Offaly 4-22 Laois 2-12

[Fido]

Well done to the lads. A lot of talk will centre on how poor Laois were but don't forget there were a few nervous voices on this forum before today. A win is a win, and a good win is even better. It was good to see the lads put this away clinically and early and not give Laois a sniff. I thought their workrate was excellent and there were good performances all over the park. All in all a good day, hopefully the confidence gained will stand to them in the tougher days ahead. Maith sibh.

[royalblue]

Ratings

Brian Mullins 7 hadn't much to do will be annoyed with 2nd 21 yard going past him
David Franks 8 solid as usual
David Kenny 8 played well on Tommy Fitzgerald would like to seem him Centre back.
M Verney 8 very good debut but will be troubled more against KK i can Richie Hogan destroying him like in Minor in 04
D Horan 9 Impressive debut read the game well but should have blocked the first goal
Ger Oakley 9 Great game think better at Full back
Kevin Brady 7 Steady but Distribution very poor gives away to many frees
Conor Mahon 9 Impressive got through a lot of work
James Rigney 8 like him hit a lot of ball but give away stupid frees which we were punished for
Derek Molly 7 Tries hard good goal but will find it hard to keep place
Paul Cleary 8 Did well keep Joe Phelan out of game
Brendan Murphy 8 won a lot of ball and used it well
Brian Carroll 10 Man of the match wonderfull stricking showed well for the ball and used it very well
Ger Healion 7 Tried hard took his goal very well good be used as a target man but struggles a bit with pace.
Dylan Hayden 8 Back playing well and wants to be their which is the important thing

It was a good win for Offaly you can only beat what is in front of you Joe and Rory will be big additions they next day if Offaly improve on this performance we will give KK a good game and might run them close but we will have to cut out sloppy play and giving away easy frees

[beirut]

Was disappointed with Kevin Brady, thought he looked very sluggish and casual, will need to up his performance and lead by example the next day.
Conor Mahon had a pretty good debut, got through alot of work in midfield.
Ger Healion although caught for pace is pretty good in the air and as he gets more games could be decent enough.
Not sure if Paul Cleary will be there the next day.
Carroll was excellent with the frees, only missed 1 out on the side if I can remember.

I know that ground hurling is becomming a thing of the past but I thing we should be doing more of it (Daithi Regan and Johnny P use to be masters of it at midfield) and getting good quick low ball into Hayden, Carroll and Murphy who have the pace and can get scores.

[Bord na Mona man]

A good win, but Leix were awful. Their summertime slump is getting more pronounced every year.

Other people will give better match reports, but one aspect that concerns me is how little primary ball the Offaly forwards won. Declan Ruth highlighted Offaly's good tackling and harassing on the Sunday Game, but this is exactly the problem. Far too often Loais backs were first to the ball and won it. However they coughed up possession so easily under pressure that it didn't matter.

If we allowed Laois to win most of the ball, then that is a really bad omen for Kilkenny. Walsh, Delaney and co. won't spill the ball at the sight of an Offaly shirt. They'll drive back down into the Offaly half before the Offaly clearing defender has time to find his man again.

Brian Carroll was excellent, especially from frees. It was almost laughable how the Leix corner back dragged out of him and never got penalised. Kilkenny's "robust" style of play will probably mean Offaly get 8 or 9 scorable frees. We need to punish them every time and Carroll on form is vital. In our last 2 games against Kilkenny, about 70% of Offaly scores have been from frees.

Other than that, it was a good win and a worthwhile run out!

[Plain of the Herbs]

Ger Healion has the full back’s tendency to stay behind his man. He’s good in the air though and he’ll give Noel Hickey loads of it in three weeks time.

I wasn’t that happy with Brian Carroll and I thought it was a lazy option to award him MOTM. He comes infield too much, taking up station between the centre forward and full forward, mainly due to his overdependence on his left side. Compare this to Lar Corbett (even more dependent on his right side) who stays out on his wing and runs outfield in possession before running on an arc to get on his good side.

