Wexford v Offaly, NHL, 18/3/07

Plain of the Herbs · Post by **Plain of the Herbs** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:29 pm

The next three weekends are crucial to the progress of our young hurling team. I wouldn’t be doing any heavy training in between these matches, just recovery and a bit of sharpening up in between. There’ll be plenty of time during April for the slogging. A win here is crucial if we are to avoid a relegation playoff series with Dublin and Laois. The next time they have such a crammed schedule won’t be ‘till July and the round-robin qualifiers.

On reviewing the previous head-to-heads Offaly actually have a good record against Wexford, even when travelling to the Model County. A win on Sunday certainly is attainable, if Offaly go about it the right way. Their performance against Cork was encouraging and they wasted no time putting Down away, the win secured by half time having faced into the strong wind.

Wexford, meanwhile opened with a heavy defeat when hosting Waterford, which they followed up with a morale-boosting win in Ennis. Yet, when we scratch away at the surface of this, we find a Clare team in some disarray, missing some marquee players and a goalkeeper on trial suffering the ‘yips’.

To win, Offaly should avoid pucking it out long for David O’Connor to gobble up. Throwing buns to an elephant, as Barry Henriques would say! Perhaps look to target Rossiter (who is selected at centre half back) instead. Also, don’t be going for goals unnecessarily, certainly not if Fitzhenry lines out in goal.

HEAD TO HEAD.

Previous league meetings: 29. Offaly won 15, Wexford 11. 3 have been drawn.
Previous league meetings at Wexford venues: 13. Wexford 7 wins; Offaly 5 with 1 drawn.
Offaly have won 7 of the last 10 league meetings, which include the 1988 semi-final and the 1991 final.

Offaly:
Biggest score:- 23 points scoring 2-17 on 3 occasions in 78/79, 84/85 and 2002.
Biggest winning margin:- 10 points, winning 2-17 to 0-13 on 7/10/84.

Wexford:
Biggest score:- 6-14 (1968/69, in Gorey)
Biggest winning margin:- 14 points, 4-18 to 1-13 in Wexford 29/3/03.

FORMGUIDE

Wexford:
Round 1. Waterford 1-23 Wexford 1-12 (Wexford)
Round 2. Wexford 1-12 Clare 1-10 (Ennis).

Offaly:
Round 1. Cork 1-21 Offaly 1-14 (Cork)
Round 2. Offaly 4-18 Down 1-11 (Birr).

Last Year: Offaly 1-10 Wexford 0-12 at Birr 11/3/06.
[/b]

Lone Shark · Post by **Lone Shark** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:17 pm

It is an absolutely huge game this week, no two ways about it. With Dublin possibly having genuinely turned a corner, it could easily be argued that the games here and against Clare will be easier won than a do or die relegation game against either a resurgent Dublin or God knows maybe even Limerick or (whisper it softly) Kilkenny.

I'm not a lover of this ridiculously contrived nine team top flight, but if it must be done, then so be it.

Regarding the game itself, I agree completely that not allowing Wexford to exert their traditional aerial dominance across the backline is absolutely crucial. Rossiter has been a superb performer over the past few years, I certainly wouldn't think that he'd be a man to target. I'd prefer to see Offaly trying to pull him out of the centre a bit by letting Rory (or whoever) drift out to the wing for puckouts, then dropping it on the opposition 45. If O'Connor comes out to meet it so be it, but I would imagine O'Connor would be wary of coming out that far, and if Molloy got to spoil one or two one him then the space in behind could be exploited. If Rory is left un-followed, then just bang them down on top of him and take advantage of the two on one.

I'd certainly like to see the midfield step up in a big way too. The Down pairing getting on top of us was not encouraging at all, although I do think Rory McCarthy's best days are long behind him. There should be a lot of ball broken down by Eoin Quigley as well, sweeping this up will be crucial. Wexford won't score too heavily, certainly not if we can keep reasonable tabs on Carley and Jacob. Carley in particular is a guy who's come on a long way in recent years - his battle with Franks will be crucial.

