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Manager: Ollie Baker (2nd Year)
Captain: David Kenny
Allianz League 2013: Division IB; opener v Dublin, Feb 23
Allianz League 2012: 3rd in Division IB
Championship 2012: Lost to Galway in Leinster S-F; Beaten by Cork in Phase 2 of Qualifiers
Allianz League Record: Champions in 1991
Star Man: Shane Dooley
One to Watch: Ciarán Slevin
Players Out: David Franks, Brendan Murphy, Joe Brady (all retired), Diarmuid Horan, Eoin Kelly, Conor Hernon (all emigrated), James Rigney, Seán Coughlan, Éanna Murphy, Barry Harding (all left panel).
Injury List: Paul Cleary (ankle; long-term), Stephen Wynne (hip; long-term)
Players In: Ciarán Slevin, Conor Slevin, Dan Currams, Peter Geraghty (all Kilcormac-Killoughey), David King (Coolderry), Pat Camon (St Rynagh’s), Dermot Mooney (Seir Kieran), Michael and Seán Cleary (Shinrone), Seán Gardiner (Lusmagh), Dan Kelliher (Brosna Gaels), Colm Coughlan (Kinnitty), Tomás Bolger (Birr).
One look at the ‘Players In’ section above tells its own story. The off-season has been a time of change for Offaly hurling, with ten of the squad for last year’s Leinster Championship semi-final defeat to Galway no longer involved.
Three stalwarts of Offaly hurling – David Franks, Brendan Murphy and Joe Brady – have retired, while Diarmuid Horan, Eoin Kelly and Conor Hernon have left the country in search of work. Franks and Murphy were both involved in the 2000 All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny, meaning the last remaining ties to the great Offaly side of 1990s/2000s have been severed.
Manager Ollie Baker has drafted in a slew of new players to plug those gaps, and it’s with a new-look panel that they embark on their Division IB campaign in the Allianz League.
Kilcormac-Killoughey’s success in the AIB All-Ireland Club Championship has been a real fillip for Offaly hurling, and Baker will add a number of the Offaly and Leinster champions’ star performers to his squad as soon as their involvement in the competition is over on St Patrick’s Day.
The Slevin brothers, Ciarán and goalkeeper Conor, Peter Geraghty and Dan Currams (he played with the footballers in 2012) will all join the panel in late March/early April. Ciarán Slevin and Currams, in particular, have been brilliant for the ‘KKs’ in their run to the All-Ireland final and will be a major bonus for Baker if they can bring their club form to the inter-county arena.
Baker has also made a new addition to his backroom team, with 1998 All Star and All-Ireland winner Stephen Byrne replacing Paudge Mulhare as a selector. Mark Corrigan continues in his role as selector in 2013.
Offaly start their campaign on Saturday night with arguably their toughest game of the lot when they face Dublin in Parnell Park. Offaly, Dublin and Limerick look the trio most likely to battle it out for a place in the divisional final, which will then determine who goes up to the top flight in 2014.
Offaly were thrown off course in their bid for promotion last year by a cruel defeat to Wexford in Round 2, losing a nine-point lead with seven minutes to go at Wexford Park, before recovering to beat Antrim and nick a draw against Limerick. Another one-point defeat, this time against Clare in Round 5, ended any lingering hopes of a return to the top tier.
With so many new players, and with the Kilcormac-Killoughey contingent out of bounds for at least another month, Offaly might find the going tough against Dublin and Wexford (who beat them by 1-24 to 1-15 in the Walsh Cup semi-final) in the opening two rounds. Still, a place in the Division IB final has to be the target for the Faithful County.

Well lads, It all kicks off Saturday at 7.
To start with the Bad: Losing Diarmuid Horan, Eoin Kelly, Conor Hernon, James Rigney, Seán Coughlan, Éanna Murphy and Barry Harding.
Losing frist team players Horan, Kelly and Rigney is a big blow. Losing Coughlan and Murphy as young and up and coming player is bad news as well.

