Expectation from the NHL this year?

[Efan]

Given:
a) How we did in the league last year,
b) The fact that we beat Wexford but lost to Antrim in the Walsh Cup,
3) JD will not have the Birr players at his disposal

What is a legitimate expectation from the league campaign ahead?

Personally I think two wins would be a decent campaign.

[DD]

Given:
a) How we did in the league last year,
b) The fact that we beat Wexford but lost to Antrim in the Walsh Cup,
3) JD will not have the Birr players at his disposal

What is a legitimate expectation from the league campaign ahead?

Personally I think two wins would be a decent campaign.

We would want to be getting at least 3 wins for it to be classed as a decent showing considering the best 3 teams in the country are in the other division. We should beat Laois, and both Limerick and Clare at home are beatable. Whether we can do it or not is another matter..

[Kevin]

Limerick
Laois
Clare
Galway
Tipperary

Nothing would surprise me here in either direction.

This is a perfect group for us to be playing against. Most of them might think we are just off this pace. Hopefully we prove differently.

[flairgun]

Limerick
Laois
Clare
Galway
Tipperary

Nothing would surprise me here in either direction.
This is a perfect group for us to be playing against. Most of them might think we are just off this pace. Hopefully we prove differently.

I'd set the over/under at 2.5.
2 wins would be slightly disappointing, 3 mildly encouraging.
With that said, there isn't any reason to fear any of these teams and Offaly should expect 5 competitive games, which in itself should make it a worthwhile campaign, regardless of results.
Of course, they need to be better at the end of it than the beginning, for that to be the case.

[Lone Shark]

It depends how you define these things I suppose. Realistically both those home games against Clare and Limerick would be tight, toss-up jobs so I suppose the "par" result would be two wins out of five, with one encouraging defeat and one heavy defeat in the two away games. Of course we'd hope for better, but being realistic it would be difficult to criticise that as an outcome.

Having said that, if we are generally competitive, avoid relegation and one or two relatively unproven players put their hand up to claim a county shirt (ideally from midfield up) then I'd be happy enough.

[Aweflee]

Two wins in div 1B, in my view, would be a good league campaign as along with Laois we are the county most at risk of big beatings when we don't have our full team out. With the Birr lads not available until (hopefully) the last game against Clare I would be looking for us to win that one and the one against Laois.
Realistically we will be beaten on Sunday and will probably struggle to keep it close against Galway. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong though. It'll be important to keep the young lads heads up in the case that things go wrong in the first two rounds - hopefully Joe Dooley can do that.

[Kevin]

Important to push Tipp to the very end. You never know what could happen. Their good, but not great.

Giving them something to think about if they are unfortunate enough to entertain us this summer is never a bad thing.

[Offalys Future]

A big problem that Offaly players and many intercounty teams have come championship is that there is such a change in intensity for Championship games to league games. Not just intensity of the game, but bigger vocal crouds, bigger atmosphere, bigger buildup etc.
If you watched the Offaly players coming off the pitch against Kilkenny in Portlaois last year at half time some of them looked astounded by the reaction of the supporters cheering them on.

The only way i feel a player,manager and county board can prepare for this come championship is to have the same atmosphere at league games, the same build up in local papers and as big a crouds as you can get for the home games.

I cant understand why there isnt a big drive on in Offaly for the league. Why dont the county board promote the home league games in the schools and clubs. Allow kids in for free and have at half time school teams playing against each other.
Have a band playing and a girl singing the national anthem.
Get recycled flags made and give them to all kids coming in. Create a atmosphere that will help our players to compete and that other teams dont have at their home venues.
Invite Brian Cowen to all home games, Birrs achievement shouldnt go un-noticed and invite them to be guest at the Galway game, they will all be in the stand somewhere, make a presentation to Niall Claffey before the game for his achievements this year. Little things that unite Offaly hurling and have everyone working together.
Only charge €5 in for adults and get all the local newspapers to promote it big time.

Send out a message to all teams that come to play in Tullamore. That this is Offaly, no longer a third world hurling county, we are here to win and ye better come prepared. Our supporters want to win and so do our players. Together we can achieve this and there is nothing ye can do about this.

If promoted right we could get 6000 - 8000 people for the three big home games.
This would definetely lift the team and management.

Then come Kilkenny in Portlaois the team, manager, supporters would be used to the build up, atmosphere etc. But the team would be focussed and nothing would be new to them and they would be ready for anything, they would be ready, ready to win.

If Joe Dooley and these players are serious about improving then they should be aiming to win against Galway/Clare/Limerick and Laois and really putting it up to Tipperary on Sunday. To me they are realistic targets.

[Bord na Mona man]

Some good suggestions from Offalys Future above.
On the ticket price issue, the prices are fixed centrally by Central Council.
That's why a match against London will cost the same as one against a strong team.
However I think this should lobbied against.
I heard Kilkenny wanted to make their home football matches free of charge and it was blocked.

The match day experience could be improved upon. I don't find the Mount Bolus pipe band very entertaining, but you might make few friends looking for a change.

Free tickets to young people is an excellent idea. It's a great way of getting adults to go along, boosting attendance and creating the tradition of match going. In Offaly there is now a huge section of the population who fallen apathetic and don't move themselves to go to matches. We shouldn't be arrogant or snobby about trying to attract new supporters.