I'd give us a good chance here actually. I may look foolish, but I certainly would estimate we're not far off 50/50 shots. That said, you can knock Clare's form without their big guns by all means, but the question has to be asked - would we have won in Ennis in those circumstances? Probably not.

Hmm.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:08 pm

Looks like Damien is due to be in New York this weekend. Don't know much about his replacement and from a scoring perspective we can't be assured of too many good looks at the goal. In any case having the best (my opinion) goalkeeper in Ireland out of action is not a bad thing in a key game.

black and red exile · Post by **black and red exile** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:57 pm

I've never experienced the bitter cold wind that blew across Wexford park yesterday. On an artic cold day and with a driving gale force wind behind us in the first half, we needed at least a six point advantage going in at half time. We hit some pretty bad wides, which made us fear the worst going in with just a 1.6 to 6 point lead at the interval, with our goal superbly struck by Joe Bergin, who felt the wrath of Dirty Doc's hurl while hitting the back of the net with the sliothàr. It looked like a very nasty injury to our Clareen star who had to immediatly leave the pitch in alot of pain. It was the last thing we needed at that stage, especially after Conor Hernon, Cathal Horan and David Kenny failing to make the starting 15 due to injury and illness.
While it was very disappointing to lose by 5 points, great credit must be given to the players for not once shirking a tackle against a far more physical and robust model county outfit. Most of the Wexford scores in the second half came from mistakes by our lads, most notably the goal which came due to Shane O Connor batting the ball down directly to Paul Carley instead of putting a hand up and catching. Having said that Shane's puck-outs are a great advantage lenght wise even against the wind, but the problem is we don't have enough ball winners in the half forward line to take advantage of this. In a very gutsy display, players from the Faithful stand out: Paul Cleary at full back, Kevin Brady at center back, Barry Teehan tried hard at mid-field but at times over-elaborated with the sliothàr, Danny Hoctor at half-back had major problems with Wexford half-forward Stephen Banville which resulted in the Shinrone man being called ashore and replaced by a far more physically imposing Ger Oakley who never gave Banville a sniff after he came on.
At times, especially in the second half against the wind, our half-backs and mid-field took the crazy option of lobbing big high balls on top of our tiny full forward line, which at times included Brian Carroll and Alan Egan who replaced Eddie Bevans in the first half, which resulted in the high balls being meat-and-drink to the big physical Wexford full-back line with Doc O Connor fielding alot of arial ball with little difficulty, when surely the low ball would be a more appropiate route to take with our light pacey forwards.
What pleased the handful of Faithful fans in the small crowd was how our lads never gave up and fought to the bitter end against all the odds and its obvious that while we have some very skillful talented hurlers we are seriously lacking in the physical stakes which will probably be our big downfall come the summer. We have a monster game next Sunday with Clare where 2 points is an absolute necessity against a team that will probably be even more intense than what we faced yesterday and lets pray that some of the injured players, if not all, are back to make the starting 15 for next sunday. And on a final note, for God's sake lads please get out to try and support the lads because as John McIntyre commented in the Indo this morning: alot of people have turned their backs on Offaly hurling. The lack of support in Wexford park yesterday was a absolute disgrace. I know it clashed with the U21 football semi-final in Tullamore, but it was insulting to the players wearing the tri-colour that very few bothered to show their support for a very young team who are only developing and most of the handful that were there were families of the players. So come on lads for next weekend as far as we know there are moves made to accomodate supporters of both counties to get the games played at different times for the football and hurling so there are no excuses for not turning out and shouting for our two senior teams in what will be a huge weekend for Offaly.

