Offaly minor Hurlers 2013

[Bord na Mona man]

Whatever about the Tellamore-Burr debate, it's a pity that young players are being used as pawns in it.
Once again the bigger issue gets overlooked.
You hear plenty from the local names on the venue issue, but rarely have I heard much intelligent or incisive about why our younger players continually struggle at underage. The venue has little or nothing to do with that.

[Lone Shark]

One of three things is clearly happening here. Either:

(1) We have an incredibly arrogant group of minor hurlers with a huge sense of self-importance, who feel that they would be happy to set an incredible precedent over a diktat laid down by the Leinster council. In fairness, our senior hurlers didn't go on strike when the Gaelic Grounds was considered to be a neutral venue for a game against Clare, or when Portlaoise was considered a home venue for a game against the same opposition, so the idea of striking at a home game in Tullamore is madness.

(2) We have perfectly normal teenagers, but we have people behind them, either parents, mentors, club officials or someone else, who are happy to undermine their efforts in order to score points in a debate.

(3) There was no discussion of anything approximating a strike, and certain people are making up lies in an attempt to stir up trouble.


Regardless of which of these three scenarios is the truth, it's not a nice vista.

[Plain of the Herbs]

It's all those grassy knolls in Birr.

Oh wait. They've all been covered in concrete. Nooooo!

[clearhead]

If we beat Laois is it an open draw for who we meet?

[townman]

i see the supporters voted with there feet on saturday

[suckindiesel]

i reckon you will not have to worry about any future opponents after saturday week. though reading lonesharks report on the westmeath antrim senior game, he will no doubt be tipping a double defeat for laois on the night. and he will be proven wrong.

[Plain of the Herbs]

What' that supposed to mean, Sucker?

i reckon you will not have to worry about any future opponents after saturday week. though reading lonesharks report on the westmeath antrim senior game, he will no doubt be tipping a double defeat for laois on the night. and he will be proven wrong.

[old yellar]

Was peter burke not the ref down in my beloved dr cullen last sat and not in tullamore??

[Plain of the Herbs]

Peter Burke's name was on the teamsheet, OY. Now I've just had a look at the Leinster GAA site and I see Peter Burke was down to do the match in Carlow while Killian Jones was down to be in Tullamore. And I must admit I wouldn't recognise either if faced with them in an identifit parade.

Now, Peter Burke did the Offaly v Carlow match a fortnight ago. Furthermore, last Saturday's teamsheet listed to Dublin half-back line's clubs as Naomh Bríd, Mt Leinster Rangers and Ballinkillen! Apparently someone here has trouble using 'cut and paste', so maybe the same happened regarding the referee's name.

I am assured by a Kilkenny friend that Peter Burke is not a competent referee, and the fella in Tullamore last Saturday fitted the bill. I hasten to add that wasn't the reason for Offaly's defeat. Dublin had as much reason to feel frustrated as neither side knew what the referee was going to do next.

Was peter burke not the ref down in my beloved dr cullen last sat and not in tullamore??

[Lone Shark]

i see the supporters voted with there feet on saturday

I'm guessing that this is a seat-of-the-pants style judgement, and not an actual observation based on the official attendances at the two games? If it's the latter, I'd be very impressed but please, do fill us in on the numbers.

i reckon you will not have to worry about any future opponents after saturday week. though reading lonesharks report on the westmeath antrim senior game, he will no doubt be tipping a double defeat for laois on the night. and he will be proven wrong.

Not at all. Despite what you've posted previously, I actually have no "feelings" one way or another for Laois as a county, and any of my predictions are based on logic and as much information as I can get my hands on. I actually took in three Laois NFL games this year and while they didn't get relegated, I tipped that up for value reasons and I'm not convinced that I was wrong - Derry and Westmeath were the best teams in the group and nothing that I saw from anyone else would suggest to me that there was a lot between the sides. Due to where I grew up and other factors, for me the local derbies that count for Offaly are against Westmeath and Roscommon, derbies with Laois meant no more nor no less to me than games against, Louth, Wicklow, Meath or Longford. There is nothing personal at play here.

