NHL Round 3 Offaly V Dublin 06/03/2011

[Offaly81]

To-days defeat is a massive psychological boost for Dublin. The funny thing is that it might actually work in our favour come summer as Offaly will be massive underdogs and this Dublin team has yet to perform to their true potential in the championship (remember Antrim last year).

However, having said that, the gap between now and then may not be bridgeable. The management made some strange positional switches coming into this game. Granted their hand was turned due to the injury list, but some guys have never played in the positions they lined out in to-day. The alarming thing was the ease at which they pulled away from us.

In regards to players coming back in, Cleary and Joe Brady would be an asset to the team in the aerial duals but are caught for pace when the ball hits the ground. As somebody alluded to in an earlier post, the pitch will be tight so we will have to use them. Murphy has an amount of work to do when he comes back but I would definately have him in the team come championship.

The team has to lift itself again and move forward for next week but the confidence is draining away. Dooleys interviews are cringeworthy at this stage. He strikes me of a man with little or no interest.

[Plain of the Herbs]

(I suppose we could merger these topics – no need for two topics on the one match.)

Part of the reason your VHI bill increased sharply was the lengthy list of Offaly hurlers who underwent or are awaiting surgery.

That most of those walking wounded are defenders makes survival even tougher and Offaly’s Division 1 goose looks ready for consumption. I’d say Offaly would struggle in a competitive Division 2 at this point in time.

Absent friends have meant some odd selections in defence. Derek Morkan spent much time at full-back today, Conor Mahon spent over 10 minutes at centre-back when Dylan Hayden was off the field, and Cathal Parlon and Daniel Currams each spent a few minutes at wing-back during the second half! The options are few – take a look at the list of subs available.

With almost all those likely to be out for a few months yet there’s a real worry that lack of match practice will be an issue by May’s end.
Another worry is the lack of confidence in the team. Shane Dooley’s confidence is in pieces which is a pity after his being on song last year.

You couldn’t fault the lads for effort. All gave 100%. Dylan Hayden, in the mood, is a fine asset to the team and his workrate was tremendous today. I know there’s a case to play him at full-forward but I’d keep him where he is for now anyway. Colin Egan and Joseph Bergin both did well to catch a number of Dempsey’s puckouts. If Egan can keep progressing, there’d be a good case for keeping him at 12, Bergin at 11 with Derek Molloy beside Shane Dooley in the full-forward line.

Too many chances from placed balls were missed – Dooley must have missed 5 or 6, Bergin another 3, while nothing resulted from 2 goal attempts from close-in placed balls.

There were quite a number of reckless challenges by both sides during the match. At times a tinderbox was about to ignite and if the result was in doubt a full-scale row could have ensued. There were too many late challenges, mainly by Dublin players. I’m thinking the unnecessary collision with Brian Carroll as he scored a point into the Arden Road End. Galway referees have a bad name, though this fella was the opposite of Michael Haverty!

Time was a frontal ‘drive’ on a player warranted a dramatic pointing to the sideline by a referee. Now the flashing of a yellow card suffices. Ger Healion can count himself lucky. I wonder if that call by the referee influenced his decision to send Brian Mulrooney off? Seems waving the hurl in the air is a sending-off offence for Mulrooney simply nudged the Dublin hurler in the back while he held his hurl in the air! Still, another Offaly hurler could have been in trouble for his part in an incident shortly after half time.

There was no excuse for that wild pull by Peter Kelly on Shane Dooley. Kelly never intended connecting with the ball by swinging in the direction he did and Dooley sustained a terrible injury as a result. If Dublin are going to bring ‘Munster championship’ tactics to the table they can forget about making a breakthrough.

Offaly's short term future is bleak, with Tipperary next (no better team to sew it into a struggling opponent), Wexford getting to within five points of Kilkenny and too many forwards off-form. We can but hope at this stage.

[old yellar]

The unfortunate thing about competing at this level is you are meant to have a panel and quality. Dublin beat Kilkenny in the Walsh cup using multiple subs out if 18 players. Irregardless of the challenge- some on both sides, Dublin dominated in both the air and when the ball hit the deck. Now I ll stand corrected on this, buri did a ten min analysis on the the hurling Offaly played and how the decided to move everything on the ground when it landed- lost far more ball than won. Ground hurling is great, but not at senior intercounty level. Hasn't worked for Kk or Tipp or cork in the last decade or more.