Plain of the Herbs · Post by **Plain of the Herbs** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:39 pm

black and red exile wrote:And on a final note, for God's sake lads please get out to try and support the lads because as John McIntyre commented in the Indo this morning: alot of people have turned their backs on Offaly hurling. The lack of support in Wexford park yesterday was a absolute disgrace. I know it clashed with the U21 football semi-final in Tullamore, but it was insulting to the players wearing the tri-colour that very few bothered to show their support for a very young team who are only developing and most of the handful that were there were families of the players. So come on lads for next weekend as far as we know there are moves made to accomodate supporters of both counties to get the games played at different times for the football and hurling so there are no excuses for not turning out and shouting for our two senior teams in what will be a huge weekend for Offaly.

Wexford Park must have been one hell of an intimidating place for a Faithful fan to be last Sunday. I presume the locals were as magnanimous in victory as ever.

Bord na Mona man · Post by **Bord na Mona man** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:59 am

Plain of the Herbs wrote: Wexford Park must have been one hell of an intimidating place for a Faithful fan to be last Sunday. I presume the locals were as magnanimous in victory as ever.

For some reason I never really warmed to Wexford supporters.
I always suspected they pined for the good old days when they basked in Kilkenny's reflected glory and Offaly were nowhere to be seen.

Rynaghs Biffo · Post by **Rynaghs Biffo** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:34 am

Havent been posting anything in a while, hi all!!

Believe me, wexford supporters are bitter. I learned the hard way thru 4 years of college in Waterford!!! Their constant reminding us of '96 and how they beat KK and ourselves is sickening. People say they have the best supporters in the country, thats onlt 'cos they bring 50 bus loads of kids to the games, which in fairness thats what I think we should do.

But to the game, I only saw highlights on TG4 but I liked the 'never say die' attitude of the youngs lads on the team. Maybe the big panel cut at the start of season is paying off for McIntyre. But we still have the same problem, our scores to shots ratio is still very poor and we're relying on Joe Bergin too much. By the way, whats the news on his injury?

Still think relegation beckoned for Offaly.

durra1 · Post by **durra1** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:42 pm

[quote="Rynaghs Biffo"]Havent been posting anything in a while, hi all!!

Believe me, wexford supporters are bitter. I learned the hard way thru 4 years of college in Waterford!!! Their constant reminding us of '96 and how they beat KK and ourselves is sickening. People say they have the best supporters in the country, thats onlt 'cos they bring 50 bus loads of kids to the games, which in fairness thats what I think we should do.

[quote="Rynaghs Biffo"]Havent been posting anything in a while, hi all!!

Believe me, wexford supporters are bitter. I learned the hard way thru 4 years of college in Waterford!!! Their constant reminding us of '96 and how they beat KK and ourselves is sickening. People say they have the best supporters in the country, thats onlt 'cos they bring 50 bus loads of kids to the games, which in fairness thats what I think we should do.

Howerya Lads - First post so go easy - had to get my pinch of salt in on the yellowbellies.

1. The reason we lost in 96 was purely because of Creagans sorcery that gave Limerick an unimpeded run in to the all ireland (or so he expected). The only day ive ever saw Sid/Rigney/Kev in trouble and all the switches he made was up front. Ranking First in all managerial throws ahead of Paudge Mulhare veto on the Hanamy substitution when been roasted by Ben O Connor in 1999 and the Pakistani Generals lay on their side against Ireland last Saturday!

2. The best retort to the uppity yellowbelly Ive heard. Thurles in the League quarter final in or about 98/99. Larry O Gorman slots over a few points mid way through the second half to draw them level and give them the momentum. One wexford lad two seats back has been riling an offaly auld lad for the last 3 scores. The latter turns up and faces the yellowbelly:-

'Theres only two things ever to come out of Wexford, Kna^%ers and Strawberries. And your no fu&*in strawberry

Lone Shark · Post by **Lone Shark** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:03 pm

I have to say - I can't stand them. Worst supporters in Ireland from my experience, though I'll grant you there are still a good few counties where I haven't attended away games at.

