Waterford v Offaly, NHL, 1/4/07

[Plain of the Herbs]

Are we killing the game of hurling? It seems to me that the principal tactic of a lot of teams now is to puck the ball out as far as is humanly possible. This was certainly the case in Birr last Sunday. Clare even had two big corner forwards to target with the restart. While it gets the ball as near to the opponents’ goal as quickly as possible, it suffocates the game by promoting crowding and bypasses not alone the midfield, but now the half-lines as well. It also discourages flair and imaginative play in the middle third of the field.

Hurling goalkeepers used use a regular hurl for pucking out, with a goalkeepers’ hurl for regular play. Now they puck out with a goalkeepers hurl as well! Very soon the puck fada will be a barometer to All-Ireland contenders, rather than the league or underage competitions. People will soon get tired of this. They aren’t going to pay to watch the equivalent of golfing big-hitters trying to out-do one another with 300 yard drives fifty times a game. Hurling is struggling for oxygen as it is. We need to preserve the flair and the skill.

As for Sunday, Offaly make the long trip to Waterford where, surprisingly, they’ve a decent record in the past. Offaly hurled well against Clare where they led for considerable periods of the match, despite newspaper reports which appeared to give a misleading view of the trend of the game. One of these days they will get the result their play deserve. It was good to see the Offaly style defending return, and the hooking and blocking and pressurising was superb at times. Mind you, Clare wouldn’t be the best strikers of a ball under pressure.

Based on last Sunday’s performance against Clare, Offaly look too good to go down. Still, they have quite a bit of sharpening up to do yet (which is fine for March), taking the opposite approach to the league to the one taken last year. The team is starting to have a settled look about it, though the introduction of only one sub against Clare says a lot about the shortage of options on the bench.

On the other hand, Waterford still need to win to be sure of a place in the knockout phase of the league. They will also feel (quite wrongly) that they were ‘horsed out of it’ in Birr last year so Offaly could be in for a rough time on Sunday with some marquee hurlers being targeted for special treatment. Referee Seanie McMahon will need to be alert and not be intimidated by the home support.

It’s difficult to see an Offaly win. However, I expect another battling performance. If they can do this, and avoid picking up any injuries, they should be in good shape for the forthcoming relegation playoffs.






HEAD TO HEAD.

Previous league meetings: 17. Offaly won 10, Waterford 6. 1 draw.
Previous league meetings at Waterford venues: 10. Each has five wins.

Offaly:
Biggest score:- 27 points scoring 4-15 when winning 4-15 to 2-2 at Portlaoise in 1968/69.
Biggest winning margin:- 19 points, in the above match.

Waterford:
Biggest score:- 30 points scoring 4-18, winning 4-18 to 2-16 in Birr on 27/4/03.
Biggest winning margin:- 13 points, when winning 3-14 to 0-10 in Walsh Park, Waterford on 28/2/82.

FORMGUIDE

Clare:
Round 1. Waterford 1-13 Wexford 0-14 (Wexford)
Round 2. Waterford 0-16 Cork 0-12 (Dungarvan)
Round 3. Clare 1-13 Waterford 0-9 (Ennis)
Round 4. Waterford 4-27 Down 1-7 (Portaferry)

Offaly:
Round 1. Cork 1-21 Offaly 1-14 (Cork)
Round 2. Offaly 4-18 Down 1-11 (Birr)
Round 3. Wexford 1-16 Offaly 1-11 (Wexford)
Round 4. Offaly 1-16 Clare 1-16 (Birr)

Last Year: Offaly 3-14 Waterford 0-15 at Birr 9/4/06.

Last time in Waterford: Offaly 0-16 Waterford 0-8 (24/3/96)

[Bord na Mona man]

I think it would improve hurling if the sliotar didn't travel so far. It allows too many scores and it helps ruthlessly punish teams that are a couple of players shy of the required standard. If any player within 60 or 70 metres of the goal is being beaten by his marker, all too often ends yielding a heap of scores.