Secondly, I've seen the Antrim hurlers live a couple of times this year, and I've seen Laois twice - and based on both those performances and the hurlers involved, you are correct in your assessment that I will be tipping up Antrim, presuming of course that the bookies price it relatively close, as I expect will be the case. Antrim were quite impressive in stretches on Sunday and that was with some generally strong players hurling very poorly. They've unearthed a real diamond in Jackson McGreevy at midfield and they have two fine hurlers at 6 and 11, which are the key positions in modern hurling. Laois are well served at 6, but not nearly as well at centre forward. I like a lot of the pace and incisiveness in the Laois attack, but there is a real craft to the way Antrim play the game - they link up extremely well and right now I rate them quite highly.

However the minor, I'm sorry to say, looks like a Laois win all day. And you may take it that Laois will be strong favourites with the bookies as well, and rightly so. Our lads are not without hope, but they are big underdogs, based on form, and indeed pedigree at the various ages up along the line for this group.

[suckindiesel]

the minor gaem will be close, though truth be told, whichever wins, the victory will be shortlived as a heavy semi final defeat awaits the winners.

on the senior, knowing quite a few of the glensmen, i think their weakness is a fondness for fouling and dodgy flanks at the rearguard. the outcome depends on the referee, whistle happy and laois will win, a ref that lets it flow will suit antrim. you saw that at the end of the offaly league game at casement. and i totally disagree with you about our centeback matt whelan, i see him as one of our weakest links on a summer sod. he is to laois what joe brady has been of late to offaly, a very good club hurler, a winter county hurler, but play him in the summer and the lack of pace is exploited to the limit.

and again i disagree with you about westmeath, they fluked qualification for division 1, a soft pen against laois, and a dubious sending off in that game and another one down in wexford, gave them an outrageous dollop of fortune. i would rate them as no better than the 4th best team in the division. had they been alloted 4 aways and 3 homes, they could easily have been in division 3. my banker for the summer is that dublin will hammer them in the quarter final, easily covering a 6 or 7 point handicap, take the midfielder heslin out of that team and they have precious little, especially if they fall behind in a game.

[Lone Shark]

the minor gaem will be close, though truth be told, whichever wins, the victory will be shortlived as a heavy semi final defeat awaits the winners.

on the senior, knowing quite a few of the glensmen, i think their weakness is a fondness for fouling and dodgy flanks at the rearguard. the outcome depends on the referee, whistle happy and laois will win, a ref that lets it flow will suit antrim. you saw that at the end of the offaly league game at casement. and i totally disagree with you about our centeback matt whelan, i see him as one of our weakest links on a summer sod. he is to laois what joe brady has been of late to offaly, a very good club hurler, a winter county hurler, but play him in the summer and the lack of pace is exploited to the limit.

and again i disagree with you about westmeath, they fluked qualification for division 1, a soft pen against laois, and a dubious sending off in that game and another one down in wexford, gave them an outrageous dollop of fortune. i would rate them as no better than the 4th best team in the division. had they been alloted 4 aways and 3 homes, they could easily have been in division 3. my banker for the summer is that dublin will hammer them in the quarter final, easily covering a 6 or 7 point handicap, take the midfielder heslin out of that team and they have precious little, especially if they fall behind in a game.

Re minors, a lot depends on the manner of the victory for whoever comes through on Saturday week. If the winners come through showing a bit of panache and flair, maybe addressing a few weak links in the process, then they'd have a chance against Wexford. Not a big chance, but a chance nonetheless. But while the game may be close, I'd say now you can be fairly confident that Laois will start as 8/15 or 1/2 favourites.

I would of course defer to your superior wisdom regarding Whelan, but if that's the case, then ye're in danger of a big defeat in O'Moore Park. Neal McManus alternated between the corner and centre forward against Westmeath but he did his best work on the 45m line, pulling McGrath all over the shop and causing great big holes, while getting on a lot of ball himself. Neither are they as bad for fouling as was once the case. They conceded four scorable frees to Westmeath and frankly most of the frees we got in the latter stages of the game at Casement were soft to say the least of it. There's joy to be had attacking the left flank of their defence certainly, but I wouldn't have seen anything from the lads on the right to suggest that they were a weak link.

