Offaly Club Hurling Championship 2025

[private joker]

Ballyhale 25 to 1-18. 15 to 8 in the 2nd half.
Ballyhale upped it and kk couldn't match it.
Very good game. Winter hurling is a different game and you need physically strong players to get enough scores. Kk supporter should be banned.
Na fianna to win leinster, ballygunner to win all ireland.

[Dodge83]

Kk very good for the first half. Ballyhale just stepped up a gear after the break and deserved the win. But unfortunately the big talking point will be about that dope at full time coming on to the field to fight. An embarrassment to himself and the club and I hope he gets a ban from the club. Shocking carry on. Clown

[Lone Shark]

Kk very good for the first half. Ballyhale just stepped up a gear after the break and deserved the win. But unfortunately the big talking point will be about that dope at full time coming on to the field to fight. An embarrassment to himself and the club and I hope he gets a ban from the club. Shocking carry on. Clown

Gardaí were asking questions of a couple of players from both sides at the end. A GAA ban is down the list of his concerns I'd guess.

Kudos to Jordan Quinn for pulling him away and restraining him.

[private joker]

Ballyhale to win leinster!!

[SearingDrive]

Ballyhale to win lwinster!!

Na Fianna lost today. Ballyhale probably favourites for Leinster.

[Payperview1]

Hopefully KK take the initiative here and ban that clown from their matches in future. Kk very good in first half but the physical strength of Ballyhale took over in second half.

[Géill Slí]

Agree, no place for that sort of carry on. The game itself was played hard and fair for the most part, got a small bit feisty near the end, I was on the opposite side of the pitch so it was hard to see what triggered the fight at the end. At that stage just accept that the better team on the day won, and shake hands.
KK were excellent in the first half but definitely struggled physically in the second half. No matter what way you look at it, you can’t shortcut the years of strength and conditioning work that the top Ballyhale players have put in, and that told in the end, Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen in particular turning the game for them. I don’t have the stats but Ballyhale hit 10 points in about 18 minutes, and that was the winning of the game.
Thought Jordan Quinn had an excellent game on TJ, and Conor Slevin hit I think 4 tremendous long range frees. Charlie Mitchell was the best of the forwards, Adam Screeney will be disappointed with 2 mis-hit frees that should have been converted. The ref didn’t give KK much, and there was one very harsh call for a throw ball when KK might have been through for a goal chance.
All in all, a good game of hurling. I suspect KK might have been beaten by the eventual All-Ireland champions two years in a row.

[frankthetank]

There's a lot to unravel about today and K-K's season in general.

Many managers come onto post game interviews and ream off game statistics because A) They think it makes them sound clever but more importantly B) they are actually unable to decipher the game in front of them because so many of them are bluffing, At the end of the day the only statistic that counts is results.

And by any results metric K/K have gone backwards in 2025 compared to their 2024 iteration. In the 2024 group stage K/K won all 4 games with an outrageous score difference of plus 73. (Interestingly K/K and Ballinamere were the only 2 teams to have a positive score difference after last year's group stage) Which leaves an average winning margin of a whopping 18 points.

Then in the 2024 semi final they obliterated Coolderry by 19 points and won one of the best, if not the best finals in recent memory.

A very successful Leinster campaign followed where they dogged out 2 fantastically hard fought results on the road to make a Leinster Final where eventual All Ireland winners Na Fianna were just too good. No shame in that.

Fast forward to this year then where they ended up drawing 2 group games and their score difference dropped to plus 36. A drop of 50%. And the average winning margin over the 4 games dropped to 9 points. Down from 19 in 2024.

An excellent Q-Final performance followed when they were obviously very fired up vs Ballinamere and then a lacklustre semi final performance vs Birr. The final ebbed and flowed and the Shinrone's lack of Ciaran Cleary in the FF position for the first half could haunt them for a while.

And then today down in Kilkenny the writing was on the wall after 40 minutes and there only looked one winner from a long way out.

So looking at the bigger picture where do K/K go from here? They are going to win more Offaly titles over the next number of years. That's a given. But provincial honours are won in testing physical conditions and to me it seems, K/K over the next few years are going to be even less prepared for that than they are now. Damien Kilmartin, Conor Mahon and James Gorman being replaced by Ter Guinan, Alex Kavanagh and Leigh Kavanagh adds pace, skill and energy but it definitely decreases the team's physical prowess.

Also is Declan Laffan the man for the job? Well Shane Hand had a much better 2024 than Laffan had 2025 for a start. I don't think anyone can argue that. And just a few little things are red flags for me. The positioning of Enda Grogan at right half back today rather that left half back for a start. He naturally needs to hurl as a 7 and is much less effective as a 5. His lack of instruction to Brecon Kavanagh to actually mark Eoin Cody today is another. Selecting players who are clearly not in form is a third. And his slow use of a seemingly stacked bench will surely be held against him aswell. He'll get a 2nd year but have they progressed under him. Definitely not in my opinion.

And finally onto the "supporter". I would urge K/K and Offaly GAA to be pro active here. He assaulted a player on the pitch. End of. The maximum ban from K/K and Offaly games that can be given to him needs to be put in place. I was actually ashamed that he was the same county of me when I saw it and I actually hoped Adrian Mullen left him seeing stars. We can have no tolerance for this and make no mistake we have tolerated this for too long.

