Offaly Senior Hurlers 2023

[jimbob17]

I'd love to know the teams you are referring to and the so called top teams they are playing in other counties baring in mind these Offaly teams have all their Co players against the bigger counties club teams who are currently playing challenges without their best players.

Not having any laugh at all and thinking any different leads me to think we are grossly misguided about standard of hurling in Offaly currently. The work has been haphazard in the main for a long time now and we are still stuck in Joe McDonagh. Lets not hide from the facts. Our winners are ok maybe with semi finalists in a given year but after that it is quite a weak competition and the championship in general in terms of depth, quality etc id say is in or around what i suggested. Dont get me wrong, Naas werre strong and had been to all ireland inter final, but most of our senior clubs would be murdered by top 4 teams in Galway, Tipperary and Kilkenny. Laois, Carlow Kildare and Westmeath like ourselves have mabe 3 or 4 strongish clubs by our standards but after that you couldnt say its a strong championship at all. Id be hesitant to say that likes of Tullamore, Kinnity, Clareen and couple more would be a top 16 team in too many top 6 Liam McCarthy cup counties. OK Galway is bit of anomaly in that they have or had Senior B competition and about 24 senior teams, so you simply cannot put Killimor in the conversation as there are two tiers ahead of them in Galway! So I'd say we are about equivalent of senior B teams in Galway to be fair.

There are other middle tier clubs then that think they are a lot better than they are because they reach a quarter final in Offaly.

[jimbob17]

To emphasize the point, I can see where this notion could be misconstrued given challenges this time of year. This time last year I was involved with a Galway senior club around this time of year. Galway seniors were in a semi final and the club team was probably an 8-12th ranked team in Galway. The club played an 'strong' Offaly club in a challenge who would be consistently making semi finals and often finals over last number of years. The Galway club were short 3 county senior panelists and 5 lads who were championship starters who were away on holidays that week as is often the case in Liam Mac counties this time of year. The league is over, its early summer and championship is still probably a month or 6 weeks away. There was a point in it at the end against an Offaly top 4 club who came fully loaded. If an equivalent of this is your reference point, you cant measure that as Offaly club hurling being as strong as Liam McCarthy county clubs. It simply is not true.

It is emphasised by the very low volume of Offaly club players (and even county players) that ever get to play Fitzgibbon Cup or even make panels in the stronger hurling colleges; ie UCD, University of Galway, Mary I, UL, UCC, LIT, WIT, Carlow IT etc. We are where we are for a reason. We struggle to beat the Carlows Kerrys Laois's and Westmeaths and the quicker we are to accept we are off the pace and need to do a hell of a lot more at club level, the quicker we will get back to the higher level.

[frankthetank]

Might be doing similar or same with much lesser calibre of player. Can't argue that our crop of 22-33 year olds are on par with likes of Dublin Wexford hurlers. Our minor and u21 results for last 15 years tell us that. The standard of senior club hurling is about level of intermediate in Galway or Kilkenny. Let's be honest. Naas hammered our Co champions last year in Leinster Club. There are some senior club players from some of bigger clubs in county walking around deluded thinking they are good hurlers when they are average at best. Many of the South Offaly clubs were slow to move with the times 10 years ago and the county senior team are now paying price for this. Think they are a bit more forward thinking now but lots to go still for some in terms of their standards of coaching.

I'd be wary of suggesting our underage structures have been sorted. We have produced one good team and one swallow never made a summer. Let's see how competitive our minors are for next 5 years. If we are not competing there, the gap to being genuine competition at Liam McCarthy level will remain.

Quick question for you fcukbob. How many All Ireland hurling titles would we have won without these slow to move with the times South Offaly clubs?

[greenairfield]

Jimbob you are on about a one off match.
Birr lost too Castlegar by 2 points yesterday and were missing 4 starters including Eoghan Cahill.
Coolderry played Dicksboro last week and ran them close you can't go off challenge games these matches are usually played at much slower pace and lads are free all over the field.

I would say most of our top club teams can give most club teams around the country a good game but when it comes down to it we just have a much smaller pick and overall the championship it week outside of 4/5 teams.

[faithfulfanatic]

Along with those results, Kinnitty ran Kilruane close Friday night.

Belmont have beaten Kilmallock recently and put it up to Ballygunner for a long time.

[Fairplayalways]

we all hear about Offaly clubs beating such and such a big club in a challenge such and such a night etc...the key here is a the word challenge..thats all it is...yes it is beating a big club but thats only a challenge and it doesnt happen too often that we beat these big clubs, its always "only lost by 2 points" or something we hear...getting out of our county and then being able to beat a big team is now the problem, we have been decent enough over all in recent years in ways with the excpeption of Naas hammering Shinrone last year..all very well saying Shinrone had just won their final and were on a high etc.. Ballyhea of Clare won their first a few years ago and went all the way to an All Ireland and were favourites by some to win that final but collapsed on the day..I know Coolderry and Kilcormac have pushed on in Club series on years they came out of Offaly but over all we have had some poor enough days in recent years, with the odd exception...

