Offaly Senior A Hurling Championship 2024

[jimbob17]

Sure I never said anything about inside or outside the county. You are inventing that aswell.....

[Superhans75]

Shinrone very static and got caught out yesterday.
KK look so far ahead of everyone else we might have to bring a handicap system in
.
Great to see a club run so well and have the youngsters coming through.
It sought makes people wonder why birr
And tullamore are in such declines considering there population. Base ..
Or are they ran as they say in politics like rotten boroughs?
Have a good weekend

[greenairfield]

Would Birr and Tullamore not be the ones competing the most with KK across competive level underage? While there is going to be a gap of 5/10 years for kk to blossom these clubs would be ahead of the rest at underage.

[Plain of the Herbs]

One group is going to finish in a straightforward 8 6 4 2 0 in terms of group points, while the other is very much up in the air. Possible it will finish 5 5 4 3 3. And that may change if Belmont and Ballinamere end level this evening – something you couldn’t rule out on a showery, windy evening.

Kinnitty are tipping along nicely. Dogged, determined. I wasn’t surprised they troubled Shinrone last evening. They might have won it too, if they could afford to play Shane Kinsella 20 yards further upfield. Then again, Kinsella was covering around is own ‘45 to fill gaps and win ball when the game was in the melting pot.

The season after being dethroned as champions is a tricky one – gone is the feelgood factor of being title holders, something that carried them through quarter-final and semi-final scrapes last year. They’ll do well to gain the required number of points to qualify. They showed about a dozen cameos of brilliance, moves executed at pace, many resulting in scores. But such cameos generally lasted about 20 seconds, before the pace and urgency dropped again. And they did nothing following Killian Sampson’s enforced departure. New manager too, who mightn’t have got to grips with his charges.

At this stage, forecasts of how Kilcormac-Killoughey will perform in November are premature. And while they are a team of all talents, Conor Mahon remains their most valuable player. His movement, ball winning, distribution and reading of the game are key to them. Look at Cillian Kiely’s goal. Daniel Hand was sited at right full-forward at the time, but made the space by moving out to the left half-forward position.

Appears to me that St Rynagh’s started roughly nine who are over 30. And roughly three who are under 21. And way too many who are over the hill. Which doesn’t bode well for long term prospects. In the short term, they will come second in the group. They just had nowhere to go on Friday evening – conceded too many puckouts to Ter Guinan, then conceded one to the full-back which Conor Slevin pointed. And no matter whether they went long or short off their own ball, all they could see was the Kilcormac-Killoughey half-back line when they looked upfield.

[greenairfield]

B/D pull away in the end...Belmont sloppy.

Not the best standard of hurling. One example on show is how many players holding the hurl the wrong way swapping hands when striking.

Ravenhill top class in the second half with great shooting, Sam Bourke brilliant and Duignan at times looked dangerous, Jack fogarty decent at CB too.

Belmont now need a win the next day or they will be in a relegation battle.

[frankthetank]

More than likely Belmont now need to win both their last 2 games just to avoid relegation final. Can’t see
It happening to be honest.

[Buttons]

Was great to see Dan back and firing over long range points.

Belmont in big trouble and surely in the relegation final.

[faithfulfanatic]

Adrian Cleary is back in the country and will be a big boost to Shinrone.

Injured his ankle in an Australian final 3-4 weeks ago so could be a few more weeks before he’s back playing.

[frankthetank]

Insomnia strikes.

Team of the Championship after Round 2.

1. Mark Troy (Ballinamere)
2. Tom Spain (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
3. Paddy Rigney (Kinnitty)
4. Stephen Connolly (Coolderry)
5. Ter Guinan (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
6. Cillian Kiely (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
7. Brian Coughlan (Kinnitty)
8. Dan Ravenhill (Ballinamere)
9. Colin Spain (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
10. Leigh Kavanagh ( Kilcormac/Killoughey)
11. Conor Mahon (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
12. Colin Egan (Belmont)
13. Kevin Connolly (Coolderry)
14. Charlie Mitchell (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
15. Adam Screeney (Kilcormac/Killoughey)

[faithfulfanatic]

Insomnia strikes.

Team of the Championship after Round 2.

1. Mark Troy (Ballinamere)
2. Tom Spain (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
3. Paddy Rigney (Kinnitty)
4. Stephen Connolly (Coolderry)
5. Ter Guinan (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
6. Cillian Kiely (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
7. Brian Coughlan (Kinnitty)
8. Dan Ravenhill (Ballinamere)
9. Colin Spain (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
10. Leigh Kavanagh ( Kilcormac/Killoughey)
11. Conor Mahon (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
12. Colin Egan (Belmont)
13. Kevin Connolly (Coolderry)
14. Charlie Mitchell (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
15. Adam Screeney (Kilcormac/Killoughey)

Hard to argue with any of those picks.

