Hurling Championship

[townman]

if you were to review all of my posts here townman I doubt you would find be "blowing up Rynaghs"
In the last decade they have claimed two u 21 titles ( hardly domination on the scale of KK in the 90's!) and Birr have won one since rynaghs last victory.
I put the question to you however regarding the performance of your under 21's at the weekend in the context of your confidence of birr's ability to remain at the top of the tree in offaly

i think if you go back to last years thread of the 2011 championship you said Dinny Cahill was over Rynaghs and it was yer year! you also said Birr on the way out big time also Coolderry average hurlers
funny how Birr beat Rynaghs very easy last year and them average hurlers from Coolderry won leinster club and all ireland runners up.

you were the one throwing up the under 21 result it will have mean nothing when the senior championship comes around

so you would want to check back on review on what you said about blowing up Rynaghs its all there in black and white

[joe bloggs]

You obviously were confusing my posts with someone else. if you look at the one i just bumped up you would see that i actually fancied birr to beat rynaghs in last years semi final

[Plain of the Herbs]

Fixtures for next weekend, from the Offaly GAA site

Friday evening
Coolderry v Kilcormac at Birr

Saturday evening
Brosna Gaels v Rahan at OCP at 7pm

Sunday
Rynagh's v Tullamore at OCP at 3pm
Drumcullen v Shinrone at Carrig at 3pm
Belmont v Birr at 5.30pm (not sure where), and
Clareen v Kinnitty at Lusmagh at 7pm

Why, oh why, do Banagher have to travel 24 miles to play Tullamore? That makes no sense at all.

[the weasel]

Fixtures for next weekend, from the Offaly GAA site

Friday evening
Coolderry v Kilcormac at Birr

Saturday evening
Brosna Gaels v Rahan at OCP at 7pm

Sunday
Rynagh's v Tullamore at OCP at 3pm
Drumcullen v Shinrone at Carrig at 3pm
Belmont v Birr at 5.30pm (not sure where), and
Clareen v Kinnitty at Lusmagh at 7pm

Why, oh why, do Banagher have to travel 24 miles to play Tullamore? That makes no sense at all.

Belmont v Birr is on in Lusmagh

[corner back]

Banagher have beaten Tullamore in OCP for the last two years

[Plain of the Herbs]

That is correct, CB, but that doesn't make it right, any more than bringing Tullamore to Lusmagh in order to play Banagher.

Something Lone Shark mentioned before when discussing Brosna Gaels. If the 'powers-that-be' were really serious about promoting hurling in Leamonaghan Parish, this is a match that should be fixed for Ballycumber or Pullagh. The value to local youths of seeing Shane Dooley, Diarmuid Horan et al lining out on their home ground would be worth quite a number of coaching sessions. Even if the lads merely brushed off them passing in to the dressing room, or a lad being behind the posts and collecting a ball struck by one of them would be magic to them. A chance has been missed here.

I know the Fleadh Ceol is in Banagher this coming weekend so travelling anywhere to a match is probably improbably for most with families who will have an involvement in competitions or exhibitions, but there's no need to actively repel people from attending the match.

Banagher have beaten Tullamore in OCP for the last two years

[bracknaghboy]

If the 'powers-that-be' were really serious about promoting hurling in Leamonaghan Parish, this is a match that should be fixed for Ballycumber or Pullagh. The value to local youths of seeing Shane Dooley, Diarmuid Horan et al lining out on their home ground would be worth quite a number of coaching sessions......A chance has been missed here.

100% correct Sir. The county board are failing to nurture the game in the Brosna area just like the county board during the 90's made no effort to promote hurling when we had the best team in the country for a number of years. Sometimes just little things can made a big difference.

[llkj]

Are either Pullough or ballycumber field up to the standard that would be expected for a Senior hurling championship match, in terms of level surface, size of the playing field, etc. Haven't been in either field in a while, but from what I remember Pullough is a fairly narrow field, or maybe i'm wrong and Ballycumber has a bit of a slope in one corner? Not having a go here, I think it is a good idea to spread the games around. Also, I think it is a good idea to use the best fields, and there is no doubting that for club players, playing in a place as good as OCP is a real treat. No doubt, if the CB didn't run any games in OCP, there would be people coming on complaining about having a great stadium sitting empty with noone playing in it

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

I was in Ballcumber pitch recently for a match and walked around the pitch, there is no way ot would be suitable for a senior championship match! Brutal bad surface in around the 21 near the dressing rooms, its been the same since the late 80's, Doon would probably be a better option, but may be a little short. Not sure about Pollagh. But the idea is a good one if the pitch was up to standard.

