Offaly Under 20s hurling 2024

[FaithfulFuture]

Not sure if Ravenhill should have played today, he looked to be carrying a knock.

We should have pushed on today and lucky to hold on in the end.

With the round robin nature of these games I thought it would have been a good opportunity to give one or two more players some game time. If we are to go deep into the championship we will need more options off the bench.

We missed some very scoreable opportunities today which was disappointing, despite the elements.

The game seemed to pass by our half forward line a little bit. I thought midfield was excellent and backs were solid and put in a good showing.

The magician continues to prove himself. It was an awful pity that he hit the crossbar in the first half.

It's good that we have at least made it to a 1/4 final as it will hopefully allow time for injuries to Hand and Ravenhill to clear up.

[Anonymous1]

Joe mcdonagh coming now is going to have an impact on u20 preparation. Kk seem to be putting up huge scores.

The question is would Galway and Offaly be putting up huge scores against those teams too?

The U20s have no game for at least a month now so should allow them a chance to play a bit of Joe Mcdonagh.

[Anonymous1]

Not sure if Ravenhill should have played today, he looked to be carrying a knock.

We should have pushed on today and lucky to hold on in the end.

With the round robin nature of these games I thought it would have been a good opportunity to give one or two more players some game time. If we are to go deep into the championship we will need more options off the bench.

We missed some very scoreable opportunities today which was disappointing, despite the elements.

The game seemed to pass by our half forward line a little bit. I thought midfield was excellent and backs were solid and put in a good showing.

The magician continues to prove himself. It was an awful pity that he hit the crossbar in the first half.

It's good that we have at least made it to a 1/4 final as it will hopefully allow time for injuries to Hand and Ravenhill to clear up.

Yeah attacking options off the bench aren’t in plentiful supply.

We’ll need Ravenhill fit to start with Hand coming on to change the game.

[joey1001]

Joe mcdonagh coming now is going to have an impact on u20 preparation. Kk seem to be putting up huge scores.

Some of these have u 20s are important to the senior team and we need to make sure they are in good order for McDonagh cup which has to take priority over the u-20s. A serious bunch of lads in all fairness

[joey1001]

Read in the Offaly paper report that has we reached preliminary qf it would have been on same weekend as Westmeath McDonagh match and that our u-20s wouldn't have been available for the senior match is that correct?

[Faithfully]

Read in the Offaly paper report that has we reached preliminary qf it would have been on same weekend as Westmeath McDonagh match and that our u-20s wouldn't have been available for the senior match is that correct?

No. That rule only applies to tier 1 counties. They would be theoretically unavailable because you couldn’t be asking them to be involved in multiple games in the same weekend. However Charlie Mitchell played games at 2 levels on multiple occasions last season. One of the games would likely have to take preference.

[joey1001]

Read in the Offaly paper report that has we reached preliminary qf it would have been on same weekend as Westmeath McDonagh match and that our u-20s wouldn't have been available for the senior match is that correct?

No. That rule only applies to tier 1 counties. They would be theoretically unavailable because you couldn’t be asking them to be involved in multiple games in the same weekend. However Charlie Mitchell played games at 2 levels on multiple occasions last season. One of the games would likely have to take preference.

You'd assume the senior would take preference? It's hugely important to the county that we win it this year and get into Leinster. Anyway not an issue now and hopefully won't be at any point.

[JimBwobb]

Yeah attacking options off the bench aren’t in plentiful supply.

We’ll need Ravenhill fit to start with Hand coming on to change the game.

Barry Egan has been impressive in the first two games to be fair and looks a nailed on starter at 14 and adding Conor Doyle back into the mix is welcome news.


Alex Kavanagh is a player who I seen score 3-4 in 2022 Under 20 County final but never gets played at Inter County, love see him get a few runs.