Other players I’ve been impressed with:
Paddy Delaney (Kinnitty)
Danny Flanagan (Kinnitty)
Conor Hardiman (Kinnitty)
Brian Duignan (Ballinamere)
Ciaran Burke (Ballinamere)
Conor Slevin (KK)
Eoghan Cahill (Birr)
Eoin Burke (Coolderry)
Paul Cleary (Shinrone)

[Plain of the Herbs]

Belmont entered 2022's Senior semi-final on the back of four straight wins. Since losing that semi-final, they've won just once in six games, that a 1-18 to 1-16 win over Clareen in last year's first round. Granted they missed Oisín Kelly for the entirety of last year, but they were without him for the run of four straight wins in 2022 as well. But David Nally leaves an almighty void now.

Relegation will only be an issue if Kilcormac-Killoughey don't win the Senior B.

More than likely Belmont now need to win both their last 2 games just to avoid relegation final. Can’t see It happening to be honest.

[frankthetank]

Belmont entered 2022's Senior semi-final on the back of four straight wins. Since losing that semi-final, they've won just once in six games, that a 1-18 to 1-16 win over Clareen in last year's first round. Granted they missed Oisín Kelly for the entirety of last year, but they were without him for the run of four straight wins in 2022 as well. But David Nally leaves an almighty void now.

Relegation will only be an issue if Kilcormac-Killoughey don't win the Senior B.

More than likely Belmont now need to win both their last 2 games just to avoid relegation final. Can’t see It happening to be honest.

And if memory serves that win vs Clareen contained some very strange refereeing decisions.

As things stand I couldn’t see Belmont losing to Clareen/Tullamore in a relegation final but if they lose both their remaining group games they would be in a really bad place heading into said final.

When you get stuck in a hurling rut it can be incredibly difficult get yourself out of it. Particularly in the space of 4 to 6 weeks.

Also I wouldn’t be entirely convinced that K/K will win the Senior B. Yes they are rightfully favourites and they may well win it but I have a feeling one of CG or C&R could catch them. Just a hunch though.

Also any of the teams in Belmont’s group could end up in the relegation final. None of them could confidently say they will avoid it. It’s not exactly a wild prediction to say Ballinamere won’t win another group game. Or Kinnitty.

[Faithful Future]

Insomnia strikes.

Team of the Championship after Round 2.

1. Mark Troy (Ballinamere)
2. Tom Spain (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
3. Paddy Rigney (Kinnitty)
4. Stephen Connolly (Coolderry)
5. Ter Guinan (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
6. Cillian Kiely (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
7. Brian Coughlan (Kinnitty)
8. Dan Ravenhill (Ballinamere)
9. Colin Spain (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
10. Leigh Kavanagh ( Kilcormac/Killoughey)
11. Conor Mahon (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
12. Colin Egan (Belmont)
13. Kevin Connolly (Coolderry)
14. Charlie Mitchell (Kilcormac/Killoughey)
15. Adam Screeney (Kilcormac/Killoughey)

Definitely hard to argue with that. A concern would be that a lot of those lads are the wrong side of 30 and a few into mid 30s.... Granted we have a strong crop coming through u20, we really need a couple of lads in the 20-25 age group who have a few years of senior hurling and physical development work done to be putting their hands up for county selection over the course of the championship; a 'bolter' if you will.

[frankthetank]

1) Offaly are the current back to back Leinster U20 and current All Ireland U20 hurling champions. We are also the current Joe McDonagh hurling champions.

2) I have 20:20 vision.

[TownieInOz]

Belmont entered 2022's Senior semi-final on the back of four straight wins. Since losing that semi-final, they've won just once in six games, that a 1-18 to 1-16 win over Clareen in last year's first round. Granted they missed Oisín Kelly for the entirety of last year, but they were without him for the run of four straight wins in 2022 as well. But David Nally leaves an almighty void now.

Relegation will only be an issue if Kilcormac-Killoughey don't win the Senior B.

More than likely Belmont now need to win both their last 2 games just to avoid relegation final. Can’t see It happening to be honest.

And if memory serves that win vs Clareen contained some very strange refereeing decisions.

As things stand I couldn’t see Belmont losing to Clareen/Tullamore in a relegation final but if they lose both their remaining group games they would be in a really bad place heading into said final.

When you get stuck in a hurling rut it can be incredibly difficult get yourself out of it. Particularly in the space of 4 to 6 weeks.

Also I wouldn’t be entirely convinced that K/K will win the Senior B. Yes they are rightfully favourites and they may well win it but I have a feeling one of CG or C&R could catch them. Just a hunch though.

Also any of the teams in Belmont’s group could end up in the relegation final. None of them could confidently say they will avoid it. It’s not exactly a wild prediction to say Ballinamere won’t win another group game. Or Kinnitty.

It is a wild prediction, I’d be shocked if Ballinamere don’t win another group game and I doubt I’d be the only one. Although I do agree that it that it wouldn’t be a shock if kinnity weren’t to.