A Great Little County are We?

[Lone Shark]

It’s official – the next time somebody from another county tells you what a great county Offaly is, recognise it for what it is – a great big propaganda scam. It may feel like praise, it may warm the heart inside when they tell you of how great we are for keeping both codes alive, but rest assured that the point of keeping alive this notion of how great Offaly are is a ruse, purely designed to make sure that our county can be walked all over in committee rooms across Ireland. The same person who'll fill you with praise will be straight into the committee room, arguing that for the upcoming game against Offaly his own county should be at home, all because of "great and proud" a county Offaly is, and how poor little Westmeath/Longford/Louth whoever should have home advantage against them.

Let’s strip away the myths and legend for a while and look at the cold, hard facts. Since the first of January 2002, the starting point for this mini-study (picked because of the availability of results on leinster.gaa.ie) there has been 256 provincial titles won all across Ireland. 6 years, seven in the case of under 21 football, three age groups, Minor, U-21 and senior, and four provinces in football and three in Hurling. In that time Offaly share the dubious distinction with nine other counties of not having won a single provincial title in that time. Our win/loss record is below average, and that statistic is boosted by several wins over counties in hurling that merely pay lip service to the sport. Right now we find ourselves in division two of three in the Hurling League and division four of four in the football league. Overall, whether we like to acknowledge it or not, Offaly have been low achievers on the field of Gaelic Games since the turn of the millennium.

This article however is not designed as a pop at our players’ achievements on the field of play. This is a wake up call for all our delegates, delegates who have bought into the mythology of Offaly as a GAA superpower, this glorious little David who slays Goliaths all round. Countless times Offaly supporters have watched as we have had to traipse all around the country to follow our teams, all because other teams are “designated”, or because our grounds are inadequate, or simply because we have lost the luck of the draw. Supposedly.

It’s time to call it as it is – we are getting a raw deal, and if the current representatives of this county are too proud to go out there to the committee meetings and scrap for our cause, someone else should be doing it. Below is a table of all the championship games Offaly have played in both codes for the past six years. The figures included are stark. In that time, we have played 105 Championship games. 42 have been at neutral venues – and that’s counting Croke Park as notionally neutral for games against Dublin, and counting the Gaelic Grounds, two miles from the Clare border on the FAR side of Clare as neutral for a match against the Banner lads also. Even allowing those six ties as neutral, that still leaves 65 games that were either home or away. If we were truly getting a fair crack at the whip, one would assume that both the home and away fixtures would number in the low thirties. A little bias towards teams that were perceived as weaker at the time, and you might say 28 or 29 home fixtures. A little bit of bad luck with the draws, and maybe you only have 25 or 26 home fixtures. No.

20 home fixtures, 43 away from home.

Let that sink in for a minute. More than twice as often, in Championship matches, Offaly teams have been asked to play their fixtures on their opponents turf as opposed to on their own. There is a simple statistical test that can check the percentage chance that this would occur by chance, if there was in fact a 50% chance of any fixture being at home and there were no other factors entering into the decisions. That test is called a Binomial test, and it returns a value of 0.0768%, meaning in layman’s terms that the odds of these numbers coming up by pure bad luck are 1300/1 approximately.

Be under no illusion – we are being mollycoddled into thinking that we are a power, all so that we accept this kind of disgraceful bias against us.

As we all prepare to try and dodge the speeding guns and make it from Thurles to Portlaoise next Saturday in 40 minutes, it’s worth noting that the minor footballers have got it worst of all. 17 fixtures were set for our minor footballers over the time period measured and in that time eight games were fixed for neutral venues, nine away from home and not a single one in Offaly. The 2004 minor footballers did play one game at home, a replay after the first fixture was drawn in Mullingar, but that was a home game earned by way of an away draw, rather than one handed to them by a fixture committee.

The next few months will see a few huge battles for Offaly delegates. Vested interests will try and ensure that the 2008 NHL will see a playoff for promotion and relegation, meaning that Offaly will have to win Division 2 and use games against Westmeath and Wicklow as preparation for a do-or-die game against a division one team hardened by 8 top quality games – this must not be accepted. Counties currently in division 3 of the league will argue that the 2008 SFC qualifiers will involve teams that played in divisions 1,2, and 3 of that year’s league, thus meaning that Offaly would be in Tommy Murphy for two years in a row. This also must be fought and won.

