Senior Hurling Results

[Bord na Mona man]

Regarding Rynagh's they should be a lot better - last year they were being carried by Flannery and Horan, two minors at the time, while a lot of their senior guys were playing very poorly. It all came to a head in the quarter final against Kinnitty, when the two young lads were their only scorers. I assumed that the likes of McIntyre, Mulhare and Gary Kelly would step their act up this year and provide the spine that the team needs - it seems it hasn't happened. There are good players coming of age for Rynaghs, but unless the senior players step up and lead them along, they'll go nowhere. Still the main underachievers in Offaly hurling by a mile though.

What's the story with Paudie Mulhare and Eunan Martin downgrading to Intermediate this year?
Surely this a bad sign for Rynagh's?

[Lone Shark]

Eunan Martin wasn't making the team last year, so I can see whyhe might have wanted to step down, but Mulhare downgrading is a surprise. He wasn't pulling up any trees it has to be said, but even still, a former county player in his twentis playing intermediate seems very strange.

Unless he wants to focus on the footballers or something?

[Lone Shark]

In that case only 3 or 4 clubs should be entering the senior championship.
In every other county there are senior teams who have no hope of winning a county title.

Not true, not true at all. In my time pricing up for Paddy Powers, when I had to price pretty much every county championship in Ireland, Offaly always had more 100/1 teams than any other county, at least among those counties that don't have massive championships (more than 16 teams). I agree that Birr distorts the record, but at the start of any given year, no team should be bigger than 50/1, not unless there are 20 or more going to post as it were. Offhand, I can say that this was certainly the case for Clare (Greatly reduced senior championship in recent years for this very reason), Kilkenny, Wexford, Limerick and even Tipperary - I can't recall ever pricing a team at greater than 33/1 to win any of those championships. (Drom and Inch were probably as big outsiders as any last year and they reached the final) Waterford is similar to us in that the dominant presence of Mt Sion and Ballygunner means teams that are reasonable are a big price to win, while Cork, Dublin and Galway have huge championships, way bigger than is healthy. And even in these, the chances of an upset exist - they are slim, but if Athenry took on Beagh in the first group game in Galway this year, they'd probably win handy, but there'd be no way it would be 50/50 off a 20 point start like Birr vs Clara.

[redser]

Was anybody at any of the games at the weekend.

Ive just heard brief summaries on a couple of the games.

Any match reports? How are the county players looking? Any new potential spotted?