Offaly v Wexford - NHL 27/03/2011

[DAF]

Offaly 2-15 Wexford 1-16

A proper game of hurling with loads of passion and a bit of cut in it where Offaly won thanks to two well taken frees at the end by Shane Dooley one from Offalys half back line.Offaly played with alot of fight and determination and just about deserved to win as I thought Colin Egan was harshly sent off with about 15 mins left.Rory Hannify had a great game for Offaly at centre back and I thought Ger Healion played very well and won alot of ball and laid off some good passes for his team mates.David Franks made a big difference defensively and if we get Paul Cleary and James Rigney back for the championship we should improve alot also.Derek Molloy had a good game after his return from injury also and scored a nice goal Shane Dooley scored the other goal with a brilliant finish.Hopefully we can survive in Division 1 now and this win is sure to be a big morale boost ahead of Waterfords visit next week

[Offaly2010]

Great win for Offaly today which will surely see us maintain our Division 1 status for 2012. Offaly played with great heart and passion all throughout the 70 minutes but were dealt a blow with 15 minutes left when Colin Egan was harshly sent off, but Offaly kept battling and, as in Croke Park against Galway last June, Shane Dooley was the hero with 2 fantastic frees in the closing minutes.

Many great performances for Offaly today including James Dempsey, David Kenny, Rory Hannify, Colin Egan, Derek Molloy, Ger Healion and of course, Shane Dooley.

So, it's Waterford in Tullamore next Sunday and Kilkenny in Nolan Park a fortnight later where Offaly will be hoping for two decent performances and looking to build towards Dublin in Parnell Park in May.

[uibhfaillian]

Excellent, didn't get to see the game. Will RTE show a bit of it later? or will they ignore it like TG4 did in their coverage today. Offaly v Wexford was the most important hurling match with most at stake for both teams that was played today, TG4 should've shown it or at least shown it deferred.

[signinlate]

This will lift the doom and gloom surrounding the hurling team. Hopefully they can capitalise on it and put some form together before the game in Parnell park.

Shane Dooley must have ice running through his veins, the second last free had Offalys division one status resting on it and must have been 90 yards out yet he nailed it. All the more impressive given his poor freetaking form in the league up to now. His improved accuracy was a reflection of the teams shooting in general, it must have been 20 minutes before the first wide.

The full forward line of Dooley, Bergin and Molloy looks like it could cause problems far any team.

Colin Egan is a good addition. He's a real target for puckouts and works hard chasing after dirty ball and to top it off he knows how to take a score.His sending off was a disgraceful decision.

Derek Morkhan is such an accomplished player his displays are worth the price of admission alone.

Finally well done to Conor Mahon for that late catch. He might not be our most skilfull player but with that catch he killed any chance wexford had of grabbing a point at the death.

[DAF]

This will lift the doom and gloom surrounding the hurling team. Hopefully they can capitalise on it and put some form together before the game in Parnell park.

Shane Dooley must have ice running through his veins, the second last free had Offalys division one status resting on it and must have been 90 yards out yet he nailed it. All the more impressive given his poor freetaking form in the league up to now. His improved accuracy was a reflection of the teams shooting in general, it must have been 20 minutes before the first wide.

The full forward line of Dooley, Bergin and Molloy looks like it could cause problems far any team.

Colin Egan is a good addition. He's a real target for puckouts and works hard chasing after dirty ball and to top it off he knows how to take a score.His sending off was a disgraceful decision.

Derek Morkhan is such an accomplished player his displays are worth the price of admission alone.

Finally well done to Conor Mahon for that late catch. He might not be our most skilfull player but with that catch he killed any chance wexford had of grabbing a point at the death.

Morkam is as good a wing back as there is in the country, an outstanding player, the only time I have seen him play badly was when he played full back against Dublin a few weeks ago an dthat wasnt his fault as full back is not his position.I have great time for Mahon he may not be the most wonderful hurler as his striking is poor but he is a great man to run with the ball and is strong as a horse we need a few tough men like him on the team.

[old yellar]

"morkham is as good a wing back as there is in the country, an outstanding player, the only time I have seen him play badly was when he played full back against Dublin a few weeks ago an dthat wasnt his fault as full back is not his position.I have great time for Mahon he may not be the most wonderful hurler as his striking is poor but he is a great man to run with the ball and is strong as a horse we need a few tough men like him on the team"
He got roasted earlier in year also in shield final!

Well done to Offaly today on a good win. It should be enough to keep div 1 status. Once Dooley hurls the team hurls. When he is absent or off form they stutter.

