NHL Division 1B 2019

[LooseCannon]

That was some result for Carlow, fair play to them. They are justifying their right to play in the Leinster championship. We, however have no right to be playing in the Leinster championship in its current format. Don’t understand why some posters here think we should be! We got hammered in all 4 games last year and were not even competitive. Hammered by Galway and Waterford the year before. How is that any good to anyone?? We’ve a chance to actually win a competition this year and build from there, at the moment it’s hard to see us winning that. The league game in O’Moore Park on 16th Feb is a massive game, a win is badly needed so we can go down to Carlow with a bit of confidence and something to play for. The last thing we need is to be getting relegated in the league.

All clubs around the county need to get their act together and encourage players to play for their county if good enough. Hearing the stories regarding no Shinrone player making themselves available is sickening and I really hope they fail like every other year to even look like title contenders.

Can they just f*ck off to Tipperary already.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Now, now!

Can they just f*ck off to Tipperary already.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Carlow are a Leinster county and therefore have every right to play in the Leinster Senior hurling championship, regardless of what Galway, or Munster hurling snobs, maintain. I don’t recall anyone calling for (for example) Waterford to be excluded from hurling’s top tier after 2008’s All-Ireland final, nor should there have.

Offaly were reasonably competitive against All-Ireland champions Galway, and against Kilkenny, last May. People tend to ignore that. But don’t take my word for it - here’s Dermot Crowe reporting on the Offaly v Galway game in the Sunday Independent: “Offaly were not beaten off the field but they still ended up with a considerable final deficit, one that matched the handicap forecast, even though they were well in the contest for the first half and still clinging on for the early part of the second and making a game of it.” Crowe continued “(Joe) Canning hadn’t a big performance yet Galway still had plenty of shooters to hurt Offaly, who defended heroically at times, none more so than the cornerback Ben Conneely. They also outshone Galway’s midfield in the first half, with captain David King and Shane Kinsella not looking over-awed, although David Burke came into the match strongly after the interval.”

Offaly may win the Jimmy Cooney cup in June, but the ground lost as a result of the relegation will be extremely damaging. Offaly’s hurling is too slow at present, and that will not be remedied in a lower tier. The same goes for Laois, Westmeath, Antrim and Kerry by the way, this is not unique to Offaly.

I can’t square your argument that Offaly have no right to be in Leinster, yet the last thing Offaly needs is relegation in the league. Surely championship relegation is as damaging as league relegation?

That was some result for Carlow, fair play to them. They are justifying their right to play in the Leinster championship. We, however have no right to be playing in the Leinster championship in its current format. Don’t understand why some posters here think we should be! We got hammered in all 4 games last year and were not even competitive. Hammered by Galway and Waterford the year before. How is that any good to anyone?? We’ve a chance to actually win a competition this year and build from there, at the moment it’s hard to see us winning that. The league game in O’Moore Park on 16th Feb is a massive game, a win is badly needed so we can go down to Carlow with a bit of confidence and something to play for. The last thing we need is to be getting relegated in the league.

All clubs around the county need to get their act together and encourage players to play for their county if good enough. Hearing the stories regarding no Shinrone player making themselves available is sickening and I really hope they fail like every other year to even look like title contenders.

[allstar2010]

Ah now POTH come on, did you at any point in those matches realistically think we were going to win? That’s what I meant by being competitive, both Galway and KK were able to up it if needed.

At the minute we are nowhere near Galway, Wex, KK and Dublin so therefore we have no right to be playing in the Leinster Champ in its current format, pointless!!

Now we’re in a competition at a level playing field, anyone can beat anyone. We can go to matches hoping/expecting them to win instead of celebrating keeping it within 10pts of a defeat!!

League relegation is worse because obv there’s two teams in Div1b we can be competitive with.

[Plain of the Herbs]

'Being competitive' and 'going to win' are two different things.

Ah now POTH come on, did you at any point in those matches realistically think we were going to win? That’s what I meant by being competitive, both Galway and KK were able to up it if needed.

At the minute we are nowhere near Galway, Wex, KK and Dublin so therefore we have no right to be playing in the Leinster Champ in its current format, pointless!!

Now we’re in a competition at a level playing field, anyone can beat anyone. We can go to matches hoping/expecting them to win instead of celebrating keeping it within 10pts of a defeat!!

League relegation is worse because obv there’s two teams in Div1b we can be competitive with.

[allstar2010]

So, you’d be happy to see us get 10+ pt defeats like we have majority of the time for the last 14years than actually play against teams we can possibly beat and maybe win a competition and something for players to celebrate?

[LooseCannon]

Now, now!

Can they just f*ck off to Tipperary already.

Shur we can take Moneygall. Or any club that borders us. It’d be better than having Shinrone anyway.

[Killeighman]

On a different note, I heard snippets from Midlands 103 on Sunday and if anyone knows anything on this please do let it be known that David Hare (S&C coach) was let go or left in the week leading up to the Dublin game. I also didn’t see him at the game on Sunday which he usually would be.