The football qualifier in 2004 stands out by a mile. It was the week after the hurling final, so there was enough crowing to deal with over that, but even so the game itself was not too bad, supporter-wise. It wasn't nice to watch, Mattie Forde playing the best game I've probably ever seen any footballer play first hand, while the two heartbreakers I remember most was Padraig Kelly going for high balls he couldn't win and Niall McNamee spending most of the game chasing Leigh O'Brien back into our own half.

After the game was shocking though. If you win a game, you'll often get a few remarks from losing supporters, remarks which sometimes can be excused due to a combination of upset and "GAA immaturity" (my term for relatively new supporters not being used to defeat). After you lose though, you expect winning supporters to be reasonably gracious, since they are in good form after all. Not so at all. Walking back towards the town I couldn't get over the amount of cars that felt the need to slow down and crow over the result or just tell us to "f**k off back home". There was no flag waving or anything, just walking. Certainly stunned me anyway.

I only managed to cheer on Wexford once since, and that was last summer when they were a ridiculous 11/4 to beat Meath, so my principles got temporarily suspended.

Still no time for the hoors though. Most johnny-come-lately counties are not pleasant to deal with, Wexford seem to be the exception in that even when the bandwagon is stripped away, what's left is not nice either.

Bord na Mona man · Post by **Bord na Mona man** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:43 pm

If there's a set of supporters who know how to hark back on the past it's the Wexford ones.
Before '96, the were talking about their 1968 All Ireland win as if it was yesterday and counted for 5 All Irelands. Shades of England and 1966 soccer world cup.

I read the Fear Rua site the odd time and there are some real prize Wexford loons over there. One deranged (even by afr.com standards) nut called nllllggggh explodes with rage when Offaly are mentioned and starts screaming about Tony Doran getting taken out in the 80s and how filthy Offaly are. It's like some form Offaly induced tourette's syndrome. Ironic given that over the past couple of decades Wexford backs have been the kings at hacking lumps off opposition forwards.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:48 pm

Met a few nice Wexfordfolk while watching the 2004 hurling debacle. Cheered loudly in a mostly empty bar, but can't blame them for that.

A few years further back I was in the Catskills and encountered 3 Wexford lads, the type being referred to on this thread. What a crew. Can't remember who was playing, but I identified myself as an Offaly supporter, New Jersey accent and all, and could tell right away it would be an interesting morning.

First came all the yank BS and 'sure what do you know'...'don't you have YOUR own games to watch'. Then the ad-hoc exam on the rules of hurling. Then my opinion on certain teams, players, blah, blah, blah. It became a bit of a show in earshot of about 20 odd amused/half listening people.

Was hanging in there with the standard responses to the usual nonsense:

Wrestling with the accent... 'Get the shite outta your ears yank!'
Response - get the marbles outta your mouth, etc, etc.

Then they started talking about traditional Leinster Finals. On and on they went. Unfortunately for them they asked me if I knew what that was. I repeated the question and realized this BS session now had the attention of a sizeable audience. The reply was along the lines of:

Oh, would that be the event held at Croke Park where Wexford humbly submit themselves to yet another humiliating defeat at the hands of Kilkenny?

I seem to remember things being more relaxing thereafter.

Muck Savage · Post by **Muck Savage** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:09 pm

They are the worst shower I've ever come across. I always thought this and the Clare supporters after '95 came close to beating them but outside that no-one can touch them. The best comment I heard was in '95 we were either playing them or they were on the other game in HQ that day can't remember which. Anyway, in a bar and the usual S*#t talk from them and what they were going to do, next this this auld Offaly lad turns around, sick listening to them and not enjoying his pint, and says
"Wexford are like an auld Woman having s*x, always coming but never actually getting there". Massive craic!

turk · Post by **turk** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:57 am

Unfortunately every county has its apes - and that's a natural law!!

Bord na Mona man · Post by **Bord na Mona man** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:27 am

turk wrote:Unfortunately every county has its apes - and that's a natural law!!

But some zoos have more apes than others!