Joe hits out at County Board

[wazzaman]

''TOWNMAN'' YOUR A FUCKING CLOWN... WE ALL KNOW THAT YOU ARE ''SOUTHOFFALY'' ON THIS FORUM ASWELL... YOU LITTLE MUPPET

[the bare biffo]

In the Indo today JD is didnt want to talk about the issue last night saying how important it is to keep the heads down and focus on the match.
FFS who created all this. Maybe he did blow a gasket in OCP and spit the dummy out. But then he sat down and wrote a letter to the county board and had it signed by players and others. You cant do that in a state of exasperation. Theres a smell of sh1t off this.

[puzzled]

In the Indo today JD is didnt want to talk about the issue last night saying how important it is to keep the heads down and focus on the match.
FFS who created all this. Maybe he did blow a gasket in OCP and spit the dummy out. But then he sat down and wrote a letter to the county board and had it signed by players and others. You cant do that in a state of exasperation. Theres a smell of sh1t off this.

How much more can he say about it Joe Dooley and the players have made their opinions well known to everyone by writing the letter to the county board!

I'm not a big Dooley fan at all but the silence from the county board is where the smell of sh1t is coming from!

[puzzled]

A big reason this county can't win anything is this attitude that we come from the "hurling area" of offaly surely the best way foward is to promote both game all over the county all this talk about spirtual home of hurling is a load of bollix if u ask me and alot this arggument is people like Daithi regan trying to drum up a few quid for his club

'tmorelad' you are right that hurling should be promoted all over the county and I think it is,whether or not its being done to the best of our ability is up for debate! Summer camps are from one end of the county to the other,I'm not singing the praises of the county board far from it actually,much more needs to be done!

The 'hurling area' as you put it is there and it always will be its just the way things panned out over the years the main game in places like Edenderry Rhode Gracefield will always be football and the same applies for Birr Lusmagh Clareen their main game will always be hurling and nothing will ever change that,the divide is there get over it!

If you think for one minute that Daithi Regan cares whether his club gets a few quid out of it you really dont know him at all,all he cares about is Offaly hurling,all Birr would stand to get from having games in Birr would be 15% of the total gate the rest would go back to the county board!

I for one cant wait until all the hurling games are back in Birr and if this debacle has helped that along the way then all the better as far as i'm concerned!

[In the long grass]

Gate receipts in Birr down through the years have never been accountable.....the sums didnt add up, not enogh as there should have been going back to the county board..

[puzzled]

Gate receipts in Birr down through the years have never been accountable.....the sums didnt add up, not enogh as there should have been going back to the county board..

Good point 'in the long grass' perhaps the simple way of sorting that out would be to use the same guys that do the gates in Tullamore to do Offaly league games or county finals?

[Abercrombie Fitch]

I'm from North Offaly, from a traditionally football club, and i frankly cant wait to start going back to Birr for Offaly hurling games. It just feels like home. And its also not the same having the county hurling final in tullamore either. We are divided enough from club to club so when the green white and gold is involoved we should be united. If certain people have no time for football or hurling thats fine but dont criticise or put down the people who consider themselves dual supporters. Think of Liam Currams and how proud the county was of him in Sept 1981. Whats best for hurling and football is what matters and the county board dont seem to have this as their priority. Time for a coup??

[KingLurk]

Anyone read Ger Loughnane today? Don't always agree with him, but his article today talked about how important it was to get back to Birr and how Clare coming to Tullamore felt more like a neutral venue anywhere in the country, among other things.

Just an interesting read from someone outside the situation.

[backofthenet]

This is just amazing.

I cannot believe that we have the same discussion again. This issue is cut and dried as far as im concerned. I am a lot of people have been saying for months the hurling games are in tullamore for one reason and one reason only to pay for OConnor Park.

There is no north south divide, there is no snobbery of south offaly people towards north offaly people when it comes to hurling. The north offaly people on this board have a huge chip on their shoulder about this. Where is this bias coming from?? Any talented hurlers from north offaly are where they belong on the county panel!!!

