Offaly Club Hurling Championship 2025

[Faithful Future]

Not familiar with the Shirley situation so I won't comment.

On the additions to the panel based on Sunday, I would certainly look at the Landys from Shinrone and I would even consider Alex Kavanagh. This might raise a few eyebrows as he's not on the first 15 for KK, however he's competing with arguably the two of the best inside forwards in the county. At both u20 and club senior level, any chance Alex Kavanagh has got he has taken and he's a real neat hurler.

Truth be told, these days a first year on a senior intercounty panel is merely developmental so any of the above additions would be with exposure to a higher standard of training and physical conditioning in mind.

It goes without saying that Diggy Hand is worth a look. Ciaran Cleary is an interesting one, although age might be against him

[Runner_bean]

Didn’t Brosna Gaels not so long ago come all the way from junior B to senior ranks, I wouldn’t be knocking the junior grade at all. It’s a platform for some clubs, if you have some success at underage level you can build a team from junior upwards. It’s not as if we have been setting the world alight at senior county level for the last 25 years with the majority of the team coming from senior clubs in the county, we were playing Christy Ring a few years ago. If he’s that good he should be well able to elevate the team to at least senior B, or move to another club where success is never a guarantee either

Correct, at least make some attempt to improve the level your team is at, from what i gather he didnt even try to help them and instead opted to train and play with the footballers most likely hoping Brosna Gaels wouldn’t win the junior, now they are intermediate which is the same level another prominent backs man for Offaly plays so what now??

[Gobbler]

Brosna Gaels train Monday and Thursdays plus whatever games they play after that.

Bernard Allen was probably their best forward this year. He missed a number of trainings coming up to the semi final and was duly dropped. Quite harshly in my opinion but message is clear to all that training is required by all.

They take their hurling very serious.

Dont underestimate how serious brosna gaels take their hurling. it may be an amalgamation of clubs but they have alot of people who are hurling mad and have worked very hard in the interest of hurling in their area. They were senior for a number of years despite multiple clubs juggling senior football at the time and trying to compete with South teams solely focusing on the small ball. They have always been ambitious about their hurling recruiting some decent coaches like former westmeath manager Seamus qualter who had good success at senior intercounty management. So I certainly would never question the clubs ambition and hurling focus.

we have seen lots of senior dual clubs down the years trying to balance both codes and hurling always got very little training time as football was prioritised but they still managed to hurl at senior level. Belmont, and shamrocks in noughties followed by clara and then brosna gaels for few years always gave football priority and I know alot of those players would tell you they had the bare numbers at hurling training and managed only light puckarounds and then were competing with the traditional hurling strongholds. maybe fixture scheduling could be a little more favourable to assist dual clubs. back to back weeks alternating is very hard balance and be competitive if drawing from the same pool of players. some clubs now have much bigger numbers however.

[Doon Exile]

Brosna Gaels train Monday and Thursdays plus whatever games they play after that.

Bernard Allen was probably their best forward this year. He missed a number of trainings coming up to the semi final and was duly dropped. Quite harshly in my opinion but message is clear to all that training is required by all.

They take their hurling very serious.

Dont underestimate how serious brosna gaels take their hurling. it may be an amalgamation of clubs but they have alot of people who are hurling mad and have worked very hard in the interest of hurling in their area. They were senior for a number of years despite multiple clubs juggling senior football at the time and trying to compete with South teams solely focusing on the small ball. They have always been ambitious about their hurling recruiting some decent coaches like former westmeath manager Seamus qualter who had good success at senior intercounty management. So I certainly would never question the clubs ambition and hurling focus.

we have seen lots of senior dual clubs down the years trying to balance both codes and hurling always got very little training time as football was prioritised but they still managed to hurl at senior level. Belmont, and shamrocks in noughties followed by clara and then brosna gaels for few years always gave football priority and I know alot of those players would tell you they had the bare numbers at hurling training and managed only light puckarounds and then were competing with the traditional hurling strongholds. maybe fixture scheduling could be a little more favourable to assist dual clubs. back to back weeks alternating is very hard balance and be competitive if drawing from the same pool of players. some clubs now have much bigger numbers however.

