Offaly Hurling 2026

[Fairplayalways]

interesting discussion there on rte gaa podcast. roroy o neill and shane mcgrath. 2 well informed commentators. usually. they seemed to pay lip service to offaly. and were not seemingly aware of all we were missing.

To be honest that doesn't bother me. The less people are aware of Offaly and our situation in terms of injuries the better. Hopefully we may be able to get the majority back for championship and surprise a few with a reshuffled pack to choose from.

Ide be of the mindset we want Offaly "out there" in media space...for too long our results were deemed not worthy of mention in the league results of a Sunday evening...it would be nice to hear us being discussed again ahead of matches..I take your point though too...

[Wing Back]

interesting discussion there on rte gaa podcast. roroy o neill and shane mcgrath. 2 well informed commentators. usually. they seemed to pay lip service to offaly. and were not seemingly aware of all we were missing.

To be honest that doesn't bother me. The less people are aware of Offaly and our situation in terms of injuries the better. Hopefully we may be able to get the majority back for championship and surprise a few with a reshuffled pack to choose from.

Ide be of the mindset we want Offaly "out there" in media space...for too long our results were deemed not worthy of mention in the league results of a Sunday evening...it would be nice to hear us being discussed again ahead of matches..I take your point though too...

To be fair I agree with your point too. Would love more focus on Offaly results and performances too. My point is more along the lines that I like that other counties are unaware that we are missing a lot of crucial players. But yes....agreed, ultimately we want success and lots of coverage of it....but I guess I'm just trying to find a silver lining in the current situation where their is little or no coverage.

[Fairplayalways]

yeah, I know what you meant alright..look we are in a better place than we were, but that was coming from a low low ebb, I seen Kelly complaining about the way Screeney is being treated, all very well, but thats part of the game (it shouldnt be but its life) Young Darragh McCarthy of Tipp has stepped up to the mark in every since, why are our stars different, these guys are either upto it or not, no ifs no buts, the amount of young stars that have come through in other counties and are hurling all before them in all competitions, we are sparing here, sparing there, resting them etc..football team is as bad almost.

[KeshaWantsTimber]

McCarthy came into an experienced and high quality forward line and team. Jake Morris, John McGrath, Jason Forde are All Ireland winners and well capable of carrying the weight of expectation if McCarthy has an off day.

Basically McCarthy can play his part without as much pressure on him to deliver every day. He got sent off twice last year and they still got through and won the All Ireland.

Unfortunately Offaly need these young players to come through and do more than their fair share as the 24-30 age bracket players are not of the same calibre.

Much easier look brilliant in a winning team than in a struggling team.

[oneshot]

good post i agree when you look when Brian Whelehan billy and johnny dooley the two pilkingtons john troy Duingan all came on the scene around 88 to 90 offaly had players like Eugene Coughlan Pat Delaney Joachim Mark Corrigan Pat Cleary martin Hanamy all on the senior team. as of today the young players don't have the players of that calibre to bed them in.

[greenairfield]

I tend to agree with you but does ths clare winning all ireland team not contradict that as they had no real stars when they came along it was tony kelly galvin shane o donnell who won it for them?

[oneshot]

true but they also stayed in top tier of hurling and were beaten in a few munsters finals. wheres offaly are coming up from mcdonagh cup and christy ring level. and we have no senior players in the league of tony kelly john conlon peter duggan shane o donnell as the best hurlers in offaly are the under 20s coming through.

[frankthetank]

Anyone have any idea if the St Brendan’s Park pitch is faring at the moment? Will the game Sunday be held there or is it possible it will be moved to Tullamore?

[greenairfield]

I think it will be fine for this time of the year you would hope a few dry days at end of week will help it.

Be great to see a big crowd into Birr and see if we can take a good swipe at Galway.

[classof81]

I'd say the pitch be fine it usually holds up well. Should be a great day, looking forward to this one

[frankthetank]

Anyone have any idea if the St Brendan’s Park pitch is faring at the moment? Will the game Sunday be held there or is it possible it will be moved to Tullamore?

Offaly GAA sent out a tweet today promoting the game in Birr so they are obviously very confident the pitch will be fine.

Looking forward to going in and enjoying a game in SBP.

[Faithful Future]

Hopefully the ground in SBP holds up for this weekend.

Any indications on injured players returning? We could really do with getting some game time into Shirley, Sampson, Burke, Rigney, Mahon, Mitchell et al. Championship is only just over 8 weeks away

[classof81]

Be great to have a few lads back from injury and a packed crowd in birr. The pitch is in good condition I hear. We are sticking with most teams for 40/50 minutes so few lads back will help us in the last 20 odd of games.

[Fairplayalways]

I read a post recently where this mention of "bedding in the u20s properly etc" was trotted out again, like when will these players be established seniors, the amount of injuries on both hurling and football camps appears to be staggering...we are a small county and small pick, but so are other counties, be it we are trying to keep both codes going where other counites seem to be getting more out of one code over the other...look at Limerick now...hand on ones heart if Offaly a Division 2 team were to play Limerick this weekend, would we beat them?...guaranteed?...my fear is and I have said it before, we are tinkering around with players, they come on the team, then they are injured and thats going on in both codes and can happen, my fear is years will tip by, players lives move on, they wont hang around for ever this day and age...for last rounds of the league now, we put out our best team, and play it like a championship game, yes we will unlikely win the majority if not all of these game, but it will give starting 15 spine, and let players then learn...guarantee we will be wondering mid April what our best 15 is, in both codes, and that needs to be hammered out now, if player are out injured, so be it..pick 15..go with it...this chopping and changing befoer each game and then during the game where the amount of subs all counties use is actually hard to keep up with...sure no team can be consitent with that way of doing things...and let subs work their way onto being subs etc..

[private joker]

Team named. Neither ravenhill named in panel. Dan is injured. Shirley in at 5. Ter guinan at 9. Hoare back in goals.