www.uibhfhaili.com

Can only be good news from our point of view going into Sunday's game in Tullamore...

Mullane to miss remainder of NHL campaign


Waterford ace John Mullane will not be available for the remainder of his county's Allianz National Hurling League campaign as he prepares for his wedding tomorrow week.

Mullane gets married next Friday and will miss Sunday's game against Offaly as manager Davy Fitzgerald gives the De La Salle man time to prepare for the nuptials.



He is also set to be absent for the Deise men's final league game against champions Galway on April 17 as he will be on his honeymoon in Mauritius, however, he will be back in time should Waterford reach the Division One final on the May Bank Holiday weekend.

http://www.hoganstand.com/Waterford/Art ... ?ID=145345

Interesting.

And for whatever reason we always seem to give Waterford a good game. Hopefully we can push on from last week's success.

no word on the team so far i say they will start with the 15 that played wexford last sunday,
no Mullane for sunday which is good news he is worth 4 or 5 points to waterford most day's.

i think if we carry on where we left off last sunday we might get the win, but we can't go 15 or 20 minutes
like we did last sunday without a score because waterford will be a big step up from wexford and will be out
of sight if we go that long without a score.

the right side of the offaly team was beaten in their duels last week Egan,Verney,Hayden,Carroll, a better display
from them today is wanted if we are to come away with the spoil's, with Dooley and Bergin on form and if Heailion
break's 50/50 with the Brick walsh and Brian Carroll can't be as bad as last week, molloy with another week under his belt.

i think we can take this bye 2 or 3 points and have us safe for division 1 next season because you don't want to be going
to nowlan park looking for a win next sunday to stay up we have to do the job today.

Surely it's time the county board get rid of this joke of a management
team and bring in someone that has an interest in bringing Offaly forward
instead of going back to the dark ages with this current set up. All this manager
is concerned with is picking up his ridiculously over merited "expenses", what other manager
in any organisation would be allowedcontinue in his role when showing such
a lack competence..... Get rid of him now and let's freshen it up for the
championship.

Wexford's surprise win over Cork now makes the final round a little bit worrying.

Yeah we could easily be in Div 2 in both codes next year. Hopefully Tipp do a favour

Will probably be the first time Offaly people will be supporting Tipp!!!!

tipptopper25 wrote:Will probably be the first time Offaly people will be supporting Tipp!!!!

And the only time!

Walsh stars for Deise as Offaly rue missed chances
Waterford 2-19
Offaly 1-19

A lucky second-half goal from Brian O'Sullivan helped Waterford edge out an improving Offaly team in the Tullamore sunshine to set up a nail-biting finale against Galway, with a place in the final possibly up for grabs.

Waterford, who lost Richie Foley to a thigh injury, led throughout but Offaly were left to rue a host of missed chances.

Deise selector Pat Bennett was more than happy to come away with the win.

"We were dreading coming to Offaly because they were buoyant after their win last week," he said.

"It was a tough, hard, physical game of hurling. We are still in with a shout."

Waterford's spread of scorers was impressive, with debutant Brian O'Sullivan shining with 1-2 from play. Foley was excellent from placed balls before going off injured with full-forward Shane Walsh the star of the show with 1-4.

The first half was for the most part a dull affair despite some excellent scoring from both sides, with Walsh particularly good.

Shane Dooley opened the scoring but a trio of points from O'Sullivan, Walsh and Foley settled the Deise.

Dooley was deadly from frees in the opening half and kept the Faithful County in touch, with Walsh firing over again in the ninth minute to give Waterford a 0-5 to 0-2 lead.

Offaly full-forward Joe Bergin came to life midway through the half and his brace of points left the scores at 0-6 to 0-5 in favour of the Deise.

Foley was in fine form from dead balls. He fired over six in the first half and had a strong part to play in the decisive score of the half.

On 32 minutes, Walsh disposed Dylan Hayden on the Offaly end line and skipped towards goal before calmly dispatching a low shot beyond the reach of Offaly custodian James Dempsey.