I know first hand how serious they take it. And they have some great people involved.

[faithfulfanatic]

Those excusing any (rumoured) attempt by Shirley to move to another club are missing out on the entire ethos of the GAA.
An intermediate win with Brosna Gaels should be worth more to him than a Senior A would be with another club.
If Brosna Gaels had the Spain brothers and Chris McDonald, an intermediate crown would be well within reach.
Similar to the Carney brothers and Luke Watkins leaving for Shinrone.
Players leaving club because they aren’t good enough - club can’t improve because their best players leave.
If they were barely training and stunting his development, maybe it might be another story, but according to a few posts, this is not the case.

[Doon Exile]

Those excusing any (rumoured) attempt by Shirley to move to another club are missing out on the entire ethos of the GAA.
An intermediate win with Brosna Gaels should be worth more to him than a Senior A would be with another club.
If Brosna Gaels had the Spain brothers and Chris McDonald, an intermediate crown would be well within reach.
Similar to the Carney brothers and Luke Watkins leaving Shinrone.
Players leaving club because they aren’t good enough - club can’t improve because their best players leave.
If they were barely training and stunting his development, maybe it might be another story, but according to a few posts, this is not the case.

100% agree and that’s the way it played out for Vinny Claffey with doon. He was 26 years old before he played senior A football but by God did he play some part in us getting to senior.

[Lone Shark]

I'm very wary of offending anyone with this post, because I know several people involved with Brosna Gaels that are ferociously committed to the cause, so I'm going to keep this as factual as I can.

(1) It's all very well to say that in an ideal world, players would stick with their own club until it's logistically impractical to do so, i.e. they live a long distance away from home etc. However there is the ideal world, and there is the world we live in. Lads who are a cut above in small teams will always be courted by bigger neighbours, and they will know that in practical terms, if they want to give themselves the best chance of staying on top of their game by intercounty standard, they increase their chances by going to a competitive senior team. I don't want to drag this topic down another tangent so I'm not going to be specific, but out of the top 5 or 6 club teams in Offaly in both hurling and football, the clubs that DON'T have someone in their ranks who by rights should probably be playing with a smaller nearby club are the exception.

(2) I know there are geographic comparisons, but I don't consider the Vinny Claffey case to be at all comparable. If there was a Vinny Claffey in Doon NOW, in 2025, that would be different. But the Doon team that Vinny played on at his peak had plenty of players that had played for Offaly and in his latter years, they were championship contenders. Yes, Vinny was a big part of their success, but even without him, that Doon team would have made their way to senior at some point on their own steam.

I mean come on, at one stage towards the end of his career you would have had Claffey in a forward line alongside Donie Ryan, Trevor Phelan, Damien Hunt and James Coughlan - that's five players who played senior Leinster championship football for Offaly, and for good measure you could throw in Niall Kelly, who would have played in a few league games. Even earlier in his career, he didn't have the younger lads of those but he would have played alongside Eugene Boland, Kieran Rigney, Willie Ryan and a few more. That is not remotely comparable to the situation Shirley finds himself in at BG, where it would take a huge stretch of the imagination to see them even getting into the second tier of Offaly club hurling, never mind the top. In fact it's entirely possible, some would say even likely, that if Shirley did hurl for BG for the next ten years, he might never share a dressing room with another player who got Leinster championship minutes at senior level for Offaly.

(3) It is a fact to say that Tubber is a GAA club, one that I have a real soft spot for due to their history and the effort that some stalwart people had to go to in order for them to break free from the shackles of tyrannical Westmeath oppression. It is a fact to say that Brosna Gaels is not a club, it is a combination team. That's not to say that there isn't affection there, even in the case of a 20-year old who has probably played relatively few games for standalone Brosna Gaels teams in his entire life.

