Offaly Hurling 2026

[Fairplayalways]

be it with injuries or indecesions, a massive obstacle Offaly do have is almost every line of the team is not fully settled, fair enough other counties chopping and changing too I suppose, but we have a different line each week on all our team lines.. It might happen for us then on Championship day, and it may not..

[G91]

I thought offaly might consider a change of management this year felt the tried and tested of jk rwnnuts course after Leinster last year made some odd calls that just didn't make any sense..

Now In also if the opinion trust the process but what the process is remains to be seen

And it's not the fact we are playing the best there is every week it's the simple position changing and no pattern of what sorta tune he is trying to get out of the team

That first half v cork there now would have you believe it's the first game of the year on a heavy pitch , touches poor , decision making poor , passing poor

Every tackle is borderline a foul

We don't look like a team that's about to play the first round of championship in a couple weeks

Regardless of how good the opposition is if you can't rise a ball of that pitch on your own shouldn't be happening

Or putting in a ball the comes back down with snow on it to adam screeny

There was stages where they use the ball better but the second half would want to be alot better than what's happening

[Faithful Future]

Very apparent that the management team have taken this group as far as they are going to.

The only pattern of play that we seem to have built on is a short puckout where we play one pass to a loose man and he then switches to the other wing where Hoare makes a run out. Hoare then plays a long ball to the full forward line, which the opposition wins and then they work the ball out easily as our players are too physically light to turn over the ball.

Has to be serious questions asked of our S&C. Of course it will take a couple of years for our players to fully fill out physically for this level, but a lot of our lads are the same age or older than Darragh McCarthy, Sam O Farrell, Aaron Niland, Jason Rabbitte, Cillian Trayers, William Buckley and more who all seemed to have pushed on over the winter.

We're really lacking on options on the inside forward line. Hopefully we can get Rigney and Mitchell back to bolster our options.

Positives for today although limited, were Ter Guinan who worked hard and Dan Ravenhill who hit some fine scores. Adam tried hard but I think he should be restricted to frees inside the 65 - too often he misses the frees further out particularly when the ball is wet and isn't travelling as well. Dan Ravenhill has the accuracy and distance and should be used more often.

I'm still adamant that our best midfield is two out of Cathal King, Luke Watkins and Ter Guinan. Surprised Watkins wasn't given a run today, meanwhile King was moved to corner back where his influence was reduced. Colin Spain will have to add some power but is a good option off the bench for now.

I make our injury list: Ben miller, Ciaran Burke, Shane Rigney, Charlie Mitchell, James Mahon, Ruairi Kelly, Daniel Hand - do we know if any are close to returning?

[private joker]

In regards to s/c. The groups as a whole are not embracing what needs to be done. I would say nearly every single hurling club in offaly is of the same mentality. There needs to be a compete change in culture across the board. Not just when you come in at County level. There are players who "go" to the gym and there are players who actually "embrace the gym"

[jimbob17]

Fierce disappointing tonight. Reality check for players and management of where we are right now in relation to top level.

10 years ago when S&C was considered integral in every single hurling county, Offaly county and clubs were miles off. In the intervening period, some clubs have adopted it, while same have only paid lip service to it. Some would say that the clubs south of KK were slower to engage with modern methods. While there may be element of truth in that, there are also some hurling clubs in north of county slow to engage. The bottom line here is that as a result, we are miles behind on that front, and with that, coming from a lower athletic base than most bigger hurling counties on average. It is quite amazing that the very basics that are accepted in the higher tier counties have been seen to be just something to pay lip service to in Offaly at club level and the decision makers and coaches in Offaly clubs need to take responsibility for that. I do believe that the current senior group have been working hard on this front for most part, and have had good S&C coaches involved with them but it's a 4-5 year gap still and when you factor that likes of Cork are dealing with simply higher calibre of athlete, then that all adds up. That was clearly apparent for a few of the cork goals tonight, especially where the cork lads ran away from or through the Offaly defenders.

For all that, it's hard to comprehend our tactics at times. We have two decent ball winners generally in Kelly and Duignan that can play in FF line. Do we use them effectively? We are not good enough, sharp enough or strong enough to play the tippy tappy through the lines hurling against the best teams. We can do it against a Carlow or possibly Kildare or Wexford possibly, but against Limerick Cork or Tipperary? Absolutely not. Why draw ourselves into more contact scenarios when we are going to be murdered physically? I don't get it. Doing that at Joe McDonagh level is different than McCarthy cup.