[Fairplayalways]

I heard the S&C man got thrown under the bus so to speak after the Waterford game...apparently players were complaining that some lads while bulked up and physical couldn't hit the ball 20 yards out of their way...I don't know..competitive is one thing, getting hammered at the end is another..13 points to Dublin doesn't look good..score wise I think only Warickshire scored less than Offaly (and Donegal hurlers who also got 12 points on Sunday in the lower leagues)..Laois I think are scoring easier than us and while the game will be expected to be close, I hate saying Laois will win by anywhere upto 10 points...Carlow I think will beat Offaly on current form...so called big names back for the Dublin game, some didn't feel the weight of the ball, we have no one forward who is going to bang in 2-05 every second game or so..our top scorers are 0-07 (0-06 from frees) etc.) after that then its maybe one other player with 2 points and then 2 or 3 if we are lucky with a a point a piece...that type of return is nowhere near good enough for modern day hurling...I just don't think we have the players..our so called star players are returing 1-03 or 1-04 on county final day and we are saying how great a game they had, their equivalent in Wexford, Clare, Limerick (leave out Kilkenny) are returning 2-10 maybe with 0-06 from frees...other players are rowing in with 1-03 and 1-02...we have one forward getting 1-03 or so and the rest is scraps to put it mildly...the loosing top scorer in the counties mentioned often isn't enough to save them from defeat and we see headings like "Ryans 3-05 falls short as St. Martins dethrone the holders etc"...when have we had a county final in Offaly with such reports the next day..I cant remember any in a long long time...we are where we are and I think our goose is cooked to be honest...

[shannonbanks14]

We have to take our medicine, it is what it is! Whoever has made themselves available we work with and that's it. Everyone is doing their best and they want to hurl for Offaly and make the commitment, and if we have a full compliment, which in fairness we need in the league games and not just championship we should have enough to beat Laois and Carlow and stay up. Also realistically with a full compliment we are the favorites for the Joe McDonagh and if we can be competitive in a quarter final we would be happy. We should have a really decent competitive u20 team for the next few years to, so hopefully these lads will make good seniors in time. For now we need to ride out the storm and hope things get better. Lets look at the positives, upwards and onwards.

[Fairplayalways]

riding out the storm will be the problem, as Brian Carroll said after Waterford game as the two teams were warming down, Waterford had a buzz about them, Offaly looked totally dejected, and Brian Carroll said (paraphrasing) "its all very well saying to focus on the Laois and Carlow games, but where is the teams confidence going to be by the time those games com around, we will be realistically looking at a minus 50 scoring difference by that time"...its a no win situation, the players need to be encouraged to stay going, but people wont go to the matches when they know that there will be a mauling in store, if the supporters don't go there is no encouragement, and the players heads probably drop further, yet can you expect people to pay money into games to see poor quality hurling and a drubbing at full time...unfortunately people tend to go with the latter, I think also hurling has changed so dramatically since the 1980's and Offaly just don't have new calibre of hurler, or enough of them anyway...our star players can look very average against their other county equivalents....Outside Galway and Waterford, Offaly SHOULD be pushing for the second place in that division, but certainly finishing third, Dublin realistically will probably get third and well, where after that will Offaly end up, 4th??...hard to see it....

[LooseCannon]

Was sent on something by a mate of mine who follows Martin Bennett on Facebook or Instagram or the likes. He showed a video of the vast difference in warm ups in terms of intensity. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend but am interested to see people’s thoughts on this.
I’m not suggesting anything, just wondering if it bears any truth.

[Killeighman]

Was sent on something by a mate of mine who follows Martin Bennett on Facebook or Instagram or the likes. He showed a video of the vast difference in warm ups in terms of intensity. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend but am interested to see people’s thoughts on this.
I’m not suggesting anything, just wondering if it bears any truth.

I would like to see him involved around the camp. He worked miracles at Coolderry so to speak fitness wise but if he was involved he’s already 4 or 5 months behind but no reason why he couldn’t have players ready and fit enough for the Joe McDonagh Cup in May.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Kevin Martin's quote in the interview was "fitness levels aren’t where they should be; so we’re addressing that at the minute as well." There's a definite conclusion to be drawn from that.

On a different note, I heard snippets from Midlands 103 on Sunday and if anyone knows anything on this please do let it be known that David Hare (S&C coach) was let go or left in the week leading up to the Dublin game. I also didn’t see him at the game on Sunday which he usually would be.

But there’s much more than that wrong with Offaly. An inability to defend when the opposition make basic off-the-ball runs being the main one. Some of the defending against Waterford and Dublin was awful. There are a number of reasons for that, communication being one, knowing how to deal with particular situations being another.

Dublin and Waterford ran at Offaly when it was the thing to do, and made runs off the ball to the other side of the pitch, and make space for themselves from a puckouts by creating one-on-one contests. Basic stuff at intercounty level, but stuff most Offaly hurlers haven’t had to face since last June’s Leinster championship.

When they attack, Offaly are incapable of exploiting space for themselves. Haven't created a goal chance in 140 minutes hurling. It's a basic of hurling - forwards thrive on space, defenders abhor it.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Offaly's warm up routine last Sunday involved alot of standing around, in particular a passing drill for 24 players where only two balls were used, and once one ball was spilled it slowed the thing down to walking pace.

Maybe the manager panicked when he saw the phisique of the Waterford lads. There has been ALOT of bodybuilding going on in that county since we saw them last, alot of men with barrel chests. And the thing is, that mightn't be ideal either, and that might lead to a lack of mobility.

Was sent on something by a mate of mine who follows Martin Bennett on Facebook or Instagram or the likes. He showed a video of the vast difference in warm ups in terms of intensity. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend but am interested to see people’s thoughts on this.
I’m not suggesting anything, just wondering if it bears any truth.