Duel Players

[Daleamar]

It has probably been discussed before but anyway.

How can 3 Cork players tog out for both codes when here in Offaly it is an impossiblity??

Cork are mentioned as serious All Ireland contenders whereas we are... not.

Has the subject every been broached seriously with the County Board actually facilitating duel players or was/is it just up to the players and the manager to sort it out between them?

[townman]

because Cork have an understanding county board who have good GAA men on it unlike offalys. there was never a problem before in offaly the likes of Liam Currams, Duingan, Sean Grennan,Cillian farrell,John Ryan, nevillie Coughlan, Ollie Minnock, done it for a while. lets not forget that Shane Dooley won the county football final on his own last year with his 2-5

[Pat_Mustard]

Don't see any reason why it can't be done, players always seem to want to, and in a county with a relatively small pool of players to pick from we should be trying to encourage our best players to line out for the county in either code.

Think your right about it coming from county board. if they don't encourage it how is a county manager going to get behind it. Didn't a few players from the hurling squad (think it was Dooley, Egan & Currams) get called into football squad earlier in year only for them to be called back after a poor start to the league?


Also last year when the ladies team won All Ireland they had a few dual players and I think a few of them won football all Ireland and were nominated for camogie all star

[Fargo Boyle]

I once picked up a hurl to bate a herd of cattle out of me back garden - would that qualify me as a dual player?

[sam88885a]

what about finbar cullen he was full back on the 89 minor hurling team that won the all ireland
does not seem to be any hurlers coming from north offaly now whereas there are dual player in most south offaly clubs in kk birr st rynagh belmont . .
the problem i think is there are 5 or 6 lads in south offaly that could help the footballers but is there any north offaly footballers that even play hurling.
why has no hurler emerged from north offaly since c farrell.
ARE THEY BEEN OVERLOOKED ?
IS HURLING NOT PROMOTED ?

[timber]

what about finbar cullen he was full back on the 89 minor hurling team that won the all ireland
does not seem to be any hurlers coming from north offaly now whereas there are dual player in most south offaly clubs in kk birr st rynagh belmont . .
the problem i think is there are 5 or 6 lads in south offaly that could help the footballers but is there any north offaly footballers that even play hurling.
why has no hurler emerged from north offaly since c farrell.
ARE THEY BEEN OVERLOOKED ?
IS HURLING NOT PROMOTED ?

Could be wrong but I think Finbarr played in both all ireland minor hurling and football finals that year. Hurlers beat Clare and footballers were beaten by Derry.
Great achievement for a county the size of Offaly to be competing in the finals of both codes in the one year.

[Daleamar]

what about finbar cullen he was full back on the 89 minor hurling team that won the all ireland
does not seem to be any hurlers coming from north offaly now whereas there are dual player in most south offaly clubs in kk birr st rynagh belmont . .
the problem i think is there are 5 or 6 lads in south offaly that could help the footballers but is there any north offaly footballers that even play hurling.
why has no hurler emerged from north offaly since c farrell.
ARE THEY BEEN OVERLOOKED ?
IS HURLING NOT PROMOTED ?

Tullamore is not North Offaly then? Is it mid Offaly?

I havent a clue why there are no hurlers up there, I suppose as a young lad you are generally good at both grades and the footballers/hurlers nab them first.

It has been a common message in Offaly, and the GAA in general,over the last 10 years that in the modern era you can't play both codes at inter county level so I imagine young lads probably don't think they can anymore, thus make a choice early.

It's an awful pity. It would require the duel players to be on different training regimes etc so managers most likely see it as disruptive and see it causing rifts. It would take a mature panel of players to accept duel players sitting out some training while they slog away....

But Cork obviously have made it work.

On another note. It seems that the high fielding when transfered from football to hurling is unstoppable. Are hurlers only catching on now that you can leave the ground to field a ball. Conal Keaney was unparalleled for a while, now Aidan Walshe is impressing. TJ Reid seems to have caught on, from what I saw on his first day out against Galway.

