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I admire your faith, beating the above teams in minor is important but so far bar Laois we do come a cropper against the others and Laois too by times..Kilkenny is a totally different animal, as Carlow found out last night be it with both teams in experimental mode but make no mistake Kilkenny were not huffing and puffing laying down their marker last night..we wouldnt have such intensity from what i see..

The best offaly can hope for is to be beating westmeath, laois ,carlow on a regular basis. Forget about kk or galway, not a hope. Dublin and wexford possibly, but I can't see that happening anytime soon.
In hindsight, losing the mcdonagh final has helped offaly avoid the 1 week rule which affects other counties in the liam mcarthy.
Winning u17 and u20 is not the same as it was 10 years ago. U17 are not near ready for senior and u20 you have players missing due to senior commitments.

See offaly have agreed to let the walsh Cup game vs galway result stand

It maybe our smallest defeat of the year against one of the percieved top teams, be it 15 minutes shorter than all other games we play this year (or over next 4/5 months rather with this 'sponge' system we have)

Galway absolutely hammered laois today as did Dublin vs antrim.

Some think Offaly could possibly beat Wexford and Dublin etc..very hard to see..the league will tell a lot..

we might have better hurlers to a large extent than wexford or dublin but we are a long way behind both physically. thats the big issue. that might come against us.

Ah here. Don’t be kidding yourself on. I don’t think anyone is saying the quality of hurler we have is at the same level as whats in those two counties. How can you compare a county that can’t get out of the Mcdonagh cup with a county who are getting non stop exposure to liam mccarthy level teams over the past 10 years? Completely basis in my own opinion.

Completely agree we are way off does two counties currently.

If we played either of those two counties in a game of consequence, they would win by 20 + points. Galway beat the brakes off Offaly playing in pea soup fog in a pre season friendly with half a panel. A strong Carlow team got hockeyed by Kilkenny (missing half a panel) last week, we are a million miles off. Readjust expectations please.

pigeon house biffo wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 11:02 am If we played either of those two counties in a game of consequence, they would win by 20 + points. Galway beat the brakes off Offaly playing in pea soup fog in a pre season friendly with half a panel. A strong Carlow team got hockeyed by Kilkenny (missing half a panel) last week, we are a million miles off. Readjust expectations please.

A difficult league campaign ahead for Offaly I fear.

And yet Westmeath beat Wexford in a game of consequence last year.

We certainly aren't on those teams level at the moment but we will be with time.

One off freak result unfortunately. Westmeath will fall back as will antrim with their golden generations moving on. Offaly should be looking to replace Westmeath in div one and liam mcarthy. But only having one decent underage team every 10 years won't help.

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 12:43 pm And yet Westmeath beat Wexford in a game of consequence last year.

We certainly aren't on those teams level at the moment but we will be with time.

And Wexford beat Kilkenny..

faithfulfanatic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 12:43 pm And yet Westmeath beat Wexford in a game of consequence last year.

We certainly aren't on those teams level at the moment but we will be with time.

As great a win as it was, Wexford had built up a 17 point lead in that game, which is a pointer to the gap that exists. The freak part of the game was the Westmeath comeback and not Wexford amassing such a lead.
If they played again tomorrow, I'd expect Wexford to win by double digits.