Walsh Cup 2013

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly team to play Wexford named.

1 James Dempsey Kinnitty
2 Pat Camon St Rynaghs
3 David Kenny Belmont
4 David King Coolderry
5 Sean Gardiner Lusmagh
6 Kevin Brady Coolderry
7 Derek Morkan Shinrone
8 Rory Hanniffy Birr
9 Dermot Mooney Seir Kieran
10 Brian Carroll Coolderry
11 Shane Dooley Tullamore
12 Tom Carroll Seir Kieran
13 Odhran Kealey Kinnitty
14 Derek Molloy Shamrocks
15 Joe Bergin Seir Kieran

[Plain of the Herbs]

The Wexicans plan to line out as follows: -

1 Mark Fanning Glynn-Barntown
2 Eoin Moore Oulart-The Ballagh
3 Tomas Waters St Martins
4 Ciaran Kenny Buffers Alley
5 Richie Kehoe (Capt.) Faythe Harriers
6 Andrew Shore Parnells (Dublin)
7 James Tonks Ferns St Aidans
8 Harry Kehoe Cloughbawn
9 Eoin Doyle Shelmaliers
10 PJ Nolan Askamore
11 Eoin Quigley Sarsfields (Cork)
12 Gary Moore Glynn -Barntown
13 Paul Morris Ferns St Aidans
14 Michael O’Regan Glynn-Barntown
15 Podge Doran Oylegate-Glenbrien

[SearingDrive]

Thanks for update on respective lineouts. The game I believe is fixed for Blackwater, take a turn off the N11 and follow the signs.
No doubt Wexford plan revenge down in this rural location!

[Plain of the Herbs]

Some random thoughts, in no particular order (except for the first point) -

Naturally I’m delighted to see Seán Gardiner line out and I wish him well. He and Pat Camon are the first of the All-Ireland winning Banagher College side to graduate to Senior inter-county hurling. That team will form the basis for this year’s Offaly U21 side.

Strength up the spine seems to be the first aim of management. Shane Dooley at 11 is an interesting one.

Great to see Odhrán Kealey get a start at corner-forward. Good to see Derek Molloy lining out too, and hopefully he can stay free of injury.

I wrote in another thread that neither Pat Camon or David King are corner-backs, grand hurlers and all as they are. Not so long ago, Offaly seemed to have plenty of corner-backs. It’s not that long ago that Colm Coughlan (the Kinnitty one) did a fine man-marking job on Richie Hogan in the U21 grade down in Kilkenny. I think he would still be an option.

We will miss Brian Carroll when the time comes for him to hang up his hurl.

Dermot Mooney has the potential to make the step up.

Offaly being seeded and being given a bye to this round doesn't make sense, particularly when they didn't even make last year's semi-final. Should Offaly lose here they will have only one match in the Welsh Cup series. Should Kilkenny, Galway, Dublin & Wexford all win this weekend, Offaly will be the only team (county or college) to have just a single match in the series.

[weisford]

Blackwater is a small delightful seaside village about eight miles north of Wexford town.

The reason the match is being played at this ''Rural ' venue is the Pitch which is very dry and ideal for wet winter hurling given the sandy nature of the soil in area.

Blackwater Gaa club are an intermediate team and this area would have being part of the old traditional Wexford hurling strong holds with a history going back before the foundation of the GAA.

Take the R744 out of Enniscorthy directly or if comning from Dublin the R741 south from Gorey for 15 miles and linking up with the R744 turning left for Blackwater.

[SearingDrive]

Blackwater is a small delightful seaside village about eight miles north of Wexford town.

The reason the match is being played at this ''Rural ' venue is the Pitch which is very dry and ideal for wet winter hurling given the sandy nature of the soil in area.

Blackwater Gaa club are an intermediate team and this area would have being part of the old traditional Wexford hurling strong holds with a history going back before the foundation of the GAA.

Take the R744 out of Enniscorthy directly or if comning from Dublin the R741 south from Gorey for 15 miles and linking up with the R744 turning left for Blackwater.

Thanks for directions, now all we can hope for is good weather!!

[kingscounty]

In the Star today i see David Kenny and Shane Dooley were named on a team as the best modern day players without All Ireland medals. Thats a strong enough team named to play Wexford so hopefully we can give them a good rattle.

