www.uibhfhaili.com

SearingDrive wrote: ↑Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:17 pm Will Clough/Ballacolla beat them on Sunday, or will Ballyhale fall in the semi finals/ final?

Clough/Ballacolla are a far fresher looking side. Their use of the ball in their 2 games so fair in Leinster has been eye catching.
Stephen Maher has been grabbing the headlines but he is finishing off some great work.
Ballyhale are like a great heavyweight boxer on the ropes and waiting for that knockout blow but also still capable of inflicting severe damage themselves if let.
50-50 game for me. I'm not sure how the semi's line up.....I thought I heard that Ulster play Leinster.
Either way if Ballyhale win on Sunday they'd still have to beat one of Ballygunner, Kilmallock or St. Thomas's as well.
They look wore out to me so I'm not envisaging them going all the way.

Rynaghs win or performance may not do much for Offaly hurling as pointed out by POH above, however, with them (Kilkenny) not at the tip top at intercounty at the moment (as in winning All Irelands) , the next place to stunt them is at club level, and as others pointed out Ballyhale looked a tired team (be it with 14 men for all second half) on Sunday..its little wins like putting Kilkenny teams out of the provincial club (with no back door or anything) opens up Leinster hurling and just someone else might win it...Kilkenny dominating hurling both intercounty and club at provincial and All Ireland level is/was boring, yes they were good..but change is good too...I think a Rynaghs win on Sunday wasnt going to propel Offaly to dizzy heights but it would be a step along the road to somewhere abit further than we have been for the last number of years now..well done Rynaghs...very very few were giving ye any chance at all..ye nearly did it..

a Rynaghs win last Sunday over Kilkenny opposition would certainly be a great boost for the club hurling championship in Offaly next year too and and would generate more excitement which can only be a good thing..it may not get us too far outside of that (we wont know until a year or so) but every possible step is welcome and see where it leads us..

Fair play to Rynaghs, heart breaking stuff but gave a great account of themselves. Probably the first time in the 2021 Championship they hurled really well after a brutal start to the game losing their full back and shipping two soft goals. If Ballyhale are heading to Dublin on Sunday with injuries and a good player suspended it gives Clough a great chance, and good luck to them! Tullamore must be looking at the football draw and thinking they blew a real chance of making a Leinster Club Final to like Rynaghs, so no matter how good it is for Offaly County teams its good to see our Club Champions doing well at that level.

seany123 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:55 pm Fair play to Rynaghs, heart breaking stuff but gave a great account of themselves. Probably the first time in the 2021 Championship they hurled really well after a brutal start to the game losing their full back and shipping two soft goals. If Ballyhale are heading to Dublin on Sunday with injuries and a good player suspended it gives Clough a great chance, and good luck to them! Tullamore must be looking at the football draw and thinking they blew a real chance of making a Leinster Club Final to like Rynaghs, so no matter how good it is for Offaly County teams its good to see our Club Champions doing well at that level.

I know it’s a lot of ifs and buts but after Rynaghs heartbreaking loss, Tullamore similar- throw in Clara, clonbullogue and Shamrocks, we weren’t a million miles from having 5 teams out 6 Leinster finals. Could only be a good thing irrespective of correlation between club and county.

Jeez lads don't be listening to me about hurling!
50-50 game with Clough and Ballyhale I said earlier in the week.
Instead we got a record breaking demolition.
Ballyhale played quick direct ball into their forwards knowing well they had the beating of that Clough defence in the air and physically.
Clough handpassed the ball around aimlessly for most of the match looking clueless (what we'd probably call "progressive" these days).
But they lost out massively in the physicality sector as well.
I thought they might do a Rynaghs and go 15 on 15 after the game started going away from them 20 minutes in as they were never going to shoot their way back into it by long range points.
Hard to know how Rynaghs and Clough would have played out today but Rynaghs may well have been crowned Leinster champions today.

Hands up I wrote off Ballyhale, more fool me
I still maintain they won't win n the All Ireland.

bracknaghboy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 19, 2021 5:45 pm Jeez lads don't be listening to me about hurling!
50-50 game with Clough and Ballyhale I said earlier in the week.
Instead we got a record breaking demolition.
Ballyhale played quick direct ball into their forwards knowing well they had the beating of that Clough defence in the air and physically.
Clough handpassed the ball around aimlessly for most of the match looking clueless (what we'd probably call "progressive" these days).
But they lost out massively in the physicality sector as well.
I thought they might do a Rynaghs and go 15 on 15 after the game started going away from them 20 minutes in as they were never going to shoot their way back into it by long range points.
Hard to know how Rynaghs and Clough would have played out today but Rynaghs may well have been crowned Leinster champions today.

Hands up I wrote off Ballyhale, more fool me
I still maintain they won't win n the All Ireland.

To be fair, that's the complete opposite of what St. Rynagh's did. Even before Joe Cuddihy was sent off, Rynagh's had a sweeper operating in front of the full back line, cutting off low balls into Cody and Fennelly.

I'm not saying that there's any right or wrong to that approach, but 100% that's what they did.

Lone Shark wrote: ↑Mon Dec 20, 2021 11:25 am To be fair, that's the complete opposite of what St. Rynagh's did. Even before Joe Cuddihy was sent off, Rynagh's had a sweeper operating in front of the full back line, cutting off low balls into Cody and Fennelly.
I'm not saying that there's any right or wrong to that approach, but 100% that's what they did.

Hmmm. Looked to me like Rynagh's abandoned the sweeper straight after the first water break and went man on man then until Cuddihy got the red card 3 mins before half time after which the sweeper naturally came back into the picture.
Rynagh's took over the game after going man on man.
I'm open to correction if that never happened as I'm starting to question my own eyes now!