Agree with the untouchable. This Birr debate has always been a total waste of time and frankly totally irrelevant issue. Stop wasting time even mentioning it when real problems exist.the Untouchable wrote:It hardly takes a genius to point out that we are where we are, Offaly hurling has been on a massive spiral downwards since we took a massive beating in the All Ireland final to Kilkenny back in 2000, in the time since, we've never once appointed a high profile manager who could come in and bring a real buzz to Offaly hurling, instead we've gone for the cheapest option or the yes man that the county board wanted, the whole pointless debate on bringing hurling back to Birr just masked over
the real issue, because we were in massive decline and that was down to the players rather than the fact that we weren't hurling in Birr!!
What I don't get is why people think that Offaly getting relegated to Division 2 and the Cristy Ring cup will be the moment that will get everyone to put the shoulder to the wheel and get us back to been a hurling force again...It won't, we'll be gone and to get a decent manager and backroom team in then will be virtually impossible never mind convince good hurlers in the county to either come back into the panel or stay involved in the county set up...because hurling against counties in the 3rd tier of county hurling is what they dreamed of!!
The reality, much like a side getting relegated from the English premier league is that the way to get back to the top may be a whole lot harder than you imagined because we have lost the right to be considered a big hurling county now, we've haven't won a senior Leinster title since 1995, an U21 or Minor Leinster title since 2000, so we've been gone a long time with no sign of change and relegation would just be the final nail in the coffin!!
The problem lies in the structures at underage and has done over the last 25 years as far as I can see.
There is no point blaming senior management who have inherited a squad that is not at the level of the top tier teams. However, we still should have realistic goals and securing their place in this division was and remains a must. Laois and Kerry are teams this current group should still be capable of beating. Failing to do so is a failure for management and players. Staying here is going to give the players better quality games and a level that they have to try get to and build on. Going down a division will only lead to slower hurling, bad habits and a comfort zone during the league.
The other goal should be qualifying out of the round robin. Two major goals and being honest they should be achievable. And management and players should be measured on this.
In fairness the untouchable seems to know what he is on about. We need lads like this involved putting structures in place at underage that will develop our hurlers and footballers of the future.