[Offalys Future]

Just in regards to the ticket issue, i'm sure Offaly could issue 5 euro discounts to each club no?
I think central council put in this clause to stop counties from over charging.

I know kids are probably free already but if a child comes home with free tickets to the game from school it would work better. Also contact a local sports shop and tell them that their shop will be announed ten times if they sponsor sports vouchers for the home games. Have a raffle through the numbers on the programmes.
Have competitons in schools that allow kids the opportunity to meet the players after a match or competitons between clubs that whoever wins will get Offaly hurlers to take them for a training session.

Simple ideas that cost very little and can prove very effective.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly have struggled for scores in their previous two matches in this year’s NHL, scoring 2-8 and 3-9 against Tipperary and Galway respectively. At the very least I would like to see Offaly being more creative up front, perhaps scoring something like fifteen or sixteen scores. The day is promised wet and windy which will militate against this, however.

Laois will be fired up, as they will target this match as their only chance of taking a scalp in the league. It’s a rare visit to Portlaoise for a league match for Offaly; seven of the last eight league matches between the two have taken place at Offaly venues. It’s also the first league clash of the two since 2004 when Laois won in Birr relegating Offaly to division 2.

Sunday’s loser will face certain relegation to the new division 2 as division 1 is being restricted to eight counties next year. Now I thought after last year’s debate that the powers-that-be had settled on a twelve-team division 1 going forward but I am disappointed to see that they merely deferred the decision for twelve months.

The debate for a twelve-team division 1 is well worn at this stage – if there is going to be a twelve-team championship it should follow that there be twelve teams allowed compete in the league to afford everyone the same level of preparation. We in Offaly are only too aware of the difficulty of competing against the top teams coming from a lower base of division 2 hurling. As are Laois Dublin and Antrim, each of who have spent a year in the lower division. Interestingly, only thirteen different counties have competed with the top 12 in division 1 during the last five years.

To survive, Offaly will need to beat Laois on Sunday and will need to beat the loser of the Limerick/Clare match on Sunday. Even then, five points might not be enough for survival and the draw with Galway may turn out to be a point dropped rather than a point gained.

[Aweflee]

division 1 is being restricted to eight counties next year

POTH,

When was this announced? Is it definite?

[Plain of the Herbs]

Aweflee,
I wasn’t aware of it at all until a Carlow fella posted something of that effect on the gaaboard some weeks ago. Even then I thought nothing of it.
It was only last week that I was looking up the GAA’s official site looking up dates for this summer’s qualifiers when I saw a menu for NHL details in 2008 and 2009 and there it was.
It’s all detailed there. I must say I was surprised as firstly I thought this had been settled last year for once and for all and secondly; this has been introduced with no debate whatsoever. There certainly hasn't been an announcement to my knowledge.
If anyone knows any more about this feel free to comment.

division 1 is being restricted to eight counties next year

POTH,

When was this announced? Is it definite?

[Aweflee]

Thanks POTH. I found this piece in the Irish Examiner, dated 2 October 2007:

Meanwhile, the president has promised that the uncertainty surrounding the format of the National Hurling League for 2009 will be resolved before Christmas and that the constant tweaking to the NHL may finally be coming to an end.

“There was not a firm recommendation coming forward at the (Special Congress) in relation to 2009. I have given a commitment to teams that, before they start off in 2008, they will know what they are playing for.

“The league will settle and when we decide what to do in December I think I can safely say there will be no more changes to the league for at least three years.

“I am pretty confident we can achieve that.”


What the hell is going on here??? I can't imagine that this happened before Christmas and no newspaper picked up on it - that's not believable. Is the GAA messing around again or is the website completely wrong?

[Plain of the Herbs]

I don’t know how the ‘Daily Cork’ defines ‘constant tweaking’. This is the eleventh year of the current system with two groups in division 1. While there have been some changes such as reducing the number of counties from fourteen to twelve and introducing the now defunct ‘second phase’ system used between 2003 and 2005 replacing knock-out quarter finals, these have been made at three year intervals.

Settling on a new eight-team division 1 for the forthcoming three years continues ‘constant tweaking’ in my book anyway.

I appreciate that county officials don’t want to sound defeatist while their teams are still competing but surely someone can cry foul over this before it’s too late.

Incidentally, Aweflee, you may or may not be aware the investigations you posted above at 2.31pm today miraculously appeared over on AnFearRua forty minutes later! Big Brother is watching you.

Thanks POTH. I found this piece in the Irish Examiner, dated 2 October 2007:

Meanwhile, the president has promised that the uncertainty surrounding the format of the National Hurling League for 2009 will be resolved before Christmas and that the constant tweaking to the NHL may finally be coming to an end.

“There was not a firm recommendation coming forward at the (Special Congress) in relation to 2009. I have given a commitment to teams that, before they start off in 2008, they will know what they are playing for.

“The league will settle and when we decide what to do in December I think I can safely say there will be no more changes to the league for at least three years.

“I am pretty confident we can achieve that.”


What the hell is going on here??? I can't imagine that this happened before Christmas and no newspaper picked up on it - that's not believable. Is the GAA messing around again or is the website completely wrong?