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I watch with interest some of the commentary here as I would not be as close to the hurling situation although I go to watch them from time to time.
Leading up to this I would have been concerned with the situation in relation to the number of so called big names who had refused to commit.

There is a situation now where at county level there is a level of conditioning required to compete and then be able to make skill count, am I right in saying that many of our younger players are now coming through with the S&C element intact? I know that is the case with the footballers.

Secondly, Tox spoke about the volume of cones on the field and no sliotar? Id be concerned about overuse of the cones in normal circumstances but not now as there is supposed to be no contact at club level so more cones are needed in the short term. Likewise I'd expect to see all players with a sliotar at this stage. So maybe the truth lies in between.

I am glad that lads can see that there was a struture to our game as there was a major problem last year in the plan in that the players did not have the skillset to carry it out in the depths of winter, and maybe with the better conditions then it is easier.

DIdn't get to watch the game, but suffice to say that is is a long time since an Offaly hurling team has clinically dismantled a team after a tight first quarter, and this appeared to be the case. This gives me hope and I look forward to the visit of Kerry, who are the next step up and where we need to get to in the medium term. Good start and keep it going lads

well said above..Offaly moved the ball well for sure but I would hasten that Meath were tranformed to a poor level after the water break whatever happened I dont know..they were confident and picking their passses all up to that...Offaly I suppose decided to have a go at them, and fair enough Meath shyed away, my fear is a stronger team may not shy away and Offaly will then be tested..look, we won, and won well..as you say Kerry now will be definitely a stronger test...interesting to from an Offaly view would be how Meath fair next weekend (against Wicklow I think..could be wrong) but Meaths next game will tell Offaly how good Meath are..I got it hard to get the link thing going for the game and missed out why Duignan and I think another Offaly change from the team announce changed. Kerry will be a fair test...and they have a game behind them too, so the "unknown" is gone for all teams after yesterday as such...

if we are making progress id expect us to beat kerry fairly well. the fact we done to meath what an offaly team would have done to them 15 years ago is a positive. lets hope it keeps going..

Look fair enough on the result, probably won by a margin that most offaly supporters would have deemed acceptable beforehand.

I thought overall the performance was poor enough, with the caveats of the relative experience and lack of preparation to the forefront. Before the first water break i thought offaly were in real trouble, some of the shooting being pretty scandalous. For whatever reason Meath fell off the edge of the cliff after the first quarter and Offaly put the hammer down, but I feel as though it could have been as much to do with Meath falling apart as it was to do with offaly stepping up. The goals conceded would also be a massive concern.

Look ya can’t argue with a 14 point win particularly coming from where offaly are right now. Despite this, Meath would be the whipping boys in the group and there will have to be a substantial improvement for next week. A result there, which I think we can get, and we are in the driving seat. Promising sprouts, but next week will be a real indicator of where we are and where we are going.

Realistically if we win the Christy Ring and have a good league it will be a good year. I hope we don’t win the league as I think a few years playing against division 2 teams and Joe Mcdonagh competition will progress the team and younger lads than the mauling they will receive next year.

A great start for the team, let’s keep it up.

interesting observation hoping we dont win the league..I can see why...surely though winning the League is part of their goal..as you say then is it back to 20 or 25 point defeats then next year against the higher teams..I think the arugument of "your better off playing stronger teams" is a bit tired at this stage..getting hammered is going to destroy confidence, and with the comitment involved lads might rightly say "why am I doing this"...its a tough one to call, but I would imagine winning the league (be it only DIv 2) is one of the stepping stones...dammed if you do and dammed if you dont springs to mind...

The balance between 1a and 1b in the league is unreal. We are were we are in both the league and championship for a reason, we are now competitive underage for thelast few seasons and starting to see these come through at senior level. Ideally a season or two with the Joe mcDonagh teams and then playing the Laois, Dublin, Antrim, Clares and Wexford’s is what is needed.

If we got promoted to 1A with Limerick, tipp, cork, Waterford and Galway next year I could see beatings of 20 points plus every game. Realistically the only competitive game Westmeath will play in the league is the relegation final this year.

We have to get there first, hard work and commitment will be needed, teams don’t fear Offaly anymore. The county board and underage progression installs confidence that one day we will get back to Croker being competitive and being feared again.

It's only 3 years since Offaly got to the league quarter final and gave Kilkenny plenty of it.
Last year Offaly bettered Antrim but were hit with a couple of of late goals to lose. Antrim didn't need the same luck to beat Klare last Sunday.

While we have to be realistic about the gap between the elite and the rest, we shouldn't be living in fear of them either.

3 years is a long time in sport. Be very interesting to see how Antrim fare for the rest of the league. Clare are In utter internal turmoil. Very similar to offaly in regards to the county board before Michael Duignan took office.

