Niall Claffey out from Leinster Semi

[Lone Shark]

(Taken from RTE.ie)

Niall Claffey injury blow for Offaly

Tuesday, May 17 2005 11:22
Offaly's championship hopes have been dealt a major blow with the news that half-back Niall Claffey is out for six weeks - forcing him out of his county's showdown with Kilkenny.

Birr man Claffey, the most experienced defender available to Offaly manager John McIntyre, broke his index finger in a club game against Drumcullen on Friday night last.

"It is very bad news. Niall will be out for six to seven weeks, and is definitely out of the Guinness Leinster hurling semi-final against Kilkenny on June 12," said team secretary Pat Teehan.


"It's very hard on Niall himself after all the work he has put in over the last few months."

Brian Whelehan also played against Drumcullen and put in an outstanding performance at centre half-back, fuelling speculation that he may return to the Offaly team for the championship.





I can't say I'm hugely upset by this. I'd prefer to see Kevin Brady in this slot anyway. It's hard luck on Niall, but truth be told I've never really seen him as a centre back.

[Bord na Mona man]

Claffey seemed to be going well this year.
It's a very big step up for Kevin Brady. To make him play centre back in his first serious inter-county start?
He hasn't been a nailed down starter this year, and yet again didn't get his place on the WIT Fitzgibbon team.
That's hardly the form you'd want from your centre-back.
We need Sid back, so long as we don't make the same mistake of detailing him to mark Shefflin like Father Dougal did in 2002.

[Lone Shark]

I know Brady hasn't been pulling up any trees since Coolderry got knocked out of the club, but I'd just have an awful lot more faith in him under a high ball than I do with Claffey. Plus Claffey always goes for the stylish clearance or pass, and as a result often gets hooked.

So who else are the options - Barry Teehan? Peter Healion?

I'll be watching Sid's performance this weekend with interest ......

[Loughers]

I'd give Kevin Brady the run at centre back. Syd won't be back. As for who takes over in the corner, whatever happened to David Moran? He was a fine corner back.

[Plain of the Herbs]

David Moran missed all of last year after his knee went again early in the year. Was due to line out at full back for Lusmagh last Sunday (which I didn't get to, unfortunately)

So, with Claffey out, what are the options? At least theres time to find a replacement. What chance Stephen Brown in the half bach line, perhaps centre-back. He has the hurling, is good in the air, and mobile. Not a man marker, tho'. Otherwise, how about restoring Oakley to full back, Teehan to corner, and Kevin Brady to wing? What do ye think of Hoctor? He has hurling, and is a trier, and has improved steadily since the league. If left at 5 he will be marking Tommy Walsh, which will be difficult (to say the least) for a debutant.

All year on this board, I've been picking a horses for courses lineout for June 12th, matching players firstly on physique (ie tall players marking tall players etc.), and then on the likelihood of holding their men. This is why I had Kevin Brady down as being the most likely to mark Shefflin. With Claffey gone, we're short a defender, which is where I'm getting the Stephen Brown idea. If Hoctor doesn't make it, we need another (Oakley).

I would hope for his sake Sid doesn't return. He will certainly be targetted in th air by Kilkenny if placed at CHB. Not sure if I'm repeating myself on this medium, but I think Sid's best contribution would be if he were given the sideline role filled by Michael Duignan last year.

Sorry for Claaf, tho'. He's been there since the very beginning of the year.

[Lone Shark]

I think Brady has to be the call, with as you say Oakley at fullback, Teehan and Franks in the corners and Hoctor and Cassidy as the wing backs.

I wouldn't let Stephen Brown near Shefflin. If you watch Shefflin play, he just drifts all over the place and crops up in locations you just wouldn't expect - Brown wouldn't have (or hasn't shown, I suppose, if you want to be fair) the discipline to stay with him. Brady being a defender first and a hurler second would at least do that.

And certainly I think the era of expecting Sid to ride in on his white horse and save us has to be gone. My worry is though that in the match at the weekend, he's probably going to be marking Seamus Spain - now with all due respect to Seamus, he's probably one of the weakest players in the Kilcormac team, and Sid at 43 would be able to look fantastic on him, never mind Sid at 33. I can see the clamour for a Sid comeback reaching deafening levels after this. Hopefully McIntyre will be able to steer away from bowing to public opinion.