These are only some of the examples coming up. Many battles have already been lost – Dublin’s under 21 hurlers played their semi final at home, Offaly had to travel to Nowlan Park to play Kilkenny. Logical thinking would suggest either a neutral venue for the final, or home advantage for the team who had to travel in the previous round – but no.

Nobody is suggesting that the name of Offaly GAA be tarnished by Frank Murphy-like antics where the rulebook is twisted to suit his own agenda, and most Offaly supporters would have agreed with the county’s decision not to fight the awarding of the league points to Longford after the Ken Casey affair earlier this year - dignity must not be sacrificed. However whoever was fighting our corner when the new league structure for the hurling was being laid out clearly needs to pay more attention, as the subsequent complaining at what was a nonsensical number of division one teams did make the county lose a lot of credibility. Complaining after the fact is not the way forward – making sure we are well looked after before the decision is taken is something we need to really improve on.

We are a great little county – but right now, only in terms of being a great little doormat for everyone else. Our players and supporters have long tried to defy the odds in terms of the population that other counties have, or our continued efforts to play both codes to a high level, but we can’t fight boardroom bias as well – but if our delegates don’t start fighting it soon, then it’s time to step aside and let someone else have a go.

[Lone Shark]

I may be mistaken on some of these, a few of them are done from memory - any corrections will be accepted....

[Sydthebeat]

well done on the research LS, it makes for stark sobering reading....

its time our county delegates got off their cosy holes and started fighting for our county... especially in the current atmosphere of the state our hurling and football codes... at least ensure that we have a level playing pitch (excuse the pun) as that with our opposition...

[turk]

Hey LS, is this going into the paper? I think it should. Good work.

[Lone Shark]

I might have to shorten the text a bit, since it wasn't written with the paper in mind, but I think it'll probably go in next week as opposed to this week. That's why if anyone has any corrections to make on the above, please do!!

[Bord na Mona man]

Great research which confirms what we've all already suspected. However I never realised it was as bad as this! When the deals about fixtures are being cut, are Offaly left outside the door?
I presume we have been too proud to look for weaker county designated status up to now.

This year's Leinster U21 final, set for Parnell Park is a good example of us getting shafted yet again. Offaly played Dublin in U21 in the same venue last year.
It seems it was assumed that Kilkenny and Dublin would be contesting the final, so the venue was set for Parnell Park. This is down to Dublin travelling to Nowlan Park for last year's final and not being happy about it.
So the Cats were happy to have Parnell Park fixed as the final venue. However when Offaly upset the apple cart it didn't change the venue.

There's no use complaining about it now. There probably wasn't a squeak from Offaly at the time the venues were being decided. The provision should have been, if it's a Dublin-Kilkenny final, allow them run off their home and away agreement, otherwise pick a neutral venue.

One thing you aren't counting are home replays against Westmeath MF (04) and Leix Senior football (03). We break even with these counties, because to fair to them, they stick to the home and away agreements.
However I bet we aren't looking for similar agreements with other counties and circumstances keep giving us away matches to them.

[turk]

I might have to shorten the text a bit, since it wasn't written with the paper in mind, but I think it'll probably go in next week as opposed to this week. That's why if anyone has any corrections to make on the above, please do!!

it would be great to get it in this week, as making the point about the fixturing of the minor match would be effective timing. In a week's time there may be a so what factor

[Lone Shark]

I might have to shorten the text a bit, since it wasn't written with the paper in mind, but I think it'll probably go in next week as opposed to this week. That's why if anyone has any corrections to make on the above, please do!!

it would be great to get it in this week, as making the point about the fixturing of the minor match would be effective timing. In a week's time there may be a so what factor

Tis all blocked up this week, between the senior, U-21 hurling and then coverage of the 25 year anniversary shindig last weekend as well. I agree it would have been better this week.