Now this may be due to the quality of the delivery from defence which was particularly poor yesterday. There seemed to be no communication between back and forwards. On one occasion in the second half as Kevin Brady came out with the ball Ger Healion, who has space left and right, pointed and ran to his (Healion’s) left only for Brady to larrump the ball the other side where the full back got there first.

That said, the Offaly half back line and midfield cleaned up under the Laois puckout in the first half. Mahon put in a tremendous hours work and was brave as a lion. His first touch was sharp as well. I don’t like picking out men of the match but he’d get my selection. Derek Molloy was up there too, and, like Mahon, put his legs and body on the line with no regard for personal safety. The pair will be more valuable against Kilkenny than a pair of flicky, wristy hurlers.

Ger Oakley looked at home in the centre back role. I’m not sure he’d be the man to mark Henry Shefflin though. David Kenny didn’t look comfortable in the full back spot though. Too many times Offaly outnumbered Laois 3 to 1 in defence only for the battling Laoisman to win possession.

The highlight of the match for me came five minutes before the end with Joseph Bergin’s introduction. Though he seemed reluctant to grip his hurl with his left hand, he should be OK for the Under 21 match on Wednesday night and the Kilkenny match where I’d imagine he’d start at centre half forward in place of Cleary..

What did Laois eat for breakfast? The poor hoors didn’t show up at all.

[azoffaly]

For what it's worth, this is my take on it, that I posted on the gaaboard. Good to meet up with some of the uibh Fhaili.com lads again, and great to see the Shark doing a Lazarus, although I think we need a jersey for him. He got very bored at the Westmeath game

**************

Hmmmmm. Not too sure about yesterday at all. Obviously we are not going to turn up our nose at winning any championship game, but I feel the mistakes and weaknesses we've had this past 3 or 4 years are still there, but the innate hurling some of the lads have is still far too much for an injury depleted Laois team, Westmeath and the like. Laois' handling and striking were very poor, and where Kilkenny would bury you, Laois just give the ball back.

For Offaly, the main concerns I would have are

a: Winning clean ball in the air, or at least breaking it intelligently with the hurl. The likes of Kilkenny, Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Tipp etc etc have all made a building block around their abilities to win primary possession from puck outs, and long deliveries, especially in the half back, half forward and midfield lines. Offaly have been unable to compete with those teams in this area, and yesterday, apart from a couple of catches by Mahon, Oakley and Kevin Brady, we won nothing again. At one stage a puckout hopped, TWICE, before a Laois man gathered it. That will never happen against Kilkenny, and we will have to improve on that, or we are without hope.

b: First touch. It improved as the game went on, and I'll try and convince myself it was championship nerves with 5 debutants which caused it, but really, for Offaly to need 3 or 4 attempts to pick up the ball, or strike it on the ground, is just unforgiveable. If we don't have hurling, we have nothing offensively, and with our relative lack of size, apart from a few lads, we need to be quick, and sharp in controlling, lifting and striking. If we get into one of those '5 men digging a hole' scenarios against the bigger teams, we'll just be blown off the ball.

c: Size. Not much we can do about this, but we need to bear it in mind and hurl to our strengths. We have big men at full back (although I'd prefer him to be at centre back), 1 midfielder (although he might be dropped the next day, very raw), centre forward, 1 wing forward and full forward (although our full forward is chronically slow, and has the turning circle of an oil frigate). Everyone else is fairly small, and even our tall lads, apart from 2 or 3, are light. Rory Hanniffy and Joe Bergin should return, and will help in terms of adding bulk, but they'll probably return at the expense of 2 of those already big lads.

d: Aggression. I think Offaly are trying, and they are hassling lads, hooking, blocking, etc etc, but they are still a long way off the level of intensity that Kilkenny will bring. We will have to match them there. Hurling has changed in the past 10 years from being all wrists, vision and striking, to a game of intensity, physical battles and power. You have to win those areas before you can let your hurling win you games, and we are still off the pace, I fear.