But in general, the connection a player will have with his club, any club, will always be completely different to that which he will have for a combination team.

(4) Again, facts only: Brosna Gaels are in an area where football is the first code, and where even if they get full buy-in from the four football clubs, the best they can hope for is to run meaningful training sessions every second week. I've no doubt that they will have some sort of gathering on football weeks, but for a lad of elite ability, what they would be able to do without the lads who are focusing on championship football for Tubber/Ballycumber/Doon/Erin Rovers would be very little. It's not the same as in Ferbane, Shamrocks, Tullamore or Rynaghs where there are second and third teams in both codes, so you can still run decent sessions with the non-dual players.

(5) Brosna Gaels may have dropped Bernard Allen for the semi-final, based on missing training (I didn't hear that, but I would completely trust the bona fides of Doon Exile) but even if they wouldn't have said that out loud, BG would have been the overwhelming favourites for that game against Edenderry and would have been expected to win at their ease - and they still brought him on before half-time, just to be safe. Then they started him in the final, which would have been a much more competitive match on paper. They dropped him when they thought it would have no consequence, when there was risk, the principles went out the window.

Now just to be clear, I'm not criticising the decision to start/drop/introduce him in either of those games. I'm not in the dressing room to know the environment and I'm well aware that being completely 'pure' is often very counterproductive. But when you say he missed training, I'm assuming that means he missed training on a hurling week, which in his case might mean no hurling at all for two or three weeks. It's not the same as missing a couple of sessions in Ballyskenach or Crinkill. And even then, they didn't properly drop him, they did the stereotypical GAA thing of not starting him, and then getting itchy to bring him on as soon as they felt their point was made.

Of course BG have to cut their cloth to suit their measure, but that's not the behaviour of a serious club team where there are high standards across the board. That's the behaviour of a team that are doing their best to be at their best in an environment where there are serious restrictions on what they can do before players say 'no thanks' and walk away.




Once again, it is a great thing for Offaly GAA that Brosna Gaels was brought into existence, I applaud those who put in the hard yards to give the kids and adults of that area access to hurling, and I wish them well. Also to repeat, I don't know Donal Shirley personally, and if he chooses to stay with BG on into his peak hurling years, I will say fair play, and I genuinely hope it works out exactly as he hopes with both his club and with Offaly.

But if Donal Shirley does choose to look elsewhere, then I personally would have no truck with this idea that he is somehow letting down Brosna Gaels, or being untrue to the GAA ethos, as was suggested here. And the fact that the only comparison that people are using to make that point is Vinny Claffey, which for the reasons I listed above, isn't a fair comparison at all, says a lot to me. If someone wants to point out a better example of a player who stayed loyal to a third (or worse) tier club all their adult life and still thrived with the Offaly seniors, I'd love to hear it, but I can't think of any in the last 30 odd years.

[Gobbler]

I'm very wary of offending anyone with this post, because I know several people involved with Brosna Gaels that are ferociously committed to the cause, so I'm going to keep this as factual as I can.

(1) It's all very well to say that in an ideal world, players would stick with their own club until it's logistically impractical to do so, i.e. they live a long distance away from home etc. However there is the ideal world, and there is the world we live in. Lads who are a cut above in small teams will always be courted by bigger neighbours, and they will know that in practical terms, if they want to give themselves the best chance of staying on top of their game by intercounty standard, they increase their chances by going to a competitive senior team. I don't want to drag this topic down another tangent so I'm not going to be specific, but out of the top 5 or 6 club teams in Offaly in both hurling and football, the clubs that DON'T have someone in their ranks who by rights should probably be playing with a smaller nearby club are the exception.

(2) I know there are geographic comparisons, but I don't consider the Vinny Claffey case to be at all comparable. If there was a Vinny Claffey in Doon NOW, in 2025, that would be different. But the Doon team that Vinny played on at his peak had plenty of players that had played for Offaly and in his latter years, they were championship contenders. Yes, Vinny was a big part of their success, but even without him, that Doon team would have made their way to senior at some point on their own steam.