BnaM man, I'm not knocking that we did get a few home replays in there, however I do think that there is a big difference between getting handed home advantage straight away and having to earn it by way of going to your opponents ground and getting a draw.

The point about all this is not that we've lost a whole load of 50/50 calls - in theory. In theory we had a home minor match in 2004, but we had to earn it. In theory we had home advantage for the hurling qualifiers in 2005 but had to cede it due to the capacities of Birr/Tullamore - however what was wrong with making them all ticket? As it happened there would have been no-one locked out of either game. We were the non-designated county for several games, but why weren't we designated? It's not like we've won anything for years......

There always seems to be a reason why we're away - my question is where are all the games where there is a reason for us to be at home? Why do they never happen?

[The Biff]

Definitely worthy of the greater public seeing how we are letting ourselves be treated unfairly. Throw in BnMm's point about us being "... too proud to look for weaker county designated status up to now", it is clear that we need to re-evaluate our current standing before we hope to rise from the depths we have reached (obviously excepting the current flag-carriers of the U21H and U18F teams).

This all comes under the banner of "Preparation". It can be a difficult task to adjust the system during the 60-70 minutes of a game, but matters that can and should be handled fully away from the playing field are a different matter. We need to make sure that our own playing field(s) get a fairer share of usage and that every GAA fan in the county should be aware of the current discrepancies on that front.

Good work LS.

[Bord na Mona man]

BnaM man, I'm not knocking that we did get a few home replays in there, however I do think that there is a big difference between getting handed home advantage straight away and having to earn it by way of going to your opponents ground and getting a draw.

In the case of those replays, if there hadn't been a replay, Offaly would have gotten home advantage for the next meeting. On the spreadsheet it looks like 2 consecutive times we were forced to concede home advantage.

Just a minor point to illustrate that the home/away agreements seem to operate ok with Westmeath and Laois. With other counties I doubt they are enforced and we allow ourselves be disadvantaged.

The next time we meet Kildare, Wexford, Carlow, Limerick, Clare etc in a senior football qualifier, will it be in Tullamore because the previous fixture was away for us?
Probably not. We'll let it slide, because they're either supposedly weaker than us, or were drawn out of the hat first, or there was never Home/Away arrangement agreed on, or the fixture committee just set the matches that way.

The only home football qualifier Offaly have ever played was against London, who always have to concede home advantage.

[Lone Shark]

Good to see times have changed. I just had a look at the Leinster Council page going through the draws, mainly because I'm procrastinating some real work that I have to do, but anyway.......

How's this for a hitlist next year? (Not counting qualifiers obviously)

Senior Football

First game either home or away depending on opponent, any subsequent games neutral

Overall Balance: 0

Senior Hurling

First game away, any subsequent games neutral

Overall Balance: +1 Away

U-21 Football

First game away, semi final and final both away if reached.

Overall Balance: +4 Away

U-21 Hurling

First game away, semi final and final both home if reached.

Overall Balance: +3 Away

Minor Football

First game away, Backdoor tie away if reached, no subsequent ties decided

Overall Balance: +5 Away

Minor Hurling

One home fixture, one away fixture. All other fixtures undecided

Overall Balance: +5 Away


No matter whether you're pessimistic or optimistic, we're getting done again. If you think we're going to win all our games, we'll have to have five more away fixtures than home fixtures to do it. On the other hand, if you think we're in bad shape and going to lose all our games, we'll play one game in Offaly and SIX away from home in the Leinster championship at all grades, not counting the senior football which could go either way depending on whether we face Westmeath or Longford. Six months ago this was even raised in a county board meeting how we were getting shafted. Now I don't doubt that there are home and away agreements in there, and various other nonsense, but isn't it amazing how we never get the reverse of this? Where are all the years when all our games are in Birr and Tullamore?

It's bad enough that this hasn't been brought up already, but this needs to be raised now so that when fixtures like the minor hurling and football quater finals come up, assuming we get that far, that we get a bit of payback in fixtures like that. Likewise the senior hurling qualifiers.

If any county board members are reading this, I don't know who the delegates are that agreed to this, but can ye please slap them and tell them to cop the f**k on?