Offaly Senior A Hurling Championship 2023

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Also, the ability of James Gorman to contest the high ball in the goalmouth is a useful option for other forwards to feed off. Could Offaly U20s do something similar next year if the channels for the threaded ball to Screeney are blocked?

I think James Gorman is overage for the 20’s next year……….

[ah lethimoutwithit]

[greenairfield]

Can anybody see kk been beaten in the near future ? In offaly that is .

[frankthetank]

Well if you go through the teams in the Senior A it’s hard see it.

Seir Kieran - no chance

Kinnitty - no chance

Tullamore - no chance

Belmont - Slight chance with everyone back fit and
the thing going well

Coolderry - no chance

Birr - Slight chance with momentum behind them and Emmet Nolan and Eoghan Cahill shooting the lights out

St Rynaghs - The general consesus is they have had a serious run of it for the last 10 years and the that team is coming to the end of it’s life cycle.

Ballinamere - Good age profile. Making good progress over last number of years. Lot of county representation so probably will be the nearest challengers in the medium term.

Shinrone - quite possible this year’s final knocked the stuffing out of them. However SBK won this year’s minor and should go back to back next year so could be decent in the medium term.

So there you have it in my opinion. K/K should really look to take home at least 3 of the next 5 titles. I suppose the big question is can they adequately replace the older guys like Conor Mahon et al.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Can anybody see kk been beaten in the near future ? In offaly that is .

No.

Odds are, we’re at the beginning of a Ballygunner style domination. The only other club in Offaly who could make a reasonable claim to get better over the coming years and thus mount a challenge is Ballinamere.

[BiffoInThurso]

Well if you go through the teams in the Senior A it’s hard see it.

Seir Kieran - no chance

Kinnitty - no chance

Tullamore - no chance

Belmont - Slight chance with everyone back fit and
the thing going well

Coolderry - no chance

Birr - Slight chance with momentum behind them and Emmet Nolan and Eoghan Cahill shooting the lights out

St Rynaghs - The general consesus is they have had a serious run of it for the last 10 years and the that team is coming to the end of it’s life cycle.

Ballinamere - Good age profile. Making good progress over last number of years. Lot of county representation so probably will be the nearest challengers in the medium term.

Shinrone - quite possible this year’s final knocked the stuffing out of them. However SBK won this year’s minor and should go back to back next year so could be decent in the medium term.

So there you have it in my opinion. K/K should really look to take home at least 3 of the next 5 titles. I suppose the big question is can they adequately replace the older guys like Conor Mahon et al.

Is emmett nolan home for good now? Would he go in with the county I wonder, great athlete and hurler.

Tullamore no chance hard to believe given the size of the town they can’t develop a serious hurling outfit. Too small a county to have our biggest town under contributing in such a manner.

Birr, nuts, nearly the same but different as tullamore. Huge population focusing solely on one code, but at least tullamore are reconciling their resources into club championships. What excuse have birr really and truly?

Rynaghs could end up slipping a good bit back by the looks of things, thought they might have one last dance this year and maybe would have given kk a better game in the final this year than the shinners. Didn’t always understand the team selections this year.

[greenairfield]

Similar to Tullamore not on the same level at all go back to bed. A very small pool of GAA in Birr with borders all around the town.
Most of their players go to school outside of Birr in that could be the main problem.

[timber]

This was an impressive win for K-K.
The Wexford county final a while back was a typical Wexford mullockfest, where Gorey looked very dogged when they outfought and outlasted Oylegate.
With home advantage, a heavy pitch, Sean Cleere reffing it, an Offaly team in any way soft, would have been in bother.

As it turned out, K-K were well able for any Gorey horseplay, and had too much hurling quality in the end.
They defended very well and put great pressure on the ball. Conor McDonald who would normally be their stand out was well shackled.
Another indicator was the hooking/blocking stats on the TG4 coverage that were massively in K-K's favour.

It turned out that a 2 point lead with the wind strength was far too little. And when K-K put in a few good deep balls, they created chances.
Also, the ability of James Gorman to contest the high ball in the goalmouth is a useful option for other forwards to feed off. Could Offaly U20s do something similar next year if the channels for the threaded ball to Screeney are blocked?

Good auld win for KK. Wexford were poor to be fair but KK looked hungry which was good to see.

Much bigger challenge coming up though. Different level. Mikey Butler and Huw Lawlor are arguably the best corner and full back in the country respectively. Really good players. So they will match up to KK's biggest scoring treat so other lads will need to step up to keep the score board ticking. Con mahon obviously can be good on his day and he is up against Paddy Deegan another fantastic hurler. So 3 key kk players in attack will be marshalled by 3 of kilkenny seniors stars. If you could make some head way in those battles it would go a long way but thats not simple.

Mark Bergin then on the half forward line is in flying form. Experienced intercounty player too. And a teacher so plenty of time every day to be getting out practicing his shooting so he will be sharp. .

Will be a really big challenge now for alot of the very young KK men.

[frankthetank]

Similar to Tullamore not on the same level at all go back to bed. A very small pool of GAA in Birr with borders all around the town.
Most of their players go to school outside of Birr in that could be the main problem.

So Birr's woes lie at the doors of the primary schools outside of Birr.

Wow! That's an incredible stretch. Even for you!!

[greenairfield]

Never said that at all its just a rather large factor and it is more than fair to say that.

[frankthetank]

Never said that at all its just a rather large factor and it is more than fair to say that.

So enlighten us then. What are these clearly inferior primary schools not doing that the Boys School in Birr is doing?

[greenairfield]

I never said the coaching was inferior your suggesting that I said the issue is there isn't one school all the players are together and they get coached together it's spread out across 4/5 schools 2 of them been in the CRC parish. With pools of children in each school where some schools hurling isn't a huge emphasis.

When the boys school was ran by the presentation brothers and the years after in most cases all children who hurled went there and it was easy to coach and get access to players that is not the case now.

Not sure why you are barking it's a reasonable reason to why it can be tricky coaching some of our players and something that needs to be looked at.

[Dodge83]

I never said the coaching was inferior your suggesting that I said the issue is there isn't one school all the players are together and they get coached together it's spread out across 4/5 schools 2 of them been in the CRC parish. With pools of children in each school where some schools hurling isn't a huge emphasis.

When the boys school was ran by the presentation brothers and the years after in most cases all children who hurled went there and it was easy to coach and get access to players that is not the case now.

Not sure why you are barking it's a reasonable reason to why it can be tricky coaching some of our players and something that needs to be looked at.

Can you elaborate on what needs to be looked at ? There is plenty of hurling in the schools in Crinkill , Carrig &’Killeen. I can’t see how that can be an issue. Maybe the talent just isn’t there like it used to be.

[greenairfield]

Define plenty it's played but there isn't a clear focus on it like what the Birr school did when all players went there.

Talents comes and goes Birr seem to be strong at certain age groups coming up maybe It will just take a few more years.

[Hasselhoff]

Hard luck to k/k