The partial reason for the huge drop off in standard between counties is that the bug guns have the ability to really demoralise lesser teams by running up ridiculous scores. Maybe I'm being silly advocating the artificial propping up of teams not of the standard, but all too often a slight difference in ability, translates into a massive difference on the scoreboard. When you take the field against a side who have up to 11 players who can sling the ball over the bar when the opportunity arises, where do you even start to think about devising a gameplan to stop them?

The problem is, spectators like to see the ball dinging from one endline to other in a couple of seconds, regardless of how haphazardly it occurs. Back in '03 the crowds got a great hoot out of the bouncy sliotars dinging around the goalmouth like a rubber ball you'd buy in a joke shop.

Perhaps a heavier ball would also see an increase in goalmouth action, too many teams are winning games by peppering the posts and accumulating 20+ points. If they had less scoring chances and the scoring range was reduced, teams might look to create goals more often.

[Lone Shark]

The funny thing is that even though teams can now score from 80 yards out and more, scoring has actually not gone up that much. There are a lot more landslides between supposedly top level teams all right, but traditionally it has always taken around 21/22 points to win a hurling match, and it's still rare that you score more than that and lose. What is undeniable is that the proportion of scores that come from the freetaker has skyrocketed in that time - now up to around 40% for a lot of teams.

I'm not really sure what that adds to the debate, except to say that these are the statistics that I accumulated when researching various betting markets.

I'm not really sure what side I fall on in this debate (so the reader asks, not without legitimacy, why not stay quiet for once?!?! ) except to say that if you make the sliothar heavier, are we not running the risk of puching ground hurling out of the game entirely? It would further encourage running with the ball, since the percentage of ground strokes that would travel sweetly would probably be diminished.

Looking further ahead, would we run the risk of heavier sliothars being met with heavier hurls, being wielded by lads with heavier arms and thus going further down the road towards what Brian Cody was looking to build around three years ago - a team of 15 Rugby number 8's who could hurl?


As regards Offaly looking "too good to go down" well unless Antrim manage to follow up tonight's result next Sunday, it's a simple question of are we good enough to beat Limerick? We possibly are, but we were good enough to beat them last Summer, and look what happened there. Limerick will remain favourites in my book until if and when we actually get that win.

[Bogman]

I couldn't agree more that the sliothar travels too far in today's hurling. I think the game would be vastly improved it it couldn't be pucked farther than midfield from either goal.

I've been very disillusioned over the last 5 years or so by players taking shots from all angles way out the field on the basis that even 50% accuracy will mean a score of over 20 points. To me it's not attractive to watch and it reduces the game to target practice.

The two important skills in Hurling now are Catching the Ball to gain possession and Shooting. I prefer a game where ground hurling and overhead pulling produce dividends instead of the normal result nowadays of such skills, the cardinal sin in today's game of giving away possession.

I am also firmly of the opinion that on a dry day with good conditions the modern style produces hammerings in a case where one team shades another in overall ability. Not good for the game and not good to watch.

[Bord na Mona man]

I think the number of points has gone up at the expense of goals.
Again I'd have to get some stats on this, but reading about games from back in the 70s there were more scorelines like 5-12 to 4-11 etc. The winning total was still 20+ points, but with more goals and I'd nearly bet, less wides.

In my view, the two most sterile teams scoring wise in recent times were Clare under Loughnane and Cork.
They routinely won games with no goals. Cork scored one goal in their entire 1999 All Ireland winning campaign.
What is more telling is the amount of wides both these teams would accumulate. Both sides would very often rack up close to 20 wides in a game.

As Bogman pointed out, players are blazing the ball at the posts at every opportunity. Worse still, the mentality of "take 40 shots and score 20 points" means the amount of puckouts that result are huge also. The game becomes too formulated as the puckout becomes the key tactical aspect of the game.