[old yellar]

I think the Leinster final has to be played on croke park so no point using the pitch size as a means of game plan.. An injury list I'd greAt but in all honesty it's only 3 possible starters. 2 that will have a major influence on how the team lines out.

[Bord na Mona man]

A disappointing day for Offaly.
The game was lost in the second quarter where Dublin got 2 goals, Offaly missed a string of frees and then were reduced to 14 men. Offaly's improvised defence just didn't cope well enough and unfortunately too many chances were missed at the other end.

Dublin did look impressive. As we expected their strength, catching, shooting and passing was top notch. They showed huge hunger in hassling Offaly players in possession too.

It was also noticeable that Dublin were able to put real pressure on an Offaly player with the ball by getting on top of him and tackling his upper body area to prevent him playing it.

Offaly's tackle technique is still primarily about swiping away the loose ball when an opponent is rising it, soloing it, tapping it on his hurley or striking.
This is rendered useless when the opposition don't show the sliotar though. Offaly failed to get pressure Dublin players who caught the ball and dished it away to an anticipating support man in space.

Also Offaly's 'swiping' technique will also keep earning us cards of varying colours.
Rugby style upper body grappling is now accepted in the hurling world as most teams employ it. Offaly need to start getting in on top of their opponents more instead of standing off trying to nick the ball.

The positives are that perhaps this sort of performance tees up the championship encounter in May a bit better. The timbering that Shane Dooley received should be cleverly used for motivation, obviously without retribution being on the agenda. There is a gap between the two sides, but Offaly have two months to bridge it. There is a big requirement for injured players to come back and deliver straight away which is a worry.

[Bord na Mona man]

Shane Dooley set for surgery

Offaly's Shane Dooley was receiving treatment in hospital following a serious ear injury sustained during the Allianz Hurling League match against Dublin on Sunday.

Dooley will undergo surgery to repair damage done following a clash with Dublin defender Peter Kelly, who was shown a yellow card following the incident.

Offaly manager Joe Dooley, father of Shane, was less than impressed following the incident, saying: 'Shane is kind of badly cut. We think his ear is hanging off.

'I don't know where the officials were looking at the time that happened. These things happen I suppose, but there's no ball lying on a fella's ear when it's dropping down.'

Dublin won the match by 2-23 to 1-13 leaving Offaly pointless and facing a relagation scrap at the bottom of Division 1 alongside Wexford.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/championshi ... oleys.html

[townman]

Bad day at the office again yesterday, look i know we are short a lot of player's but for the live of me what was
Joe Dooley at putting Derek Morkmam full back looking down from the stand our fullback line of Egan,Morkam,and Mulrooney
were like a minor team towards the Dublin fullforward line.

i think the team has been picked wrong in my opinion Cathal Parlon at midfield is never a no go, conor mahon is a fit young man and
gives it 100 per cent but he can't hit the ball 10 yards most of the time, play him centre forward where he might break it down or catch it
and leave it off to forwards who can strike it.

what has Micheal Cordial to do to get a start he done more in the ten minutes he was on than others done in the whole game, he also
came on a got a score again galway, and also going back to the walsh cup game again N.U,I.G he got 1-4 and never miss a free that day
i know the panel is picked now and players are out but my god there has to be better Corner back's in offaly rather than Stephen Egan
and Brian Mulrooney they are way off the pace for inter county hurling.

in a way this beating might work for us in the championship game in may but we have to get are best hurler's back and in the right form
because that graveyard that is parnell park will be full of Dub's that day and any hurler that doesn't have the belly for it will be found out big
time that day and not named names we do have a few that don't have the belly for it.

it's Tipp in Nenagh next sunday with galway getting 1-24 Cork 1-20 Dublin 2-23 i hate to think what tipp will put up after watching them
again waterford with Pa burke Eoin kelly back Noel McGrath flying and most likely we will have the same back line as the last three games
it's not going to be nice because if tipp can beat us bye 40 points bye jasus they will try to beat us bye 50 if they can.

i know there no point in saying if this or if that we are going to get a mother and father of a beating off tipp next sunday i hope i am as far
out as a lighthouse on this but i don't think so. what i would say to Joe Dooley is give Micheal Cordial, Odhran Kealey, Kevin Connolly and David Frank's
who was on the Bench the last two games a full game they can't be any worse than the lads that have been picked for the last three games anyway.

i think Joe's putting all his eggs in the one basket that the wexford game will be the one to keep us up, he could get a land if wexford get something
out of the Dublin game in wexford park in which they might you know. but looking at the offaly team again Galway. Dublin and Carlow in the walsh cup shield
division 2 is where we are going that display won't beat wexford either on the 27th of march waterford up next and then the cat's the last game god help us.