Regarding Westmeath footballers, your logic doesn't stand up. They had three away games, one of which was moot since they had already qualified for the final, so they dropped their entire half forward line, which has been their engine room. In the other two, they got a break against Wexford sure, but they made it count - many teams wouldn't. In Tuam they came out with an odd setup and alignment and were well beaten in the first half - once they brought on David Duffy to play as a more orthodox midfielder and got John Heslin to cop on and start playing football instead of acting the maggot, they absolutely sliced through Galway. If that game went on for five more minutes Westmeath would have won easily. So their away form was fine.

Maybe they got a bit of luck against ye, but in a league were the teams are evenly matched, luck is a huge factor. Ye got to play Armagh when they weren't trying a yard, which isn't ye're fault but it was a handy two points that some other teams didn't get. I saw the game in OMP against Louth and the two sides were very evenly matched, and while ye were very good against Galway, I remain convinced that Westmeath and Derry were that bit better, and Longford were that bit worse - so anyone could have made the drop out of the other five. As it happened, and much to my chagrin since we'll no doubt have to go there next year and I hate the trip, Wexford were the ones to fall.

I'm not disagreeing that Dublin may beat them and cover the spread - but right now Dublin are six or seven points better than any team in division two, and possibly a full ten to twelve points better than some of the weaker Leinster counties like ourselves, Longford, Louth and Wicklow. And right now if you were to ask me can they be beaten, I'd say Westmeath have a slight chance, Kildare have a chance, and no-one else really has a hope. I expect ye'll be there to meet them in a Leinster final, but there too I'd say a seven or eight point defeat is likely.

[suckindiesel]

looking at your thread on the offaly minor football team, some questioning the preparation, gymwork etc. when you beat meath in the previous round, not many questioned then. that's by the by, saw meath beat a poor laois minor team, on that form meath will be lucky to come out of Mullingar the next day.

reverting to preparation and looking ahead to the off-laois minor game on Saturday. I think both squads are average at best in terms of quality, and save for Kildare, would be rank outsiders to beat any of the other 3 teams still left in the leinster championship.

if laois get beaten by a modest offaly, on home turf, we might as well throw our hat at it....why?....well pat critchley and his backroom team have had prepared this team since the 1st of October 2012. the other night was the 150th squad session since( liberal use of session, including games etc). they have done all the gym work, and ought to be physically, on a different plane to offaly, who I am told have done zip. last midweek, laois travelled down to munster, and defeated a county amongst the favourites for the munster title. 50% of that performance level will get the job done on Saturday. many fools, will point to history etc, looking for an angle why offaly might win.....history is bunkum, the offaly of today underage, is leagues beneath the polished outfits of the 90s.

barring a freeze, I expect laois to win comfortably, 6 to 8 points, and then give wexford a test before losing by a similar margin in the semi final.

to lone shark, you may be correct about antrim in the senior, as laois will be without our best forward and we were woeful in a defeat last week to a Tipperary 4th string.

[puzzled]

Any word on a team being named yet?

[Plain of the Herbs]

3 changes. Kiely (injured), Feenane and Conneely are out. Kelly (back from injury), Hughes and Guinan called up. They line out -

Eoghan Cahill (Birr)

Craig Taylor (Birr)
Daniel Doughan (Shinrone)
Rían Kelly (St Rynagh’s)

Emmet Nolan (Birr) (captain)
Conor Doughan (Shinrone)
Dónal Mahon (Lusmagh)

Alan Spain (Kilcormac-Killoughey)
Ronan Hughes (St Rynagh’s)

David Kelly (Belmont)
Colm Daly (St Rynagh’s)
Pádraic Guinan (Drumcullen)

Jordan Fogarty (Shinrone)
James Kilmartin (Kilcormac-Killoughey)
Dylan Murray (Kilcormac-Killoughey)



SUBS;

Oisín Mahon (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
Ben Conneely (St Rynagh’s)
Conor Freeman (Carrig & Riverstown)
Eóin Carroll (Shinrone)
Jamie Coyne (Tullamore)
Shane Ryan (Seir Kieran)
Eóin Parlon (Coolderry)
Danny Spain (Brosna Gaels)
Scott Feenane (Birr)
Adrian Cleary (Shinrone)
Cillian Kiely (Kilcormac-Killoughey)
Conor Molloy (Coolderry)
Johnny O'Toole (Shamrocks)
David O'Toole (Shamrocks)