Now for the good parts.

a: Youth. We have a young team, and they are promising, once the central issues of physique and mentality are addressed. Diarmuid Horan had a promising debut yesterday, as did James Rigney. Conor Mahon, Paul Cleary, David Kenny, Michael Verney, Dylan Hayden, Alan Egan, Shane Dooley etc etc are all young, and talented.

b: Effort. We may be small, and we may need to tune our agression levels up a notch or two, but they still try. I love seeing forwards hooking and blocking, and I love seeing backs getting a stick in, disrupting, etc etc. All of this is central to Offaly style hurling, and we will need to keep it going, and even up it again.

c: Skill. We still have it, although this team is obviously a mile away from the wrists of the Pilkingtons, Troys, Whelehens, Dooleys, Keeshams, Coughlans and Kellys of old. However, when Offaly are going well, some of the play is lovely to look at. Brian Carroll, Diarmuid Horan, James Rigney, David Kenny, Ger Oakley, Kevin Brady, Brendan Murphy, Shane Dooley, Alan Egan and Dylan Hayden are all well able to control a ball, pick it, strike cleanly and accurately. Some of our forwards are very 'tidy'. Obviously, doing all of that under intense pressure is a different matter, and that's let us down recently (see bad things b: above) but after a dodgy start yesterday, the quality improved. We need to step it up further again, but the good news is I think there is raw material to build on.


Anyway, onwards and upwards. We should have no chance against Kilkenny, but sure we'll turn up anyhow

[jimmyeatworld]

Positives:

Offaly started well and kept up a decent intensity for the majority of the game.
Ger Oakley was solid at centre back. Horan played well at wing back and looks like he has the pace, skill and know how to play well at this level. Rigney and Mahon were very industrious at midfield, I like this pairing and look forward to seeing them play against KK. Hayden and Carroll played well in the forwards.Ger Healion looked pretty good too.

Negatives:

Unfortunately Offaly are playing the best team in the country next!!

David Kenny doesn't look comfortable at full back at all, Verney looks like he could be exposed. Kevin Brady casual style is a bit too slow at this level. His distribution of the ball is terrible,don't know how many times he tried to switch the ball to the other wing where he was easily cut out by the wing back who was standing goal side of Molloy.
In general the Offaly backs seem to lack the look and understanding of a tight unit. Even against very poor opposition there were times when the backs were out of position or Laois created the extra man who generally wasted the ball, this obviously won't happen against KK,this aspect is very worrying against forwards who will win their own ball and draw the extra back onto them only to throw the ball out to the loose man.

There was very little good teamwork amongst the forwards. Paul Cleary is not a forward and he is not good enough to stop Brian Hogan from dominating the half back line. Molloy tries hard and throws himself around but doesn't have the class to get scores against KK. Brian Carroll hurled well against a terrible corner back,he will not get this time and space against KK to get the scores he got yesterday, can't see him troubling KK much really.

Offaly Scoring:
Offaly scored 4-22 which looks very impressive.
Unfortunately two of Offaly's goals were almost completely down to terrible defending from Laois - Mahon and Molloys goals.
12 of Oaffaly points came from placed balls,11 frees. For many of these frees the Offaly players who were fouled weren't really in a scoring or really threatening position. KK won't give away these stupid frees. The starting six forwards only scored a combined total of 7 points, not very impressive.

[Kevin]

Congratulations to the lads on this win.

Was a little concerned (along the lines of BNM and AZ above). We allowed Laois some needless possession on the ground. Where a full shoulder and hip check was required to gain possession, too often there was wristy one handed stick being waived at the ball to no avail. Kilkenny will have seen this. We will need to get 'stuck in' for every ball or we will not win one of them.

We did benefit from being able to recover from bobbles and slightly awkward passes as Laois were mostly watching us play. For instance on one of our goals, the pass came in from the wing and our player had the time (and composure to his credit) to recover from a relatively poor first touch to slam the ball home. Against Kilkenny I'd imagine the ball would be in the hands of Kilkenny half forwards with our man picking grass out of his facemask.

Great to see the subs come on and make an impression. Wished they had been introduced five or 10 minutes earlier. With that amount of hunger the score could have been even a little more lopsided. Not that we want to embarrass anyone, but at least it shows that we have players eager to compete for places. This was encouraging.

Next game the other team will show up, but so will we.

UP THE FAITHFUL!!!!