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Hyper wrote:Sorry both games at 3.30pm on Sunday- apparantly Clare wouldn't agree to double header

Clare shouldn't have had to agree with anything. Both games game should have been put in either Birr or Tullamore.

As far as I'm aware Clare were only involved when it came to whether or not to move one of the games to Saturday - a request they (rightfully) turned down due to the Under 21 football semi the same day. The GAA originally scheduled both games for Sunday, so it was only if moving from there that permission would be needed - to play the games at normal times in the afternoon, whatever times they might be, it was down to Offaly.

I know the official press release has them both at 3.30pm, but I'm pretty sure that was going to be changed - I was drafting an article for the Indo on the matter, so I checked up just to be sure. Like I said, official line is that it will be 1pm in Tullamore and 3.30pm in Birr.

For what it's worth, here's the article - not sure if the Indo is going to run with it though.


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“A great constituency worker” You know an election is in the offing when this abominable phrase starts getting aired. You also know an election candidate is a complete waste of space if they are the subject of this particular description. As a rule, these four words are an excellent way of summarising a candidate who likes to spend their time sending out unfathomable amounts of post to constituents and on behalf of constituents (using taxpayer-paid-for envelopes designed for oireachtas issues of course), or moving their connections up hospital or housing waiting lists at the expense of others who are equally worthy but have been waiting longer. In extreme cases it can describe candidates who will make speeding tickets disappear and medical cards appear - if it will assist a constituent (with lots of relations) likely to give their number one preference as the quid pro quo.

Following that little diatribe, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that your writer is a little tired of parish-pump politics. However when the continued election of individuals like Jackie Healy Rae and Michael Lowry calls into question if democracy truly works, the GAA was always there as a shining model of how one entity could be administered democratically with 99% of elected representatives forever acting in the best interests of the association as a whole, even if they often differed in their view on how those interests were best served. That of course was up until this week.

Next Sunday is a sad day for Offaly GAA, as it will stand out as a day when parish pump politics comprehensively won the day at the expense of our county teams, our supporters and our youngsters. In case you didn’t know, at 1pm on Sunday in Tullamore, our footballers will line out against Clare in a vital game, a game where defeat will leave us almost certainly in next year’s division four and out of the qualifiers this summer. Later, some 22 miles down the road in Birr, our hurlers will also take on their Banner counterparts in a game where victory could set up a shot at the knockout stages of the NHL while defeat will result in a relegation dogfight. That these two games are not taking place in the one venue with the backing of a large and vociferous home support is a travesty. It is an insult to our dual tradition, as it implies that neither team would be at “home” at the other end of the county, a remarkable decision on a day when one could very easily see Derek Molloy and Shane Dooley line out for the hurlers while Seán Ryan dons the football jersey.

To take the nuts and bolts of the argument to begin with – the county board maintains that the decision was taken with a view to making sure that both games were played on as good a sod as could possibly be provided. While on the face of it, this is a noble goal, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. We are no longer in the heart of winter, it is now mid March – double headers are by now becoming commonplace all over Ireland. Next Sunday, while Offaly (and Clare) fans will be forced to travel between venues, the home supporters of Limerick, Westmeath and Wicklow will all be sitting down to watch both their county teams on the one card – only Derry is joining us in the folly of playing two games on the same day in different venues. Whichever pitch is deemed to be in the better shape could have been nominated, with time allowed for the surface to be attended between games – no problem.

Supporters of this decision will no doubt argue that Birr is the capital of Offaly hurling country and with the county only having two home games this year, one of which was a foregone conclusion against Down, it would be wrong to take the other game out of that heartland. Equally they will maintain that the hurlers themselves will know St. Brendan’s Park very well, and that O’Connor Park would not confer the same “home” advantage. On both of these counts the arguments are easily struck down. The traditional heartland of Offaly hurling is very small and by making this clear statement that hurling is not for football fans, it’s never going to grow, something that needs to happen for Offaly to become competitive again. As regards the home advantage issue, when home advantage will really matter will be in the summer, when Offaly will in all likelihood have two home matches in a Qualifier group. Those games will have to be played in Tullamore for health and safety reasons, so where is the logic in our own county team being unfamiliar with the venue for those games? Once upon a time a big part of the league was about preparing for the Championship – somewhere along the line this appears to have got lost.

Finally, and not insignificantly, this is very unfair on the county’s supporters. Our county board should know more than most that all too often our county teams play in front of the same hardcore of supporters, always outnumbered at away games and often well matched by travelling numbers at home matches. Here is a great chance for both our county teams to get to play in front of one large crowd and for the supporters themselves to get to shout on both teams on the one bill. Instead the hardcore hurling and football supporters will each pick their own sides and sit amidst less than 2000 fans at their chosen venue, while dual supporters (like yours truly) will be forced to travel between games and pay in twice. In mitigation, one certainly couldn’t accuse the county board of doing this for financial reasons – two miniscule crowds paying in €12 and €15 euro respectively will not come close to covering the revenue that would have been garnered from a large crowd paying €20, but then since when has the parish pump politician worried about the greater good not being served?

In reply to your epistle and in defence of the decision to split the two Clare matches.

I don’t know where you get the idea that there would be a ‘large and vociferous home support’ for a double header. The footballer’s form has been poor, losing to Leitrim and drawing with Longford on the field. Clare aren’t exactly a plum draw, are they? How many attended the last time the Clare footballers visited? Similiarly, the hurlers are up against it at the moment with a heavy schedule, a small squad and a growing injury list. Only close family members of the hurlers (along with a few regulars) would make the trip to Tullamore for a 1.45pm start. Two miniscule crowds don’t make a large crowd.