Any reason why you think Hoctor mightn't make it? I know it would be his debut, but he's done well, and it's not as if there are any all star players lurking in the wings to take over from him. I certainly expect him to start, and when it all goes pear shaped, I've a funny feeling it won't be Danny that will have been the root of the problem.

[Flatcap]

i think peter healion should still be in with a shout. he played well at the weekend, hes big, he guards the square and you dont get around him easy at all. always seems to get his clearance away as well.

hes a better fullback than oakley anyways.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Ya, Shark. Bear in mind tho', that KK's likely line up will have Shefflin at 15, and Eoin Larkin at 11.

As regards Hoctor, I've nothing against him per se, I justhave an aversion to rookie 20 year-olds lining out against Kilkenny. Maybe Hoctor will be fine. I've no specific argument anainst the lad.

[Lone Shark]

Regarding Shefflin and Larkin, I'm aware they've been lining up as such, but if I'm not mistaken they've been swapping freely enough between themselves?? I could be wrong on this though.

[Ron]

I was looking up about the new format there, and should KK beat Offaly in the first round (not saying its a certainty but we all know we're not favourites!), the losers will be out in the Qualifiers the next Saturday? (Laois or Wexford will be in the same boat) Surely this isn't very fair on the Leinster teams? On the other hand Waterford and Limerick will have 3 weeks to prepare??

[Loughers]

Noticed that myself. If we run them close and lose, the boys will be down. If we get hammered the boys will be down. Better beat them so.

[Lone Shark]

Has anyone else noticed how when it comes to things like this our county board is never really that belligerent, and tends to take the short straw in a way other counties wouldn't?

I understand it was before all the fuss with the six day thing, but for three years in a row we had to play six days after losing a championship game - twice getting knocked out by teams you'd be confident against. And the other was against London (that was actually five days if memory serves)

We agreed to toss for venue last year against Wexford when the players didn't want it - and they were proved right - no advantage we would have had in Tullamore would have been worth what it was worth to the Wexford crowd to parade the Bob O'Keeffe at half time and get the crowd wound up.

We played Clare in Limerick in the hurling last year, where a third of the bloody city is in Clare County. Neutral venue me bollix.

I'm not saying that these are excuses for losing, we still went out and lost the games, and only really in the Louth game in 2001 was it really the difference between winning and losing in my opinion, but it still does not bode well for the chances of us fighting our corner if we're due to play Limerick/Galway/Waterford six days after getting narrowly beaten/tanned by the Cats.

[Kevin]

Playing on 6 days rest when your opponents have 3 weeks to prepare is a complete joke. Hardly a level playing field. Its not as though the other teams in the qualifiers won a bye or anything.

Quick question:

Does anyone have contact information for the Offaly County Board? I'd like to get the 'official' view of the situation - which I'd be happy to report back on...

[Plain of the Herbs]

I'd be more inclined to point the finger at the fixture-makers in the Leinster council rather than our county board. After all, they're charged with promoting Leinster hurling.

Incidentally, what happens if either Leinster semi ends in a draw? How does this affect the order of matches in the groups.

What bothers me is that if teams end tied on points, scoring difference is used to separate teams.
Now, if they're interested in saving hurling in Dublin, Antrim etc., there shouldn't be an incentive to beat Antrim by 35 points, as Tipperary will and we'll struggle to beat them at all. They should use the results between the respective counties who are tied.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Many of you may have seen this already, but I thought I'd reproduce this extract from Arrikle's Stubboun Nore preview of the forthcoming championship on http://www.kilkennycats.com.

Some interesting observations. The Cloghan boys mightn't be amused with his apportioning Paudie Mulhare to the Banagher side of the parish!

Offaly’s demolition of Carlow in the Division II Final the weekend before last curtailed earlier talk of Leinster’s demise as a competitive province. Notwithstanding the emphatic nature of that victory, pundits have been busy writing off the Faithful men’s chances against the Marble contingent. It is not a wise thing to do. First of all, John McIntyre is no fool. Second, as demonstrated by both the 2003 Leinster semi-final and the first half of the 2004 Leinster Final, there is not much between Offaly and Wexford. We all know which county made Noel Skehan sour last June. If nobody any longer underestimates purple and gold, the same latitude should be extended to green, white and gold. Severity about the Midlanders’s championship hopes has focused on their 2005 League berth in Division II. Hurling against the likes of Carlow, Derry, Kildare, Roscommon and Westmeath is not ideal preparation, it was widely held, for a contest with Kilkenny. Perhaps. Yet it could be argued that, in present circumstances, playing in Division II might not have been entirely a bad thing for Offaly. As you try to put a new team together, bedding in young players and so on, it can be useful to be assured that hidings are not on the horizon. A roster of high-powered contests might not have suited Faithful tyros this spring.