I mean come on, at one stage towards the end of his career you would have had Claffey in a forward line alongside Donie Ryan, Trevor Phelan, Damien Hunt and James Coughlan - that's five players who played senior Leinster championship football for Offaly, and for good measure you could throw in Niall Kelly, who would have played in a few league games. Even earlier in his career, he didn't have the younger lads of those but he would have played alongside Eugene Boland, Kieran Rigney, Willie Ryan and a few more. That is not remotely comparable to the situation Shirley finds himself in at BG, where it would take a huge stretch of the imagination to see them even getting into the second tier of Offaly club hurling, never mind the top. In fact it's entirely possible, some would say even likely, that if Shirley did hurl for BG for the next ten years, he might never share a dressing room with another player who got Leinster championship minutes at senior level for Offaly.

(3) It is a fact to say that Tubber is a GAA club, one that I have a real soft spot for due to their history and the effort that some stalwart people had to go to in order for them to break free from the shackles of tyrannical Westmeath oppression. It is a fact to say that Brosna Gaels is not a club, it is a combination team. That's not to say that there isn't affection there, even in the case of a 20-year old who has probably played relatively few games for standalone Brosna Gaels teams in his entire life.

But in general, the connection a player will have with his club, any club, will always be completely different to that which he will have for a combination team.

(4) Again, facts only: Brosna Gaels are in an area where football is the first code, and where even if they get full buy-in from the four football clubs, the best they can hope for is to run meaningful training sessions every second week. I've no doubt that they will have some sort of gathering on football weeks, but for a lad of elite ability, what they would be able to do without the lads who are focusing on championship football for Tubber/Ballycumber/Doon/Erin Rovers would be very little. It's not the same as in Ferbane, Shamrocks, Tullamore or Rynaghs where there are second and third teams in both codes, so you can still run decent sessions with the non-dual players.

(5) Brosna Gaels may have dropped Bernard Allen for the semi-final, based on missing training (I didn't hear that, but I would completely trust the bona fides of Doon Exile) but even if they wouldn't have said that out loud, BG would have been the overwhelming favourites for that game against Edenderry and would have been expected to win at their ease - and they still brought him on before half-time, just to be safe. Then they started him in the final, which would have been a much more competitive match on paper. They dropped him when they thought it would have no consequence, when there was risk, the principles went out the window.

Now just to be clear, I'm not criticising the decision to start/drop/introduce him in either of those games. I'm not in the dressing room to know the environment and I'm well aware that being completely 'pure' is often very counterproductive. But when you say he missed training, I'm assuming that means he missed training on a hurling week, which in his case might mean no hurling at all for two or three weeks. It's not the same as missing a couple of sessions in Ballyskenach or Crinkill. And even then, they didn't properly drop him, they did the stereotypical GAA thing of not starting him, and then getting itchy to bring him on as soon as they felt their point was made.

Of course BG have to cut their cloth to suit their measure, but that's not the behaviour of a serious club team where there are high standards across the board. That's the behaviour of a team that are doing their best to be at their best in an environment where there are serious restrictions on what they can do before players say 'no thanks' and walk away.




Once again, it is a great thing for Offaly GAA that Brosna Gaels was brought into existence, I applaud those who put in the hard yards to give the kids and adults of that area access to hurling, and I wish them well. Also to repeat, I don't know Donal Shirley personally, and if he chooses to stay with BG on into his peak hurling years, I will say fair play, and I genuinely hope it works out exactly as he hopes with both his club and with Offaly.

But if Donal Shirley does choose to look elsewhere, then I personally would have no truck with this idea that he is somehow letting down Brosna Gaels, or being untrue to the GAA ethos, as was suggested here. And the fact that the only comparison that people are using to make that point is Vinny Claffey, which for the reasons I listed above, isn't a fair comparison at all, says a lot to me. If someone wants to point out a better example of a player who stayed loyal to a third (or worse) tier club all their adult life and still thrived with the Offaly seniors, I'd love to hear it, but I can't think of any in the last 30 odd years.