Playing both games on the best possible sod does, in my opinion, stand up to scrutiny. The ‘townies’ may not be aware, but the ground is very wet at the moment, and, March or not, is wetter than it was a month ago. It’s very difficult to see ANY pitch holding two matches together any time in the next few weeks. Much of the county holds ‘severely disadvantaged status’, as a result of sustained lobbying of, and by our “great constituency workers” you refer to. The coming of March and longer evenings hasn’t done anything to dry the place up, I’m afraid. The last league match moved from Birr owing to it being unplayable (Kerry, 2005) was on the third Sunday of April.

I would be interested to hear how O’Connor Park held up last Sunday, and whether it could have taken another game immediately afterwards, given last Sunday’s blizzards. It looked quite heavy from photographs taken during the London match published in the Tribune

Limerick, Mullingar and Aughrim may plan to host two matches on the same pitch, but I bet these plans may well be shelved following Sunday morning pitch inspections, especially if we have to endure a Saturday night of torrential rain. Everyone knows Limerick is a particularly wet pitch. Expect the hurling tie to move to Kilmallock. Wicklow rarely hurl in Aughrim, preferring Arklow as their base.

It’s unfortunate that Clare chose this year to make history and beat Kerry at under-21 football and cause the two games to be played on the same day. Did anyone think of playing the hurling match on the Saturday?

Finally, who’s the most important in all this? The players or the observers? I feel the players should be given the best chance of winning their respective matches and that involves being given the best possible surface to play on, one that hasn’t been played on earlier that day.

I think to suit both players and supporters next sunday, seeing that it looks pretty obvious now that both games will be on sunday, then surely the common sense thing would be to have one game at 1pm and the other at 3.30pm even if they are at different venue's. That in tune will suit the players of both codes and the dual supporters who want to see both games and save us the heartache of choosing one over the other.

All things are relative - I'm going to presume that we're not exactly going to see 10k at any game in Offaly until Championship kicks in, so obviously by large I meant in the 4,000 vicinity, which I do think is plausible - certainly the double header would be an attraction in itself.

It certainly makes a difference to 300 people in Tullamore (because of the early throw in) and 1500 in Birr. But these are all hypothetical, so I'll accept that there could be different points of view here.

As for the "state of sod" argument, there are two sides to that. The first and foremost being that a rough sod would be a leveller, and bearing in mind that we're significant underdogs in the hurling, in terms of getting the win that might be no bad thing. I don't know if improving the conditions allowing good hurlers to thrive is necessarily going to suit us as opposed to Clare. Anyway, the hurlers could surely play first - allow a 45 min break in between to give the ground a chance to be tended, divots fixed etc., and then let the footballers on to it, or vice versa. Problem solved.

There was a request for the hurling match to be moved to - this wasn't acceded to by Clare either.

Much of the county holds ‘severely disadvantaged status’, as a result of sustained lobbying of, and by our “great constituency workers” you refer to.

Not sure where this fits into any of the rest of the argument - I've clearly missed the relevance - feel free to enlighten me, I feel a great political row coming on.....

Lone Shark wrote:Not sure where this fits into any of the rest of the argument - I've clearly missed the relevance - feel free to enlighten me, I feel a great political row coming on.....

My reference to the disadvantaged area stuff refers to the soil moisture deficit in our county generally - and in St. Brendan’s Park and O’Connor Park specifically – rather than making a political statement on local agricultural issues. This is a GAA discussion board and I don’t intend creating a political debate hereon. We can leave that stuff to the fellas on the site of ‘the red man’.

While I accept that OCP is one of the dryer pitches in the country, I still don’t think it would hold up to two matches on the same day given the recent rainfall. We’ve sustained above-average rainfall since Ryder Cup week remember.

There is, I accept, a precedent for staging double-header league matches in winter in Tullamore. That happened in February 1982 when the hurlers played Laois and the footballers hosted Cork. I don’t remember, however, what the weather conditions were like at that time.

As a lover of Offaly hurling I don’t feel the chances of a win against Clare would be aided in any way by heavy going, or by a pitch ploughed by a preceding football match. The team being fielded at the moment is effectively au under 23 team with a few more senior hurlers to boot. They are, and will continue to be at a physical disadvantage to most other teams they encounter.

Plain of the Herbs wrote: My reference to the disadvantaged area stuff refers to the soil moisture deficit in our county generally - and in St. Brendan’s Park and O’Connor Park specifically – rather than making a political statement on local agricultural issues. This is a GAA discussion board and I don’t intend creating a political debate hereon. We can leave that stuff to the fellas on the site of ‘the red man’.

Spoilsport

Plain of the Herbs wrote: As a lover of Offaly hurling I don’t feel the chances of a win against Clare would be aided in any way by heavy going, or by a pitch ploughed by a preceding football match. The team being fielded at the moment is effectively au under 23 team with a few more senior hurlers to boot. They are, and will continue to be at a physical disadvantage to most other teams they encounter.

First of all is the tradition in this situation not to have the hurlers on first to give them the better of the ground? Second of all as a bookie, there is nothing surer but the more random events (dodgy bounces etc.) you introduce into a game, the more it tends towards being a completely random event, and with Clare 2/5 favourites for this game, that's not a bad thing. I would agree with you if we were talking about the heaviness of the ground that would slow down light nippy lads, but we're not, we're talking about it being cut up and with a few divots etc.