County Board

[Up The Faithful]

After watching the u21 match tonight, and seeing in the 1st half how far Offaly were off the pace only registering 2 points. It was yet another sad day for Offaly hurling. Personally I feel the late appointment of the management team was a major cause of the problems at u21 level.
If we take a wider look at some our problems this year...
An Offaly senior football team who didnt win one competitive game this year league or championship
An U21 hurling team whos manager was appointed late in the year
Offaly senior hurler Brian Carroll said the facilities in the county are non existent and structures are all wrong
I heard a few of this years county minors complaining about the lack of gear they were getting for all there committment
And very recently after the senior footballers parted with Emmet McDonald...Niall McNamee tweeted "Very sorry for Emmet and the lads, they gave it everything but were given little or no support from the top"

Should we be really looking at the top and maybe some changes in the County Board or is it easy to put the blame on them???

[Truesupporter]

Yes 'up the faithful' the county board is blamed a lot and in many cases in the wrong, but it is easier to do this instead of dealing with the real problem. Minors worried about 'gear' is just one example of where priorities are all wrong. There is 'a what's in it for me attitude 'among some panel members rather than 'what can I give to my county'. There are fine facilities for players, they have physios, strength & conditioning coaches, nutrionists etc and receive gear. The county board is made up of the clubs of Offaly. The people give their time voluntary as they do in their own clubs and revieve nothing but hassle a lot of the time.. So this attitude of blaming them for everything is wrong . Players, clubs county and volunteers, we are all part of the County Board and need to start working together. More voluntary work and people giving something back ( even by buying a lotto ticket weekly) would go a long way. Esto Fidelis.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Okay,

We can have an intelligent debate on this, in the best traditions of UibhFhaili.com, or people can act the eejit here. I’m for the former.

To get his underway, and at the risk of being labelled a board sympathiser (I'm not, but I’ve been called worse), I want to query something.

Niall McNamee tweeted that his team received “little or no support from the top” which I presume to mean the Offaly County Board. Think about that for a minute. ‘No support’ means no meals after training, no medical aid, no jerseys, no transport, no mileage, no training, no challenge matches, basically nothing. I doubt that to be the case. And maybe it is. ‘Little’ means something more than none, but not much.

For starters, and because I am not a fan of sweeping genaralisations, can someone quantify what the grievances are. What is being asked for and not given? What is being promised and not being delivered? And what commitments are being fobbed off on?

[Bord na Mona man]

The failure to appoint U21 management was on the worser end of the scale. In mitigation, not many were volunteering for the job and the longer the vacancy stayed open, the more likely a result like last night's became inevitable, making it an unattractive post.

Also, many elements of last night's defeat go deeper than just administration. We're simply not equipping our players to go out and compete with modern day sides. Much of this is down to the clubs and the coaching. Too many of those in charge talk about a game that existed 20+ years ago. Meanwhile the likes of Wexford gobble up the high balls, boss the breakdown and find a colleague instead of hitting 50-50s. We're left poking, swiping and whipping.

You hear stories about how in Birr the soccer and rugby underage clubs are better organised and give the young players a better experience than the GAA club. This and 100 other factors like feed into the hopper that eventually churns out results like last night. Do we blame the clubs, or do we blame the county board for not breathing down their necks and forcing improvements?

[Bord na Mona man]

Okay,

We can have an intelligent debate on this, in the best traditions of UibhFhaili.com, or people can act the eejit here. I’m for the former.

To get his underway, and at the risk of being labelled a board sympathiser (I'm not, but I’ve been called worse), I want to query something.

Niall McNamee tweeted that his team received “little or no support from the top” which I presume to mean the Offaly County Board. Think about that for a minute. ‘No support’ means no meals after training, no medical aid, no jerseys, no transport, no mileage, no training, no challenge matches, basically nothing. I doubt that to be the case. And maybe it is. ‘Little’ means something more than none, but not much.

For starters, and because I am not a fan of sweeping genaralisations, can someone quantify what the grievances are. What is being asked for and not given? What is being promised and not being delivered? And what commitments are being fobbed off on?

I would be curious as to what the root of these stand offs are. It seems to be a constant theme.

At face value much of the aggro seems to come from the county board trying to play it cute and not give out gear to fellas who may get cut from panels. That's always the most quoted complaint anyway.
For the sake of a the few bob it saves compared to the resentment it seems to create, I'd be inclined to fire out the gear and take the financial hit.

There surely must be more to it than this? Are the County Board that petty that they'd allow penny pinching to build up such a bank of resentment? Are the players that brittle that not getting an O'Neills polo top in January turns us into a Division 4 rabble?