[kingscounty]

i think wexford are more than capable of beating dublin and if they do then offaly are in trouble.i know wexford got a hiding from galway but wexford on any day can beat the best .i cant see offaly winning any games because their getting beaten by to much in each game that there not even running teams close.having said that the sending off yesterday looked very harsh i couldnt see what the lad did to get a red card.how long are cleary,kenny,rigney out for?

[andy]

I wouldn't be inclined to worry too much yet. Dublin are at 95% at the moment. They will not get be any better come championship time whereas offaly will. As we all know the facilities in offaly are crap compared with dublin and the likes and this might have a factor to play. Would we have lost to the same regard in the last two games if we didn't lose a man early in both games??! and them sending offs were for nothin, there would be more contact in the queue for a nightclub on any sat night.. we seem to be getn a raw deal of late form officials. Added to this we have missed a lot of frees in both games.. against galway and against dublin it must have been 8or 9 well scoreable frees. If you take all this into consideration, added with the fact that it is only early march and as the evenings get brighter the lads will actually be able to train on a proper pitch and not in crinkles back field which i think is where they do most of their training under a flash lamp. Then is it all that worrying?! i dont think so at all. On a side note townman you singled out egan and mulrooney.. do u actually go to club matches in offaly? can u find two better players to play corner back? egan and mulrooney did fine against cork and galway, egan had a bad day yesterday and conceded a sloppy goal against galway.. but he is a very fine defender, mulrooney was sent off for nothin yesterday, he has held his men scoreless in both the carlow game, cork game and galway game and has doen nothing wrong. so get ur facts right! what more do ya want from a corner back but to hold his men scorless?! clown... u prob want them coming out with balls and throwin shapes and looking the part while in the background their man gets 4 or 5 points from play..again, clown.

[ditchhurler]

Lads its not all doom and gloom. I remember in 08 Limerick came to Tullamore and whipped us (5-19 to 1-17 or something like that), with Joe trying new lads in different positions. I think Franks was midfield, Bergin centre back and Paul Cleary centre forward. A short 3 months later we went down there and beat them by 10 points. I know things are bad now, and things look bleak but we will certainly improve while i can't see the dubs getting too much better

[townman]

I wouldn't be inclined to worry too much yet. Dublin are at 95% at the moment. They will not get be any better come championship time whereas offaly will. As we all know the facilities in offaly are crap compared with dublin and the likes and this might have a factor to play. Would we have lost to the same regard in the last two games if we didn't lose a man early in both games??! and them sending offs were for nothin, there would be more contact in the queue for a nightclub on any sat night.. we seem to be getn a raw deal of late form officials. Added to this we have missed a lot of frees in both games.. against galway and against dublin it must have been 8or 9 well scoreable frees. If you take all this into consideration, added with the fact that it is only early march and as the evenings get brighter the lads will actually be able to train on a proper pitch and not in crinkles back field which i think is where they do most of their training under a flash lamp. Then is it all that worrying?! i dont think so at all. On a side note townman you singled out egan and mulrooney.. do u actually go to club matches in offaly? can u find two better players to play corner back? egan and mulrooney did fine against cork and galway, egan had a bad day yesterday and conceded a sloppy goal against galway.. but he is a very fine defender, mulrooney was sent off for nothin yesterday, he has held his men scoreless in both the carlow game, cork game and galway game and has doen nothing wrong. so get ur facts right! what more do ya want from a corner back but to hold his men scorless?! clown... u prob want them coming out with balls and throwin shapes and looking the part while in the background their man gets 4 or 5 points from play..again, clown.

