Thanks for this.bracknaghboy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 9:52 pmDidn't take long for the bile to emerge.private joker wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 8:10 pmnow that's an ignorant comment.greenairfield wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 6:13 pm Hurling was destroyed when it went to OCP north offaly folk dont care about hurling.keep it in Birr for the better.
Back to the 'high powered 'group. Have been speaking to people about this development. General consensus seems to be that our county board needs stability not wholesale changes with inexperienced people whose aims remains at best unclear. This sort of populism isn't working out well in the political world and could cause untold damage at a time when the county is starting to actually get things together. Lets look closer:
Senior Football
A decent manager is now in place. A right rattle at division 3 is on the cards in a few months. Panel is relatively settled. Cian Johnson and Cian Farrell are genuinely exciting talents for the future. U20's have been decent recently with settled management. All told things look well. Senior management are happy that everything they have requested is in place unlike previous years.
Senior Hurling
Exciting new management team in place. It almost feels like a new beginning for real again. Yes it's Christy Ring next year but it is what it is now and the only way is up. This is Fennellys big chance and he'll leave no stone unturned. The u20's were promising last year. Steady progress can be made now. Maybe when we do return to the Leinster Championship proper in a few years it'll really mean something.
Offaly TV
This was a good little service last year but this year it is now exceptional. Serious amount of games full length in high quality for 50 quid. Excellent development. Surprised more hasn't been said on here about it.
Facilities
One of the biggest issues was lack of training facility for our county teams. Faithful fields solved that and we now have a great facility for the future. Our county ground is the envy of many counties and we never have to worry about games not going ahead due to health and safety. The sponsorship of BNM (whether you agree or disagree with it) has brough in much needed funds.
Weekend passes
It took a while but this finally arrived. This has been great and saves cash over the weekend and in fact encourages attending plenty of games to get your moneys worth.
Coaching
We've gone from having the least qualified number of coaches in Leinster to one of the highest. A look at the CB twitter page shows the tireless work that is going on day and night across the county in both codes.
Look it's not perfect but things are starting to look up in terms of getting the right people and resources in place. We have the facilities now. I'd say no county board in Ireland has learned as much and made as many improvements in recent years than our own.
There plenty of reason to be optimistic about.
I don't like all this talk of such a place being the home of hurling and so on. We are all Offaly. The chap in Birr who wants to play football is as important as the senior footballer in Rhode. The football supporter in Lusmagh is as entitled to to go and support his team as much as the lad from Edenderry.
The hurling supporters in Daingean are as important as the hurling supporters from Coolderry. Nobody, no club and no area owns our games or should be claiming to be the home of this or that.
"United we stand, divided we fall".
We have a base for 2020 whatever the composition of the management committee.
Looking forward to it!