Offaly welcome back captain
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Brendan Murphy, who missed the win over Wexford last time out, returns to the Offaly team for Sunday’s NHL meeting with Clare in Ennis.
The Offaly captain comes into the attack in place of Stephen Brown in what is the only change from the Wexford game. However, full back Paul Cleary, left half back Damien Hoctor, right half forward Dylan Hayden and left corner forward David Franks are all suffering from flu at the moment and missed training on Tuesday night. Their condition will be closely monitored in the lead-up to the game.
Offaly (SH v Clare): B Mullins; B O’Meara, P Cleary, D Franks; K Brady, R Hanniffy, D Hoctor; G Hanniffy, A Hanrahan; D Hayden, M O’Hara, B Murphy; B Carroll, J Bergin, A Egan.
Clare v Offaly
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Plain of the Herbs
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Bord na Mona man
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Any reports on the match against the yahoos?
Seems like we were in the game until the last 10 minutes.
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From today's Indo:
Banner fly high to sink Faithful
Clare 2-22
Offaly 2-14
Gerry Quinn
NHL Division 1A
DESPITE the dreadful conditions, the home fans left Cusack Park in happy spirits yesterday as a physically inferior Offaly gave way to a well-drilled and precise Clare side.
Clare's victory ensures that at a minimum, the Banner will at least feature in the quarter-finals and depending on remaining fixtures next weekend, a penultimate slot is up for grabs as well.
The early exchanges in this clash were relatively tame until Offaly full-forward Joe Bergin rattled the Clare net after 19 minutes to put the Faithful county 1-2 to 0-2 ahead. Clare midfielder Jonathan Clancy immediately replied with a point before team mate Tony Carmody hit the net after some good support play by Diarmuid McMahon.
Points by Alan Egan and a Brain Carroll free put Offaly ahead once more but Anthony Daly's side struck for a second goal on the half-hour mark through Tony Griffin was in the right place at the right time as Offaly keeper Brian Mullins appeared to fumble. This score galvanised the hosts and a storming finish to the half from both teams saw Clare lead by 2-7 to 1-8 at the whistle.
Three early points from Niall Gilligan, Griffin and Diarmuid McMahon stretched Clare's lead before Bergin literally pulled one back for Offaly. He first timed over the bar after Carroll's shot came off the posts.
Substitute Derek Quinn put in an inspired second-half show and hit four in a row for the winners.
With 15 minutes to go Offaly looked out of contention trailing by 2-15 to 1-11. But a rather fortuitous goal in the form of a long hopeful ball by Michael Cordial which snuck in between goalie Fitzgerald's hurley and the cross-bar kept the flame alive somewhat.
Points from Bergin and Egan, either side of a Jonathan Clancy score for Clare left just three between them with ten minutes left. But a great finish by Clare yielded six points to Offaly's one.
MAN OF THE MATCH - T Carmody (Clare)
SCORERS - Clare: T Carmody 1-2, T Griffin 1-2, D Quinn 0-5 (3f), B Nugent 0-4, D McMahon 0-3, J Clancy 0-2, N Gilligan 0-2 1f, D O'Rourke 0-2. Offaly: J Bergin 1-3, B Carroll 0-4 (3f 1 '65), A Egan 0-3, M Cordial 1-0, B Murphy 0-2, D Hayden 0-1, D Murray 0-1.
CLARE - D Fitzgerald; G O'Grady, J Coen, C Harrison; A Markham, S McMahon (c), F Flynn; B O'Connell, J Clancy; D McMahon, T Carmody, F Lynch; B Nugent, T Griffin, N Gilligan. Subs: T Holland for Coen (29), D Quinn for O'Connell (35), P Vaughan for Markham inj. (50), D O'Connell for Gilligan (59), D O'Rourke for Lynch (59)
OFFALY - B Mullins; B O'Meara, P Cleary, D Franks; D Hoctor, R Hannify, K Brady; G Hannify, A Hanrahan; D Hayden, M O'Hara, B Murphy (c); B Carroll, J Bergin, A Egan. Subs: B Teehan for Hoctor (31), M Cordial for Hanrahan (44), J Brady for Teehan (49), D Murray for Murphy (55), S Brown for Carroll (63)
REF - S Roche (Tipperary)
Seems like we were in the game until the last 10 minutes.
