Offaly Club Hurling Championship 2025

[jimbob17]

Sure they havent played a football match in 3 weeks. Dont think its anything to do with football because hurling had priority in many players heads all year from what ive heard and with 8 Offaly seniors on board, it wouldnt have been lack of hurling...... I'd say the ploughing championships had more of an affect on them than the football championship!

Mark Troy, Ciaran Burke, Ross Ravenhill, Dan Ravenhill, Brian Duignan and Dan Bourke are all regulars for Offaly. Jack Fogarty and Sam Bourke were also Ofaly seniors for last 2 years or more. That is 8 of this years panel. Chris McDonald and John Murphy also played championship hurling for Offaly in the past and the rest would have played minor or U20 for the county. They have way more talent than they showed today. Lots of teams have had big talent pools before and never won a county championship. KK for one in the 2000s while I can think of others in other counties that similar occurred. Unless the players really show a bit bottle and leadership and pull together and are willing to go to war for each other, then theyll never win one and time will pass them by like many more before. They were totally outfought today which is a sad indictment. A lesser talented Coolderry or likes would never lie down like Ballinamere did today. They lost the majority of the battles and KK just simply wanted it a lot more than Ballinamere. When the chips were down and battlers were needed, they didnt have enough of them!

It is one thing to be beaten, its another to be totally outfought and maybe Offaly would be better off if there were a few less Ballinamere lads on the Offaly team based on todays showing. There is a narrative out there around Ballinamere being this that and the other and all the things they are doing right. If you were another club you'd be tired of hearing about them to be fair. Fair enough, theyve come from a low base but with 8 county players, they should be doing better than they did today. As far as I am aware, the manager has been there a few years now and wasn't overly popular with some players. It may take a fresh voice to reignite them. Kevin McDermott was central to them getting to final last year and whatever went on that resulted in him not hurling this year, should be resolved. It shouldnt take a lot to get Ballinamere to test the best in Offaly and if they get themselves right and get playing for each other, then they'll contend again. The fear is that thered be a few out there that think they are better than they are and that itll be inevitable that they will eventually win a championship. There is no such thing as a sure thing and lots of them are 24-26 age bracket now so if they dont do it in next 2 or 3 years, then they might never win one. Championships are hard won and unless you show a bit of steel and balls for the battle, you'll get what Ballinamere got today. It should be a lesson for them and the rest of the teams left in the championship who come up against KK.

[Wingbackassassin]

KK destroy Ballianmere. Scoreline of 2-29 to 3-17 flatters Ballinamere who got a couple of late goals. Ballinamere didn't lay a finger on KK the whole game. KK utterly dominant and at ease. After last years final and with the whole Durrow Ballinamere debacle one would think Ballinamere would come out all guns blazing but honestly there seemed to be an attitude of surrender from very early on and some of them looked like they didn't want to be there.
Hard to see anyone beating KK. Ballinamere with 7 county starters put up very little resistance so there cant be much hope for anyone else. If Shinrone get them you'd imagine they'd at least put up some sort of fight.

Ballinamere have 5 county starters not 7.
Every other team left is arguably better than Ballinamere

Mark Troy, Ciaran Burke, Sam Bourke, Dan Bourke, Ross Ravenhill, Dan Ravenhill, Brian Duignan all started for Offaly when fit and available last year That's 7 players. Add in Jack Fogarty along with John Murphy and Aaron Maher who have also played senior for Offaly and it's baffling how KK made Ballinamere look so ordinary.

[private joker]

Looks like mgt have lost the dressing room. Since M Duignan joined as joint manager around semi final stage last year they lost county final, lost all league matches and have had a very poor championship. They will have a lot to sort out between the two clubs.

[KeshaWantsTimber]

Thought it was a strange move today to play County full back C Burke in corner on Screeney and McDonald on James Gorman. Neither looked comfortable at all and I felt it unsettled their defence from the off.

[oneshot]

when its all done and dusted and looking forward to 2026 with offaly johnny kelly will have to have cillian kiely back where he belongs in the number 6 for offaly he was outstanding today he control the hole game today and i tell you what he has balls and guts for it . game today was over after 20 minutes .

[SearingDrive]

Looks like mgt have lost the dressing room. Since M Duignan joined as joint manager around semi final stage last year they lost county final, lost all league matches and have had a very poor championship. They will have a lot to sort out between the two clubs.