Ok on to the unknown: Ollie Baker. It’s his second year so we should be see a more settled team tactics and better use of players. The players should know what is expected of them as well. Last year tactical we were poor. The tactics of following your man out the field and leaving David Kenny to mark his man and 40 yard of space was something that still gives me nightmares. We have good hurlers on the panel the thing is that we need to use them.

Now on to the good The Offaly Supporters Club has being drumming up support for the county teams (and there doing a great job) they have being building a nice core following and this is a bit overdue.
KIlcormac-Killoughey getting into the Club Final and Club Hurling in Offaly in general. They are about 4 Club who should be looking at KIlcormac-Killoughey and Coolderry last year and saying to themselves that could be us.
That always a good sign for any county.

Saturday night game is going to be a though one. I feel like a broken record but if we pick a half forward line that can stop the Dublin half back line clearing good ball we have a great chance.

The talk around the Dublin hurling people this week is that there not look forward to this game. They don’t know what to expect from Dublin this year.

To me Team selection is all important on Saturday night.
If we pick the correct team we could pick up a win. If we pick a half forward line that can’t win a ball we could lose by a lot.
If the Dublin half back have time to pick out Alan McCrabbe, Liam Rushe, David O'Callaghan and the other Dublin forward with good ball it could be a long night.
I’m hoping we pick a half forward line from the following Colin Egan, Derek Molloy, Joe Bergin, Rory Hanniffy and Cathal Parlon big and strong and will to fight for the ball. But again this tactics will only work if we don’t leave 30 yards between our full back line and half back line which we did for a lot of last year.
I’m hoping we get it right on Saturday night. A win would be great.

Cannot see us getting a win here. I would be happy with a decent showing. We need to start reducing the scores against column.
Is Conor Mahon not committing to the hurling this year? He would be an addition to the panel with the extra confidence he is sure to have gained.

I think that Dublin will be gunning to start the league well, and our panel has serious questions over fitness/tactical awareness, and possibly apetite for the hard battle.. Therefore, I predict an easy 8 pt win for Dublin, could be more.

Unfortunately it's a big ask for Offaly.
A claustrophobic venue, pitch heavy from overuse, played under tower floodlights which Offaly aren't used to.
A few strong players not on the panel, no great early year form.

Dublin will be gunning to make up for their poor year last year. Presumably Daly's last year as well.
Kilkenny punctured his bubble last year and I'd say he's hoping to exit the stage on a better note.

A win here would be a bigger shock than Lowry beating McIlroy.

DUBLIN (NHL v Offaly): Gary Maguire; Peter Kelly, Paul Schutte, Ruairí Trainor; Michael Carton, Liam Rushe, Shane Durkin; Joey Boland, Kevin Byrne; Conal Keaney, John McCaffrey (capt), Danny Sutcliffe; Paul Ryan, Conor McCormack, Mark Schutte.

Baker: 'All counties losing out from lack of games'

21 FEBRUARY 2013

OFFALY hurling manager Ollie Baker admits to a tinge of envy at the resources available to his former Clare team-mate and current Dublin boss Anthony Daly.

Baker and Daly will be on opposing sides in a Battle of the Banner as Offaly travel to Parnell Park for Saturday's Allianz Hurling League Division 1B opening fixture.

Daly's Dubs have primed themselves for a fast start out of the blocks as they bid to launch their 2013 campaign on a positive note. The Metropolitans' Walsh Cup final victory over Wexford was a tasty starter that whetted the appetite for more silverware this year.

Ollie Baker's panel is restricted by injuries and the involvement of county champions Kilcormac-Killoughey in the All-Ireland club championship final next month.

He admitted: "You'd be envious of the selection headaches that Anthony Daly will have as opposed to what I'll be having on Saturday evening, but they're a fine hurling side.

"As they proved two years ago they have the ability to go on and win national titles. There's very few teams out there at this moment that have that capability and certainly Dublin are one of them. We're up against a huge, huge task on Saturday evening."

Offaly have Stephen Wynne on the long-term injury list while David Keaney and Del Morkham are doubtful with hamstring problems.

"They're not ruled out, and they'll be going through late fitness tests," said Baker. "We also have a number of people absent from the panel or who aren't available to us this year that were with us last year, so there's a lot of changes."