===
From today's Indo:
Banner fly high to sink Faithful
Clare 2-22
Offaly 2-14
Gerry Quinn
NHL Division 1A
DESPITE the dreadful conditions, the home fans left Cusack Park in happy spirits yesterday as a physically inferior Offaly gave way to a well-drilled and precise Clare side.
Clare's victory ensures that at a minimum, the Banner will at least feature in the quarter-finals and depending on remaining fixtures next weekend, a penultimate slot is up for grabs as well.
The early exchanges in this clash were relatively tame until Offaly full-forward Joe Bergin rattled the Clare net after 19 minutes to put the Faithful county 1-2 to 0-2 ahead. Clare midfielder Jonathan Clancy immediately replied with a point before team mate Tony Carmody hit the net after some good support play by Diarmuid McMahon.
Points by Alan Egan and a Brain Carroll free put Offaly ahead once more but Anthony Daly's side struck for a second goal on the half-hour mark through Tony Griffin was in the right place at the right time as Offaly keeper Brian Mullins appeared to fumble. This score galvanised the hosts and a storming finish to the half from both teams saw Clare lead by 2-7 to 1-8 at the whistle.
Three early points from Niall Gilligan, Griffin and Diarmuid McMahon stretched Clare's lead before Bergin literally pulled one back for Offaly. He first timed over the bar after Carroll's shot came off the posts.
Substitute Derek Quinn put in an inspired second-half show and hit four in a row for the winners.
With 15 minutes to go Offaly looked out of contention trailing by 2-15 to 1-11. But a rather fortuitous goal in the form of a long hopeful ball by Michael Cordial which snuck in between goalie Fitzgerald's hurley and the cross-bar kept the flame alive somewhat.
Points from Bergin and Egan, either side of a Jonathan Clancy score for Clare left just three between them with ten minutes left. But a great finish by Clare yielded six points to Offaly's one.
MAN OF THE MATCH - T Carmody (Clare)
SCORERS - Clare: T Carmody 1-2, T Griffin 1-2, D Quinn 0-5 (3f), B Nugent 0-4, D McMahon 0-3, J Clancy 0-2, N Gilligan 0-2 1f, D O'Rourke 0-2. Offaly: J Bergin 1-3, B Carroll 0-4 (3f 1 '65), A Egan 0-3, M Cordial 1-0, B Murphy 0-2, D Hayden 0-1, D Murray 0-1.
CLARE - D Fitzgerald; G O'Grady, J Coen, C Harrison; A Markham, S McMahon (c), F Flynn; B O'Connell, J Clancy; D McMahon, T Carmody, F Lynch; B Nugent, T Griffin, N Gilligan. Subs: T Holland for Coen (29), D Quinn for O'Connell (35), P Vaughan for Markham inj. (50), D O'Connell for Gilligan (59), D O'Rourke for Lynch (59)
OFFALY - B Mullins; B O'Meara, P Cleary, D Franks; D Hoctor, R Hannify, K Brady; G Hannify, A Hanrahan; D Hayden, M O'Hara, B Murphy (c); B Carroll, J Bergin, A Egan. Subs: B Teehan for Hoctor (31), M Cordial for Hanrahan (44), J Brady for Teehan (49), D Murray for Murphy (55), S Brown for Carroll (63)
REF - S Roche (Tipperary)
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Rynaghs Biffo
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Last week I went to see Waterford and Clare play here in Waterford. Both of those teams are very tough and physical, more so waterford, but clare showed some great pace! one interesting tactic Clare played was an 7th player in defence, alan markham. this confused the waterford boys, did this happen to us? anyone at the game?
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Plain of the Herbs
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I didn't travel. Heard the middle third of the game on Clare FM, then 20 mins or so on Radio Gerry. Saw the highlights on TG4 last night.