In the big, important games that Offaly have played against Kerry and Carlow in recent years, we've fallen short. It was definitely the case that in last year's draw against Antrim, Offaly were the better team for the bulk of the game and then got nabbed with two late goals - the same argument could not be made about the Joe McDonagh game against Kerry in 2019, or the league relegation decider against Carlow that year, where we were a clear second best.

So if Offaly are to gain promotion this year, it will most likely require (at a minimum) one win and one draw in those two games. If we're able to do that, then there's no reason to think that we haven't improved on where we were for the last couple of years. And if we have improved, then we're entitled to have a cut at the top tier and see how we go. Obviously there are some teams that would be more beatable than others (for example Westmeath are going to end this round robin campaign with five hidings) but I'd certainly have no fear of playing Clare, Wexford, Dublin, and certainly wouldn't look at them as games where we'd expect to get hammered.

But all of that is predicated on being good enough to beat Kerry, and given that we've lost two crucial games against them in the last two years, they're the team that should be thinking about how they'd go in Division One, not us.

are we not getting a wee bit ahead of ourselves saying we would give Dublin, Clare and Wexford etc. a game and not get hammered???..Dublin lost to KIlkenny by 5 points last weekend, and were there or there abouts in that game up until the last 10 mintues..how good were Kilkenny, I dont know, Brian Cody thought they played well and battled hard, they did, but I watched the game and it wasnt vintage Kilkenny by any standard.
Wexford brushed a Laois team aside, by 19 points, Laois are down a few top players in fairness but as they say that was still a good enough Laois team on paper, and I watched most of it, Wexford were simply the better team. Clare lost to Antrim, which some are describing as a shock, Antrim are a bit put off as to what the surprise is, and maybe rightly so. How good Antrim are, and they are a nice side (were last year anyway) will be shown in coming weeks, they wont get hockeyed the way some are predicting. All of those teams that lost at the weekend, and Antrim who won, would not be overly awed by playing Offaly anytime in the remainder of the league if it was possible for our paths to cross, I know they cant.

Against Offaly last year, the two late goals, I was listening to it, and when one goal went in, even the commentator felt then a second was going to go in, thats where Offaly were confidence wise last year. You could feel Antrim knowing they had us on the ropes... One game in this campaign, a welcome handsome win by 16 points or so, confidence is up, Kerry will be a strong test, with a good win over Down behind them, as have Offaly, so this will be good game, but will Offaly hammer Kerry next weekend, I doubt it (I doubted they might beat Meath last weekend and thankfully I was wrong ) so if we do beat Kerry say by 3/4 points even next weekend, a massive win yes, more confidence, Down to come similar type of game V them, but when this League is over and we are promoted hopfully, I would be more hopeful than optimistic of us giving the Clares, Dublins and Wexford and even Laois a game next year if we meet..I cannot see the gap closing that quickly, I hope I am wrong, while the Division one teams mentioned above are not the top tier of standard, they will still have too much fire power for Offaly and I am not talking by 3 or 4 point losses either.

We will certainly put our best foot forward no doubt, and wish all the best, promotion would be a great way to start, the Christy Ring for good measure, yest thanks..., and take stock then and see where we are, as all will agree, nothing is guaranteed though, as a poster said above, is there any point in going up to get walloped...there in lies where we will be as opposed to where we think we are if we do get promoted... we have fallen a long way down the ladder...

Not sure if correct here but Antrim game last year was aa nothing game for them. They were through irrespective of result. They had nothing to play for and had weaker team out?

As for this year, our aim should be to win Christy Ring at all costs and at least make league final (if there is one?)

I think another year at this level in league would do our young team the world of good. Competing in Joe Mc next year if we get there would be the right stepping stone to get to higher level. We really need to focus on getting back ahead of the Kerrys Carlows Westmeaths etc before we can even consider getting competitive with Div 1 teams.

Lots of young players in early 20s or even younger played last day. If we build this young talent and get them working hard during games, we will see results. I think the lack of work ethic and subpar fitness levels over last number of years was a factor in our demise. There was always good hurlers in Offaly but sometimes the mentality was not always there to compete at inter county level.

Clare when running properly would beat offaly comfortable enough. Offaly wouldn't get within 10 points of Dublin and wexford are ahead of both those teams.

id like to think as an offaly man that when things are right we wud be well able to put it up to the aforementioned teams. lets go out and beat kerry the weekend and move on with confidence..be afraid of no one, most of my life the sight of an offaly jersey to most other teams was worth a few points to us. ..we have a good chairman,shane lowry, good underage structure, a good manager, a good centre of excellence. we reached rock bottom last year. the only way is up. lets start the journey. maybe shane will eventually get his wish.. and as any good offaly man would say fuck the begrudgers.

I think, on the whole offaly are now in a good place off the pitch. There are some really good signs of green shoots appearing with the underage. It will take 5 to 10 years to see offaly playing liam mcarthy and Div 1 on a regular basis.