On the selection front, I am not sure how you can move King back corner back when he is our best midfielder by a distance. If he was from a KK or bigger club, he would be lauded. Guinan is not a wing forward. Midfield maybe or wing back or even corner back because of pace but not a WF. You need ball winners on the 5,7, 10 and 12 positions. That is a bloody basic for any management team with over 70 puckouts in most games. Have we sorted that? That's on management. Some games and league performances have been acceptable and respectable. Tonight in Cork was not. The worrying thing is that we seem to be moving further away from the Liam Mc teams as the league comes to a close as they gear up for championship.

Here is a question. Would Screeney or Dan Bourke make any of the top 6 teams in country? They are brilliant at a certain level in open spaces but when it comes to the physicality needed for Liam McCarthy hurling, I am not sure they have enough of it. As Pat Spillane said one time, 'when an articulated truck hits a morris minor, there is only going to be one winner." Maybe one of them is a lad to bring on when the game opens up with 20 minutes to go with maybe one of them starting? I just think we need more physicality in the team at the moment and cannot afford both in forward line for most of the game. Both need to prioritise strength work I think to bring them on to next level. Maybe I am wrong but it's just a general feeling. In contrast to LK forwards or Tipp forwards or a good few other teams, we are just not there physically. Look at Adam English, Shane O Brien, Darragh McCarthy, Brian Hayes and co. Young Rabbitte is only 19 but has the frame and presence that too many of ours don't. These are young players that would be behind the likes of Gillane, Shane O Donnell, Peter Duggan or Dessie Hutchinson. Cork just throw in a 20 yr old like Barry Walsh tonight who is miles ahead physically. They all have a brutish level of strength. Mitchell is a loss in this regard for us currently and would improve things no doubt. In all honesty, I think it will take another minor team or two to come through before we can really compete to reach a Leinster final at Liam McCarthy level. For now, it really is a case of trying to maintain our status.

Kildare and Wexford games are massive for us. We need to do everything to prioritise those games now and get the best players in right positions for those games.

[greenairfield]

Kelly has to go and to be honest if he went now would we get a better kick out of the lads.

His constant changes of players with his loyalty to the wrong ones is clear to see.

[Wingbackassassin]

Fierce disappointing tonight. Reality check for players and management of where we are right now in relation to top level.

10 years ago when S&C was considered integral in every single hurling county, Offaly county and clubs were miles off. In the intervening period, some clubs have adopted it, while same have only paid lip service to it. Some would say that the clubs south of KK were slower to engage with modern methods. While there may be element of truth in that, there are also some hurling clubs in north of county slow to engage. The bottom line here is that as a result, we are miles behind on that front, and with that, coming from a lower athletic base than most bigger hurling counties on average. It is quite amazing that the very basics that are accepted in the higher tier counties have been seen to be just something to pay lip service to in Offaly at club level and the decision makers and coaches in Offaly clubs need to take responsibility for that. I do believe that the current senior group have been working hard on this front for most part, and have had good S&C coaches involved with them but it's a 4-5 year gap still and when you factor that likes of Cork are dealing with simply higher calibre of athlete, then that all adds up. That was clearly apparent for a few of the cork goals tonight, especially where the cork lads ran away from or through the Offaly defenders.

Good thing Declan Kelly isn't the hurling manager or you'd want him publicly executed after the match.
Disagree on everything regarding the s&c. Offaly are doing the exact same s&c as all the top counties. There is no 4-5 year gap in that the Offaly players are currently doing the exact same s&c as Cork are.
Clubs are also not that relevant for s&c. All the county players are on development squads from a young age and thats where they would do the bulk of it. No different to a cork or tipp. What you have correctly concluded though is that the top counties have a different calibre of athlete compared to Offaly, which is defintely true. I would argue thats largely due to genetics. Every one is built differently and the likes of Kyle Hayes or Alan Connolly are naturally extremely strong and fast without ever picking up a weight. Cork, Limerick, Tipp have a bigger selection of top players to choose from. The idea that s&c alone can turn any player into the calibre of athlete that make up tipp, limerick or cork teams is false.