[townman]

"morkham is as good a wing back as there is in the country, an outstanding player, the only time I have seen him play badly was when he played full back against Dublin a few weeks ago an dthat wasnt his fault as full back is not his position.I have great time for Mahon he may not be the most wonderful hurler as his striking is poor but he is a great man to run with the ball and is strong as a horse we need a few tough men like him on the team"
He got roasted earlier in year also in shield final!

Well done to Offaly today on a good win. It should be enough to keep div 1 status. Once Dooley hurls the team hurls. When he is absent or off form they stutter.

sure who could hurl in the pissing rain in january don't think theres to many from Carlow would live with him today

[kingscounty]

great win well done lads.we should go out next week and beat waterford and climb the table.great to see crowd get behind the lads today and we may do the same next weekend and support the lads and drive them on more

[Fargo Boyle]

Offaly and Wexford ignored once again by RTE. Not surprising really I suppose. The panel then had an agrument about promoting hurling outside of the main counties - how about showing the highlights of their matches as a radical idea.

Will it be on TG4 tomorrow night?

[townman]

well i gave them to win bye 4 and they should have won bye more if it wasn't for that ref Anthony Stapleton who was a disgrace
he done everything he could to win it for Wexford. jasaus don't get me going about him the sending off of Colin Egan plus
Rory Hanniffy who was pull and chop down on a number of times, Bergin and Healion were pull down to the ground on the way to the
goals and he just wave play on, mind you its not the first game that Stapleton try to ride offaly in.

Anyway rant over back to the match great win and Dooley back to his best won't point out anyone they all played their part in the win
James Dempsey Brilliant, Brilliant , so he was made the best saves you ever seen Rory Hanniffy carried on from the tipp match a rock at
the back Del Morkam another day he could have had 3 points great.

Conor Mahon great last 20 minutes Dylan Hayden in and out gave Redmond to much room, Brian Carroll bad day at the office today and should
have been took off early, Joe Bergin playing the best hurling ever made the goals and gave Keith Rossiter the run around in the first half wish they leave
him in the one poistion.

Ger Healion hurl his heart out and was at the heart of everthing that was good about offalys forward play and gave Darren Stamp his belly of it
Colin Egan great after coming on for the injured Daniel Currams and was sent off unfairly. Derek Molloy great to have him back got a great goal
also won frees and finish with 1-1 great show from him his first game for offaly since tipp in portlaoise and will get better in the next few week's.

that leaves me with Shane Dooley well he gave us his answer today 1-10 his free to give us the lead paddy kirwin point in the 80's comes to mind
Brilliant goal as well. roll on waterford i said early in the week if we could beat wexford and kilkenny end waterfords league chance we could get something
out of it i think we will win it now after todays win the chains are off.

and the ground is getting harder and as Joe said after the tipp game they will play more hurling now with the long days two good games left so fingers crossed
we stay up then get ready for the test that is the Dub's in the championship i know Shane Dooley has his eye on that one UP THE FAITHFUL .....

[Slieve Bloom Man]

Yeah TG4 are showing this game tomorrow night. Should stay up now but it is not 100 % guaranteed. Wexford have Tipp and Cork who are both pretty much out of contention for final spot and might be trying out players in last 2 games. However it would be a big shock if Wex could win both these games. If wex won 1 game, Offaly still stay up because of head to head. Also Offaly have decent chance at home to Wat next week and if we win that, we def stay up. Offaly should go out all guns blazing to get a result again next weekend.

[old yellar]

Ha ha townman, I won't get into that argument about fair weather hurlers...! He's a right good young lad alright. Lucky he didn't go as mad into the horses as it looked when he was a young lad. Would have Been a huge loss to offaly hurling. Well done again to Offaly. Hopefully it won't see ye take the eye off the ball for the last 2 games. 2 decent performances needed to keep the spirits high for championship.

[Doobaneman]

