Offaly SHC County Final 18/10/09 @ 15:30

[black and red exile]

Congrads to all the blues on this site, ye should be very proud of that magnificent performance today, ye are worthy champions and the verey best of luck in leinster. Hopefully now the rest of the county get behind ye in Mullingar or Portlaoise on November 15th. From 1 to 15 every man stood up to be counted, Stephen Egan deserved the man of the match award, in my own opinion I thought James Keane just shaded it.

[the rat]

Well done to Tullamore, I hope they enjoy the celebrations.

Stephen Egan will surely push hard for an Offaly place next season on his display today.

Well done to all,great final

[blue74]

well done to tullamore. KK although favourites were never really at the races except for a few small periods. excellent attendance although why offaly county board feel they need security guards at the entrance is beyond me??? they were stoping a lot of pensioners without passes getting in... but thats for another day.. big celebrations in tullamore.

[The Magpie]

I won't pretend to be a regular attendee of hurling finals, but such was the draw of this match-up, I couldn't resist. So, although I can't get too involved in the 93 debate or even be a good person to gauge the quality of this final compared to others, I will say that I thought the standard was good and the game was played with much intensity.

Tullamore were by far the better team. Kevin Martin has lost much of his mobility, but his eye and hands remain as good as ever. When the ball in was right, he was almost impossible to handle. His presence cannot be underestimated - not just in terms of his physical stature, but also the obvious motivational and leadership attributes he brings.

Damien Fox didn't put a foot wrong all day, pulling off one excellent save in the second half at an important time. His story is the stuff of dreams. Rarely, in competitive town teams, does a man get to stick around this long - even when they want to. They're most often cast aside, if not by selectors, then by the supporters themselves.

Stephen Egan can proudly couple Dowling and Robbins Cup Medals. His performance was outstanding, to say the least. His decision to concentrate on his hurling this year paid off handsomely.

Brendan Dagg was very solid at centre-half back. Is he the same man that I watched playing a Minor football final in 1992?

In the middle of the field, James Keane saw an enormous amount of the ball. I actually found myself questioning if he's a better hurler than footballer. He certainly stood out more in this game than many of the football games I've attended.

Up front, I was impressed with Shane Dooley. Although he missed two penalties and also a couple of scorable frees, he turned it on for a couple of short spells and did a lot of damage. When he scored, he scored with ease. He too, along with Egan, Keane, Kevin Martin and John Rouse, is one of the few men to have won both hurling and football medals. (I'm sure there's a couple of others in that Tullamore panel too).

I hope the change is good for Offaly hurling - certainly, the novelty of this final brought a massive crowd to O'Connor Park - that has to be a good thing.

Tullamore now find themselves in the fortunate position of taking their place in a Leinster Semi-Final, waiting for the softer side of the draw. It would be great to see them making it to a Leinster Club Final.

[1964]

come on ye super super blues see yee champions in the morning lone shark time to retire you dont have a clue

[Dynamite]

Yeah, Lone Shark! You don't have a clue! Who do you think you are, giving your opinion on how you think a match will go! You're always at that, predicting scores and outcomes of matches, and sometimes you're wrong, so you don't have a clue. You and Kevin Corrigan, Eamonn Dunphy, Colm O'Rourke, Joe Brolly, Eugene McGee, Martin Breheny, Cyrill Farrell, Andy Gray and the rest of ye. Don't predict the winner of a match unless you're going to get it right.

On the real point, Congratulations to Tullamore. It was a super win. Delighted for the likes of Damien Fox and Kevin Martin. Great to see them get a county medal after all these years of commitment to hurling in a football dominated club. Great to see them get a county medal after being belittled by Phil O'Reilly earlier in the year. It's great for hurling in North Offaly in general.

Congrats to the county town, and I hope ye enjoy the celebrations. Very rare to have the two senior championship cups living so close to each other for the year.

[Blue Boots]

what a win 4 d blues! Cant wait 2 read papers dis week and especially offaly indo! Where do they get their predictions! Alan martin and james gorman a miss match! What a joke. U obviously havent seen much of alan martin hurling over last few years.And as 4 dat comment by kk captain 2 say dat only thing that will stop them is complacency! Ye'll think twice b4 ye write off d town nxt time.

[TheManFromFerbane]

county medal after being belittled by Phil O'Reilly earlier in the year

To be fair I don't know if he belittled them. I think he felt there was an agreement there regarding that particular day where the hurlers played the first half of their challenge match and then came back for training with the footballers. This didn't happen for whatever reason and he wasn't happy, understandably so in my opinion.

I think it's actually something that's going to become a huge issue next year, especially if the county board brings this years hurling system into the football. From what I can see there's been a concerted effort to weed out dual players out of the county, possibly because of the fixture congestion it causes, and it's really going to hurt the dual teams in the county.