Ballinamere have fallen off a lot from Co. Finalists last year. The difficulties if that is the right word, with dual players must have impacted the team.

Ml. Duignan is joint manager, with Niall Rigney. When did that happen?

[Henry 12]

Ballinamere need to get rid of the two egomaniac managers and that might bring them back down to earth.

[jimbob17]

Duignan to my knowledge is not the manager or jooint manager, and is a selector with the Ballinamere team. The manager is Niall Rigney from Laois. Few on here seem to be having hard pop at Duignan for some reason. Like him or not, you have to credit him with having major influence on the turnaround of Offaly GAAs furtunes over last few years.

[Behindthegoal]

Between the two clubs they won 2/9 championship matches against Seir Kieran and Tullamore. With all the talk they are going to do this and that it was an absolute shambles of a year and could set them back even further in the future. When the majority of neutrals are rooting for Kilcormac that tells you all you need to know, they have players that not many are fond of let’s put it that way.

[private joker]

M duignan is named on the match day programme as joint manager. Has been since he joined the mgt team at semi final stage last year.
Ballinamere need to address their current situation in the off season or they will find the years slipping by and their county final appearance will be a distance memory.

[Buttons]

I think the papers and then personnel built ballinamere up a lot, in fairness though on paper they should be doing better.

Going back to last year they drew with birr, first game so wouldn’t make too much of it, but a real 50:50 game that could have gone anyway. Not sure of the order but got across the line with Belmont without playing well but then by far the best game was shinrone were they clicked. A county semi final against rynaghs were age showed and ballinamere won in the last 5-10 mins.

This year everyone knows, going back to yesterday I can’t put my finger on mgt or players being an issue. There seemed a lack of hunger to go help a team mate resulting in a 3 or 4 v1 turnover. People here are talking are they good enough for Offaly but when you are getting swallowed up quickly without help you are in an uphill battle. Kiely played well, why, because he used his years and was a free man 90% of the time, settled the team and agree if fit has to be centre back for Offaly again.

As for the elder members of the kk team, they rolled back the years and are crucial in this team and for the months ahead.

As for the reason why both teams have struggled year to date I think injuries, lads away from panel and travelling affected ballinamere and likewise with kk. With kk however was the plan to start peaking from about now to semi final stage with a strong focus on Leinster. Remember the last manager, winning Offaly wasn’t enough.

[backofthenet]

Cillian Kiely playing centre back for offaly is a pipe dream. Simply doesnt have the mobility for intercounty and this has been shown time and time again. A great club player on his day but will be a club player only

[Hurling2024]

Thought it was a strange move today to play County full back C Burke in corner on Screeney and McDonald on James Gorman. Neither looked comfortable at all and I felt it unsettled their defence from the off.

Think it was a case of put our best player in the full back line on their best player in the full forward line. Don’t think it was the right call myself as you’re forcing Burke to chase after Screeney for the hour while KK seemed happy enough to let C Mahon and Mitchell tee off shots from the half forward line and Burke - who I think is a fine hurler, was as good as non existent. Also gave KK the choice to launch high balls into Gorman, without the fear of the county full back being on top of him. Strange decision from management I thought

[Hurling2024]

Cillian Kiely playing centre back for offaly is a pipe dream. Simply doesnt have the mobility for intercounty and this has been shown time and time again. A great club player on his day but will be a club player only

Think it’ll be a very interesting choice for next year with Kiely back fit. Think he could play centre back if he had the pace around him on the wings, and a young midfielder like Spain dropping back deeper could eliminate his need to be overly mobile.

My big question is do you even want him centre back next year if you’re Kelly ? I thought Donal Shirley was our best player over the course of the full season last year and wouldn’t be opposed to him having the 6 again next year.

I think it’d be interesting to see him at full back though, less need for mobility, and with Troy opting for a lot of short puck outs we are all well aware Kiely has the strength to play route 1 hurling and get the ball into the half or full forward line.

[oneshot]

a fit cillian kiely would be a number 6 for offaly with shirley on the wing. he was top player in 2024 and only for him laois would have won the mcdonagh cup in croker. he was injured last year and wasn't fit. if you look at alot of offaly games this year and alot of play came straight down the centre in their games again dublin kilkenny wexford galway.even last game again antrim with 15 men antrim were running through them. he brings a bit of cutting for offaly and strength to the half back line as like yesterday when he left brian duignan on his arse. his as good or better than ross ravenhill or ciaran burke who are starters on the offaly senior team.