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looks like a few cracking ties to start with should be a good championship

I suppose Ballinamere Gaels, Banagher and KK are the teams to beat in this championship... As a matter of interest, who are the standout individual performers at 21 level in the county??

I have to say I'm very impressed that clubs like Lusmagh, Belmont, and as always Seir Kieran are fielding by themselves in this competition. That's exactly as it should be and even though none of the three will win (though Clareen continue to surprise us all year after year) their clubs should benefit in the long run for making sure that a lot of lads hurl.

That leads me on to the next question though - surely we must nearly be at the level where Brosna Gaels and possibly CRC Gaels could field by themselves? I'm open to correction here of course, but those clubs must be close enough to the level whereby they could put together a panel of twenty lads from 17-21 by themselves.

Basing it on the 2010 Offaly Minor panel, it could be argued the leading players will be -

St Rynagh's: Conor Clancy (goal), Pat Camon, Seán Dolan, Stephen Quirke, Simon Lyons, Niall Wynne, Joey O'Connor;
Shinrone: Michael Cleary, Shane McKelvey, Seán Cleary, Jason Sampson, Dónal Morkan;
Birr (St Brendan's): Brendan Murphy, Kevin Donovan;
Coolderry: David King, Eoin Ryan, Damien Maher, Liam Brady;
Seir Kieran: Adrian Hynes, Tom Carroll, Joseph Connors (goal);
K-K: Peter, Thomas & James Geraghty, Con Mahon;
Lusmagh: Alan Kelly, Rory Quinlan;
Kinnitty: Aodán Kealey;
Tullamore: Kevin Waters;
Ballinamere: Patrick Murphy.

This has the makings of being a great championship. In addition to those three contenders listed by jimbob17, Shinrone wold also have to be considered contenders. They've a few others eligible who hurled Senior last year (I'm thinking Joe Cleary, Damien Murphy). Andrew Connolly would be a big addition to Coolderry's forwards too. Ballinamere, with David Magner available, can call on the Brosna Gaels lads (including Danny Kelliher who is now an Offaly Senior panellist). Seán Gardiner (Lusmagh) is now an Offaly Senior though he didn't feature on the Offaly Minor panel in 2010!

Six different clubs have won the U21 title in the last six years. A win for Shinrone would make it seven in seven!

jimbob17 wrote:I suppose Ballinamere Gaels, Banagher and KK are the teams to beat in this championship... As a matter of interest, who are the standout individual performers at 21 level in the county??

The first round is scheduled for St Patrick's Day but that is unlikely now, what with the involvement of David King, Seán Gardiner, Danny Kelliher, Tom Carroll, the Clearys, Pat Camon and Conor Clancy with the Offaly Seniors who hurl Carlow the following day, not to mention K-K being in the Club All-Ireland. For what it's worth, the second round (involving the four teams who received first-round byes) is fixed for Easter weekend. Again there's a problem with Offaly playing Antrim in Belfast on Easter Sunday.

If I recall correctly, this championship was played during April last year (after the NHL was out of the way) and the Final was played on the May Bank Holiday Sunday.

Seir Kieran are fielding by themselves in this competition
there joined up with drumcullen

True, but the vast majority of the team would be made up of Clareen members, which is the admiral thing about them. Last year's team had 13 from Clareen, Dónal Guinan from Drumcullen and Keith Mullally from Gracefield. The team which went to the second replay with Coolderry had 12 starters from Clareen with the remaining three from Drumcullen.

star player wrote:Seir Kieran are fielding by themselves in this competition
there joined up with drumcullen

i think Keith Mullally is with them this year again, he is in with offaly under 21's under Ger Coughlan this year.

3 first-round ties fixed for Saturday at 4pm, according to the official OCB site. Appears to be first named at home. They are -

Lusmagh v Coolderry
Belmont v Kinnitty
Shinrone v Shamrocks

Can anyone confirm if these are going ahead?

kiinitty beat belomount after xtra time and coolderry and shrinrone got walkovers

It is disappointing to see teams not fielding. I'm sure they entered with the best of intentions, but it should have been known a few weeks ago before the draw was made if the numbers were not adding up.
Anyway water under the bridge now. The last game of the round is down for next Sunday with KK entertaining Ballinamere Gaels.
This has the makings of a good match, as KK have claimed the last two minor championships, while the St.Davids minor teams were also strong

Eoin Hayes is a injury doubt for Brendans this year.. This will be a big loss for them.. Blows the championship wide open now..

U-21 Hurling Championship quarter-final draw:
Kinnitty v Shinrone, Coolderry v Seir Kieran Og, Tullamore v St Rynagh’s, St Brendan’s v Kilcormac/Killoughey

Four decent-looking U21 quarter-finals on Saturday. As far as I can make out the fixtures are as follows -

Coolderry v Seir Kieran Óg at Coolderry at 2pm
Kinnitty v Shinrone at Kinnitty at 3.30pm
Tullamore v St Rynagh's at O'Brien Park at 3.30pm
St Brendan's v Kilcormac-Killoughey at Birr at 3.30pm

Question - is it Shinrone or St Mary's? Are Shinrone combined with Ballyskenagh (or, I suppose, that should be Ballyskenagh-Killavilla now).

Plain of the Herbs wrote:Four decent-looking U21 quarter-finals on Saturday. As far as I can make out the fixtures are as follows -

Coolderry v Seir Kieran Óg at Coolderry at 2pm
Kinnitty v Shinrone at Kinnitty at 3.30pm
Tullamore v St Rynagh's at O'Brien Park at 3.30pm
St Brendan's v Kilcormac-Killoughey at Birr at 3.30pm

Question - is it Shinrone or St Mary's? Are Shinrone combined with Ballyskenagh (or, I suppose, that should be Ballyskenagh-Killavilla now).

Coolderry V Seir Kieran Og- Seir Kieran Og 3-6 points
Kinnitty V Shinrone- Shinrone 6-10 points
Tullamore V St Rynaghs-St Rynaghs at a canter
St Brendans V Kilcormac/Killoughey- K/K 1-3 points

tough games to call,soon see how wrong I am

County Board's Twitter account reports Coolderry and Clareen drew, and were still level after extra-time. Another saga is on the cards after it took three games to separate the pair just a few years ago.