Offaly Senior Hurlers 2023

[Anonymous1]

In fairness, can we point to any other county of similar resources trying to balance both codes and say we’re a million miles off it?

People will point at westmeath and laois and antrim and say they are having a comparative golden period hurling wise. Fair play to them. Theres 0 chance any of them will ever win a leinster or an all ireland, which we were doing when we were in our pomp. Would we be any better off taking routine maulings in div 1 than trying to build the foundations of a unit that can survive at that level? If this group is capable of what we are seeing, do we really think the best 15 in the county were they available that theyd be that far off laois westmeath and antrim? Fair play to the lads they’re playing to the level of the opposition but i think there’s lots to admire in there. I do think there’s better hurlers in the county but until such a time that they’re willing to commit then we should back whats in there giving theyre all.

I think Clare are the best example of a dual county with a similar population to Offaly who compete very well in both codes consistently.

They actually spent €100,000 less than Offaly on their inter-county teams last year yet were only beaten in extra time by Limerick in the Munster hurling final and made the All Ireland SF and made the All Ireland QF in football compared to Offaly who didn’t even make the Joe Mcdonagh final in hurling and were beaten in round 1 of the Leinster football championship by Wexford.

[jimbob17]

Not sure there is too many in county that should be in there that are too much better than what is there. Lads are working hard and well and are 4 wins from 4. What do we expect? We are competing at our level. Through minor etc over last 10 years, we were struggling to beat these counties. Hopefully we win division but if we do, we need to be realistic about results against stronger counties until we have the work done at underage to compete at higher level in senior. Think Clare is bit like Westmeath on bigger scale due to size and population and is diff to Offaly with not much dual players even within clubs bar a few. West of Ennis would not have much hurling and from 10km west of Ennis, there would be no hurling. The same could be said to the South and East of County Town re hurling so very little crossover in codes which makes it a lot easier.

Our demographics changing needs to be factored better into our planning as South Offaly gets depopulated with movement and population growth in East of county. Edenderry needs to be looked at re hurling, as does Na Fianna and St Vincents area, while I'd acknowledge a lot of work goes on in Na Fianna, think it needs more resourcing re hurling with the population and demographics in area. Really should be getting standalone gpos into them areas if not there already.

[pigeon house biffo]

I think the likes of Luke O Connor and a few others from the big 4 clubs of banagher kk birr coolderry could surely offer up more than they are currently.

I’ve attached a pic of the counties in the country by population. No county below us attempts both codes. The only one i can see compares is laois and sure theres probably much of a muchness between both counties in both codes right now. Clare have an additional 40k people to pick from.

[pigeon house biffo]

Long story short.

Would i like to see Offaly doing better? Yes
Is there literally any basis, other than nostalgia, that suggests we are underachieving to any significant degree? I’m not sure there is.

[Anonymous1]

I think the likes of Luke O Connor and a few others from the big 4 clubs of banagher kk birr coolderry could surely offer up more than they are currently.

I’ve attached a pic of the counties in the country by population. No county below us attempts both codes. The only one i can see compares is laois and sure theres probably much of a muchness between both counties in both codes right now. Clare have an additional 40k people to pick from.

Carlow attempts both codes? And we’ve an additional 20k people to pick from than they do.

Arguing Clare having an additional 40k is the reason there’s such a disparity between both counties performance doesn’t really add up when you consider Tipperary have an extra 40k people than Clare yet Clare are better than Tipp in both codes at the minute.

You could also argue Clare are better than Kildare, Meath, Cork, Antrim and Down in both codes right now despite those counties having an enormous population advantage. Clare are getting something seriously right at the moment that we aren’t.

[pigeon house biffo]

Right? And I would say we are stronger than Carlow at both codes?

[Anonymous1]

Right? And I would say we are stronger than Carlow at both codes?

I wasn’t arguing Carlow are stronger than Offaly, I’m arguing Clare are significantly stronger than Offaly in both codes and using population as an excuse is nonsense as pointed out above.

[jimbob17]

Lads, have we forgotten Offaly GAA was mismanaged for the guts of the last 25 years. For the last 3 years or so we have been getting the house in order, and I believe we will only see the fruits of this in 10 years. The underage section is hugely revitalised with extra and better games programme, extra money, resources and with good facilities and personnel. Id be more than happy that Offaly are moving in right direction. There is a real energy around Offaly now and most good young lads wants to play for the county now, which was not always the case. In 7 or 8 years time, we will see the benefits of this work.

[Superhans75]

You have to factor age into the population equation
Offaly have an ageing population and new arrivals
Are not gaa inclined.
Even the likes of birr are a shade of themselves and
No realistic improvement.
How long have coolderry ,kinnity ,clareen got before the lights go out .
Enjoy what we had! hopefully things will change?