Like LS I wouldnt like to get too deep into this not knowing the actual facts around the specific player and his circumstances.

On a personal level, I would always strongly feel players remain loyal to their club. No matter what club or amalgamation you grew up with, it was the one that gave you the opportunity to play at underage level up and I feel if you came through the underage ranks with a club Id always expect a player to stick with their club. Yes some will work away in other counties etc, but we all made sacrifices for our club and sport where possible. I'd much prefer to win a junior C title with my home club in Offaly than a senior club in Dublin. That may say I am not ambitious, and maybe I wasnt ambitious enough but pulling on your home club jersey always always meant more.

Just regarding the example of junior clubs who had senior intercounty players in Offaly. I Cant be certain but POTH or LS might be best placed on facts to confirm if Cillian Farrell won a junior title with Edenderry while being an all ireland senior hurling medalist. Sean Og Farrell would have won an all Ireland while hurling junior too.

Ballyskenach came from junior right up to senior over consecutive years with young players who developed into fine senior hurlers and hurled in senior county final against the great birr team. The Murphy twins may have been around that time and they went on to be all Ireland panelists at senior level.

Ger Oakley hurled with C&R at intermediate level and they were a weaker intermediate team (just about floating above Juniors better teams) around the time he was part of all Ireland winning teams.

My point being, smaller clubs can have the potential and chance to go on to bigger things but you start taking away their most talented players then championships will always be dominated by the big clubs and we will be left bored looking at the same teams play out finals and little romance without a bit of variety and new teams making breakthrough.

[faithfulfanatic]

I'm very wary of offending anyone with this post, because I know several people involved with Brosna Gaels that are ferociously committed to the cause, so I'm going to keep this as factual as I can.

(1) It's all very well to say that in an ideal world, players would stick with their own club until it's logistically impractical to do so, i.e. they live a long distance away from home etc. However there is the ideal world, and there is the world we live in. Lads who are a cut above in small teams will always be courted by bigger neighbours, and they will know that in practical terms, if they want to give themselves the best chance of staying on top of their game by intercounty standard, they increase their chances by going to a competitive senior team. I don't want to drag this topic down another tangent so I'm not going to be specific, but out of the top 5 or 6 club teams in Offaly in both hurling and football, the clubs that DON'T have someone in their ranks who by rights should probably be playing with a smaller nearby club are the exception.

(2) I know there are geographic comparisons, but I don't consider the Vinny Claffey case to be at all comparable. If there was a Vinny Claffey in Doon NOW, in 2025, that would be different. But the Doon team that Vinny played on at his peak had plenty of players that had played for Offaly and in his latter years, they were championship contenders. Yes, Vinny was a big part of their success, but even without him, that Doon team would have made their way to senior at some point on their own steam.

I mean come on, at one stage towards the end of his career you would have had Claffey in a forward line alongside Donie Ryan, Trevor Phelan, Damien Hunt and James Coughlan - that's five players who played senior Leinster championship football for Offaly, and for good measure you could throw in Niall Kelly, who would have played in a few league games. Even earlier in his career, he didn't have the younger lads of those but he would have played alongside Eugene Boland, Kieran Rigney, Willie Ryan and a few more. That is not remotely comparable to the situation Shirley finds himself in at BG, where it would take a huge stretch of the imagination to see them even getting into the second tier of Offaly club hurling, never mind the top. In fact it's entirely possible, some would say even likely, that if Shirley did hurl for BG for the next ten years, he might never share a dressing room with another player who got Leinster championship minutes at senior level for Offaly.