What should immediately be noted is the potential of their front eight. Michael Cordial is a fine hurler in the making. He needs a partner lár na páirce and we might see Ger Oakley restored to the Carrig-Riverstown man’s original position. It is difficult to say. Brian Carroll has been tried as Cordial’s partner but might be better used in the more familiar surrounds of corner-forward. Banagher’s Paudie Mulhare, now back on board, is surely a possibility in this area. Dylan Hayden, an excellent prospect, is another one.

If Carroll is counted as an attacker, McIntyre can add to him the Hanniffy brothers and Brendan Murphy. If he cannot also add Stephen Brown’s name, it will be a big disappointment. Brown is a lavishly gifted hurler when he evinces the interest in being so adjudged.. His failure to make decisive contributions to midland hopes over the last couple of seasons must be Offaly fans’ biggest regret. If the tricoloured men are to go anywhere, they will need the Birr ex-prodigy fuelling the engine.

There are also high hopes of Cathal Parlon, who is promisingly neat in his work, if a little light as yet. Contrastingly, Damien Murray has always struck this columnist as too predictable and too one-sided in typical cackhand fashion. Nor is the Coolderry man’s place the only one that should be re-examined. The manager needs to look again at full-forward. Brown could hurl there, a certain style of play adopted. But if the backroom is going to use a target man, as at present, then they should plump for Gary Hanniffy rather than for Joe Brady. The latter is just too cumbersome and too slow in his striking to cause a serious full-back decisive bother. Hanniffy is reminiscent of Joe Rabbitte in many ways. If there are useful resemblances as regards height and reach, there is also the shared one-sidedness. Still, Hanniffy the elder would offer a lot more at full-forward than Brady, especially if he had Carroll and Brown primed beside him. Hanniffy the Younger should make an excellent centre-forward, in which his hurling intelligence plays as big a part as his obvious skill. Ballyskenach’s Brendan Murphy has made no. 12 his number. For the other wing, there is Hayden as a possibility. There is even the possibility of Gary Hanniffy, if out-and-out hurlers are favoured as an inside line via Carroll-Brown-Parlon (the first-named player favours his left and so is best at top of the right -- so does Brown, in fact, though he is more thoroughly two-sided).

Offaly’s major problems are in defence. It is never going to be easy when a defender picked on the Team of the Millennium is set to retire. Yet who would bet against Brian Whelehan playing in Croke Park on June 12th.? The question has been left open. It would be clever if he could be persuaded to do so. Height is Niall Claffey’s major asset. There is also the consideration that Whelehan, if he lined out at no. 5, would likely be marking Tommy Walsh. The Birr legend would not fancy tagging Walsh in his journeys hither and thither. Yet these very travels typically allow whoever is marking the Tullaroan wonder to hit a deal of ball. There is still no better back in the game to strike scoring clearances than Whelehan. It is a factor that might yet be important.

Faithful concerns duly noted, it is not all gloom. The Midlanders are well set on the left at the back, where they have the services of David Franks and Colm Cassidy. Fine hurlers, the two of them, and they will not easily be overcome. If, as expected, Kilkenny play Martin Comerford at no. 10 and Eoin Larkin at no. 11, McIntyre should give serious thought to letting Cassidy mark Larkin, with Claffey taking up Comerford. The Kilcormac-Killoughey man has quick hands and is good to dispossess. These qualities are what will be needed on Larkin.

The big concerns remain the obvious ones. Observers query whether Kevin Brady and David Hoctor are serious intercounty backs. They also wonder how Barry Teehan will shape up at full-back. As yet, there is no dependable spine in defence. The temptation will be to coax Whelahan back, hoping for one last run of fiats. Another Birr man, Dylan Hayden, might well be the longterm answer at centre-back, his position as a Minor. If so, he could do with an apprenticeship at wing-back.