The Offaly manager is braced for a big challenge in Division 1B, as his team have only two home games and must travel to Dublin, Carlow and Limerick in a hectic run of five games in six weeks from this weekend to Easter Sunday.

"I would be a fan of the format but not the scheduling. The scheduling, you are just in a rush to get it over with," Baker said. "We haven't had a competitive game at national level since last July and now we're into the last week of February. In six weeks our league campaign is going to be over, and depending on the results, you might get one or two more games out of it.

"Then you've a two-month hiatus and you've got championship again. I don't think the fixtures do anything to improve hurling in the counties that don't make the All-Ireland semi-finals.

"You could write down five or six counties that have been in the last five or six All-Ireland semi-finals and everyone else has just been struggling to get game time," said Baker.

The Clare man has a point. In the last six hurling championships, Kilkenny have made six appearances in the semi-finals; Tipperary and Waterford five each; Cork three, Limerick two, and Galway, Dublin, and Wexford one each.

"The GAA, I feel, have let the ball slip a small bit in that regard, because it's as much about keeping hurling going in a lot of the counties as it is about Kilkenny winning the three-in-a-row or the five-in-a-row or whatever it may be. There's a huge amount of time during the year, when Offaly haven't been hurling at all, and that surely can't be good," Baker said.

"I'm blue in the face from saying it, but it's games, games, games, that are needed here. The ratio between games and training is totally the wrong way round. There should be way more games."

If that meant a return to the old format of the league beginning in October and ending the following spring, then so be it, even if clubs are involved in provincial championships in the late autumn.

Said Baker: "Counties don't have their players available to them who are involved in the provincial club campaigns, and that's going to be the same from the middle of October all the way through to the end of February.

standards

"So why not play some kind of games before the Christmas period and let people out to play hurling? The only way the standard is going to grow is by playing more matches and the only way teams are going to get competitive again is by playing more matches.

"Supporters are crying out for it. We go from 60-70,000 people sitting inside in Croke Park for the All-Ireland final in September but the next competitive fixture isn't until the end of February.

"Just when the GAA is on a high, they just go into hibernation for four months.

"It's a huge loss in terms of how they're going to market their games and promote their games.

"As a result, in counties like Offaly, we're losing a lot of players through emigration and to other codes because maybe there's more of a structure in place for games.

"Young lads want to play games, so that's what they're going to do, they're going to follow where the games are."

As for the league, Baker proposes playing 10 matches, five before Christmas and five after Christmas on a home-and-away basis, with the top two ending up in the league final.

"I don't have all the answers but I can definitely see the problems. I don't mean to be going off on one here, but we're playing on Saturday evening against Dublin and we're put to the pin of our collar in that. But the way the league is structured this year, half the league will be over and I won't even have a third of my panel available.

"It's a good complaint to have in one way in that Kilcormac are in the All-Ireland final and Coolderry last year were in a similar position.

"But just from a national perspective there could be a bit more imagination put into the league," added Baker.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling ... 85048.html

In fairness to Baker, yes you would have some sympathy. Being down 3 or 4 players because of clubs in All Irleland is an issue, but also a bonus. However this year, with emmigration and retirements, we are starting to see the reality of what lies ahead for Offaly. A lot of the lads coming in are not as good as the lads that are leaving and this will continue to be the case.

I think the structure of the league as he says is totally suited to the big guns gearing up for an assault on provincial or All Irleland championships later in the year. Offaly would definitely benefit from more games.

However we cant change that in the short term, but ,

1) If we are mad to play league before Christmas, then how come our hurling team is so unfit playing the early rounds of the league?
A couple of years ago a Galway Bay commentator stated that a few of our lads wouldnt look out of place in Supermacs
2) Tactical awareness, And those of you more in the know on hurling than me have continually spoken on this. A team pulls a couple of moves on us and we are totally exposed

Sadly we ar enow into a period of stagnation, but strangely enough this will not be down to the structure of the intercounty competitions, but the structure of our club championship.
Our club players need more competitive matches in the early rounds, they have nothing to play for until July. They go through the motions, and then up the intensity for a few weeks, and play their crucial decisive games within a four week period.
Coolderry, KK, Seir Kieran, Shinrone, Birr, Rynaghs are all good sides, they must be given the chance to play more games, and this is the only way we will produce county hurlers.
Underage must be tackled too, but thats for the hurling guru's!