(3) It is a fact to say that Tubber is a GAA club, one that I have a real soft spot for due to their history and the effort that some stalwart people had to go to in order for them to break free from the shackles of tyrannical Westmeath oppression. It is a fact to say that Brosna Gaels is not a club, it is a combination team. That's not to say that there isn't affection there, even in the case of a 20-year old who has probably played relatively few games for standalone Brosna Gaels teams in his entire life.

But in general, the connection a player will have with his club, any club, will always be completely different to that which he will have for a combination team.

(4) Again, facts only: Brosna Gaels are in an area where football is the first code, and where even if they get full buy-in from the four football clubs, the best they can hope for is to run meaningful training sessions every second week. I've no doubt that they will have some sort of gathering on football weeks, but for a lad of elite ability, what they would be able to do without the lads who are focusing on championship football for Tubber/Ballycumber/Doon/Erin Rovers would be very little. It's not the same as in Ferbane, Shamrocks, Tullamore or Rynaghs where there are second and third teams in both codes, so you can still run decent sessions with the non-dual players.

(5) Brosna Gaels may have dropped Bernard Allen for the semi-final, based on missing training (I didn't hear that, but I would completely trust the bona fides of Doon Exile) but even if they wouldn't have said that out loud, BG would have been the overwhelming favourites for that game against Edenderry and would have been expected to win at their ease - and they still brought him on before half-time, just to be safe. Then they started him in the final, which would have been a much more competitive match on paper. They dropped him when they thought it would have no consequence, when there was risk, the principles went out the window.

Now just to be clear, I'm not criticising the decision to start/drop/introduce him in either of those games. I'm not in the dressing room to know the environment and I'm well aware that being completely 'pure' is often very counterproductive. But when you say he missed training, I'm assuming that means he missed training on a hurling week, which in his case might mean no hurling at all for two or three weeks. It's not the same as missing a couple of sessions in Ballyskenach or Crinkill. And even then, they didn't properly drop him, they did the stereotypical GAA thing of not starting him, and then getting itchy to bring him on as soon as they felt their point was made.

Of course BG have to cut their cloth to suit their measure, but that's not the behaviour of a serious club team where there are high standards across the board. That's the behaviour of a team that are doing their best to be at their best in an environment where there are serious restrictions on what they can do before players say 'no thanks' and walk away.




Once again, it is a great thing for Offaly GAA that Brosna Gaels was brought into existence, I applaud those who put in the hard yards to give the kids and adults of that area access to hurling, and I wish them well. Also to repeat, I don't know Donal Shirley personally, and if he chooses to stay with BG on into his peak hurling years, I will say fair play, and I genuinely hope it works out exactly as he hopes with both his club and with Offaly.

But if Donal Shirley does choose to look elsewhere, then I personally would have no truck with this idea that he is somehow letting down Brosna Gaels, or being untrue to the GAA ethos, as was suggested here. And the fact that the only comparison that people are using to make that point is Vinny Claffey, which for the reasons I listed above, isn't a fair comparison at all, says a lot to me. If someone wants to point out a better example of a player who stayed loyal to a third (or worse) tier club all their adult life and still thrived with the Offaly seniors, I'd love to hear it, but I can't think of any in the last 30 odd years.

All fairly presented Kevin.

To answer your last question, I think that my whole point would be that there wasn’t too many (from a hurling standpoint anyway) operating in third tier or below for a couple of reasons:

1. Structures have changed in Offaly hurling and I can’t find timelines of when each club would have been in each tier, so apologies for any inaccuracies.

2. There are very few hurling clubs in Offaly and even less who would have operated at third tier or below consistently. Carrig, Ballyskenach, Shamrocks, Brosna Gaels, Clara, Drumcullen and Killurin have all operated in the first or second tier at various times. Edenderry, Killeigh, Gracefield and Crinkill are the only ones I can think of who have been consistently below this grade, although Edenderry did win a junior A in 1996 & 2022 and Crinkill in 2013. And Killeigh and Killurin have obviously now joined.

3. I don’t think Chris McDonald or Tom Spain were still involved with Offaly/close to coming back to the setup when they left Brosna Gaels. Leaving didn’t prolong their I/C careers.