I would also guess that the ball spends less time in play nowadays compared to years ago. A bit like in tennis, as the power increases, the craft required decreases. If the ball was travelling a few yards less, players would need to think more about where they are placing it. "Every ball with a message" as Babs would say.

[Rynaghs Biffo]

I think the lighter sliotar has marginally killed the game of hurling. Hurling is supposed to be one of the most skillful games in the world, yet pumping the ball 90 metres down the field and the sliotar to spring off someones hurl or bounce up from the ground, doesn't seem that appealing. The heavier sliotar was far easier to control when the ball hits dead on the boss of the hurl.

Mentally, I reckon players think they can strike the ball over the bar from any position or any distance on the pitch, which is why teams including ourselves are rounding up more wides in games. A example of this is any club game.

As for Sunday, our chances wouldn't be that strong some would think. I've been to a lot of games in Walsh Park over the years, and haven't seen many teams come out of there with a result. After last Sunday against Clare, I'm feeling a bit more confident. The battling and harrising was superb and this will have to be more intense against a strong and physical Waterford team. The best way to beat them is on the breaks.

[Kevin]

If the RTE website is correct, looks like we pulled off a tight win against a tough team 3-15 to 1-19!

[Skippy]

Hey Guys, Any eye witness reports on this game? Looks to me like a great win to get, against one of the top 5 teams in my opinion. Great to see the lads win a tight game against tough opposition like Waterford. To win a tight game like this will be great for the younger lads confidence, especially after being so close against Clare and a battling performance in Wexford. It can only do them good in the long run.

[Muck Savage]

Ya have to be happy with the way the league has gone this year. OK we're in a battle to avoid the drop but it's a young team and the only large defet was against Cork and that wasn't that bad. There's a lot of hope out there and I hope Mac can be kept on for a few years to help develop them. Over the next few years they need to hit the gyms in a big way from Sept to Feb. I still reckon they are pushing for 2nd spot in Leinster. Dublin haven't been consistent, Wexford can be taken on any given day and I think come the summer we'd be better on the hard ground. The lads showed great fight all winter long in hard games.

It'd be great if they can get a win vs LK and be in a top div next year. The young lads need to be playing against the top teams to improve year on year and it'd put us back years to take a drop.

[Loughers]

I was one of the 50 or so Offaly people at the game. I was delighted leaving. They seem like a very united bunch of players. At only 5 up at half time with a very strong wind, I was not optomistic for the result. We dug really deep and never let them lead. A lovely goal from Bergin off a sweet pass from Egan was the icing on the cake. Best for Offaly were Cathal Horan, Barry Teehan, Rory Hanniffy and Joe Bergin. Not far off were Benny (thank f*ck he's showing some form), Bevans and Gary H.

[Lone Shark]

After last season's false dawn in the league, which also peaked against these very opponents, I'm wary of building my hopes up too much, but certainly this was a heartwarming result. Interesting too that afterwards Waterford have been quick to point out that it wasn't that they didn't show up, but that Offaly outplayed them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we'd suddenly be entitled to be favourites over them in a championship game, far from it, but it's nice to see that we can actually compete with some of the big guns again.

Our panel is very threadbare, but I'd also say this lays to rest any questions about whether McIntyre and the selectors were right to cull the panel at the start of the year. I believe that Damien Murray has already been allowed back in, but the key is that there can now be no question as to on whose terms things will operate. Barring an amazing year I'd be fairly sure McIntyre is in his last year in charge, so it's only right that he gets to see what he can do doing things his way.

The Limerick game now takes on even more importance. No doubt the manner of the collapse last year will be very fresh in the minds of the players, and there will be real hunger to make sure that at the very least we hurl with them for 70 minutes. I wouldn't go so far as to make us favourites, but I'd much prefer to be in our situation - on the up with a couple of good games behind us, than in theirs - their only win over a top tier team coming in week 1, with very little real form since half time in Galway.

I'd say Limerick still favourites, maybe of the order of 4/6, but it's all there to play for. Now all I need to do is somehow engineer the time off to go.