[Superhans75]

So it looks like the Joe Mac is going to lose its
Miniscule chance of a team having a run in the all Ireland
Obviously Cork we're not happy bunnies.
To be honest it's hard to know what to do but it just
Means more young lads jetting off to the state's.
It's a bit depressing
Club hurling wise we have too many clubs in the wrong
Places .
Amalgamation or letting players move too better
Clubs in the county is only chance we have got
Every other way appears wasteful and the ones behind
The present system are benefiting from it .
Have a good week

[jimbob17]

Might be doing similar or same with much lesser calibre of player. Can't argue that our crop of 22-33 year olds are on par with likes of Dublin Wexford hurlers. Our minor and u21 results for last 15 years tell us that. The standard of senior club hurling is about level of intermediate in Galway or Kilkenny. Let's be honest. Naas hammered our Co champions last year in Leinster Club. There are some senior club players from some of bigger clubs in county walking around deluded thinking they are good hurlers when they are average at best. Many of the South Offaly clubs were slow to move with the times 10 years ago and the county senior team are now paying price for this. Think they are a bit more forward thinking now but lots to go still for some in terms of their standards of coaching.

I'd be wary of suggesting our underage structures have been sorted. We have produced one good team and one swallow never made a summer. Let's see how competitive our minors are for next 5 years. If we are not competing there, the gap to being genuine competition at Liam McCarthy level will remain.

Quick question for you fcukbob. How many All Ireland hurling titles would we have won without these slow to move with the times South Offaly clubs?

Sure you are totally missing the point Frank. If you want to do things by 1990s standards, work away and see where it gets ye. It's nearly 30 years since 94.

If insulting a fella for making a valid point makes you feel better about yerself, work away, but doesn't change the facts. It's mindset like that that has seen Offaly fall off the top table and into mediocrity at senior level. If you can't accept the shortcomings that have been discussed on here previously by numerous others, then maybe you'd be better off starting a new discussion on 1990s nostalgia and how great South Offaly hurling was back in the day!

[first_touch]

Well said jimbob.

[Superhans75]

I agree with Jimbob.
Down here in South Offaly
Too many middle aged blokes slapping each others
Backs we have become a bit like Uncle Albert in
Only fools and horses
During the 90s .!
Will things change?eventually but the younger generation need there voice to be heard .
Good luck

[faithfulfanatic]

SuperHans you suggest letting lads move to any stronger club of their choosing?

That is the greatest load of BS.

Goes completely against the ethos of the GAA.
And how would that even strengthen our championships?
All it would do is make the good teams better and the small rural clubs struggling to survive would face extinction.
Although, I’d hope our young lads would have the common sense not to do that.

[Superhans75]

It's happening already some clubs are going to have to go numbers aren't there .
I won't mention specific clubs but there demise is alarming.
Add in the factors of smaller population more sports to
Compete against and immigration.
What young lad is not going to want to travel or have
A social life
Not in rural Ireland ( towns included)
I was at the Galway /mayo game I was talking to some cousin's aged between 15/20 ish from mayo not one of them intend to stay in Ireland they all play football
At university or on the way there ..
Sign of the times as prince sang

[G91]

Maybe one of the grades needs to go, move Senoir B to just senior? Or move intermediate into senior B

Offaly is much the same as the all ireland series take out shinrone winning there hasn't been any new winners , it's always been birr ,coolderry, rynaghs, kk, witch the exception tullamore won 1 few year ago

Maybe Belmont can make the brake through

[faithfulfanatic]

Maybe one of the grades needs to go, move Senoir B to just senior? Or move intermediate into senior B

Offaly is much the same as the all ireland series take out shinrone winning there hasn't been any new winners , it's always been birr ,coolderry, rynaghs, kk, witch the exception tullamore won 1 few year ago

Maybe Belmont can make the brake through

The Senior B Championship seems to be a very competitive and successful championship year-on-year.
Why do you propose we scrap it?
And why would we move intermediate into Senior B when that is also a great competition?
Just for the sake of making some change?

Winners of county championship since 2014:
Westmeath 3
Dublin 3
Kerry 4
Laois 4
Cork 6
Clare 3
Galway 4
Tipp 6
Limerick 3
Waterford 1
Kilkenny 4

Offaly 4

[jimbob17]

Should look at making Senior B a 10 team competition also like senior, as standard to compete is there at top of inter group I think.

Don't think lads should be allowed transfer but I'd love to see a parish team or combination team of say for example, South East Offaly or North Offaly where likes of 2 or 3 inter / junior clubs can combine to make up a senior A team. Totally separate group with one team getting into q-final from it. It might only be two / three teams with straight knockout to get to senior q final. Hard to fit in with football etc but it happens in other counties. It happens in divisions in Cork and in football in Kerry and allows players from junior clubs play at higher level. Ie Imokilly. For Example likes of Crinkle, Carraig & Riverstown and Ballyskenagh and maybe a Drumcullen on one side and a North Offaly could be made from Shamrocks, C Gaels, Clara and Edenderry, and West Offaly could be made from Lusmagh Brosna Gaels and Shannonbridge / Doon etc. If any such individual club got up to senior A, eg Clara, Clodiagh Gaels Lusmagh etc, then they would not form part of div team. I think I heard provision has been made for this in club football but it is the responsibility of clubs to come together to arrange it.

To just re-emphasise the earlier point. Was talking to an ex Co senior from 80s in recent times - All Ireland medalist etc from South Offaly. He was saying he didn't believe in all this gym work, was really dismissive of it and said lads just needed to be out pucking balls, and in his day, that was how Offaly were so good, because lads were out pucking. In the same conversation 2 mins later, he was talking about Offaly being so far off the pace physically against Tipperary, suggesting it was men against boys, and that he couldn't see Limerick not winning again this year because physically, they were further on and better than every other team. Such a contradiction and these are often the stunted thinking lads that are making extremely important decisions within our club structures. Maybe this is something that if addressed somehow, would help lift standards all around.