The issue is this and ive stated it in previous posts

Of the 12 Senior Grade Hurling sides in offaly, Coolderry, Birr, Shinrone, Drumcullen, Kinnity,Clareen, Kilcormac, Banagher,Lusmagh, Tullamore, Belmont & Shamrocks, 10 of the 12 would be within a 15-20 minute drive of birr and most a lot closer. The simple fact is

1/ The vast majority of the panel live closer to Birr than Tullamore. This means it is easier for them to travel to and from training.
2/ The vast majority of the panel would be more familar with Birr, most would have played on the pitch 40 - 50 times competitively and would have won the majority of their hurling medals there. There is an advantage to knowing the pitch.
3/ All the traditional hurling clubs are situated in the vicinity of Birr, This results in a larger support showing up at matches, Larger support in a smaller stadia results in better atmosphere, harder for the away team, possibly worth a point or two to Offaly any day they take the field.
4/The Birr pitch suits our style of play far better than Tullamore, forget people on here talking about new styles, the issue is the players are simply not up to the top standard at the moment. Playing the game on a pitch that suits our style gives them a fighting chance. The wider pitch suits the team that is on top, the team that is struggling is more likely to hit wayward balls into the forward line...why because they are under pressure. This has been a point that has been brought up time and time again on this forum. At least if there was a smaller pitch you would not see Cork for example being able to play their running game. As smaller pitch means its harder to get the 2 vs 1 situation that all running teams look to exploit.


Also there is another issue unrelated to the Birr Vs Tullamore Issue. The county board has been making decisions with its purse strings and not with their GAA hat on. This has resulted in poorer performance on the field. One such point I made was the granting of the home and away arrangement with Dublin hurlers. This was done for one reason, again so that the county board could benefit from a payday when offaly get the home venue. Now anyone with a thinking brain would tell you take dublin out of the city and they are at an instant disadvantage. I would be willing to wager that offaly supporters would outnumber dublin supporters at any neutral venue outside the capital...so it would be to the offaly hurlers advantage to insist on a neutral venue. Instead we got offaly to travel 3 hours to dublin, with a small 1000 support against a what 20-30,000 strong crowd...ridiculous.

The county board need to start forgetting about paying for O'Connor Park, because by the time they have paid for it, Offaly will be have gone back 20-30 years in both codes.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Curious, curious.

I'm with POTH, there would appear to be much to this than meets the eye. There are too many holes in the story for it to be taken seriously at face value. The response of the Board 'when we're beaten' will be interesting. Regardless, it's more complex than 'Hurlers Good - County Board Bad'.
However, let no one feel that I'm absolving the County Board in any way from their utter mis-handling of hurling in Offaly for the last number of years. For that alone, it's brilliant that this whole sorry mess has come out in the national media. Unfortunate though it may be, embarrassment on a national stage is often the only way to effect real change. Look at the energetic debate on this board alone. ''You've only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down''.

And so a few grenades...
1: Given approximately 70% of clubs in the county are football dominated, does Offaly need a separate Hurling Board?

2: The following has never been explained to me. We all know O'Connor Park has a debt to be serviced - hence the playing of so many games there. But surely an attendance of, say, 2000 in Birr for county/club games nets more revenue to the Board than 1000 (or less) for the same fixture in Tullamore? Ergo, the debt for Tullamore can be serviced to a much greater degree by Birr. Or is that so devastatingly simple and obvious it must be wrong?

3: Offaly needs as a matter of urgency, a designated training facility. Jesus, land has never been so cheap. Two floodlight fields (grass and synthetic), changing rooms, car park. Thats it for a start -there are many clubs that have more.

4: For me Duignan was brilliant the other night. Bit wide of the mark on few things but it was the first time in a long time I'd heard anyone speak so passionately, articulately and accurately about Offaly hurling. In an era of media blandness, it was a light through the fog.


This debacle, along with the attitude of some of the panel members and the Board (through their statement) in advance of the Cork game is just incredibly disappointing. Put that desperately average Cork team in Clare/Wexford/Limerick jerseys and we'd have every right to expect a win. Instead the exact same mood that preceded 2007 massacre seems to be developing. It's terrible.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Another of Duignans points also got me thinking. He mentioned something along the lines of Offaly not being able to afford sliotars while the likes of Dublin and Tipp et al can afford to spend millions on the preparation of their teams.

