Offaly v Westmeath, Mullingar, Sunday 1st May
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:28 pm
Some random thoughts:
Offaly’s attitude will have to be spot-on for Sunday’s visit to Mullingar. Anything less than the optimum and they will be in trouble. Naturally within the camp there will be an air of professionalism and organisation. The problem is that when hurlers meet with people on the street who offer words of “only Westmeath”.
This is a local derby for Westmeath, but not for Offaly. So expect Westmeath will be fired up. They have waited 40 years for this day and have no history of losing to Offaly. Mullingar can be an intimate, and intimidating venue, even with a few hundred people present, something like Parnell Park.
As evidenced by their NHL play-off against Leix, Westmeath are lively. Their forwards don’t play in a rigid ‘three half-forwards, three full-forwards’ formation, in neat lines. Rather, they move around quite alot, which will cause problems for an Offaly defence who would prefer to line out in two neat lines of three.
Their defence is well organised, with much shouting instructions to each other – such communication shows they think their way around the pitch. Leix moved up around two gears after the restart and, facing into the wind, Westmeath were burned off.
Conor Doughan is a massive loss. The one Offaly hurler who looked the part in Nowlan Park. As bad as the defeat was, it paled into insignificance with the disappointment of seeing the Shinrone lad leave the field in obvious distress. His loss in exacerbated with no one having nailed down the full-back slot, Chris McDonald and Dermot Shortt have alternated, generally in the same match. Maybe Dan Kelleher might be the man to directly oppose Brendan Murtagh, thought the Ballycumber defender cannot afford to be caught out in front of the full-forward the way he was in Kilkenny.
That Offaly have gone public with news of Shane Dooley’s injury probably means the Tullamore man will be okay. They surely wouldn’t have given Westmeath that kind of a boost for no good reason.
Westmeath gave Galway an uncomfortable time of in Mullingar in 2012, a match I attended. No inhibitions of facing a higher ranked team, they wired into Galway and hurled positively throughout. From memory, it took Galway around 60 minutes to put them away. And if Westmeath are within striking distance with ten minutes to go, the law of guards of honour dictates they will push on and not die away.
Of the Westmeath team who lost to Leix in Tullamore three weeks ago, only Alan McGrath, Aonghus Clarke, Brendan Murtagh, Niall O’Brien and Eoin Price remain from that side who wired into Galway in 2012.
Which means Westmeath have a degree of depth about them. Still, only Tommy Gallagher, Liam Varley and Niall O’Brien hurled U21 against Offaly last year, so it’s not as if there is a huge raft of youngsters coming in.
Tommy Doyle, Robbie Greville, Derek McNicholas, Tommy Gallagher, Niall O’Brien, Eoin Price and Conor Shaw all have Fitzgibbon Cup experience – an area where Offaly are in the ha’penny place.
The Kerry match aside, Offaly had a middling decent league. Culminating in a marvellous win down in Wexford when they smashed all their targets for tackles, hooks, blocks and turnovers. Kerry was lost as Offaly afforded the visitors a guard of honour for 70 minutes and hardly troubled their statisticians for the last 20 minutes, as they watched, pen in hand, marking tackles, hooks, blocks and turnovers.
Leix showed they were capable of hurling at a higher level than Westmeath, and made it count in the second half. Offaly should grab Sunday by the scruff of the neck and make it count. There can be no banana skins, no guards of honour. There can be no waiting for fifteen minutes to click into gear. And no waiting for Westmeath to roll over due to a lack of belief.
Offaly to win – if the attitude is right.
Offaly’s attitude will have to be spot-on for Sunday’s visit to Mullingar. Anything less than the optimum and they will be in trouble. Naturally within the camp there will be an air of professionalism and organisation. The problem is that when hurlers meet with people on the street who offer words of “only Westmeath”.
This is a local derby for Westmeath, but not for Offaly. So expect Westmeath will be fired up. They have waited 40 years for this day and have no history of losing to Offaly. Mullingar can be an intimate, and intimidating venue, even with a few hundred people present, something like Parnell Park.
As evidenced by their NHL play-off against Leix, Westmeath are lively. Their forwards don’t play in a rigid ‘three half-forwards, three full-forwards’ formation, in neat lines. Rather, they move around quite alot, which will cause problems for an Offaly defence who would prefer to line out in two neat lines of three.
Their defence is well organised, with much shouting instructions to each other – such communication shows they think their way around the pitch. Leix moved up around two gears after the restart and, facing into the wind, Westmeath were burned off.
Conor Doughan is a massive loss. The one Offaly hurler who looked the part in Nowlan Park. As bad as the defeat was, it paled into insignificance with the disappointment of seeing the Shinrone lad leave the field in obvious distress. His loss in exacerbated with no one having nailed down the full-back slot, Chris McDonald and Dermot Shortt have alternated, generally in the same match. Maybe Dan Kelleher might be the man to directly oppose Brendan Murtagh, thought the Ballycumber defender cannot afford to be caught out in front of the full-forward the way he was in Kilkenny.
That Offaly have gone public with news of Shane Dooley’s injury probably means the Tullamore man will be okay. They surely wouldn’t have given Westmeath that kind of a boost for no good reason.
Westmeath gave Galway an uncomfortable time of in Mullingar in 2012, a match I attended. No inhibitions of facing a higher ranked team, they wired into Galway and hurled positively throughout. From memory, it took Galway around 60 minutes to put them away. And if Westmeath are within striking distance with ten minutes to go, the law of guards of honour dictates they will push on and not die away.
Of the Westmeath team who lost to Leix in Tullamore three weeks ago, only Alan McGrath, Aonghus Clarke, Brendan Murtagh, Niall O’Brien and Eoin Price remain from that side who wired into Galway in 2012.
Which means Westmeath have a degree of depth about them. Still, only Tommy Gallagher, Liam Varley and Niall O’Brien hurled U21 against Offaly last year, so it’s not as if there is a huge raft of youngsters coming in.
Tommy Doyle, Robbie Greville, Derek McNicholas, Tommy Gallagher, Niall O’Brien, Eoin Price and Conor Shaw all have Fitzgibbon Cup experience – an area where Offaly are in the ha’penny place.
The Kerry match aside, Offaly had a middling decent league. Culminating in a marvellous win down in Wexford when they smashed all their targets for tackles, hooks, blocks and turnovers. Kerry was lost as Offaly afforded the visitors a guard of honour for 70 minutes and hardly troubled their statisticians for the last 20 minutes, as they watched, pen in hand, marking tackles, hooks, blocks and turnovers.
Leix showed they were capable of hurling at a higher level than Westmeath, and made it count in the second half. Offaly should grab Sunday by the scruff of the neck and make it count. There can be no banana skins, no guards of honour. There can be no waiting for fifteen minutes to click into gear. And no waiting for Westmeath to roll over due to a lack of belief.
Offaly to win – if the attitude is right.