who will be offaly senior hurling winner's 2010

[ballinamereman1]

shinrone 5.13 shamrocks 2.7.. after so much promise shown last year what is happening to the club.. its now a dog fight between shamrocks lusmagh and brosna to see who will be plying there trade at offalys second table next year.. all are about the same level. i still think it will be lusmagh maybe brosna.. but based on today it could be the shamrocks club.. interesting few weeks in store.!!!

[leinsterman]

shinrone 5.13 shamrocks 2.7.. after so much promise shown last year what is happening to the club.. its now a dog fight between shamrocks lusmagh and brosna to see who will be plying there trade at offalys second table next year.. all are about the same level. i still think it will be lusmagh maybe brosna.. but based on today it could be the shamrocks club.. interesting few weeks in store.!!!

Brosna gaels beat seir kierans well today

[offaly good]

i agree with birr, tullamore and coolderry there but i wouldnt agree with clareen...they have to many young players and aren't experienced enough. apart from joe bergin who has his days they don't have any other too class players....i think young eanna murphy is overrated i haven't seen him play great any match i have been to see.

clareen are a very young side but have the best young hurlers in the county coming up,for such a small area they are a credit to offaly hurling,my friend obviously your not a hurling man if u chose to say something like that about eanna murphy,every player has there bad day,murphys good games far out weight his bad ones,if you were a real hurling man you would realise this

[Long John]

I was lucky enough to get to a number of games over the weekend.

Great win for Brosna Gaels, full credit to them. I certainly didnt see that happening. Clareen are a strange team, Ive seen them play Tullamore, Shamrocks, Belmont over the last 5 or 6 years and they always struggle. Now Brosna gaels have been another so called footballing area to go a step further and beat them. Clareen in many peoples eyes are a team that will be challenging for the championship and maybe thery still will but this is a big set back.

Now its an area I dont like to address too much but I have to say it, I sat as a neutral watching the game but I was 100% shouting on Brosna gaels by the end. The reason being, a number of middle aged men from Clareen sitting around me were shouting abuse about brosna only being footballers and they should go back to intermediate etc etc. I thought it was disgusting, arrogant and totally out of line. I will never have any time for Clareen after the things I heard on Sunday.

Another interesting thing from the weekend was I saw a Shamrocks player got injured playing for the county footballers Saturday night and did not play for his club on the sunday in a very poor game. Why was he playing a game the nighht before club championship. Shinrone were far superior. Derek Morkham was probably the best player on show, young James Conway for shamrocks at corner back also had a fine game.

[leinsterman]

That was bad form alright from the clareen supporter's if that was said. but you get that with most fan's.
I was at a championship game a few year's ago senior hurling between Birr and Clara and there was a few thick's
in front of me and the name's and thing's they were calling the birr hurler's was unreal .

Mind you it was just a few thug's that day, most of the clara crowd are great supporter's so don't get me wrong about
clara gaa fan's. as for the player getting hurt playing for the county footballer's, he must want to make the county team
for the championship game again meath and the hurling is his second choice.

[allsorts]

well said, long John!!!

a great win from Brosna Gaels over Clareen, and well deserved....
Brosna Gaels knew it could happen.

it seems those predictions of 10 /12 point win for Clareen were well off the mark......!!!!

& those from Clareen shouting abuse before, during and after the match were pretty quiet leaving O'Connor Park....

[Plain of the Herbs]

Firstly, hats off to Brosna Gaels on a famous win on Sunday. I had a feeling that Clareen might have been vulnerable given the mileage clocked up by their several under 21 players in recent weeks. I didn’t think the Leamonaghan Parish side would have the ammunition required to pull the trigger, particularly given Fergal Daly's absence through injury, but as it turns out they had the arsenal alright.

Given the rule for teams who finish with identical records at the end of the group, Clareen could well be vulnerable here. They’ve a win less than BG, so one win for Clareen in their remaining three matches would see them level with BG in which case BG would prevail given that they won the match played between them! And that’s presuming Brosna don’t get a result during the latter group stages. Clareen’s remaining matches are against Lusmagh, Coolderry & Tullamore. Furthermore, whoever qualifies in fourth place will surely face Birr in the quarter final.

Lusmagh played with plenty of heart and determination against Tullamore and had they taken one of two goal chances late on they might well have won it. Jody Duffy & Edwin Finnerty were the pick of the Tullamore forwards. Shane Dooley scored 1-2 from play, the last of which came mid-way through the first half as he was well marshalled by Kevin Birmingham. At the other end, Eoin Quinlan had an impressive first half but was less of an influence after Hugh Treacy was switched onto him with Stephen Egan going in the other direction.