4. I think your question is a bit of a paradox. There aren’t many examples of lads operating third tier and below because when the lads do stay, the teams improve. Would Carrig have been as competitive without Ger Oakley in his pomp? How would Ballyskenach have fared without Brendan Murphy and David Franks? (although Franks did move to Kilkenny at 27/28.) What influence did Cillian and Sean Og Farrell have on hurling in Edenderry? Would the Killeigh/Killurin amalgamation have worked as well if the Langton brothers, Joey Keenaghan and more who were involved in Offaly underage teams decided that departing for Tullamore, KK or Ballinamere was more beneficial? I don’t want to get involved in the civil parish war, but Crinkill would have been far more competitive if the talent drain to Birr was turned off (Dodge and Greenairfield, please don’t start ).

A rising tide lifts all boats. The influence of a star player in a small club can give lads hope, it can keep lads involved and the benefits far exceed just their hurling ability.

If Donal decides that departing is in his best interests, best of luck to him. But in a small county like Offaly, we need as many clubs competing and striving to improve as possible.

[faithfulfanatic]

Didn’t see your post before posting Gobbler, agree on all counts

[True Red]

confirm if Cillian Farrell won a junior title with Edenderry while being an all ireland senior hurling medalist. Sean Og Farrell would have won an all Ireland while hurling junior too.

He did indeed. Captained Edenderry to that Junior A Title in the 1998 victory over Tullamore a couple of months after winning the All Ireland medal.

Sean Og Farrell also soldiered with Edenderry the majority of his career in Junior A hurling. Indeed both of them came on in the most recent final win in 2022 and both played a substantial role on that day.

They also played Senior Football and have multiple medals from the 90's and 00's.

Hurling junior didn't do them any harm.

[Doon Exile]

My last post on this…..

Firstly Donal Shirley is a fantastic talent and a nice lad whom I’ve met on many occasions. He’s from a good GAA family. All of Brosna Gaels are very proud of his achievements in his career to date. His preference is hurling over football. Brosna Gaels is an independent team as opposed to a club but that’s in name only. Given that all players start at nursery level and progress onwards.

They play the majority of grades at underage on their own but at minor and u20 have joined with Clara due to numbers. They train twice per week throughout the year - they don’t have a ‘football’ week where there is no training. As an example, they played a challenge game 3 days before Doon played their junior semi final and Doon players played in the challenge game.

A few factual things on Vinny Claffey and Doon. Vinny first played junior with doon in 1984. Doon lost quarter final that year, lost semi final in 85, lost final in 86 before winning junior in 87. He played intermediate for two years before going senior B in 1990 and winning it that year to go senior A in 1991. Donie and Willie ryan first played senior championship (debut v Ferbane) in 1994. James Coughlan first played senior in 2001 followed by Trevor Phelan in 2003. That’s a long time for Vinny as the sole county man and there were plenty of dark days as a doon man I can tell you.

I’m a firm believer in players staying with their home club (unless work maybe takes them to a far away place etc. ) I recall the lift and enthusiasm of my younger days training alongside Vinny - he inspired a future generation. That can never be underestimated. Brosna Gaels are hoping for similar from Donie. As others have said above, plenty of examples of county players playing at lower grades at club level. Nicky English is an example - his club Lattin-Cullen were junior in his early days and intermediate until around 1996 or 97.

At present Brosna Gaels have Donie, sean og foley who was on the u20 panel this year and has opted for the hurling panel for next year despite being invited to the u20 football panel. Eoin Murphy is a former Offaly minor. So by retaining this talent, we would be hoping to retain and push on in the intermediate grade. Losing Donie would be a huge blow.

Donie is still young, only 20 years of age. Let’s hope he puts this year behind him and rows back to BG in 2026.