A late Offaly rally from Dooley and Carroll left the margin at seven points as Waterford went in leading 1-14 to 0-10 at the break.

Dooley missed a glorious goal chance early in the second half before Bergin finally found the net for the Faithful County in the 39th minute to bring it back to a five-point game.

Dooley fired over a free and a '65' but Foley was as accurate as ever for the Deise.

Waterford looked to have buried Offaly in the 57th minute when a breaking ball around the goalmouth was finished to the net by O'Sullivan, but a resilient Offaly battled back and were unlucky not to have a goal or two late on.

Dooley hit three unanswered frees and with five minutes to go Waterford only led by four points.

Walsh restored their five-point lead and, despite a late flurry from Offaly, Waterford hung on to win by three points.

Man of the Match: Shane Walsh (Waterford)

Scorers -- Waterford: R Foley 0-9 (8f, 1 '65'), S Walsh 1-4, B O'Sullivan 1-2, S Prendergast, G Crotty, S O'Sullivan, K Moran 0-1 each. Offaly: S Dooley 0-12 (10f, 1 '65'), J Bergin 1-2, B Carroll 0-3, C Egan, C Parlon 0-1 each.

Offaly -- J Dempsey 6, D Franks 6, D Kenny 6, S Egan 6; M Verney 6, R Hanniffy 7, D Morkan 7; C Mahon 8, D Hayden 6; D Molloy 6, G Healion 6, C Egan 8; S Dooley 9, J Bergin 9, B Carroll 8. Subs: M Cordial for Hayden (blood, 17-27), M Cordial 6 for Hayden (h-t), C Parlon 7 for Healion (45), J Mulrooney 6 for Molloy (50).

Waterford -- C Hennessy 6; E Murphy 6, W Hutchinson 6, N Connors 7; T Browne 9, M Walsh 8, J Nagle 7; K Moran 7, R Foley 8; S Prendergast 6, S O'Sullivan 6, S Molumphy 6; B O'Sullivan 9, S Walsh 9, G Crotty 6. Subs: P Mahoney 6 for Prendergast (53), E McGrath 6 for Molumphy (60), E Kelly 5for Foley (inj 60), D O'Sullivan 5 for Nagle (67).

Ref -- J Ryan (Tipperary).

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling ... 08217.html

tipptopper25 wrote:Will probably be the first time Offaly people will be supporting Tipp!!!!

There were plenty of Offaly people hoping that Tipp beat Kilkenny last September.

Yet another game we should have won, but threw away. How many is that in the last few years? Are we ever going to turn these near victories into actual ones?

Did anyone stay on and watch the minor challenge? Couldn't hang around due to mothers day. Would appreciate if anyone could give a report or how they got on?

Is it 100% certain that head to head results count before points difference for determining league table position in the event teams are tied on points?
Right now, gaa.ie has Offaly in 7th and Wexford 8th, although Offaly have a points difference of -46 and Wexford has a points difference of -38.
I can't find the placing criteria on the GAA website though.
Can anyone confirm?

In the case of a 2 way points tie, the result between the sides is the first adjudicator. If there are more than two teams level on points, then it doesn't apply.
Luckily for Offaly, this can't happen, with 3rd from bottom Cork being on 5 points.

Hopefully Tipperary needing the win to get to the league final will ensure they don't slack off against Wexford.

In fairness if Wexford go and beat Tipp and manage to stay up at our expense we can't/shouldn't complain. It would mean that they had two must win games in the last two rounds of the league, and they went and won them with the gun put to their heads. We won't get anything from the Kilkenny game so Wexford know they are in with a shout. If they do it they won't be hearing any complaints from me. Our lads could have won yesterday to see them safe, they couldn't manage it and now we could be in bother.

Surely though, we should consider ourselves level with Wexford at least, and Kilkenny roughly on a par with Tipp? By that logic we'd be as likely to win as them?

Sadly we probably aren't, but it's still an anomaly that illustrates the psychological hold Kilkenny have on us.