Seemed that Offaly scored or came close any time they attacked. Ditto for Clare. The telly highlighted one thing, Clare must have scored 6 points from forwaeds catching the ball cleanly and firing over the bar, particularly Barry Nugent (who wouldn't go well on good ground). An area Offaly are weak in anyway. I reckon forwards will have to work harded to slow down the deliveries. Bergin scored a fantastic goal, and was in hard luck for 2 more. Alan Egan scored some buauties. Mullins made some hames of the second goal.
And then Wexford/Cork was called off, giving both them an advantage over us (knowing what they have to do to qualify/avoid relegation play-off). Are there no other pitches in Wexford? Enniscorthy? New Ross is reputed to be a dry pitch.
Offaly v Waterford live on TG4 on Sunday. Rain all week promised. This one has Tullamore written all over it. Waterford have only won in Birr in the league once (the last one, 3 years ago). A soft Tullamore pitch might be better than a heavy Birr one.
Seemed that Offaly scored or came close any time they attacked. Ditto for Clare. The telly highlighted one thing, Clare must have scored 6 points from forwaeds catching the ball cleanly and firing over the bar, particularly Barry Nugent (who wouldn't go well on good ground). An area Offaly are weak in anyway. I reckon forwards will have to work harded to slow down the deliveries. Bergin scored a fantastic goal, and was in hard luck for 2 more. Alan Egan scored some buauties. Mullins made some hames of the second goal.
And then Wexford/Cork was called off, giving both them an advantage over us (knowing what they have to do to qualify/avoid relegation play-off). Are there no other pitches in Wexford? Enniscorthy? New Ross is reputed to be a dry pitch.
Offaly v Waterford live on TG4 on Sunday. Rain all week promised. This one has Tullamore written all over it. Waterford have only won in Birr in the league once (the last one, 3 years ago). A soft Tullamore pitch might be better than a heavy Birr one.
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black and red exile
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I was at the game and certainly Clare's physical strenght was a major factor. The terrible weather conditions probably suited the more powerful Munster side as they would very much remind me as being very similar to Armagh footballers in being very direct with getting the ball into the full forward line as soon as possible, they took their scores with far more ease than Offaly as we tried on too many occasions to walk the ball into the net, where putting the ball over the bar would have been a far easier option.
On the plus side our stick work and striking has improved hughly since last year, our fitness levels are on a different planet to 12 months ago and I can't compliment our management team highly enough in the sense that they won't delay a second longer in making switches and substitutions in areas where we would be struggling. Rory Hannify was majestic last Sunday, definetly our best player, Mick O' hara was superb in stopping Seanie Mcmahon from making those long clearances that he's famed for, any time McMahon got the ball O'Hara was straight down his throat and even forced him into making uncharacteristic errors in losing possesion on more than one occasion all day. Alan Egan and Joe Bergin were magnificent in attack, Egan scoring 3 points and Bergin helping himself to 1.3 all from play and the Clareen man was very unlucky not to have another 2 goals on the scoreboard. If i had one critisism of Joe Bergin is that he has a tendency to stand behind his man but he is very young and will learn with experience.
Our lads will have learned alot from last week and it will be very interesting to see how we get on against the Deise on Sunday week.
On the plus side our stick work and striking has improved hughly since last year, our fitness levels are on a different planet to 12 months ago and I can't compliment our management team highly enough in the sense that they won't delay a second longer in making switches and substitutions in areas where we would be struggling. Rory Hannify was majestic last Sunday, definetly our best player, Mick O' hara was superb in stopping Seanie Mcmahon from making those long clearances that he's famed for, any time McMahon got the ball O'Hara was straight down his throat and even forced him into making uncharacteristic errors in losing possesion on more than one occasion all day. Alan Egan and Joe Bergin were magnificent in attack, Egan scoring 3 points and Bergin helping himself to 1.3 all from play and the Clareen man was very unlucky not to have another 2 goals on the scoreboard. If i had one critisism of Joe Bergin is that he has a tendency to stand behind his man but he is very young and will learn with experience.
Our lads will have learned alot from last week and it will be very interesting to see how we get on against the Deise on Sunday week.