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Regarding a couple of things:

1) This county has been decimated by unemployment and the recession, 80s and 90s BNM, Banagher Concrete, ESB, Contruction, jobs were there, apprenticships available, less participation in 3rd level.
Now-Emmigration, lads moving away to work, harder to get back home to train, harder to get work that can fit in the amount of training required, smaller pool of players able to give this committment.

2)Coaching, to a degree we achieved success at a time when the game was largely amateur, coaching was basic, lads learning their skills with their mates locally , football in school, and the local lads doing their best down at the club.
Now, other counties have moved on at club level and are doing serious training of their coaches and in many cases lads ar enot let take over club teams unless they have coaching courses done.

CLUBS IN OFFALY DO NOT DEMAND THAT THEIR COACHES DO THE RELEVANT COACHING COURSES, Offaly Games Development put on the courses but they can only do that and cant drag people to them.
So now that we are at the bottom, can it be too much to ask that clubs audit their coaching personnel and ensure that they attend the relevant courses.
THE CO BOARD PUT ON WORKSHOPS TO SHOW CLUBS THE THINGS THAT NEED TO BE AUDITED AND HOW TO GO ABOUT IT, decent attendance, but have the clubs done anything about it. My club hasnt and I despair at some of the lads that are involved who are convinced that they know it all.

Clubs need to come together and share local expertise, S&C, Nutrition, running coach, mental well being talks to support teenagers, and show parents that the GAA is a structure that will provide overall benefits to their children. Clubs need to equip themselves to help the development process that needs to take place.

So in my opinion, the underage element is for the clubs in conjunction with the co board to fix, NO MAJOR MONEY required, time, effort, and the will to change.

3) Brian Carroll and facilities.
Yes OCP is done, what do we do , knock it down??? So a plan to achieve payment of the debt with as much support as the Leinster Council can give us, but as we need to try to save the game in the county, we need to put forward a plan to save the game and the support that we need to help us with this debt.

But lets face it, our players have access to gyms, and clubs are good at giving their pitches, but we need to identify a venus that can be developed and put down a plan that is realistic to achieve this.

So we need to achieve the financial structure in order to deliver this in a reasonable time frame.

4) Support for schools is vital.

So to the co board, Treasurer role needs to be revamped and the lads who have been there need to be removed. Co board chairman is decent enough, but in fairness has a been talking the talk without walking the walk, sort out a list of priorities and seek out the expertise needed within the county.
Publish any plan that has been put down on paper, and publish what has been done, not yet done, and assess is it going to put us on the right track.

With regard to the policy on gear etc, I think if the right structures were in place, (there is definitely progress being made in football) for development squads, a major sponsor might be able to be secured. But I think the idea of lads complaining about the gear with a minor team who have been excellently prepared and these lads will have gotten a football education that will stand to them for their careers grats with me a bit.
Red herring stuff.

Personally , I see the football turning around , but I think that the hurling will be a different task. But even though I am a football man, I would contibute whatever I could to do to help financially or what not with hurling.

[uibhfhaili]

All these pts are totally irrelevant to what happened last night where the County Board held back the appointment of an U21 management side as long as possible to make sure they'd be as weak as possible. That's a utter disgrace.
As an aside I keep hearing about what great work Alan Mulhall is doing with coaching, development squads ect. Who exactly is the hurling equivalent of Alan Mulhall in the county?

[backofthenet]

I do not agree that his points are irrelevant to last night. Last night is the result of his points.

If the county board are putting on training courses and people aren't attending it's a shocking indictment. I have never once heard of these courses and as a player I would love to attend with a view to perhaps helping out with an underage team at some stage in the future. In fact it would be one of the things that would stop me from volunteering truth be told as I have the drills that we use at senior level but I know from other sports that at certain age group (8-12) these are not suitable.

But in a lot of respects what is happening with the county is a mirror image of what is happening at my own club, there is a distinct lack of interest from too many and this rubs off on everyone. A professional well ran setup will be bought into by the players, but if you have lads not being looked after properly then they will not aspire to perform as well as they can.

What does an Offaly county hurler / footballer get for their 8-9 months training (many driving long distances)???

As far as I can see f@ck all at the moment.

We need to get the pride back, treat them with respect, give them a level playing field to try and compete and ensure they treat the jersey they're wearing with the same respect, once we do that I am sure we will be in a much better place in the short term.

Long term we need to change the coaching at club level. There are too many teaching methods that will make Offaly hurling obsolete

[Lone Shark]

A professional well ran setup will be bought into by the players, but if you have lads not being looked after properly then they will not aspire to perform as well as they can.