I don’t really get where managers are going with this kind of criticism of the GAA’s scheduling of league games. It’s not just Baker you hear it from. It’s like they are getting the excuses ready in advance.

You have the Gooch and the likes giving the counter-argument that the inter-county season is too drawn out for an amateur sport and should be condensed to avoid 4 to 6 week gaps between games (probably more of a Kerry football issue than a problem for most counties).

I think the GAA are right having the winter training ban for player welfare reasons. It has to send out the message that a 12-month season is excessive. It’s a matter for players themselves to defy it.

The purists won’t like me saying this but rugby and soccer now has a hold on the autumn/winter/spring sporting public. The GAA knows it, and knows it has a summer shop window to showcase its elite in action and they increasingly work towards that. For hurling, it makes sense that they prioritise inter-county in the summer and AICHC, inter-colleges and inter-schools games in the winter/spring. Theres a different argument for football where you can have more quality in the games in the winter.

On Baker’s point of young lads playing more games, he has two options:-

A) More inter-county challenge games in front of a man and his dog from July to April or
B) Rescheduling the league to October and early spring as he seems to suggest.

I disagree with him when he says “supporters are crying out for it”.

Give or take, you haven’t had more than 100 Offaly supporters at an away game in the league in its current schedule for years now. They are hardly going to quadruple in October and January - not in the middle of the Rupert Murdoch-inspired blanket coverage of soccer and rugby every weekend.

From a fitness/preparation point of view, it makes complete sense to build things up to the main event from mid-Spring to give the panel a better chance of peaking at the right time so I don’t see his point there either.

For what it’s worth, my biggest gripe with the GAA and fixturing is county boards in hurling counties f&*king around with their club championship fixtures to accomodate footabll and hurling intercounty games. Croke Park should issue an edict that there be a zero-tolerance policy to requests for postponements for reasons of a player being involved with an inter-county panel.

1 James Dempsey (Kinnitty)
2 Chris McDonald (Brosna Gaels)
3 David Kenny (Belmont) captain
4 David King (Coolderry)
5 Dermot Mooney (Seir Kieran)
6 Kevin Brady (Coolderry)
7 Derek Morkan (Shinrone)
8 Rory Hanniffy (Birr)
9 Sean Ryan (Birr)
10 Brian Carroll (Coolderry)
11 Joe Bergin (Seir Kieran)
12 Cathal Parlon (Coolderry)
13 Shane Dooley (Tullamore)
14 James Mulrooney (Seir Kieran)
15 Odhran Kealey (Kinnitty)

SUBS;
16 Conor Clancy (St Rynagh’s)
17 Michael Cleary (Shinrone)
18 Dan Kelliher (Brosna Gaels)
19 Derek Molloy (Shamrocks)
20 Sean Cleary (Shinrone)
21 Colm Coughlan (Kinnitty)
22 Thomas Carroll (Seir Kieran)
23 Colin Egan (Belmont)
24 Tomas Bolger (Birr)
25 Sean Gardiner (Lusmagh)
26 Pat Camon (St Rynagh’s)

That team does not inspire confidence. The forward line in particular will struggle to make any impact from open play.

Indeed when one considers the panel as a whole you can't but help get the feeling that we are now really beginning to feel the effects of our disastrous underage results of the last few years.

will be at this game, alot of players missing and the k/k crew missing, but sure you never know
we might pull off a shock win

It is most unusual that no player who played in the 2012 Co Senior Hurling Final gets a start in our first League Game. While it is fantastic that our KK Players are not available as they are preparing for Paddy's Day, I am surprised that no player from St Rynaghs made the team. Have St Rynaghs any players who should have been considered? We appear to have selected a weak defence. Are the best 30 players in the county on the Senior panel??