Ireland has moved on ! So will Offaly have to

[private joker]

Lads, have we forgotten Offaly GAA was mismanaged for the guts of the last 25 years. For the last 3 years or so we have been getting the house in order, and I believe we will only see the fruits of this in 10 years. The underage section is hugely revitalised with extra and better games programme, extra money, resources and with good facilities and personnel. Id be more than happy that Offaly are moving in right direction. There is a real energy around Offaly now and most good young lads wants to play for the county now, which was not always the case. In 7 or 8 years time, we will see the benefits of this work.

Unfortunately that good work is been undone. Certain personal who oversaw the underage success of the last 5 years are gone. The games programme is very good but it has come at the cost of development squads been sidelined. There are now good lads in place but they are inexperienced for the most part. Two gpos that were hired have moved into different roles. Their replacement s still to be appointed.
There's a real sense that those in charge are putting offalys hurling eggs all in one particular basket.

[jimbob17]

Would you like to expand? Not fully up to speed on happenings of last year or so. What I am taking or reading from point made is that all eggs are being put in basket of u20 hurlers of next few years to the cost of younger teams because personnel have stepped away? Is that the general gist.

I've no idea who is coming or going in dev squad managements but there was some rhetoric a number of years ago from Ml Duignan in media that dev squads done well were not the full answer. I for one think they are very very important as they set tone for all tgat follows at inter county level. They require really good quality of coaches to be involved while also getting good quality coaches involved at underage level in the clubs - which I think Duignan is trying to raise the bar. To be fair, a rising tide does lift the boats, and I think the schools success this year in hurling is testament to that somewhat, particularly with Kilcormac now in All Ireland B final and Birr and Col Choilm reaching latter stages. Combined schools success is less of an indication given the quality of player they had.

There will always be staff and personnel movement as long as the gda or gpo roles are not really well remunerated, as lads will move on for promotions, higher wages etc. I just hope that anyone that leaves is not lost to volunteer aspect of it and they are replaced by good people.

[pigeon house biffo]

Lads, have we forgotten Offaly GAA was mismanaged for the guts of the last 25 years. For the last 3 years or so we have been getting the house in order, and I believe we will only see the fruits of this in 10 years. The underage section is hugely revitalised with extra and better games programme, extra money, resources and with good facilities and personnel. Id be more than happy that Offaly are moving in right direction. There is a real energy around Offaly now and most good young lads wants to play for the county now, which was not always the case. In 7 or 8 years time, we will see the benefits of this work.

Unfortunately that good work is been undone. Certain personal who oversaw the underage success of the last 5 years are gone. The games programme is very good but it has come at the cost of development squads been sidelined. There are now good lads in place but they are inexperienced for the most part. Two gpos that were hired have moved into different roles. Their replacement s still to be appointed.
There's a real sense that those in charge are putting offalys hurling eggs all in one particular basket.

That’s suitably vague. I think if you know something you should enlighten the rest of us?

[private joker]

I know because I asked. Not that hard to find out what's going on with development squads. I asked a question here about how did the squads fare during the summer. No one replied. Inform your selves of whats going on within the county.

[greenairfield]

I have two nephews on development squads huge work been put in I think it's very unfair and also inaccurate to say otherwise.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Hard to comment to much today after the sad news last night.

For what it's worth, there has been a gap in the type of coaching needed for the modern hurling game. Indeed it appears that there are a set of rules written down and there are the rules that are enforced during games.
But I do know that the demands on coaches that get involved are significant and there needs to be a look at how coaches who have limited time to give to clubs and county development jobs roles could be facilitated to broaden the support.
That means that often the 3 guys who put their hands up to look after a group might not have the strongest coaching background, but with a bit more support to widen that group to someone assisting various aspects that can do one session a week, that would raise the bar for the coaching offered to that particular squad and this needs to be looked at.

I have been involved right up through the ranks and looked at what was best practice and tried to implement as much as possible but you were lucky at club level if one other selector or coach had a breeze what you were on about. Development squads often have guys who might have done some of the coaching courses but often could do with support to support them to bring this to life, as often they are coaches that are learning as they go. Mentoring of coaches at all levels I suppose is what Im getting at.

In relation to the seniors, 4 wins is a great return, Kerry was the big result and we were fairly lucky to get through that one. Kildare have been far more impressive and maybe a home semi final would not be a bad thing in terms of another competitive game. By all reports , defensively Offaly were decent on Saturday.
As regards lads not committing to the panel, that is their choice but this is also something that needs to be addressed as the level of turnover kills the momentum interms of S&C, and getting touch up to the level and intensity of senior intercounty level.

Lot of talk about the work that has gone on in Kildare and there is no doubt that they will be favourites to come through this mini series and get promotion, but we should be well capable of beating them.
Funny last Saturday, on Radio 1 , they were so keen to see Kildare progress to the next tier. They have forgotten about how strong Meath were a few years ago and dropped off the charts. Very difficult for anyone to bridge the gap to Liam Mc, and I don't begrudge Kildare the day in the sun. However we need to start drawing a line in the sand and move forward now, and give this a rattle over the next few weeks.
We'll have 3 games with Kildare, then Kerry, Carlow etc again as part of league and Joe Mc, so a great window to continue to build a panel and get some momentum.