[Toxicity234]

Down in black water, it's a nice day down here, sunshine but a strong wind. Offaly subs for today are 16. Eion Kelly. 17. Chris mc Donald. 18. Cathal parlon. 19. James Mulrooney. 20. Dan kelliher. 21. Colin Egan. 22. Stephen Egan. 23. Tom Bolger. 24. Sean Ryan. 25. Paul Cleary. 26. Michael Cleary.

Looking forward to the hurling now

[Toxicity234]

Offaly winning by a goal at half time, molloy with the goal, Dooley with 6 points, t Carroll, b Carroll, bergin, parlon 1 each. Parlon started ahead of hanniffy

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Typical Offaly fade out on the way? No word yet from the commentary team after 45 mins as to who may have the wind, assume we had it for the first half?
Lowry not a huge addition on commentary. We were on top in all positions coming up to half time after being outscored 4pts to 0 in the last 10mins of the half?

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

1-21 to 1-15, we are conceding horrendous scores for the last few years now.
Would look like we are not fit enough again, giving away a lot of scores from frees.

We are in a dark situation at the minute. Baker is not the solution I think, but he is not the main problem. There is a real apathy around hurling in the county, and we really need a root and branch plan to try and make ourselves someway competitive at underage, and start producing players.

I hope to be proved wrong but I dont think so, survival is the perogative.

1-18 to 5 pts from the 26th minute, no need for panick Mr Lowry? I think you are mistaken.

[townman]

1-24 to offalys 1-15

as like the last two games again tipp and Galway blew out of it in the second half
bad defeat again an poor wexford side, offaly are way off the pace fitness wise.

not looking forward to the Dubs in parnell park in the league

[Bord na Mona man]

Hopefully this can be attributed to heavy training in the last few days?
But as the man says, the more you give the ball away, the fitter you need to be to get it back.

[kingscounty]

Surely to god Baker has the team fit at least , if we are struggling with fitness levels we havent a hope in the league. By the look of the footballers last week it looked liked they have put in a great effort fitness wise so far this year , i would hope that the hurlers are on a proper fitness programme, but with the comments on here it seems not the case. The fade out in games is a huge concern , we were known as a team that always came back and fought in games. 1-24 is a massive score to concede and big scores against Galway and Tipp to , i know its early in the year but we need to get into the habit of winning games , never mind how hard it will be in parnell if we dont get into gear soon the first round of the leinster championship will be a brutal altogether.

[kinnittyman]

A terrible second half performance lead to Offaly getting a considerable beating today.

We dominated the first 5 minutes and took a quick 3 point lead but for the next 10 minutes Wexford took over but in fairness for a 15 minute spell Offaly hurled really well and went ahead 1-10 to 0-06 when Shane Dooley missed a scoreable free and the momentum for the rest of the half was with Wexford who rattled off 4 points to go in only a goal down. To be honest the writing was at the wall at that point. While we did get the first score of the second half through a Dooley free Wexford really upped the tempo and came out on top in the physical exchanges.

Ollie Baker's decision to go with a 2 man full forward for nearly the entire second half was ludicrous considering we scored 1-10 with a traditional forward line in the first half. And the wind was swirling big time so we were not playing against a gale in the second half by any stretch of the imagination. In fact Del Morkam scored a point from our half back line in the second half. Horrific tactical decision.

A few quick observations about other aspects-

1) David King and Chris McDonald both struggled either side of David Kenny
2) Kevin Brady is a mile away from an inter-county centre back
3) We gave away 0-03 from losing our own short puck outs.
4) Shane Dooley can get some brilliant scores
5) Brian Carroll's workrate needs to up 50%

On the way down my travelling companion and I were trying to figure out the logistics of going to Offaly's away league games and in particular the trip to Antrim but needless to say we were reassessing our options on the way home. Very poor fare and these second half fade outs are obviously a psychological issue aswell as a physical one.

Team:

James Dempsey

Chris McDonald
David Kenny
David King

Dermot Mooney
Kevin Brady
Del Morkam

Rory Hanniffy
Cathal Parlon

Brian Carroll
Shane Dooley
Tom Carroll

Odhrán Kealey
Derek Molloy
Joe Bergin

Subs Used:
Seán Ryan
James Mulroney
The two Clearys.