Andy your the clown if you think mulrooney held his man scoreless in every match what did Ben o'connor score plus johnny coen score as well in the galway
game if you look back at the three games they are behind there men everytime the ball come's in all you have to do is look at what we have let in this year
4-67 and yet to play tipp and kilkenny who's the Clown

[joe123]

Too many big slow awkward lads on that Offaly team, conceding a lot of scores. Too many lads not good enough to be playing senior inter county hurling but unfortunately thats what we're stuck with for the time being, but there are 2 or 3 players that will be coming back into the starting 15, however match fitness will be an issue with these lads. Hope Shane Dooleys injury isn't too bad. Hopefully his confidence wont be further dented and he can get back to the form he was in last year. Andy you can call me a clown too if you want but we do Need a new full back line aswell. Also I think Cordial deserves to be playing, seems to be doing well when he comes on. A lot of lads being played out of positions too, which can upset a team and leaves them all over the place. Cant say lack of effort or commitment is the problem, unfortunately just not good enough.

[andy]

Townman.....again i ask u to get ur facts right.. were u at all of the games?
or are u going on the paper reports?
i was at all of the games, though i dont think i will go to the next one..
and o connor scored one point from play and he scored that off of egan, mulrooney held him and o sullivan scoreless..
in the galway game likewise...coen scored a point, and that was off of egan at the time.. i think ya need to check ur facts...although i agree with you, yad be fearfull with who we have to play, i think midfield is a huge problem area tho... but if u read my previous post, its too early to be worrying..

[joe123]

I just think we're lacking proven ability in this team. Ok there are a few players that are not producing the goods at the moment but we know from previous experience they are well capable of stepping up on that and thats been the case a few years early in the campaign, difference being over the years when offaly started slow there were 12-13 players well capable of stepping up and we knew that becuase they had proved it in the past. I worry this year because there are only a few of these players on this particular team, there are a lot of lads on this team that you cant say "he's stepped up in the past, he can do it again"... We havent seen much of them in championship in the past.

[Plain of the Herbs]

I don’t know who says you are “meant to have a panel of quality”. Anyway, all teams have a core who can’t be done without. Kilkenny were supposed to have three teams yet they moved Heaven and Earth to get Henry Shefflin right for the All-Ireland. England have fifty million to pick from, yet the team collapsed shortly after winning the World Cup when Martin Johnson retired and Jonny Wilkinson got injured. Eight years on, whether they’re yet settled or not is debatable.
Generally I agree with your sentiments on ground hurling. However, the hits were flying in at such a rate, early, late, every way, that nobody could afford to be caught in possession, even the strong lads.
I must look at the tape to see how Dylan Hayden got clattered under the dropping ball in the move that led to Dublin’s first goal. He was off the field for over ten minutes playing time as well as the duration of the half-time break.
Mention of ground hurling, did ya see the boo-boo Carton the Wexford goalkeeper made pulling on that ball that led to Kilkenny’s second goal? That’s a thing you NEVER do!! I noticed he was wobbly against Galway last year and yesterday’s incident has reinforced that view.

The unfortunate thing about competing at this level is you are meant to have a panel and quality. Dublin beat Kilkenny in the Walsh cup using multiple subs out if 18 players. Irregardless of the challenge- some on both sides, Dublin dominated in both the air and when the ball hit the deck. Now I ll stand corrected on this, buri did a ten min analysis on the the hurling Offaly played and how the decided to move everything on the ground when it landed- lost far more ball than won. Ground hurling is great, but not at senior intercounty level. Hasn't worked for Kk or Tipp or cork in the last decade or more.

So you complain of a lack of stature in the full-back line, then you want to introduce four who, though grand hurlers, surely have a combined weight of less than forty stone. Coool!

i know there no point in saying if this or if that we are going to get a mother and father of a beating off tipp next sunday i hope i am as far
out as a lighthouse on this but i don't think so. what i would say to Joe Dooley is give Micheal Cordial, Odhran Kealey, Kevin Connolly and David Frank's
who was on the Bench the last two games a full game they can't be any worse than the lads that have been picked for the last three games anyway.

Atta boy. That’s always been the Offaly way. Be positive anyway!

Lads its not all doom and gloom. I remember in 08 Limerick came to Tullamore and whipped us (5-19 to 1-17 or something like that), with Joe trying new lads in different positions. I think Franks was midfield, Bergin centre back and Paul Cleary centre forward. A short 3 months later we went down there and beat them by 10 points. I know things are bad now, and things look bleak but we will certainly improve while i can't see the dubs getting too much better.