Meath team came from the hurling area around Trim, with Kilmessan, Boardsmills, Killyon, Kildalkey, Rathmolyon and Kiltale all represented, so this wasn’t a football team cobbled together for the craic, like.

I should point out at this stage that this is not a criticism of this bunch of hurlers. They are the victims of the way hurling has been coached in this county for more than a decade now. Every so often we have this debate after a defeat to Carlow or Westmeath, so this is no different. I wasn’t at any of those defeats to Carlow or Westmeath and I had imagined how they would have played out. Going on last Saturday’s showing, I wasn’t far off in my perception of what was going on.

Offaly were unable to gain possession, and when they did so, they were unable to use it correctly. They constantly hit clearances beagánín scaoilte, as they say on TG4. A bit wild, and most poorly hit clearances were gathered by a Meath hurler. Offaly played as individuals, they rarely came at the correct angle to give a colleague in possession a dig-out. Any defender who did look up saw nobody making a run for him, and either delayed the delivery and was gobbled up, or cleared to a Meath man.

Again, I reiterate, this is not a criticism of the particular hurlers that lined out on Saturday. John Leahy is a progressive coach who is only too aware of the deficiencies in the way Offaly play hurling. The academies were designed to develop the better players and while in the earlier days of the academies it was fair to say that they should be given a chance, it is now fair to say that they aren’t working.

Offaly hurling needs to adapt to modern hurling. This doesn’t necessarily mean they should ape other counties for the sake of it. At the very least they should be coached in how to deal with how other counties play the game because, regrettably, this team can’t do that.

Because Offaly hurling can’t continue obliging the opposition by supplying them with the ball.

And don’t anyone think that more ground hurling drills are the way forward. Ground hurling became redundant the day corner-backs came out from behind corner-forwards and decided they were going to play the ball themselves. Anyone hitting a ground ball to Jackie Tyrell is going to see the corner-back gather the ball and get mowed out of it by said corner-back before he launches a clearance.

One thing noticeable on Saturday night was the absolute reluctance of Offaly to engage in any kind of physical contact. That’s fair enough, many of them (particularly the forwards) are relatively light.

But with that in mind, perhaps it’s time to look into adapting a running game that Cork introduced. Cork themselves were one of the two stylists of hurling (then Offaly made it three), but with a relatively light team who had difficulty securing possession, it was tailor made for O’Connor x 2, Kenny, Deane and the others. It worked too, and it was the stubbornness of Frank Murphy that brought it crashing down. Gerald McCarthy was a decent man but Murphy made him into something of a pariah on Leeside in his (Murphy’s) bid to regain control of the team. But that’s another story.

Offaly hurling is on a slippery slope and is fast reverting to where it was prior to the mid 1960s, battling with Westmeath, Carlow Meath and the like. The current Offaly Senior team is backboned by the U21 team who beat Kilkenny that wet evening in Nowlan Park. Joseph Bergin, David Kenny, Paul Cleary, Shane Dooley, Seán Ryan, Conor Mahon, Cathal Parlon and Diarmuid Horan all hurled that evening. That’s alot to get from the one underage team. Few who are younger than that have broken onto the Offaly Senior team. James Dempsey and Derek Morkan springs to mind (James Rigney was a year overage that year).

It’s also alot who are going to retire within about three years of each other, down the line. Following that, Offaly isn’t just staring into the abyss, it’s smack, bang in the middle of it.

And I’m an optimist.

Offaly’s Future was a contributor who posted here, and while diplomacy wasn’t his/her strongest point and he/she made no attempt to make friends here and we all (me included) had several arguments with him/her, I might as well put my hands up and publicly say he/she was right on alot of counts on the way Offaly hurling was being nurtured.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Here's a link to the discussion after Carlow beat the Minors in 2008. Feckitt, the same problems remain. (Can I ask ye to please don't post on the 2008 thread - otherwise it will get bumped up and I'll never find it).
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1638&start=15

And the tread after Offaly Minors were beaten by the Wasters a year later
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2414

[Bord na Mona man]

Always depressing to hear.

I nearly think counties like Leix, Meath, Carlow and Westmeath etc. are better off than us at underage because they've started with a blank canvass and it is much easier to implement a fresh approach.
We're still saddled with a lot of past baggage and probably the lazy assumption that we're not far off the big time.
Granted Offaly's reputation was probably worth a couple of points against Meath who probably didn't realise the game was so winnable.

[townman]

i think we should get behind the young lads offaly never had the right to look down at any county we only made the break through in 1980
and then were lucky that the great minor teams of 1986 to 1989 came together to keep us up at the top table with the 80's team breaking the mould.

i have seen the minors last two games last saturday night wasn't pretty , but they were unlucky to lose to wexford who went on to beat Dublin
there are a few nice hurlers on that minor team and they are big and strong two Andrew Browne at full back Damien Murphy, Emmett Nolan
and captain Sean Doughan at centreback up front Cillian Kiely Alan Spain, and Dylan Murray have caught my eye so far.

if we could get 3 or 4 from this side and hope they can make senior players in the next few years we will be doing alright, laois next and they have
their best minor sides for years and ran kilkenny close for much of there game last weekend and will be hard beaten.

this Carlow, westmeath, beaten us in minor should be no shock as our schools teams have not be up to the level over the last few years
but sure offaly were always up for the shock when they play weak county sides.

our senior sides when we were at the top were at the same, Antrim 1989, Derry nearly turn us over in 2000 when on to beat cork after
i remember losing to Down in league and a league play off in the early 90's, the year we won the all ireland in 1994 the first league match
after the all ireland Meath beat us well, Carlow 2005 but having said all that we are still miles ahead of Carlows, westmeaths, Downs, and Laoises
of this world in championship hurling.

so most won't give us a chance again laois this weekend after the poor display again Meath but you never know laois might bring the best out of us

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Where is the Offaly/Laois game and when please?

[townman]

Where is the Offaly/Laois game and when please?

next saturday evening 7 o'clock throw in tullamore.

[Lone Shark]

Where is the Offaly/Laois game and when please?

next saturday evening 7 o'clock throw in tullamore.

How is this possible? I thought there was a home and away arrangement with Laois, and am I wrong in saying we haven't played them since 2006 in Birr?