But this isn't the place to talk about that. Congratulations to Tullamore, despite what some people say on this board, there's huge respect between our club and Tullamore and it's just been enhanced even more by this win. The only thing I can't stand is all this "Allez" shite. What ever happend to good old fashioned "Abú"!!

[True Red]

Brendan Dagg was very solid at centre-half back. Is he the same man that I watched playing a Minor football final in 1992?

Ah no Brendan Dagg would have played in the 1999 Minor football county final against Rod Og which Tullamore won.

[Bord na Mona man]

Well done to Tullamore.
A few years ago they were struggling in hurling, so its great to see them back to the fore.
Hopefully this will spur on other clubs in Offaly now.

[arbarg]

Alles Les Bleus

what a win for the blues!
1-15 they were outstanding and never let k/k hit their stride at all.
Delighted for all the lads and all the years of hard work and effort that went into reaching the summit of Offaly hurling.
Some nite last nite and a better one on d way today!

Just a little note,
Whoever quoted that Alan martins Tussle was a "potential mismatch" most definately had never seen our Nobby hurl.

Come on The Town
Alles Les Bleus

[Dynamite]

To be fair I don't know if he belittled them.

Whatever the disagreement, I heard from a couple of reliable sources that during the disagreement, Philo told Kevin to "come back to me when you have a county medal". Belitting enough in my opinion. Obviously Martin could well have reminded him about All-Ireland Medals and All-Star awards, but perhaps the fact that I can't stand Phil, swayed me even more to the Hurling side of Tullamore.

[corner back]

To be fair I don't know if he belittled them.

Whatever the disagreement, I heard from a couple of reliable sources that during the disagreement, Philo told Kevin to "come back to me when you have a county medal". Belitting enough in my opinion. Obviously Martin could well have reminded him about All-Ireland Medals and All-Star awards, but perhaps the fact that I can't stand Phil, swayed me even more to the Hurling side of Tullamore.

Lads this crap should be left in club and today's definitely not the day for it. I was on the pitch yesterday and saw Phil congratulating Kevin and giving him a big hug.

Great performance from the blues and each player deserve all the plaudits they're getting.

[beirut]

Some great pictures on http://www.jeffharvey.ie/ especially the one with Kevin Martin about to throw the ball to the ground after winning the penalty.

Tullamore's first touch was incredible and it was intresting to note that while KK were giving it socks in the warm-up, Tullamore were pucking balls over the bar. Did Tullamore and KK do a warm-up in O'Brien Park before this?

I would have personally given the man of the match to James Keane, I thought he got through a mountain of work at midfield.

Hopefully now Tullamore enjoy the celebrations for a few days then set their sights on Leinster, they have the momentum going and will give any team a good rattle.

Well Done Tullamore!!

[durra1]

That save in the second half from Fox was in the Gordon Banks league. Slevin or whoever it was did nothing wrong by batting the handed pass downwards. It was incredible anticipation by Fox not to commit to a block and to stay low to deflect it after the bounce around the post. Any cricketer would have been proud of it.

Gifts story is the best sporting story I have heard in quite a while and should be milked to the last. I couldn’t decide whether to focus on him or Kevin Martin at the final whistle. Both have poured so much into the game in the town. Word was another oft- maligned stalwart of town hurling Alo Lawlor collected money from all the players before the Birr game and had a nice wager on the outright which must have made it all the sweeter.

I’d rate the craic in town last night as on better than I recall on the nights in Tullamore of the 94/98 county victories (not the homecomings mind).

Of the game itself, the first half was flat and noteworthy only for Kevins well taken goal from an opportunistic shane dooley pass and the totally headless hurling by KK. In my view it could never be called a classic final. It was clear from early on that Kevin had the KK keeper and full back completely spooked. Kilmartin tried to hurl him from behind every time which is a near impossibility given Kevins fielding expertise and upper body strength and mass. He needed to be hurled from the front or Healion should have been moved in on him after 15. The absence of a call from the KK bench earlier on this baffles belief.

The town intensity more particularly in the second half and was most typified by Egan/Martin/Keane/Finnerty/Duffy. The second goal was all about a Kevin’s presence and the nerve riddled KK defensive duo around the square.

There seemed to be no real through to any KK attacks and their scores seem to some about by accident rather than design. Dare I say, it give justification to some of the comments set out on this and other sites about JPs management capabilities.

Joe Dooley has to seriously look at Egan and the Tullamore midfield duo. If James Kane can see fit to drop the big ball and concentrate on the hurl, I personally think he’d be better off. We have not had out and out midfielders for some time now and this has been one of our problem areas. If they begin to make their intercounty mark with Shane, who knows what this can do for hurling in the north of the county and specifically the improvement of participation and standards for coaching in the B competitions for and the Brosna Gaels/Belmont/Ballinamere-Durrow/Edenderry /Claras talent pools.

The county board should build on this and those in the south of the county should see it for what it is a thoroughly positive development for hurling in the county.