[llkj]

Just reading the offaly express here and I see this statement at the end:

This will be the only round of the Aidan Bracken Building Design SHC played until Offaly’s involvement in the championship comes to an end

Surely this can't be true? What happens if Offaly reach an AI semi final, for instance, and the county team are involved until August. Or is the plan based around Offaly being knocked out early and if they do go further, shur we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[Lone Shark]

Doon's pitch would certainly be big enough and good enough, though I'd say Pullough or Ballycumber would be a little bit closer to the natural heart of Brosna Gaels really.

[kinnittyman]

Just reading the offaly express here and I see this statement at the end:

This will be the only round of the Aidan Bracken Building Design SHC played until Offaly’s involvement in the championship comes to an end

Surely this can't be true? What happens if Offaly reach an AI semi final, for instance, and the county team are involved until August. Or is the plan based around Offaly being knocked out early and if they do go further, shur we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Oh Jesus you're not serious. Absolute rubbish of the highest order if it happens. Whatever happens against Wexford a round of fixtures should be played between that game and Offaly's next outing. We have stopped the club championship for the last four years for the "benefit" of the county team and it did us absolutley no good. Then it gets started up in August and run off as quickly as possible. This hasn't led to an improvement in the standard of our county team or the club championship.....why are we doing it again? Its total BS in my opinion. Tipperary were playing the 3rd round of the North Championship over the weekend to the best of my knowledge.

[Lone Shark]

Just reading the offaly express here and I see this statement at the end:

This will be the only round of the Aidan Bracken Building Design SHC played until Offaly’s involvement in the championship comes to an end

Surely this can't be true? What happens if Offaly reach an AI semi final, for instance, and the county team are involved until August. Or is the plan based around Offaly being knocked out early and if they do go further, shur we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Oh Jesus you're not serious. Absolute rubbish of the highest order if it happens. Whatever happens against Wexford a round of fixtures should be played between that game and Offaly's next outing. We have stopped the club championship for the last four years for the "benefit" of the county team and it did us absolutley no good. Then it gets started up in August and run off as quickly as possible. This hasn't led to an improvement in the standard of our county team or the club championship.....why are we doing it again? Its total BS in my opinion. Tipperary were playing the 3rd round of the North Championship over the weekend to the best of my knowledge.

Tipperary is a bad example since their divisional titles get run off pretty quickly at this time of year and some clubs often take a very haphazard approach to them. Last year Thurles Sarsfields lost all three rounds of the Mid Tipp round robin stage I think - one way or another they were clearly not trying - and yet they were favourites the whole way through the qualifiers until they lost. Nonetheless on your general point that championships should be played the whole way through the summer, I couldn't agree more. However it all comes back to the same thing, where in Offaly, we go out of our way to accommodate dual players, where other counties don't. Tipperary will have no qualms scheduling a round of SHC for the same weekend as the county footballers are in action, whereas here, we won't do that. Until we change our approach in that regard, it will always be that way.

To be honest, if round 2 is not going ahead until August, you'd be as well off just postpone the whole thing until then. Why else have one meaningful game three months apart from all others? If I was a club manager I think I'd be training for August and just hoping that this game would work itself out.

[joe bloggs]

Cash I would say is the reason why there is a round now. It will ease cash flow and play a few bills

[Long John]

Some good points from the shark. It is a disaster that there is such a massive gap between round 1 and 2.

The one thing I would argue with is the point about going out of our way to accomodate dual players. The way it has been for a good number of years is that you'd have maybe a football round one week and the hurling the following week. That too is a complete disaster. Lets say Coolderry are playing Belmont in the hurling. When the solely hurling club are training away flat out for the hurling the dual club is concentrating on the football and that week is lost. The week leading up to the hurling fixture is never going to be too strenuous so really theres two weeks before championship with little done. Its not possible to be competitive like that. I believe the likes of Belmont and other dual clubs would have won alot more senior hurling games if they were not stuck with that type of fixture scheduling.

How to solve it is another problem altogether. What really annoys me though is holding up championship for county teams. The way they have been performing, I dont really see the point. Most other counties dont build their championships around the county team. Common sense is used alright but Offaly really bring it to a different level.