[kingscounty]

Coming from north Offaly I remember getting trials as a young lad with underage hurlers and we would go to birr and when you said where you were from it was lights out , we had some great players who would have been of equal standard if not better than C Farrell but never got a look in. There are some excellent underage hurlers in Edenderry, the boys schools always did great work with hurling , I think they have won offaly schools 2 year in a row now , Ryan man from kinnitty doing great work in the school. For some reason there is no under14,16,18 hurling in Edenderry Gaa , I know football is going strong but there has to be teams for these young lads coming out of school or we just lose them to other sports. Edenderry Gaa need to do a lot more when it comes to promoting hurling , there was great work been done by a Keogh man at underage but then the club introduced the Go Games model and he left. I heard the county board have been in contact with Edenderry to get their house in order and John Leahy comes once a week to do a bit with the young boys and girls. Offaly hurling and football needs a county to pick from not a small area, hopefully standards at underage improve in north Offaly and we might have a few players to offer at county level in years to come.

[sam88885a]

they question i was asking if ur a young hurler in edenderry or tullamore have u the same chance as a young hurler from birr coolderry clareen banagher to play hurling for offaly?
does a good footballer from birr have an equal chance to play football for offaly as a lad from edenderry ?
tullamore won a county hurling title a few years ago yet only s dooley really made it for offaly .why?

[sam88885a]

was no player from ballinamere durrow worth a look at for offaly after winning the leinster junior title ?

[kingscounty]

they question i was asking if ur a young hurler in edenderry or tullamore have u the same chance as a young hurler from birr coolderry clareen banagher to play hurling for offaly?
does a good footballer from birr have an equal chance to play football for offaly as a lad from edenderry ?
tullamore won a county hurling title a few years ago yet only s dooley really made it for offaly .why?

Well I'm sure it all depends on managers, it's up to who ever is over teams to go and look at players playing with their clubs and if the manager deems a player is worth a shot then in you go. I'm not sure how many club games a county manager goes to but if it was me in charge I'd like to see as many as possible and not rely on lads been just sent in by their clubs.

[townman]

they question i was asking if ur a young hurler in edenderry or tullamore have u the same chance as a young hurler from birr coolderry clareen banagher to play hurling for offaly?
does a good footballer from birr have an equal chance to play football for offaly as a lad from edenderry ?
tullamore won a county hurling title a few years ago yet only s dooley really made it for offaly .why?

in fairness sam88885a Stephan Egan, Shane Kelly, James Keane, Francis Kerrigan, were also call up and hurl in walsh cup games and were in the league squad that time, Joe Dooley also gave a young chap Kevin Waters a call up to the squad, only Egan only for injuried and Dooley would have made it at inter county.

[the Untouchable]

I think the divide in Offaly hurling & football extends far greater than being from North Offaly & South Offaly...we have a 3 layered approach to how we put all minor, u21 & senior panels together...
1) did your aul lad or uncle play on a Offaly all Ireland winning team...if so, u could be a sub for your club team & you'll probably make the Offaly county team!! Failing that, did a brother of yours play senior county football round 1997..if so, your in too!!
2) do you play football for Rhode...if so, ur almost definitely guaranteed at least a place on the football panel, the same was true of birr back in the mid to late 90's although no where near as bad today as the hurling playing field has somewhat levelled out in Offaly...but rhode are still the darlings of the county board so if your starting for rhode seniors your probably going to make the Offaly senior panel!!
3) were you a great underage player for Offaly...crucial to making a senior team, especially if ur not from rhode...if you blossomed as a footballer in your early 20's and therefore hadn't played minor for Offaly you could be the best footballer in Offaly & be from a club outside the top 3 senior clubs in Offaly, you'll never get a game over a guy from rhode or a player who was on the team last year...we just don't do things like that!!

Now this whole debate began over duel players, I know lads who tried it with Offaly for a year & packed it in because they were with the footballers preparing for a championship game doing ball work when. The hurlers were doing hard stamina work or vica versa...& when they came back to the panel the selectors & managers literally treated them like they weren't part of the set up any more because they missed the last few weeks of trainin & them coming back now was a disruption!!

For duel players to work in a county you need both managers to be on board & make it work!! Since we've no structure in place to get anything right in either code I doubt the idea of sharing duel players even came up for discussion between Brian & emmett...actually I wonder did they ever even discuss it...probably not!!

[townman]

cork duel players were found out big time today.

[bula bula]

cork duel players were found out big time today.

Dont think it was all down to their dual players. You are some man for the Schadenfraude townman! Wouldn't mind having their dual players on the offaly team