I'm really worried about the prospect of Kevin Brady playing centre-back. If he was midfield I wouldn't be as worried- however I'm not a fan as he never looks up -take ridiculous shots or sends in aimless balls to forwards not to speak of conceeding frees. Surely David King is more of a wing back than a corner back. Hope Offaly can really produce a performance this evening. Offaly are 9/2 which says a lot.

However while we probably are a little behind Dublin & Limerick (not by much either) at the moment I was really annoyed watching Seo Spoirt on TG4 when Ger Loughnane seemed to completely write us off. He put us in same bracket as Carlow when he was talking about Dublin, now his point was more about Dublin but he seemed to totally dismiss Offaly. Maybe I was wrong in what he was implying. But Carlow and Antrim at the moment are behind Offaly and Wexford. I know Carlow or Antrim could both get results against Offaly or Wexford. However in the overall scheme both Carlow & Antrim are a bit off the remaining 4 teams in 1B.

Sharp Eye wrote:It is most unusual that no player who played in the 2012 Co Senior Hurling Final gets a start in our first League Game. While it is fantastic that our KK Players are not available as they are preparing for Paddy's Day, I am surprised that no player from St Rynaghs made the team. Have St Rynaghs any players who should have been considered? We appear to have selected a weak defence. Are the best 30 players in the county on the Senior panel??

No. We look to be missing a lot of players. I glad to see Gardner(who i haven't see at senior level yet), King (Who is a good half back i don't know if he is a Corner Back) and Camon. but Quirke(rynagh) Connolly and Ryan(Coolderry) were two good young forward and are missing.
The Like of Stephen Egan (tullamore), Verney (Birr) and Wynne (rynagh) could add to the panel.
The Morkan Brothers in Shinrone look like good players. The Shortt Brothers from rynagh look good last year.
I'm missing loads.There load of good hurlers in the county. getting to commit to the County look like a problem.

Slieve Bloom Man wrote:I'm really worried about the prospect of Kevin Brady playing centre-back. If he was midfield I wouldn't be as worried- however I'm not a fan as he never looks up -take ridiculous shots or sends in aimless balls to forwards not to speak of conceeding frees. Surely David King is more of a wing back than a corner back. Hope Offaly can really produce a performance this evening. Offaly are 9/2 which says a lot.

However while we probably are a little behind Dublin & Limerick (not by much either) at the moment I was really annoyed watching Seo Spoirt on TG4 when Ger Loughnane seemed to completely write us off. He put us in same bracket as Carlow when he was talking about Dublin, now his point was more about Dublin but he seemed to totally dismiss Offaly. Maybe I was wrong in what he was implying. But Carlow and Antrim at the moment are behind Offaly and Wexford. I know Carlow or Antrim could both get results against Offaly or Wexford. However in the overall scheme both Carlow & Antrim are a bit off the remaining 4 teams in 1B.

That could be a good thing, Loughnane will always talk up the Munster team by putting down other team. He a annoying at the best of times. but it up to Offaly to make him eat his words.

A one point defeat but Dublin looked to be at least 10 points the better team, our forwards made very little impact from play.Shane Dooley scored a 21 yard free in the second half however when the Offaly man was fouled he looked to me to be a yard inside the square so it should have been a penalty.

Just listened to the game on radio 3, a dub commentating alongside JOhn Leahy. General jist is that we might think a 1 point defeat would offer some positives given the number of players we are down from last year. But Leahy reckoned we were lucky to come that close, Dublin led easily enough, and he commented on the following,
1) Dublin cut through us at ease, broke tackles, we could break no tackles. Used th handpass and the ball into space.
2) Offaly hit lot of aimless ball, lot of forwards made no cntribution for a lot of the game.
3)Dublin seemed to be toying with us in the ease with which they replied to our scores.

All the same, I think the lads will take credit from this, they fought well to the end and could have gotten something. Wexford game is now vital in Tullamore. Win this , and we should be on 6 pts coming into the last game , a home game with Limerick.

But lack of a clear game plan to tighten up around midfield and half back line, plus lack of real movement would appear to be a problem that wont be addressed under the current mgt.