St. Rynagh’s started like a house on fire but couldn’t get the scores to back it u and only led by 2 at the break. It was a different Coolderry who emerged for the second half though. And they didn’t take long to make their superiority count. Brian Carroll looked disinterested in the first half and Cathal Horan made hay, but Carroll was moved to midfield at half time and it was like a switch was flicked . . . he was transformed and had a mighty second half.

With matches against Clareen, Lusmagh & Brosna left, Coolderry will probably top the group with a 100% record (remember they owe Clareen one from last year). They would then play the fourth team in the other group (probably either Shinrone or Belmont), reach another semi final. They’ve still got it all to prove from that stage onwards though. Having played Clareen & Coolderry, Rynagh’s have their two hardest matches over them and have Brosna, Lusmagh & Tullamore left. They owe Tullamore one since last year too, and may well finish second (or fourth!). They haven’t convinced so far though.

In the other group, Shamrocks appear to have collapsed. Looking back, they haven’t recovered since being beaten by Lusmagh that Friday evening in Kilcormac in 2007. Having lost out to Belmont and Shinrone (the two teams they would have targeted) and with matches remaining against Birr, Kinnitty & Kilcormac they look set to finish bottom of the group. The football championship will surely take precedence in Rahan, Mucklagh & The Island now.

That group looks like Birr will finish top, the winner of Kinnitty & K/K second, the loser third, with the winner of Belmont and Shinrone claiming the fourth spot. Interesting to hear James Rigney is hurling full back with Liam Bergin at 6. Rigney’s placing is a strange one and you can only think he will be missed outfield. On the other hand, several hurlers who have spent a number of years in the one position can be reinvigorated by a move to a new position.

Whatever, no point burning the ground up in May. Countless clubs have done that and have disappeared without trace in the Autumn.

The key matches to look out for will be Clareen v Tullamore, Rynaghs v Tullamore and Shinrone v Belmont.

We’ll pick it up again in July/August.

[Slieve Bloom Man]

A lot of Kinnitty supporters are unhappy with the switch of Rigney to full-back. He had a very good game there on Sunday and kept a couple of opponents quiet especially Sean Ryan. Liam Bergin did fine at centre back, it's just more comes off Rigney's play there. Hopefully he'll be moved back to centre-back in July. Kinnitty had an awful start against Birr, down 1-05 to 0-01 and we feared the possibilty of a hammering. However the team settled from the 20 minute mark on and played the better hurling for the rest of the game, where backs and midfield did really well but a number of the forwards struggled, our 2 best forwards were youngsters Shane Kinsella and Aodhan Kealey. When Kinnitty were plying the pressure on Birr and got it back to 2 pts late, Rory Haniffy stood up to be counted and scored a great point, following up on a point he had got earlier. Psychogically, Kinnity could have done with a victory to get the Birr monkey off our backs. However, Kinnitty are not too far away from Birr and with Odhran Kealey to add to the forwards, we could come close to the final, but the form of a number of forwards will have to improve. Kinnitty had a decent start to the championship last May as well, only for things to pretty much fall apart after the break, hopefully history will not be repeated. Things seem to be going better this year though.

Got in for last few minutes of Tullamore-Lusmagh and Tullamore seemed mightly relieved. I can't believe the Clareen result-some shock. I left Rynaghs Coolderry game at half-time to go watch Galway and Cork. Even though Rynaghs missed a huge amount in the first half, I was sure they would win, they were totally on top. Cathal Horan was having a stormer on Brian Carroll. He scored 2 pts from wing back on him. Def worth having a look at for the county again. To be fair the first 2 rounds of the championship have been interesting enough. Shamrocks are the biggest disappointment so far.

Another point very frustrating way the results of all intermediate, jun a and jun b results are not on website - these were all put up last year. Most county websites are improving, ours is getting worse. Laois one is way better. Offaly PRO Brendan Minnock is very sound and is a good GAA man but think he has too much on his plate as PRO and trying to run a site. Someone should be just given the job of managing the site and nothing else. Kinnitty junior a beat Drumcllen 4-14 to 1-11 while jun bs lost 2-18 to 1-08 to Gracefield. Any other results?

[Plain of the Herbs]

Looks like they haven't paid the bill for the Sports Manager database. A pity.