What does an Offaly county hurler / footballer get for their 8-9 months training (many driving long distances)???

As far as I can see f@ck all at the moment.

I'm not close enough to the scene this year to know one way or another, but this is the kind of vague comment that we're getting a lot of - however what we're not getting is an actual answer to the question - what exactly do you mean by "looked after properly"? There appears to be this idea out there that the players are arriving to training like Dick Whittington, togging out in the same t-shirt they wore when they were under-14, and going home hungry. I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but with the exception of the issue about not appointing a manager for the U21 hurlers in time, then there isn't really anything else that's obvious.

Or to put it another way, what do you thing the players should "get for their 8-9 months training" that they aren't getting?

[backofthenet]

A professional well ran setup will be bought into by the players, but if you have lads not being looked after properly then they will not aspire to perform as well as they can.

What does an Offaly county hurler / footballer get for their 8-9 months training (many driving long distances)???

As far as I can see f@ck all at the moment.

I'm not close enough to the scene this year to know one way or another, but this is the kind of vague comment that we're getting a lot of - however what we're not getting is an actual answer to the question - what exactly do you mean by "looked after properly"? There appears to be this idea out there that the players are arriving to training like Dick Whittington, togging out in the same t-shirt they wore when they were under-14, and going home hungry. I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but with the exception of the issue about not appointing a manager for the U21 hurlers in time, then there isn't really anything else that's obvious.

Or to put it another way, what do you thing the players should "get for their 8-9 months training" that they aren't getting?

Well if you look I put a very important "if" which puts my quote into proper perspective.

Well to be honest look at our results. If I was good enough to play senior hurling / football for Offaly would I choose to join the panel? It is very difficult to build up belief without some kind of performance or result to back it up and that is clear to see on the field in most inter county matches, as some external commentators have alluded the fight is gone out of Offaly...well the players need to know they have a fighting chance before they can fight.

We haven't had a win of note in either code for quite sometime, there is nothing to strive for and it looks very much like the county is simply making up the numbers. There appears from listening to Brian Carroll, Niall McNamee among others that they certainly feel that there is not enough being done by the county board and they are as close as you can be.

So do i know the exact details LS no but I trust the words of the senior players that have spoken out and to be honest it's pretty clear in the appointments that have been made at underage and senior level that it is either cheap or half arsed or both.

[Toxicity234]

The problem i see with the county board is the way they select the management team and the lack of Communication.
We all have heard the story of Offaly lads going outside the county to train. I don't have a huge problem with that.
But if at all possible Training should be done within Offaly and I think that where communication with the club is most important.
Some clubs in Offaly have excellent facility and the club board should be working with all clubs improve and use these facility.
Communication with the players as well is very important.
If you don’t have the money for hot meals after training then sit down with the players and explain that.
That goes for Gear and everything else we hear about with the county board and the players.

Once the players are able to understand the problem the county board have (and vice versa) maybe they find a middle ground that suits both of their needs. Then we might have happier players and a better run county board.
The game of Chinese whispers between the County board and the players has to stop.

Maybe the solution is for once a month a player from the panel from all teams is given a chance to address the county board meetings.
With the county board have 5 days to response to the panel in writing to any issue or problem raised.


The selection of manger this year was a joke.
Whelehan been appointed minor manager and then a week late Senior. Anyone who knew Whelehan track record at club level knew it was not good. Refusing to interview people who want the job. Appointing a manager at the end of October. When most team had already be training for 4 weeks. U-21 manager appointed 8 week before the start of the championship.
All of the above is shocking. This isn’t how you would appoint a junior manager at club level.
This should never happen again.
I have no idea how to sort that out.

[brownie]

progress and success means spending money.thats the problem.we have men in the CB that are old stock.as for facilities, what about the tullamore harriers, they turned out many a fine athlete with their facilities.i bet they would facilitate offaly gaa if they got a reasonable fee.we have plenty of good gaa grounds with top class flood lights, again if a fee was agreed ,im sure these grounds are available.clara gaa have 2 gaa grounds.im sure they would benefit from the income generated from ground leasing/sharing.
as for the playing field, from u14 each club should be sending their best players to a dedicated centre of excellence .this could be ran over the summer months for skill development.if we had 50 players from both codes specially developed from ages 12/13yrs for 4 yrs , we should be competing better at minor and eventually into adult grades.surely half of these would stick at it if the right training is in place.
something needs to be done now.loughnane cutting at us in hurling and spillane making comments about the football.its must be so obvious outside the county that the problems are not being sorted. we are moving along like a bad junior club with no ambition.
first job to be done is have a look at laois and Kildare. find out how they went about developing their underage structure and follow suit.