Given that, should the GAA attempt to equalise the system by giving a greater cut of it's central revenue to those counties that are underperforming? To have the same effect as the NFL draft in America? Just an idea but it's merits serious consideration - money talks and wins and at the moment we cant compete.

[Superted]

Ah lads! For jaysus sake can we stop this bickering and get behind the 2 teams, im from a footballing area and id prefer to see the hurlers play in Birr. The county board have a lot to answer for!

[first_touch]

The demographic breakdown of the county has changed hugely since the 80s and 90s. Back then, small agrarian holdings were sustainable and no non-nationals competed with locals for jobs.

The building boom has concentrated development in the big towns and that is where development in the future will be concentrated for many reasons (proximity to good employment prospects, proximity to commuter hubs, access to water/ mains supply in the county side, fuel prices, broadband etc etc.).

That means Tullamore, areas of east Offaly and arguably Birr.Things are what they are and the day of the 20 acre farmer is over.

I'm not sure why you seek to have a go in your post at 'non-nationals' as you call them. It has absolutely nothing to do with the issue in question or the state of Offaly hurling.

On a broader note I disagree with your sociological analysis which culminates in your proclamation that 'the day of the 20 acre farmer is over'. The future is all about 'local' - local food, local enterprise, local markets etc. As oil prices continue to increase, people will travel less and depend on more local sources for essentials such as food. This will lead to a revitilisation of rural areas with, for example, more people working on the land to grow food. It will be the suburban areas of large towns that will be unsustainable.

Therefore the argument that resources towards the promotion of hurling should be based on larger areas of population to the detriment of rural areas is simply unviable. The argument is baseless for another reason also: the future of Offaly hurling will largely depend on preserving and reviving the traditional hurling base in the south of the county. While by all means hurling should be promoted countywide, the bulk of resources must be deployed where they will have the greatest effect.

[kingscounty]

agree with offalyman08 100%.we are a county who should be united as one,theres hurling teams in edenderry under6,8,10,12,14,16 and the junior A team.gracefield,killeigh,raheens, all have hurling teams, they might not be senior or have county players but their all committed to playing hurling and to keeping it alive in the area.this bullshite attitude of theres only hurling one end sickens me,fair enough they might like playing in birr better than tullamore but the fact of the matter is as a hurler if you cant go out onto a pitch no matter where it is and play to your best then theres something wrong in the head.what will happen when they have to play cork in cork and if their defeated what will be to blame then,the pitch?i am from the so called football end of the county and i have no interested in football whatsoever,i am hurling to the core.attitude from players,manager,county board,supporters has to change.theres huge work needed to be done now at all age groups to get offaly hurling back to the top.i just hope to god that it rallys the hurlers and it might give them a bit of a boost and we might pull off a shock victory.training ,league games yes return to birr but it should be for the reason that its closer to the majority of players simple ,not for the fact that the pitch will win us all our games because that aint gonna happen.what is the crowd capacity of birr does anyone know?

[durra1]

First_touch

Don’t know how any reasoned read of that comment could be contrived as ‘having a go at non-nationals’ as you put it. I’m not going to thrash that out any further on a public forum so PM me on that if you want.

To summarise:-

1. Economic activity is largely concentrated in the northern part of the county. That is where population is and will be concentrated in the future. My point is that there isn’t the handy agricultural/industrial employment in south Offaly as there might have been in the 80s / 90s due to "changing economic factors" (hope that doesn’t offend you).

Like as has happen successfully in urban areas of Dublin and Waterford city, hurling needs to be brought to the population centres. The traditional hurling areas in Offaly are overwhelmingly rural. To use examples, Kinnity and Drumcullen are limited in the hurlers they can produce for the county side due to population. Population is directly liked to economic opportunity.

2. I would be delighted to see your prediction for the revitalisation of economic development in rural areas through.. on many levels. The reality is we’ll have to agree to differ on that one for reasons outlined in my earlier post.

We are straying off the main topic here big time.