[Anon444]

For me, you’d hope that Shirley would be an inspiration to the next crop of lads from that area to go on and hurl. Might not be too appealing to him at the moment, but I wonder what these younger potential hurlers will think if their best talent in quite some time leaves. I know posters have mentioned previous examples of players leaving, but this one would be far worse.

After this weekend, Brosna Gaels could be in a higher grade than 2 of their football clubs and potentially at the same grade as another, with Tubber being the only ones that will be in a higher grade. Players rule the roost in all clubs, if they decide that they want to dedicate more time to hurling then the clubs will have to follow suit.

It sounds like he may be checked out already just going off information posted here. As soon as it’s clear what will happen, I think he should be supported. We can’t afford to lose talents like that in Offaly.

[Bogman123]

This could be controversial.. Now that the SHC is over, these are my current power rankings at the end of the 2025 season.

1. Kilcormac Killoughy - speaks for itself, best players and squad depth in the county.
2. Shinrone - came through some real battles this year and could have pipped another Sean Robbins if certain things went their way.
3. Birr - made real strides this year with some quality youth players coming through.
4. Ballinamere - One of the real losers this year, but quality does not go away overnight. Still a force to be reckoned with.
5. Belmont - Big bounce back from a relegation scare this year despite same old problems at semi final stage.
6. Coolderry - Some good wins in the group, maximising their talent pool.
7. Rynaghs - Trending downwards I think, hope I am wrong but only 1 win in SHC this year.
8. Tullamore - One of the winners from this year, could have won any of those group games this year and led by youth players.
9. Kinnitty - Shipped some very heavy losses and will be most disappointed with the Rynaghs game.
10. Seir Kieran - Feels like a last song for the older in that SK group. Still fielding 3 adult teams with a lot of young faces on the panel which keeps them inside the top 10, but not guaranteed to bounce straight back up.
11. Lusmagh - Brilliant performances all year long, all came together in the final. Hope to see them stay up (which is absolutely possible despite previous comments). Would be higher if the bench was just a bit deeper.
12. C&R - Think their time is coming soon, good panel with lots of potential - expect will have a big say in Snr B next year.
13. Clara - A lot of work being done in Clara, they are passionate and a close group of players. A torn in the side for all teams in Snr B.
14. Drumcullen - Proud club trending upwards again after a few years in doldrums. Momentum is in their favour.
15. Clodiagh Gaels - Significant drop off from previous years and a few bad Snr B final appearances. Maybe heart is gone out of the hurling scene, but very disappointing year with very little immediate youth to freshen it up.
16. Shamrocks - WIll also be disappointed with their season, need to bounce back sooner rather than later but always a threat when they reach semi final stage.
17. Brosna Gaels - Good year, hopefully they build on it and at least retain status - were senior A less than 10 years ago.
18. Ballyskenagh Killavilla - Topped the group in Jnr A, will be disappointed not to reach final.
19. Edenderry - Seems to be a good group of passionate hurlers, underage progress will energise them.
20. Crinkill - Poor year all round, lots of scope for improvement.
21. Gracefield - Lots done, more to do.

This is where my head is at - I am not intending to offend you or your club before you call me a clown

Interested to hear what other contributors would change from these rankings.

[ah lethimoutwithit]

Those excusing any (rumoured) attempt by Shirley to move to another club are missing out on the entire ethos of the GAA.
An intermediate win with Brosna Gaels should be worth more to him than a Senior A would be with another club.
If Brosna Gaels had the Spain brothers and Chris McDonald, an intermediate crown would be well within reach.
Similar to the Carney brothers and Luke Watkins leaving for Shinrone.
Players leaving club because they aren’t good enough - club can’t improve because their best players leave.
If they were barely training and stunting his development, maybe it might be another story, but according to a few posts, this is not the case.

Fair point and this line makes it so
"If they were barely training and stunting his development, maybe it might be another story, but according to a few posts, this is not the case."

That last line is the key, and what is the assessment. There are challenges for plenty of clubs that were training well but have dropped off and this is the key scenario for young committed players coming through to a club that is not offering them any platform.