[bracknaghboy]

If someone told you 3 or 4 years ago that we'd be disappointed getting a draw against a highly rated Galway under 20 side you'd have said they were mad.
Well that's where we are at and that's surely a good sign. It was one that got left behind yes but hopefully the players on reflection will realise that they were the better team out there today. If it was a boxing match they'd have won a unanimous decision hands down. The penalty was the killer, it seemed to flick a switch in both teams.....Galway decided they could get back into it despite losing man and Offaly appeared to suddenly become disorganised as was evidenced by a failure to use the extra man properly when trying to play out from the back for the last 5 minutes. I think Screeney needs to be taking any penalty from now on......modern penalties are not about power since with just the goalkeeper to beat a well placed shot is a better option.

I must say this team are a joy to watch. They are very skilful, confident, tenacious and are playing with real pride in the jersey, Great to see a decent crowd and getting vocal as well.
You'd have to think that Galway will get the better of Dublin (although who knows?) but if they do then Offaly will be in action again in 3 weeks time in the quarter final. If Dublin were to win then Offaly are straight into the semi final in a months time so either way they have time off to regroup and hopefully the weather will have improved by then which will help these lads.
More positives than negatives today, many more in fact.

[SearingDrive]

If someone told you 3 or 4 years ago that we'd be disappointed getting a draw against a highly rated Galway under 20 side you'd have said they were mad.
Well that's where we are at and that's surely a good sign. It was one that got left behind yes but hopefully the players on reflection will realise that they were the better team out there today. If it was a boxing match they'd have won a unanimous decision hands down. The penalty was the killer, it seemed to flick a switch in both teams.....Galway decided they could get back into it despite losing man and Offaly appeared to suddenly become disorganised as was evidenced by a failure to use the extra man properly when trying to play out from the back for the last 5 minutes. I think Screeney needs to be taking any penalty from now on......modern penalties are not about power since with just the goalkeeper to beat a well placed shot is a better option.

I must say this team are a joy to watch. They are very skilful, confident, tenacious and are playing with real pride in the jersey, Great to see a decent crowd and getting vocal as well.
You'd have to think that Galway will get the better of Dublin (although who knows?) but if they do then Offaly will be in action again in 3 weeks time in the quarter final. If Dublin were to win then Offaly are straight into the semi final in a months time so either way they have time off to regroup and hopefully the weather will have improved by then which will help these lads.
More positives than negatives today, many more in fact.

I agree with all your comments BB. We should have converted that penalty, even a point would be great. Turning point in the game.
We have some exciting players on the team, all of which confirms we are in a good position on the hurling front.

[private joker]

I know it hard in the moment, and hindsight is a great thing but mgt I think are letting down this group of players. Didn't set up after the sending off correctly and the penalty should have been pointed. Not left up to the taker. Penalties are quite difficult to score. It was the losing of the win.

[joey1001]

I know it hard in the moment, and hindsight is a great thing but mgt I think are letting down this group of players. Didn't set up after the sending off correctly and the penalty should have been pointed. Not left up to the taker. Penalties are quite difficult to score. It was the losing of the win.

Can't agree that the management are letting the players down, silly thing to say, last few minutes of the game, the players are the ones inside the white line, hard for managers to get messages into players at any stage of game not mind with a few minutes to go.. didn't need to set up any different, were going ok as it was . Galway had momentum at that stage though and the wind. I think the penalty should have been pointed also but if he pointed and they got a coupe of late goals ye be saying he should have scored a goal from the penalty and he lacked ambition, at the end of the day, we drew with Galway, probably should have won, could have lost but we're in quarter final and avoiding McDonagh game clash

[G91]

Again like I said it's the second game of championship two different games,

Offaly were the better team but galway fought back very well and I thought the response was good they kept Galway out wide and forced them into taking tough shots , the last two efforts would have been fantastic scores if they got either

The team as aslo shown there's more than screeney capable of causing trouble

We panicked a little in free space in front goal hit some silly wides overall id say management are happy enough and have an excellent opportunity to work on things and let Galway and dublin battle it out i don't think dublin will be easy beaten either

[G91]

Looking at Galway v dublin,

Dublin have been poor but galway have done nothing special either

Very little support for the teams

[Bord na Mona man]

Galway have made full use of the wind and Dublin have left themselves a mountain to climb. 7 or 8 points down and maybe they'd have a chance. 12 points, hardly.