[private joker]

Agree, no place for that sort of carry on. The game itself was played hard and fair for the most part, got a small bit feisty near the end, I was on the opposite side of the pitch so it was hard to see what triggered the fight at the end. At that stage just accept that the better team on the day won, and shake hands.
KK were excellent in the first half but definitely struggled physically in the second half. No matter what way you look at it, you can’t shortcut the years of strength and conditioning work that the top Ballyhale players have put in, and that told in the end, Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen in particular turning the game for them. I don’t have the stats but Ballyhale hit 10 points in about 18 minutes, and that was the winning of the game.
Thought Jordan Quinn had an excellent game on TJ, and Conor Slevin hit I think 4 tremendous long range frees. Charlie Mitchell was the best of the forwards, Adam Screeney will be disappointed with 2 mis-hit frees that should have been converted. The ref didn’t give KK much, and there was one very harsh call for a throw ball when KK might have been through for a goal chance.
All in all, a good game of hurling. I suspect KK might have been beaten by the eventual All-Ireland champions two years in a row.

100 % threw the ball. Watch it back. About time reffes started pulling throw balls. Kk were unlucky not to be further ahead at Ht.
Not sure about Declan laffan. He's old school win your own battles. I don't think the loss of Shane hand is the reason for kk drop in form such as it is. The loss of Tony glesson would be more of a reason in the highs of 2024.

[oneshot]

hard luck to kk they left everything out on the field today .charlie mitchell was brilliant in the first half his points were as good as you see anywhere. jordan quinn outstanding won his battle with tj reid hands down. on the down side a bit like last years leinster club final again na fianna kk midfield is there problem spot Damien Kilmartin hurl his heart out but his legs were gone around the 40 minute mark and need to be replace Colin Spain fine young player iam sure he will get better in time but his to light for midfield and physically is not there at the moment.

also i coudn't understand why Adam Screeney was brought out from the inside forward line he looked lost out in the middle of the physically ballyhale half back and midfield men they just swallowed him up at times . his place is in the corner with low ball put in front of him . ballyhale won because Adrian Mullen and Cody went into the middle of the field and won everything in the second half Declan Laffan very slow on the sideline to do anything about it. took off the only player that might catch a high ball in conor mahon when we need a goal near the end to win it.

as for the muppett who came on to the field to throw punches at a player needs to be banned . his a very lucky man that ballyhale players just walked away from it. i know some other teams or grounds he wouldn't have left the field standing up.

[Faithful Future]

Not much to add to what's already been contributed here but I did want to give Daniel Hand a call out, particularly in the first half.
Excellent game by him and Jordan Quinn. On top of that and Charlie Mitchell hit some scores right out of the top drawer, he also looks to have physically put some work in too and his work rate was excellent.

Kiely had a powerful game at times but could have seen the line and slipped into the old habit of taking shots when they weren't on or when he should have passed it.

As other posters have said, I would worry for KK going any distance in Leinster in the future until they can strengthen and find replacements for Mahon, Kilmartin and Gorman who can carry the physicality to opposition.

[faithfulfanatic]

The individual in question has nothing to do with Kilcormac Killoughey, they refuse to give him membership and there is very little else they can do.
I hope the ban from grounds he gets comes from a court of law.
If it is just the GAA/county board then he will show up at club games and cause damage when a steward tries to refuse entry.

[Offaly Hero]

Agree, no place for that sort of carry on. The game itself was played hard and fair for the most part, got a small bit feisty near the end, I was on the opposite side of the pitch so it was hard to see what triggered the fight at the end. At that stage just accept that the better team on the day won, and shake hands.
KK were excellent in the first half but definitely struggled physically in the second half. No matter what way you look at it, you can’t shortcut the years of strength and conditioning work that the top Ballyhale players have put in, and that told in the end, Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen in particular turning the game for them. I don’t have the stats but Ballyhale hit 10 points in about 18 minutes, and that was the winning of the game.
Thought Jordan Quinn had an excellent game on TJ, and Conor Slevin hit I think 4 tremendous long range frees. Charlie Mitchell was the best of the forwards, Adam Screeney will be disappointed with 2 mis-hit frees that should have been converted. The ref didn’t give KK much, and there was one very harsh call for a throw ball when KK might have been through for a goal chance.
All in all, a good game of hurling. I suspect KK might have been beaten by the eventual All-Ireland champions two years in a row.

100 % threw the ball. Watch it back. About time reffes started pulling throw balls. Kk were unlucky not to be further ahead at Ht.
Not sure about Declan laffan. He's old school win your own battles. I don't think the loss of Shane hand is the reason for kk drop in form such as it is. The loss of Tony glesson would be more of a reason in the highs of 2024.

Agreed that Tony Gleeson was the major loss for KK this year. I hope we can have him back involved with Offaly sometime.

KK gave it everything today. Ultimately however, they were blown away by the physicality and athleticism of Ballyhale in the second half. As they were by Na Fianna last year.
This is the area that some of their young players must improve on if they are to progress with their club and especially Offaly. At least they have an example to look up to in this regard in their own club in Charlie Mitchell..

[Lone Shark]

With regard to the incident at the end, this is from the Garda Press Office this evening:

Gardaí have arrested a man (aged in his 40’s) following a public order incident at a Kilkenny sports ground this afternoon, Sunday 9th November 2025,

He has since been charged, and is scheduled to appear before the courts at a later date.

As this is now before the courts, there is no further information available at this time.

Investigations are ongoing.

So the main consequences will be legal ones. Anything that happens within the GAA disciplinary system from Leinster Council is secondary to that. And if as stated above, he's not a member of the Kilcormac-Killoughey club, I'm not sure how that works when a ban is not on the cards. Obviously the GAA can in theory ban him from all grounds, but if they do (as they should) that still leaves an onus on volunteer stewards to (a) recognise him, and (b) be physically able to resist him if he chooses to get aggressive, which I think it's fair to say, is in his locker. That's a lot to ask of people who are just doing that role to be helpful.

[oneshot]

not just the hurling that his acting the thug at, he was fighting in the stand again meath supporters this years leinster football championship game in navan, his a embarrassment to offaly supporters and should be banned from everything .