Another point very frustrating way the results of all intermediate, jun a and jun b results are not on website - these were all put up last year. Most county websites are improving, ours is getting worse. Laois one is way better. Offaly PRO Brendan Minnock is very sound and is a good GAA man but think he has too much on his plate as PRO and trying to run a site. Someone should be just given the job of managing the site and nothing else. Kinnitty junior a beat Drumcllen 4-14 to 1-11 while jun bs lost 2-18 to 1-08 to Gracefield. Any other results?

[leinsterman]

Jame's Rigney had a fine game on sunday and had Dylan Hayden in his pocket for the whole game.
as a Birrman wasn't happy with Birr's performance they started off great but just stop hurling after half a hour.

This seems to be happen a lot with Birr in the last two year's they fade out of game's Tullamore caught them last year
and the same will happen this year if Birr don't hurl to the final whistle. Birr were very slow to make change's on the sideline
on sunday there was a few thing's Paul Murphy and Daithi Regan should have done earlier in the game but didn't.

Brian Whelahan was on the bench and should have got 15 minute's anyway Birrs full forward was shocking in the second half
and i think brian would have brought a bit of know how to the forward's. Mark Quinlan had another good game in the corner back
he is beginning to show the potential he had when he was minor and under 21. he has fill in for mick Verney very well.
Barry Whelahan came on but was way off the pace. Thats two played and two won which is not bad but i think there is a lot more
in that Birr team than they have showed so far maybe they don't want to show their hand to early either.

[ballinamereman1]

if what i heard about clareen men being arrogant and making the eejit out of themself is true i am disgraced.. clareen and offaly gaa doesnt need supporters like that.. all their doing is bringing disgrace to there club and family... i am outraged to hear this but certainly not suprised.. its better them not being there at all than being there and doing that..

i was at the match myself and i was shocked with the result.. i think another win or draw would put brosna into the quaters.. and with tullamore to play it could be done.. this just proves that clubs coming up can compete.. here here to ballinamere next year!!!!! ..

does anyone know when the first round of the footballs on??? as POTH said the shamrocks attention will turn to the football now and they could win it this year.. just as the shamrocks turn to the football could ballycumber, pullagh and the rest of the brosna contingent keep the head down and concentrate on hurling and lay off with the big ball a bit...

[Plain of the Herbs]

Can anyone confirm if indeed Brosna Gaels are a club as opposed to an amalgamation? Their crest is on the 'Club wall' in Croke Park which would indicate they are indeed a club.

Indicators they are a club would be that they have a chairman, secretary etc. and that they have a vote at meetings. Anyone?

[ballinamereman1]

Can anyone confirm if indeed Brosna Gaels are a club as opposed to an amalgamation? Their crest is on the 'Club wall' in Croke Park which would indicate they are indeed a club.

Indicators they are a club would be that they have a chairman, secretary etc. and that they have a vote at meetings. Anyone?

i know myself that liam hackett is secretary of brosna so this indicates there a club.. i always thought they were an amalgamation though..


that would be a great table quiz question surely get opinions raised!!

[allsorts]

Brosna Gaels are not a club, although structured internally like any club with regards to the committee, with a chairman, secretary, treasurer, pro etc.

Brosna Gaels is the parish of Leamonaghan with permission players from Tubber.

[backofthenet]

Interesting weekend, most games going to form apart from brosna gaels obviously! Shamrocks seem to be in serious trouble, i think they will be delighted to get the break now to really take a look at where they are and where they are heading if they dont change something!

Was at Coolderry Banagher game and Lusmagh Tullamore, Lusmagh in hard luck not to get something out of the game.

Banagher looked a better team for the first 15 - 20 minutes, but never really drove home the advantage they had, It took Coolderry until the second half to get going, and when they did Banagher really didnt have any reply

Cathal Horan dominated Brian Carroll in the first half scoring two good points and clearing quite a bit, the switch of Brian Carroll to midfield coupled with Kevin Teehan to the wing and the introduction of Kevin Connolly really changed this game around. Kevin Connolly got a fantastic point from beside the sideline and generally hurled well, Kevin Teehan stopped Cathal Horan clearing a lot of the ball he did in the first half, whilst brian carroll picked up loose ball after loose ball in midfield when the game got a little scrappy.

Overall good performance from Coolderry, thier full back line held firm without brendan omeara, the half back line was solid with Joe Brady having another good game, whilst the forwards need to start hurling in the first minute rather that the 20th like they did last sunday, if they get firing i think Coolderry are a good bet this year