It was – as Eamon Dunphy might acclaim – a good win, not a great one! It may well turn out to be an extremely important victory if, as seems likely, it results in retention of Div 1 status. We played well, in patches. It was a highly enjoyable affair with plenty of open hurling filled with passion and pride. But there were some horrendous errors and neither team would harbour serious ambition of being still involved in the championship come August!
Having said all that the performances of Dempsey in goal (two of his saves were really top drawer), Rory at centre-back and Del on his left, Healion in the centre and Egan on the wing and Dooley’s free-taking all added up to the most positive performance of the year.
Still troubling signs – a more focussed attack than Wexford would have bagged a couple of more goals – even with Dempsey so outstanding. Centre-field was very poor and if Mahon showed some signs of life in the last ten minutes, Hayden wasn’t at the races at all. Our full-forward line won little ball – the sight of so much ball returning immediately from the Wexford 14-30 metre lines must have been heart-breaking for those further out the field. Brian Carroll was awful today and he is entitled to an off day but should not be forced to suffer his discomfort on the field for an hour or more!
Brian, however, was not the day’s poorest performer. That accolade goes to a Laoisman. Will someone please tell Croke Park that there we won’t take offence if Laois referees don’t officiate at our home fixtures. The sending off was brutal. The first yellow card was the result of Stapleton blowing his whistle incorrectly and justifying the error with a totally unwarranted yellow card. The second was little better!
Well done to the Faithful supporters who came out and audibly got behind your team – so much more constructive than those former players venting personal frustrations in national media. The cursed hurler on the ditch.
So well done hurlers on the pitch. A little pride restored and a boost for the remainder of the year. And thank you for an enjoyable day in O’Connor Park.

[SearingDrive]

Some posters have commented on the absolute lack of coverage of today's vital NHL game. I saw no mention of it on the match summarys and zero coverage on RTE's hurling league programe. Might as well have played it on the moon.
Another example of rubbing bour noses in it fixture wise. Next weekend Offaly hurlers play Waterford in Tullamore, while the same afternoon, Offaly footballers take on Waterford in Dungarvan, in a must win game.
Wonder where will the respective team buses meet!!. seriously this is a joke, could a little thought be given to playing the games on alternate days.
This would not happen to Cork, Dublin or Galway.
On a positive note well done to Offaly today, and to Shane Dooley for having ice coolnerves to point the last 2 frees, one from well inside his own half.

[Plain of the Herbs]

The character of the team was tested to the limit in those late stages today. Leading by four points with a chance to go 5 ahead, Wexford reeled in the lead. Not with a sustained effort, but reeled it in all the same as Offaly, though doing alot of hurling without creating scoring chances, had gone 20 minutes without a score. Indeed a recurring trend was Wexford's economy with their creation far more scoring chances from less hurling.

Men or mice time as the clock ticked towards 70. The Offaly men stood up and were counted and Offaly survive for another year, where they can hopefully entertain Kilkenny, Cork & Tipperary in OCP next year.

A spirited performance from the start. The full-back line got out in front well to meet the low ball. Egan & Franks will not be beaten to a low ball. Morkan’s awareness to meet either the low ball or to catch a high ball is priceless.

The siting of Ger Healion at centre-forward raised a few brows given that Joseph Bergin was doing so well there. Healion gave a barnstorming performance, winning the ball, driving forward, creating chances. He’ll stop a good centre-back from hurling. If he can use his head (as he did today, and didn't against Dublin) he’ll be a real option there in Summer.

Shane Dooley is a different hurler with Joseph Bergin alongside him. What a pass by Bergin to Dooley for the first goal! Colin Egan made quite a difference when introduced. A pity he’ll miss the Waterford match now, for he needs all the hurling he can get before the Championship to cook some still-raw elements of his. Derek Molloy took some time to get into it, understandably after a long layoff. Corner-forward suited him better when he moved there. Still, they could have moved him outfield to offer more space to Bergin and Dooley as a 2-pronged attack before Egan’s sending-off.

Conor Mahon continues to improve. He was terrific on the rum, finding gaps and driving forward. A key move was the switch of the two midfielders late in the first half. Redmond had been ‘doing the divil’ early on but went out of it thereafter. I thought Carroll might have dropped back a few yards to offer Hayden more protection, but the switch of Hayden and Mahon was a key move.

That was a pressure match and Offaly prevailed. With the pressure off, Offaly can face Waterford with minimal changes and hurl with a little bit more abandon.

They’re still a long way short of competing with Dublin in Parnell Park in May, but at least they’re facing in the right direction.

Finally, Offaly v Wexford NHL matches generally tend to go ‘with venue’. Wexford haven’t won on Offaly soil since 1973 (a year Offaly were relegated as the 1966-70 team had, by then, broken up) with Offaly winning the last 8. Meanwhile, Offaly last won in Wexford in 1995, losing the last 3 ‘away’ ties.

Finally, finally, Derry prevailed in Banagher, beating London by a single point, to leave promotion between themselves and Wicklow.

finally, finally, finally, Dooley's free was taken from his own 45. I estimate the pitch in Tullamore is 145 metres long (65+15+65), meaning Dooley struck the free from 100 metres (145-45).