Offaly v Laois, NHL, 29/3/09

[Plain of the Herbs]

I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I heard a shout – “GEDDOFF DEM FECKIN’ DAFFODILS”.

Not how Wordsworth would have planned it, but then gain, league matches against Laois haven’t quite gone to plan before. It’s March, and the daffodils are in full bloom – and so are Laois.

They won’t be overawed playing Offaly in springtime either. Why should they be? Laois have won the last two league meetings, albeit each of those by a point – as good as twenty. The two meetings before those resulted in narrow Offaly wins while the one before that was a draw in Birr in 1994, PJ Cuddy’s late goal at the town end denying Offaly promotion. Whatever about the four summertime beatings Offaly have handed to the Laoismen in recent years, Laois have thrived, daffodils blooming.

While many have been keeping an eye on the fortunes of Wexford and Antrim as potential league final opponents, Laois have put themselves into contention for a final place, and would be hotly fancied to secure a final spot if they could leave Tullamore with the two points. They finish up their campaign with Antrim at home and Westmeath away, both they would be expected to win.

Niall Rigney is steadily restoring pride in Laois hurling, and the return after a lengthy injury of Matthew Whelan is a massive boost. This has been offset somewhat by the horrific injury sustained by Zane Keenan last week though. Never the most committed to the county cause, Keenan had been doing well this year, a sign that Rigney has been getting his message across.

A Laois win would also put Offaly under huge pressure to get a result in Wexford next week, as two successive Offaly defeats would see them finish third, behind both Laois and Wexford. On the other hand, the pressure will be on Laois to get a result on Sunday – generally their springtime encounters with Offaly have come with no pressure attached, and the performance has followed suit.

To say news of Offaly’s win away to Down was welcome was something of an understatement. Down has been something of a graveyard for Offaly hurling on any visits and detail of that win was even more impressive. Offaly controlling of the game. Ten points, all from play, scored into the sea breeze in the first half to turn around on level terms. A total of 2-21 scored, comparing favourably with the 3-22 scored against Westmeath and the 4-20 scored against Kerry in earlier rounds. Cathal Parlon’s good performance is a welcome development, as is Stephen Wynne’s good form.

The injuries to Rory Hanniffy, Brendan Murphy and David Kenny are a cause for concern. Hanniffy has injected a burst of pace into low key games at crucial stages which has left weaker opposition floundering. Murphy has been missing all year and needs the games, as does David Kenny, who needs the match practice against good opposition in the full back spot.

Similar levels of determination and control of the game to that of last Sunday should ensure a good solid performance from Offaly with the result following suit, on the day summer time kicks in, pre-empting the propagation of the cherry blossoms and the demise of the daffodils.

Nature’s way.

[black and red exile]

Very impressive report as usual Poth, but as much as you make it look interesting it's very difficult to get too excited with this one. Let's be honest Laois are crap, they only beat Kerry by 5 points last Sunday and Kerry missed two very good goalscoring chances in the last 10 minutes, they beat a woeful Carlow team by 3 points and only got over Down by 6 points in Portlaoise after a tough battle over the 70 minutes and if im not mistaken Wexford gave them a dreadful beating down in Wexford Park. Offaly have been going along quite nicely without actually breaking any sweat so far, our toughest game possibly against Westmeath but still ended up with 11 points to spare. I can see Sunday's game being every bit as comfortable as the Carlow game at least, with at least 10 points between us at the final whistle. I think if most people are honest the Wexford game on Sunday week will be our big test to date, they will be desperate to beat us after losing to Antrim who afterwards turned out to be useless too after losing to Carlow last week.

[Kevin]

Time for a serious thrashin'.

[Kemo Sabe]

good win but not a great performance .laois wer very poor and we could have easily won by 20 points .all we can do is beat whats in front of us and we have done that to date .you could see by the players that the knew they could win at a canter and that resulted in low tempo .wexford will be alot harder nextweek but im sure we are more than good enough to get a result in wexford park .ps lose the boots shane

[black and red exile]

Roll on next week for a decent test at last. The writing was on the wall when we got 2 goals in the last six minutes of the first half to send us in 7 points up at half time. The second half was like a puck around in the phoenix park on a midsummers day and even Offaly people were that bored they were leaving with 10 minutes to go. We have got to get out of this mickey mouse division this year because even the players go into snooze mode and and start getting lazy which results in getting some nasty habits which is very difficult to get away from and of course the problem is that when you come up against the big boys in the summer you get a major reality check.

[Over The Black Spot]

Disappointingly, Laois reverted to type when the pressure came on towards the end of the first half and from there to the finish pulled some dangerous strokes and seemed happy enough to concede the result, preferring instead to dish out some punishment. Our forwards in particular were getting soused under the dropping ball and it was one of the days you hated to see Ger Oakley or Kevin Brady with the ball because you just knew Cathal Parlon or Derek Molloy or Dan Currams were going to left waiting under a sky high clearance, acting only as fodder to the Laois backs. Those three in particular were on the receiveing end of some wild enough efforts. I'm not saying for a second I'd have a problem with hard hurling (as opposed to what was practiced by our neighbours yesterday) and considering the traditional Offaly style that would be a little rich but Laois, for my money anyway, had only one thing in mind once it became apparent that defeat was their lot. They did have a willing accomplice in the ref though, so maybe it wasn't all their fault.

As for the actual hurling it was a poor game and in fairness, Offaly could only win as they did. One encouraging aspect was the forward play. Granted the opposition weren't great but our forwards were constantly on the move and creating space and looking for goal chances. It will be harder to get the some fluidity against a better backline but next Sunday should tell us a bit more about where we are.